What will these parents do...?

Sure Start Children’s centres have been one of Labour’s big successes over the last five years, growing rapidly to reach 3,500 across the country.

Here in Central Devon, parents can access services at six centres – serving areas in and around Ashburton / Buckfastleigh; Bovey Tracey / Heathfield; Crediton, Hatherleigh, and Okehampton

What will parents who use these centres discover, if a Tory Government gets in?

The Tories would cut Sure Start from families on middle and modest incomes.

Those same families would suffer a double whammy because the Tories would also cut Child Tax Credits and the Child Trust Fund.
And now we learn that the Tories secret plan is to let nurseries charge top-up fees
The Tory voting record speaks volumes -
Against increasing maternity leave. Against introducing paternity leave. Against flexible working. Against the National minimum wage.

Don't give the Tories the chance to plunge parents and their children back into hardship and poverty.
Vote Labour.

See what Labour will do here....

Visible, vocal, going for votes

Ten weeks since our Central Devon Campaign took off and I'm overwhelmed by the superb welcome and support from local Labour Party members and supporters.

In particular I'm indebted to members who have walked miles delivering newsletters in their area, and to supporters who have put my posters up in their windows, or invited me to have a garden stake in front of their home.

Everywhere I've been, across Central Devon, there are Labour-minded people who greet me and are delighted to see a Labour candidate actively campaigning for votes.

There's an myth the Tory Party promotes that rural seats are 'naturally' theirs.

Not so.

Central Devon is a new constituency voting for the first time in the election. No-one knows how the votes will go.

But it is true that this country's antiquated first-past-the-post electoral system betrays voters up and down the country and often creates 'safe seats'.

That should never be so in any election. It has to be changed. Labour recognise that need and have pledged to do something about it. Everyone should be able to vote postively for who they do want, not negatively against a Party they don't want.

Central Devon has no track record. It is important that voters vote for who they want. If you're Labour, please vote for me - the many other Labour people in Central Devon, who are active in this campaign, would love to see their efforts rewarded.

It's Legal!

Huge thanks to the dozens of people who
have worked hard on my behalf already.

The crucial step of ensuring I am properly registered as a candidate
was completed today, so all their work has been rewarded.
We can now race on towards polling day - 6th May.

All five candidates in Central Devon have registered and there's been no last minute shock of discovering, as have some of my Labour colleagues, that there's the appalling BNP to contend with.

So far the election contest has seemed fair and decent, without personal rancour as we five meet at the various hustings. I for one intend it to stay that way.

J K Rowling - "I've never voted Tory before...

"I've never voted Tory before," writes J K Rowling in The Times, "... and they keep on reminding me why."

Fab article - short, cut to the point - brilliant - The Single Mother's Manifesto

EU-Yes!

Last night's hustings event in Lapford - very well attended after good organisation by David Bragg and the Lapford Churches Together Initiative - again saw attacks from the  UKIP candidate and sceptical comments from the Tory candidate regarding this country's membership of the EU.

I said then, what I've said at other hustings events, that it hugely benefits this country to be in the EU.

It is crucial that our Country should be at the centre of things in the EU, as we are now, making sure British business and social interests are at the forefront and that the power of the EU can be directed at global problems like the financial crisis, climate change, poverty, sustainable energy, fighting diseases such as malaria and Aids, opposing extremists.

Here are just a few of the very many highly important reasons why our central involvement in the EU must be maintained  -

What would the media say if...

What would the media say if Labour candidates were driving round in lush liveried vehicles? I've seen the cars of two of the Tory candidates now - styled in similar fashion to promote the visibility of the candidate. Do all the South West candidates of every other party  have the same expensive styling? No.
Why hasn't this splashing of cash been questioned?

Just suppose that after any election there was a system whereby the amounts spent by each party were compared - and the party that spent the most had to give an amount to charity that was equal to how much more they had spent than the next highest spending Party.....?

And the voting paper would have a space where we could name our favourite charity so that the charity that got the most votes nationally would get that money....?

A fantasy of course.
But the reality of vastly unequal party spending power goes on.
It shouldn't be possible for any party to hugely 'spend its way' towards a victory it desires.

Foxhunting Tories Go To Ground

Perhaps feeling hounded by the media, and belatedly beginning to sense

what a vote-loser it is, every Tory candidate in the SW played foxy

on their own issue of voting to repeal the Hunting Act.

Not one of them was prepared to appear on yesterday's

BBC Politics South West Show.

Why?

At issue was – their own Tory proposal

to hold a free vote in Parliament on repealing the Hunting Act.

Supposing they win the election, that is.

Given the total Tory appearance turndown the Politics Show

Keep Fat-Cat claws out of our NHS

Labour came to power promising to triple spending on the NHS.

And we did.

Here's an independent verdict.

The NHS - our best-loved national institution - has gone from strength to strength under Labour - constantly improving services, drasticly reducing waiting times, always increasing patient choice.

The Labour years have seen so much progress for our NHS that now the Tory Leader thinks he can promote his PR image by posing beside a hospital bed. It's enough to make you sick.

The Tory approach to the NHS, if they are elected, will be to undermine health decision-making. They want to fling open the door to those private businesses that are already trying to worm profits out of our NHS.

Our ill-health, our maternity care, our accident and emergency services must never be cherry-picked for profits. If Tory plans go ahead we'll end up with monstrous post-code health lotteries where the articulate and well-off will make sure they get the best and leave a poorer, second class service for the rest of us.

Only Labour remains committed to NHS principles which have stood the test of time. Under Labour we have an NHS we can depend on where-ever we are, when-ever we need help.
Don't let the Tories attack our NHS.

CND - most impressive lobbying so far...

Campaigning organisations find election time useful. Their websites ask members and site-visitors to lobby election candidates in their area.

I've received several.

But so far it's Big-UP to CND.

CND members in Central Devon have contacted me three times more than any other campaign group.

But then, my early-80's memories of Greenham Common (that's me in the blue jeans and wellies), were of CND being highly effective - bringing coach-loads of women from all over the country to big mass-protest days at the base.

Here's what they're up to now - CND

And here's my response to their lobby -

Students into Politics - Superb!

Max congratulations to the innovative and determined students at South Dartmoor Community College.
As some-one with a schools-based background I experienced the under-investment of the Tories, when they were in power - falling far short of ensuring a decent education for every pupil, every student, in every school and college.
I'm so proud that the results of years of massive Labour Government investment in education were so wonderfully

Eradicating fly-tipping mentality

Spring has brought lambs to the 3-acre field in which I have a quarter-share.
It also brought a heap of fly-tipped rubbish - dumped at our gate and including a large mirror which smashed up leaving glass scattered where dogs

Wholehearted support for Hospiscare

Whether it is the joy of very lively music in a packed church in Cheriton Fitzpaine, or the great fun of joining with a good Labour colleague and hundreds of other women on a midnight walk, the pleasure to be had in raising funds for Hospiscare is doubled by knowing what superb work Hospices do.

So when Exeter, Mid and East Devon Hospiscare wrote asking me to sign up to their manifesto I did so without hesitation. Hospiscare supports family friends and carers before and after a person's death. The support is invaluable.

Credibility Bypass, not Traffic Bypass for Crediton

How patient do the people of Crediton have to be?

We know the patience of the current Conservative administration at County Hall has run out, because they've voted to abandon the best and only logical way of resolving Crediton's intense traffic problems - which is to get on and build the long-promised bypass.

We also know that no-one at County Hall has asked the Devon PCT/NHS Trust about morbidity and mortality data to see any effects of Crediton's citizen's enforced breathing of chronicly high amounts of polluted air.

How many people in Crediton die early because of too long

Walking back to happiness again

Spring is in the air. After a hard winter the frogspawn in my pond has appeared two weeks later than last year. Getting around by bicycle or on foot is becoming more enjoyable.

Across Central Devon there are volunteers who work with local councils to make it more attractive for people to get out and about as the weather improves.

In Morchard Bishop footpaths abound and Okehampton's Walk and Talk initiative by Natural England has won 

Red Rose with a Green Stem

Labour is committed to action on climate change and the creation of a new low-carbon economy

Our current first-past-the-post voting system means that Green Party votes have next to no chance of putting a single MP into Parliament, let alone the Green Party into power.
With the Tories being as  Eco-sceptic  as they are Euro-sceptic only Labour will do.

The Green Party Candidate for Central Devon couldn't make the Devon Heartlands Q&A session in Okehampton last Monday but it was pleasant to share the evening with his substitute Catherine Simmons.

NATO, yes, that NATO, celebrates International Women's Day

International Women's Day was celebrated by thousands of equality and women's rights organisations - and millions of women - around the world last Monday

.
Though the British media didn't take much notice the Prime Minister and the Labour Government did - such as Getting More Women Into Boardrooms - and Tackling Violence Against Women Worldwide

But finally it seems the potential power of women to influence PEACE worldwide has been recognised by the military.
Check this out this YouTube Women's Day 2010 - NATO

Red Rose among thorns

Full marks to the Post-16 teachers at Okehampton Community College.

But nought out of ten to the local Tory for his "Nasty-Party", unfounded attack on Labour's education record. Find out more...

UKIP hates the Landfill Tax - but do they know what good it does?

UKIP welcomes web-visitors to their site with the news that "Polar bears are just fine and dandy" so it comes as no surprise that their opinions are equally planet-unfriendly when it comes to landfill tax. Thay want to

Cycling is wonderful when spring starts

It may be wet some days, but spring is on its way.

Snowdrops in their thousands near Crediton

The truth about Local Government Pensions

The Tories continually attack the public sector and intend to 'tackle' Local Government Pensions. So they're spreading a grossly distorted picture of the kind of pensions local government workers actually pay into.
After a biased letter appeared in the Express & Echo I wrote in correcting the anti-LGPS statements.
The Express and Echo published my letter last Thursday and it's now online at the This is North Devon website.
Read here the truth about the Local Government Pension Scheme http://www.thisisnorthdevon.co.uk/news/Pension-plan-attack-dangerously-wrong/article-1869390-detail/article.html