The Great Nailsea North Somerset General Election Debate

AT the 2005 general election MP Liam Fox won Woodspring for the Conservatives with 41.8 per cent of the vote and a 6,016 majority.

In 2010 he will defend the seat he has held since 1992 which at the general election will metamorphose into the newly named North Somerset constituency.

In 2005, 51,618 (72 per cent) of people eligible to vote turned out.

The Liberal Democrats polled 15,571 (30.2 per cent) and the Labour Party 11,249 (21.8 per cent).

The Greens (2.5 per cent), UKIP (2.5 per cent) and BNP (1.2 per cent) candidates all lost their deposits.

Although no date has been sent for the 2010 general election most political pundits are predicting Thursday, May 6, as the most likely date and in anticipation North Somerset Council has booked a few polling stations for that day.

The North Somerset constituency is considered a ‘safe’ Conservative seat but the Lib Dems are busy telling voters if they desert Labour there is a chance of ousting Dr Fox.

Its electioneering slogan is ‘beat the blues and go for Lib Dem gold’.

The Labour Party isn’t impressed and argues ‘we are proud of our record but the work’s not over yet’.

Ladbrokes online betting service is currently offering odds of 100-1 against a Labour victory in North Somerset, 13-1 against a Lib Dem victory and 10-1 on for a Conservative win.

Four prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs) have already put their cap in the ring to fight North Somerset at the general election and Churches Together in Nailsea organised a political Q&A forum to allow them to have their say.

Because all PPCs were given the same questions in the interest of fairness Nailsea People waited until the final session last Sunday before publishing what the local politicians had to say.

In February, Labour PPC Steven Parry-Hearn and Liberal Democrat PPC Brian Mathews spoke at the Trinity Centre, St Mary’s Grove.

And this month Conservative Dr Liam Fox and UKIP Sue Taylor spoke at the Methodist Centre, Silver Street.

Vicar Steve Tilley chaired both Question Time sessions which produced some revelations and some toeing-the-party-line responses. Each PPC had 45 minutes to impress the audience.

They were asked about the economy, environment, the NHS, education, the role of the church in politics, their ‘vision for Nailsea’ and the height of bus stop steps used by people with mobility problems.

The pylon issue prevailed with the UKIP PPC calling the sitting MP Dr Fox a ‘Nimby’ because of his remarks about spoiling the view from his Tickenham garden.

The Lib Dem PPC advocated a Tomorrow’s World ‘super conductor system’ and burying the cables underground but since the meeting the Labour PPC expressed safety fears of the chemical coolants needed.

Here, in a nutshell, is what they all said in the order they spoke.

LABOUR PARTY

Steven Parry-Hearn is a Swansea-born life-long socialist, rugby fan and former police officer. He currently works for the Shaw Trust, a charity which helps disabled people find work.

Steve said his working class family background prompted his interest in politics and his ‘sense of right and sense of fairness’.

He said: “I have always found myself in jobs that have had a need to connect with people, the need to help people who find themselves facing difficulties and having to act on those difficulties.

“I have always wanted to help them sort those difficulties out in a supportive, not patronising, role.

“In my journey through my working life I’ve had the good fortune to meet people that I have learned an awful lot from, I learned a lot about humility.

“I know what it is like to be unemployed in a recession.

“I have worked for organisations that have helped and supported people, I have been a police officer, I worked at a job centre to help people to rebuild their lives.

“More recently, I work for the Shaw Trust which helps people with disabilities and health conditions back into work. Its ethos is: if you want work you can work – and that is the way it should be.

“I believe strongly in a sense of community and a sense of giving.

“I believe we all have talents – the Labour Party does not believe in elitism, every one of us has talents, abilities and opinions.

“I believe the Labour Party works most for most of us.

“Churches are right at the centre of politics – not necessarily party politics but at the centre of our spiritual beliefs.

“It could be argued, I am not blaspheming here and forgive me if you think I am, that Jesus was a socialist because he worked and went around doing good for everybody.”

He cited the corrupt tax collector Zaccaeus who Jesus helped, an example of socialism and ‘the need to help people regardless of who they are’.

He said: “We are all valuable and we are all equal in the sight of God.

“I heard someone say there isn’t enough religion in the world for us all to love one another but there is enough religion in the world for us to hate one another and I think that is a terribly sad reflection.”

His ‘vision for Nailsea’ would not include super-sized pylons but improved public transport and the creation of more local jobs.

NHS supporter Dr Caroline Mason said she is concerned that a ‘holistic approach to health’ is being threatened by the drive to cut costs.

Steve, a member of the Aneurin Bevan Foundation, the Welsh cabinet minister credited with establishing the NHS in 1948, talked about the achievement of the Government in cutting waiting lists.

He said: “The ideal is we have universal health care from birth to the grave, which is something I am deeply proud of in the work of Nye Bevan.

“The NHS celebrated its 60th anniversary last year and it is a system which has been adopted by the Australian government and now it is being looked at by the US.”

Methodist church member David Sharp bemoaned the fact that climate change and sustainable energy was not high on the political agenda and in the ‘background’.

He said the issue was above political wrangling and called for an all-party approach to develop a long-term strategy to save the planet.

He said: “It seems to me this is above party politics and the vagaries of electioneering.”

Steve said tri-party talks were already happening.

He said: “Within 24 hours of being selected as PPC, I wrote to the National Grid as I feel this is a matter to show a tri-party trust on the pylons.

“National Grid must know quite categorically that the people of North Somerset will not be trampled on and they will be listened to.

“We should stand together shoulder-to-shoulder to confront National Grid.”

He said he had written papers on wind energy and using flood power.

On immigration he said:  “I work for an organisation which embraces diversity and equality and our history of this country is one of immigration from the Romans and Vikings onwards.

“I bet some Nailsea people are descendants of the Belgian glassblowers.”

He added: “I am here to help the people of North Somerset, I will give every energy that I have, I will give you every opportunity to speak to me. I want to be approachable and accessible. You know I will have your interests at heart because my ambition is to be the constituency MP, nothing more.”

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT PARTY

Dr Brian Mathew grew up in the West Country and went to school in Somerset. He has spent the past 20 years working on water, sanitation and health programmes in the developing world.

Brian, who has been campaigning against the National Grid, said his vision for Nailsea was minus the pylons which he said had ‘all the grace of a barbed wire fence’.

Brian said: “There are solutions to moving electricity around which don’t involve this 1950s technology which essentially is what these pylons are.

“A 1950s technology which emits an electro-magnetic field which research from Bristol University and elsewhere across the world has thrown out some serious doubts in terms of the health implications.”

He talked about American Super Conductors. Although these are more expensive initially, they have no electro field.

He said: “If this technology is adopted you would have a 3ft wide cable sunk in the ground along the side of the M5 and you solve the problem.

“These super conductors are so efficient they can take 150 times more current than a conventional cable.”

As a practising Christian he believes ‘religion is fundamental part of what we do’.

Brian who has travelled widely in the developing world said he has had to fly to get to places ‘which would take an awful long time by boat’.

He talked about the original barrage design scandal and said the way forward was for a ‘Severn reef which has the potential to generate six per cent of our total electricity requirement for 100 years’.

“It wouldn’t kill the birdlife, it wouldn’t kill the fish - amazingly 25 per cent of Britain’s salmon spawn up the Severn – and it would allow access to the docks of Bristol, Avonmouth and Portbury, which are all vital to our future.”

Brian bemoaned the fact the British government isn’t investing enough in solar power unlike Germany.

He said: “We should be at the forefront of design and selling to the rest of the world.”

Brian spoke about the growth of allotments at its ‘social capital, meeting and talking to people, sense of community’.

His vision for Nailsea, North Somerset and the UK is one of ‘a free, fair, green and sustainable country’.

Holy Trinity member and private care counsellor Sally Wilson talked of immense cuts for one-two-one therapy to group telephone sessions and helplines. 

She said: “This is a service which appears to be ticking boxes to save money.”

Brian answered: “The Lib Dems pledge to support, maintain and improve frontline services.

“We need to look at specifics, we need to treat people as individuals and relate it to the Primary Health Care Trusts and hospitals which use these services.”

Sally worried that sometimes people being asked for feedback are patients too ill or vulnerable to do this.

He was asked ‘in view of the fact Dr Fox is almost certain to be returned to Parliament wouldn’t it be best for one of you to stand aside so as not to split the opposition vote?’

Brian said: “If we continue to be divided in terms of the centre left, the Conservatives will continue to be elected.

“Votes for Dr Fox have consistently slipped and if half of those who voted Labour or Green were to vote Lib Dem we would defeat the Tories – that is a numerical fact.”

He was asked about sex before marriage, family values, teenage pregnancies, whether homosexuality was a sin and sex education in schools for six-year-olds.

Brian said ‘education is crucial, there was sex in Romeo and Juliet and Juliet was only 12 years old but I am not an expert in this field’.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY

Dr Liam Fox came to the meeting straight from a television debate in London with Labour minister Harriet Harman. He talked about his Scottish roots and how he attended the largest comprehensive school in Europe in a class of more than 50 pupils.

He joked there were ‘not many left to tell the tale’ about his time as a GP in Nailsea.

Liam said: “I was elected in 1992 and will have the distinction of being the last MP for Woodspring as we are abolished.

“At the general election it becomes the new North Somerset constituency which, of course will cause enormous confusion to the people of Weston-super-Mare, who will be in North Somerset district but not North Somerset constituency.

He spoke of the many roles he had held both in Government and in Opposition and how he has ‘learned on the job’.

And he talked about his Tickenham home, which has a ‘wonderful view of what will be the entire line of the electricity pylons, where they ever to materialise, so I am not a disinterested party’.

Liam’s vision for Nailsea is a place where young people have access to training, jobs and affordable housing.

He said: “We are very lucky as in the early years we had a spate of crime in Nailsea and in Clevedon because you had quite rapidly growing towns.”

He complained about letters from church representatives being dominated by what is happening overseas but nothing about local social issues.

Liam said: “If you go into schools now and ask children what they want to be, in previous generations they would say ‘I want to be a scientist, doctor or teacher’. Now the overwhelming response is ‘I want to be famous’.

“Not for anything, just to be famous. This gives me real concerns for the spiritual and moral health of the country – whatever you want to describe it.

“I don’t mind churches asking about trade policy or overseas aid, but I would like to hear more debate in this country about the spiritual well-being of our own society.”

Constituent John Green asked about Conservative policy on electricity generating capacity.

Liam referred him to his ‘energy gap’ pamphlet entitled Over A Barrel he wrote five years ago in response to the crisis predicted for the middle of this century.

He said: “We are going to have an energy gap simply because we didn’t face up to the problems on time and it is typical of the putting problems to one side.”

He predicted much higher bills by the middle of this decade caused by a lack of investment in renewable sources of energy.

He said: “The problem is our skill base, it is all very well having more people going to university but if you end up with lots and lots of people having degrees in media studies.

“Not that there is anything wrong with that and I actually think higher education is enriching in itself - but if you have as we have had a diminishing number of physics, maths and engineering graduates you will really have trouble in the future.

“You have a moral obligation to anything you are given to look after to the best of your ability and that goes for our world.”

On the European Union Liam said: “I may be a critic of the EU but I am not paranoid about it…not all things are to blame on directives from Brussels…many things are the decision of the government of the day.”

Constituent John Royanne said: “We are singing from same hymn sheet.”

Mr Royanne called for some compulsion in saving energy such as putting heavy freight onto railways, turning off lights in empty offices and stopping cars travelling down the A370 with just one passenger. Liam disagreed with ‘compulsion’ and said rather than use a ‘stick’ use a ‘carrot’ by ‘rewarding people for good behaviour’.

There were loud murmurs from the audience about the inefficiencies of public transport.

Liam said: “These are highly topical debates and between the pylons, the expansion of Bristol International Airport and Portishead railway, that is about 75 per cent of my mailbag.

“When you think for the sake of 1.34 miles of track we have enormous congestion on the road.

“When I coined the phrase that Portishead was the biggest cul-de-sac in Europe it just got bigger and the congestion on the roads increased.”

It is no good asking people to get out of their cars and use public transport when there are no buses or trains, he said.

Town councillor John Wilson asked about his office funding following an article in The Times newspaper.

Liam said: “The piece is largely nonsense, don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper.

“A friend of mine regularly helps out my office and gets me extra staff that I wouldn’t otherwise get, unlike the MoD which has 83,950 civil servants, I have two staff working for me.”

Liam was asked if politicians should all get together and work for the best for the country.

He said: “That all sounds really nice, but I don’t have anything in common with people who believe in big government, high taxation, high spending and that they know how to spend your money better than you do.

“I believe there is no such thing as government debt only tax payers debt and government shouldn’t run up other people’s debts.

“I believe we should return to living within our means as we have to as families understanding you don’t order things if you have no money to pay for them because we wouldn’t be allowed to in our ordinary lives but that you have a moral duty to look after people who can’t look after themselves but you don’t have a duty to look after people who have God-given talents and refuse to look after themselves.

“We need to rebuild society where people can stand on their own two feet as I believe that dependency on the state has grown to epidemic levels.

“If you do not give people individual responsibility they will not act responsibly.”

Government takes too much off people ‘with good incomes’ and then gives it back in a ‘bureaucratic labyrinth of benefits’.

“I am a un-reconstructed, free marketeer, Unionist, Euro-sceptic, Conservative and I don’t pretend I have a huge amount in common with a different political philosophy. You may not like it but that is what I stand for.”

And he recalled an incident in a supermarket when tending a £20 note for a £19.07 bill the checkout girl was surprised that he used mental arithmetic to calculate he needed 93p change.

He slammed a national curriculum which picks up every ‘fashion of the day’ and called for a ‘back to basics’ approach: discipline, parental involvement and a ‘school culture where pupils know they are there to be educated and not socialised’ – let the professionals get on with their job and encourage faith schools, adding ‘this Maoist change philosophy is unhealthy’.

“We have some of the best schools in the country because we have a very good catchment area and parents who take a detailed interested and the schools are part of the community.”

He argued for the focus to go on failing schools and allowing the successful ones to get on with the job.

“People should vote for me because I live in the constituency and work very hard for my constituents irrespectively for what party they vote for.

To have an MP as a minister in government would help local voices to be heard, he said.

“Government is not a glorified district council. Government is about setting the legislative framework for the country. Dealing with the big economic and security questions that beset the globe and setting out our international relations.”

He forecast tough times ahead and as he said to his patients ‘we may have to do some pretty nasty things to get you better but you will get better. That is the combination of toughness, realism and optimism the country needs.”

UNITED KINGDOM INDEPENDENT PARTY

Working mum Sue Taylor was born in Cheltenham and brought up at her grandparents’ farm outside Stow-on-Wold. At 11 she was sent to boarding school at a girls’ convent at Torquay.

She said: “I am very ordinary, I am not a career politician but I know about the real issues. I know what it is like to have to choose between paying the gas bill or buying a new pair of shoes.”

Sue said she valued the role she had played bringing up her two children now aged 20 and 21.

Her working life has ranged from offices, garage forecourts, shops, bars, restaurants and farms.

She said: “I don’t have massive academic skills, I have never stepped inside a university let alone gained a university degree.

“I am quite normal really but I will do my best to answer your questions.

“What’s my vision for Nailsea? Well I would probably say I don’t have a vision for Nailsea. It’s your community, you’re the people of Nailsea and I think whatever your vision is for your community if I was elected your MP I would take your wishes, concerns or issues to Westminster and speak up on your behalf.

“Nailsea is a thriving and good community with an excellent school so I don’t have any great changes for Nailsea, it is up to you.”

When asked about the role the church should play in politics she said: “They say you shouldn’t talk about religion or politics…two of the most emotive subjects.”

As quick as a flash, vicar Steve Tilley retorted: “So you have come to a political meeting in a church?”

Sue said: “There is a place for religion in our day-to-day lives.”

She added: “My grandfather said his prayers every night before going to bed.”

Weston activist Harold James then gave a long speech about the monarchy and religion.

He said: “We have played fast and loose with the Almighty and paid the price.”

Sue said: “I was brought up in a generation which spoke about the four Rs, reading, writing, arithmetic and respect – morality has gone out of the window – that does happen today, there isn’t any respect for anybody or anything.

“UKIP believes that this country should be independent to govern itself and be responsible for its laws and its regulations.

“We believe we should come out of the EU, not least because it costs £45million every single day to be a member.

“75 per cent of our laws are dictated to us by the EU. The people who make them up are not elected and I don’t think anyone here today could name any of them.

“Small businesses suffer for being part of the EU…it is just a nightmare. We should come out of the EU and survive on our own like Norway. We are happy to be part of Europe and be friends with them and trade with them just not be ruled by them.”

Sue blamed the EU is responsible for the closure of our Post Offices.

An audience member said her answers had increased fears UKIP was a issue single party asking ‘what about the eradication of poverty, education, social issues you must have policies on those sort of issues if you want to get into parliament’.

Sue said: “Yes, we do, in this booklet…lots of information…we want more police on the streets away from their desk job, more sympathy for the victims of crime, criminals should serve full prison sentences set by judges without remission, prison regime should be a lot tougher – life should mean life; bring back grammar schools for every town run by headmasters."

She criticised literary standards, that history isn’t taught in schools and ‘children today think Churchill is an insurance dog’.

Sue urged the return of ‘battleaxe’ matrons to ensure hospital cleanliness and for nurses to stop shopping in supermarkets still wearing their uniforms.

She said: “Is there any wonder we have infections like MRSA?”

Asked about UKIP defence policy, she said we didn’t do enough for homecoming heroes.

And she pledged UKIP would support a new referendum about coming out of Europe.

Sue said “We are a British European-sceptic Conservative party.”

When asked the differences between UKIP and the Conservatives she said she agreed with lots Liam Fox had said but for a full explanation see the leaflet.

Sue passed on the issues of climate change and the environment.

She said: “I can’t give you a full answer on that and I am not going to sit here and blag my way thorough.”

But on the dreaded pylons she said:  “I would be a Nimby and say not in my backyard like Dr Fox.”

She called it ‘stupid’ that of the £62 billion spent annually on education, only half got to schools.

She added: “I am not a professional politician but I am trying to do my best.”

She decried the lack of home values, teenage parents, and the lack of respect for teachers and police.

She said: “Society has diminished into a cesspit of nonsense.

 “We are the only party that actually values the culture and traditions of this country – they say if you want something said ask a man and if you want something done ask a woman, that is why you should vote for me.”