April 2009 - Newsletter from Margot James

April newsletter
Keeping you up to date with my latest activities in Stourbridge. The latest campaigns, letters to the press and events in and around Stourbridge


April 1st 2009

Dear Supporter,

Thank goodness for the Bank of England. At last someone, Mervyn King, has got through to Gordon Brown that you don’t cure a problem of spiralling debt by taking on more debt. Even before Brown’s budget next month this government have saddled us all with borrowings of £350 billion over the next two years. That is more than the debt accumulated by every British government over the last three hundred years put together!

I introduced Ken Clarke at a dinner this month and it was a reminder of happier times. It is hard to believe that as Chancellor between 1993 and 1997 he halved the budget deficit and bequeathed to Gordon Brown an economy in which taxation, public expenditure as a percentage of GDP, interest rates, inflation and unemployment were all falling.

It really is criminal to see how Labour have squandered that inheritance. They used the boom years that started under the last Conservative government to borrow and spend without limit, so landing us in a recession that the IMF have said will last longer and be deeper than in any other western country.

Campaigning

• Survey responses keep coming back and the main issues are: anti-social behaviour, council tax and the cost of living and immigration. Lack of police presence in certain areas also a problem. I am meeting the police to see what they can do to reassure people of their presence in those areas.
• We have kicked off an ‘e mail draw.’ Respondents who give us their em addresses will get entered in to a draw three times a year.
• We completed delivery of our quarterly newsletter in Wollaston and are now delivering our local newsletter in Amblecote.
• Our canvassing is gaining momentum. Recently we were knocking on doors in what would normally be a good area for Labour and it was hard to find a Labour voter. Our message of hope and change was very well received.

 Out and About

• I chaired a very interesting discussion among Asian women at Lye Community Centre. Poorer Asian women are denied a voice in our society and responded very positively to being asked for their views. Read more
• I visited the Stourbridge Jobcentre Plus and was impressed. Most Jobcentres are overwhelmed by the huge upsurge in the numbers of people who have lost their jobs this year. But our Jobcentre is holding up well. I am following up the difficulties Asian women have finding jobs, and will also be working with Cllr. David Vickers to examine what more can be done to help people with learning disabilities work as well.
• On the subject of work I spoke at both the Conservative Women’s Conference and the annual Stonewall Workplace conference on employment, entrepreneurialism and overcoming discrimination.
• I attended a College Board meeting and was pleased to hear how impressed governors were with David Willetts’s performance as Shadow Innovation Universities & Skills. It was the day after he exposed the Government’s deceit over the College Building programme. According to the government it is creating lots of jobs... actually, no; it is dead in the water.
• I met the directors of ‘Buy Local 2 U” in the town centre. They are setting up a reward card system to encourage people to shop in local independent outlets. Anything that helps the retailers in our town at the moment gets my support. 
   
• I attended a governors meeting of Redhill School. Days before a gang from outside the school attacked a pupil with a knife as he left the school with his mother. The school had requested a police presence an hour before but unfortunately this was not forthcoming until it was too late. Stourbridge in broad daylight? Something is not right here. And what is really not right is that our expectation that anything will actually happen to the perpetrators is pretty much zero.
• On a happier note I visited Pedmore Community College and met the students who are organising the Stourbridge Relay for Life event there on June 28th. I brought the organisers of this fundraiser for Cancer Research UK together with the school last year and it is good to see the thing taking off. Read more (Stourbridge News)  
• I attended the Stourbridge Councillors Area Committee and a meeting of the Stourbridge Township Council. I have been in touch with the Police and a Councillor about people using the ring road and the multi-storey car park as a racing track late at night, following discussion at the Township Council.
• We welcomed Justine Greening MP to speak at our annual dinner/fundraiser which was a great success. I also held a fundraising dinner in London with Ken Clarke. We have to keep raising money year round as we are up against an incumbent MP whose bid to retain her seat is effectively funded by the taxpayer. See the ads she has placed in this week’s Stourbridge News at a cost to the taxpayer of well over £3000!
   
• I visited the Dudley Alzheimer’s Association. This is an excellent and much needed organisation that does a great job to provide respite care for carers and support for sufferers. But they can only manage to help about 200 patients at a time and there is always a long waiting list, not surprisingly as there are well over 3000 sufferers of this terrible condition across the borough.
• I made a flying visit to Uganda to support the Conservative Party’s international development programme there on International Women’s Day. Read more
  

Feedback

I printed the last edition of this e wire out to send to people without e mail and was surprised by how long it was. If you are still reading (!) and think more frequent, shorter e wires would be better please let me know.

Please also forward this campaign update on to any fellow Conservatives in our area who you think would be interested.