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March 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.
Dear Supporter,
We are ready for the general election when it comes. Support is building across the constituency. We have been out canvassing in Quarry Bank and Cradley & Foxcote and are finding even Labour’s traditional supporters very disillusioned with their government. Our message is resonating with both Conservative supporters and floating voters.  The choice is between a government that wants to delay the difficult decisions that their profligacy has caused; and a Conservative Party that has been honest with the electorate since the beginning of the financial crisis about the need to reduce public spending. I have visited several companies in the last six weeks that have held up despite alarming drops in sales of as much as fifty per cent in one year. It is these employers and others like them that we need to support. George Osborne visited us in Quarry Bank last week and I was delighted to hear him confirm one of his benchmarks for success; that this country cannot go on letting its manufacturing base wither on the vine. We cannot live on the fruits of the service sector alone. Wealth creation has to be about making things as well as providing services and we need to work for a more balanced economy. A Conservative government will spearhead the drive for growth by taxing and regulating industry less and will help people off welfare and into work.
Campaigning
I would like to thank everyone who has supported the big distribution and canvassing effort so far this year. Thanks to your help:
- We completed delivery of my three year report on my activity in Stourbridge since the beginning of 2007
- We produced another newspaper which we started to deliver on Saturday last week
- We have stepped up our door to door canvassing and our telephone canvassing
Out and About
- I spoke at a meeting on Women in Business and Politics organised by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce. The meeting was chaired by Cherie Blair QC; and I was the Conservative voice versus Patricia Hewitt, who was clearly disillusioned by the snails pace of NHS reform under her successors at the DOH.
- I attended various national policy briefings:
- From Andrew Lansley on Conservative health policy.
- From Save the Children on child poverty in the UK.
- From The British Manufacturing Council on (as if I needed telling) why we need to support manufacturing in the UK. The council were very results focussed and lean in terms of their administration costs, definitely one of the better Quangos I have encountered.
- Maria Miller MP, Shadow Minister for Children and Families, visited the Stourbridge Children and Families Centre to dispel myths peddled by our opponents about our policies, policies that are very well received by the professionals working in the field. Read more
- I visited Thorns Community College and talked to pupils from each year and the principal. Read more
Manufacturing has really suffered in the recession so I have visited as many companies as possible recently. This month I went to Thyssen Krupp in Cradley and the Vanguard Foundry in Lye. Both companies had experienced a huge reduction in sales but were weathering the storm very well; I was most impressed with both companies. Thyssen Krupp visit Vanguard Foundry visit
Stourbridge welcomed Tom Petranoff, javelin world record holder, to the Crystal Leisure Centre and I met him as he held a session for children with disabilities. They took to javelin throwing like ducks to water. Read more- Why do we need quite so many phone masts? I have supported the campaign against the Hillfields Road O2 phone mast. I attended two very well supported public meetings at which opinion was unanimously opposed. I am hopeful that Dudley Council will turn the O2 application down this week and that O2 will, as they promised at the last public meeting, seek an alternative site. I advised them to look again at the Corbett Hospital.
I visited Wollescote Primary School in Lye. The children were absolutely gorgeous and everyone was so welcoming to us. It really is a disgrace how these dedicated teachers find it so impossible to achieve in the current climate in which more and more is demanded of the same number of teachers by the Department of Children, Schools and Families. Read more- The Police invited me out to join their Operation Stay Safe shift last Friday night. I have been dealing with the Police a lot in the last six months on a variety of anti-social behaviour cases so I think they wanted me to see what they were up against. What they are up against is a lack of resource. We started the evening with six officers, by 8.00pm we were down to three, one had to go and provide cover on the desk and two officers made an arrest at Stourbridge Library and I could scarcely believe that all the administration and the interview itself took these two officers off the team for five and a quarter hours. The suspect only answered questions for ten minutes then he refused to speak. My view is that if a suspect fails to co-operate with the Police then this should be held against them when it comes to sentencing. Solicitors just play the system from start to finish to get their clients off whether they are guilty or not. It all needs to change.
Media
- The Stourbridge News covered our meeting at the Children & Families Centre | Click here
- The News also covered some of the work I’ve been doing on anti-social behaviour | Click here
- I was interviewed for an hour by Phil Tonks on ‘The Bridge’ radio station
Feedback
Please forward this campaign update on to any fellow Conservatives in our area who you think would be interested. If there is any further information you would like, or if there is something you would like to let me know about, please do get in touch.
If you would like to help the campaign in Stourbridge then please do contact me: margot@stourbridgeconservatives.com. We are always grateful for support.
Best wishes
Margot
www.margotjames.com
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