February 2009 - Newsletter from Margot James

February 2009
Keeping you up to date with my latest activities in Stourbridge. The latest campaigns, letters to the press and events in and around Stourbridge


February 3rd 2009



Dear Supporter,

Welcome to the first edition of my monthly news wire of 2009. The new year has got off to a productive and busy start and I am most grateful to everyone who has supported my campaign in Stourbridge already this year.

The government’s tenuous hold on the British economy is unravelling fast and with it their position in the polls. We all knew that the assumptions underpinning Alastair Darling’s budget statement in November were false - that the recession would start to lift midway through 2009. It is now apparent to one and all that this was never going to be the case.  The IMF’s verdict that the recession in Britain is likely to be longer and deeper than that of any other Western economy puts pay to the other lie – that the problems we are experiencing were all invented abroad.

It was very refreshing to welcome Philip Hammond MP, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to a meeting of the Stourbridge Conservative Business Group last week.  Philip spoke very well indeed, demolishing the Government’s record on the economy and putting across the Conservative principles that we will apply to the long term management of the economy if elected.



Campaigning

• We are stepping up the campaign this year as we can predict the timing of a general election with greater certainty as each month passes. We are now delivering and canvassing twice a week and this month have delivered surveys in Cradley, Quarry Bank and Pedmore.
  
• We held a very successful action day at the end of January with excellent support from Julie Kirkbride MP and her team from Bromsgrove. In total we had 42 people out so a big thank you to all of you who joined that effort. 
  
  
  
   
• A new office has opened to support both Stourbridge and Halesowen & Rowley Regis constituencies. I am delighted that Mike Wood has taken the full time job of Constituency Organiser for both constituencies and I wish him very well in his new role.
   

Out and About

• I attended Pact meetings in Cradley, Lye and Wollescote. I have followed up complaints about speeding traffic near schools and problems with roads. Action is being taken on roads and pavements as a result. (Click here for more)
   
• I attended the Stourbridge Area Committee meeting and agreed with our councillors that funding for the gates to Mary Stevens Park must come from the Ernest Stevens Trust if we cannot raise sufficient funds from the Lotteries Board or similar.
  
• I solved my Stourbridge College Young Enterprise team’s problem which had almost forced them to cease trading.
   
• I visited Redhill School (click here for more) and attended a governors meeting. I am taking up the case of a looked after child who attends the school in very difficult circumstances.
  
• I gave a tutored wine tasting to members of Stourbridge Rotary Club at the Old Edwardian Club.  This was a good evening and made over £250.00 for the British Heart Foundation. (Click here for more)
  
• I chaired a meeting on how the recession is impacting women in particular.  We had speakers from Unison, the Black Country Chamber of Commerce, Stourbridge College and Westfield. (Click here for more)
  
• I visited the Red House Glass Cone and Broadfield House Museum in light of the decision to move our world renowned glass collection. The collection is wonderful and I had the great privilege of being shown round by the Keeper of Glass & Fine Art, Roger Dodsworth. (Click here for more)
  
• We welcomed Philip Hammond MP to a meeting of the Stourbridge Conservative Business Group, kindly hosted by Mr Tony Billingham of Lapal House. (Click here for more)
  
• I attended the opening of the newly re-furbished Crystal Leisure Centre, another success for Dudley Council.  
    

Press

• Times are hard at Midlands Newsquest. I was very sorry to see that a very bright young journalist was made redundant at Christmas. Also, due to a downturn in advertising revenue, the Stourbridge News is no longer distributed free of charge in Lye, which is a great loss to the people of Lye.
  
• I distributed press releases on the economy, schools, anti-social behaviour, the glass collection and the Wine Tasting. There was some pick up including the wine tasting and a letter on Labour’s gross mishandling of the economy was printed in the Stourbridge News. (Click here for more)
  
• The Parish Magazine of St Mary’s, Oldswinford, published an article about my trip to Antarctica in their January edition. (Click here for more).

Feedback

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

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