1. Labour take people for granted, and imagine they can insert anyone into Stalybridge and Hyde at the last-minute and still expect them to be selected. They take your vote for granted.

2. Johnny-Come-Lately Johnny Reynolds represents James Purnell’s choice for the constituency. All the newspapers reported him as James Purnell’s choice, and in fact when he was originally left off the shortlist,  James Purnell and Lord Mandelson petitioned for him to be put back on. Your Labour candidate worked in James Purnell’s office for James Purnell at the taxpayer’s expense.

3. The Labour candidate is in the pocket of the Unions. Unite/Amicus think they can buy the seat of Stalybridge and Hyde for their candidate, who is a local branch secretary. The Conservatives’ campaign, in contrast, is entirely funded by local people in the constituency.

‘Flippant and lighweight’

The Manchester Evening News reported today about the selection, highlighting the frustration of some about how the selection was carried out. The report confirmed that the candidates were quizzed on pop culture and trivia rather than the serious issue facing our constituency such as the NHS and Afghanistan.

When you have a chance, ask your labour candidate what he thinks about campaigning for the re-election of a Prime Minister who has let down our troops.

You can read the article here

Rob Adlard and Cllr Clive Patrick visit Ridge Hill Children’s Centre

Prospective Conservative MP and Stalybridge North Councillor Clive Patrick made a visit to Ridge Hill Childrens’ Centre.

Some are claiming that the huge union runs the Labour party today. The Union not only donated £11 million pounds to Labour, but also it’s policy chief Charlie Wheelan was Gordon Brown’s chief spin doctor and ‘attack dog’ according to reports, and is tipped to have a leading role in the general election for Gordon Brown.

Senior Unite official Peter Wheeler  is on the shortlist to succeed current Stalybridge and Hyde Labour MP James Purnell who is standing down at the next election in just a few weeks time. 

The shadow children’s secretary, Michael Gove, claimed that Unite had succeeded in ensuring that 59 of its members have been selected as Labour candidates for the general election. “Charlie Whelan’s distinctive fingerprints can be detected all over Labour’s recent lurch to the left in key policy areas,” Gove said. He cited the government’s decision to abandon the part-privatisation of Royal Mail, a climbdown on opening up the supply of NHS care, and the dropping of school reforms.

Gove said that Unite’s involvement in the BA dispute showed how unions were now calling the shots. “How can Charlie Whelan simultaneously be the political director of a union which is paralysing British Airways at the same time as he’s directing the political activities of Britain’s prime minister? How can we trust what Gordon Brown says about this strike, when we know he is in hock to Unite and in thrall to Charlie Whelan?”

Prospective Conservative MP Rob Adlard says “people in Stalybridge and Hyde have just managed to get rid of one outsider as MP. On the doorstep people have confirmed that they felt James Purnell didn’t have the best interests of Stalybridge and Hyde at heart, and they’ll be wary before they vote for another career politician and outsider such as Peter Wheeler of the Unite union, a union which is wrecking the Labour party as a party of government.”

‘Gordon Brown Was Behind The Cuts In Helicopter Numbers’

The Conservatives first raised this issue in 2005 when he Conservative’s Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox said “the promise that the armed forces could have whatever they need has not been kept” and he warned that Labour’s decision to cut the helicopter budget by £1.4 billion is “the root of many of the problems” British troops face in Afghanistan. David Cameron has called the helicopter shortage “a scandal.” Former Defence Minister Geoff Hoon revealed in leaked letters that Gordon Brown was to blame. In one letter sent in 2004, Hoon warned that, if Brown refused to back down, “We would have to scale back on major equipment programmes.” He went on to claim that the helicopter programme in particular would suffer.

Troops given raw deal on leave from Afghanistan, says David Cameron.

David Cameron has long supported an initiative to allow troops to start their leave during operations only when they arrive back on British soil. He has said troops were receiving a “raw deal” over the two week operational leave as aircraft delays generally meant they lost several days holiday before returning home. A Conservative Party commission led by Falklands hero Simon Weston and author Frederick Forsyth first raised this issue of “lost leave”.

 The Conservatives’ War Cabinet

David Cameron has put together an excellent team to focus on the war if the Conservatives win the election. Sir Richard Dannatt, who has fought for our country and served for forty years in our armed forces is to advise our defence team which will include Liam Fox and William Hague.

Shadow Business Secretary Ken Clarke joined David Cameron and George Osborne in speaking at Thomson Reuters about the state of the economy.

“This weekend showed very vividly why we can’t afford five more years of Gordon Brown”, he said. “There’s a choice to be made, and the choice of Gordon Brown is a very expensive choice indeed”.

He pointed out the Conservatives had been arguing for months that it is only the prospect of a Conservative government that has been holding down interest rates and holding up sterling. “Yesterday’s and today’s market movements show how nervous our foreign creditors and investors are about the prospects of a Gordon Brown victory or a hung parliament”, he said.

“The argument from a British point of view is if investors do not believe the new British Government has the political will to deal with the deficit and pay down some debt they will demand much higher interest rates before they will lend us any more money.”

Clarke went on to compare Labour’s policy of matching his spending plans when they were last in the Opposition, to the mess they have created and the need for the Conservative Opposition to lead the way forward.

“Only by dealing with the debts we can provide confidence to businessmen and families up and down the country that they can plan ahead with confidence, that we can get a grip on our debts, and that with interest rates lower for longer, and we can unleash the forces of enterprise to show Britain is open for business again”, he said. 

“The Conservatives have done that in the past. We turned around an economy left in tatters by Labour, got Britain growing, and left Gordon Brown with a golden economic legacy. Now we need to do it again.”

Read Ken Clarke’s speech in full

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne criticised Gordon Brown’s economic policies helping to ”lead us into this mess”, and his “debt, waste and taxes” for “holding us back and threatening the recovery with higher interest rates”.

“That’s why we need change in the economy”, he said. “We need to bring back aspiration and opportunity for all. We need action now to cut the deficit, help to keep mortgage rates low and get the economy moving. And we need to get Britain working by boosting enterprise.”

And, he added, “at the coming election, that is the change the Conservatives will be offering”.

Read George Osborne’s speech in full

A new generation of Sure Start Centres

David Cameron has said that a Conservative Government will give more power, discretion and autonomy to local councils.

But he emphasised that greater power must be backed up with greater accountability to local taxpayers.

Speaking at the Conservative Councillors’ Association, Cameron outlined Conservative plans to require councils to publish the following online:

• The full remuneration package of all senior staff, earning above £58,500, including name and post.
• All items of expenditure above £500, and publish contracts and tender documents in full.
• Information on councillors’ expenses in open and standardised format so the public can compare councillor expenses across the country.

The Conservatives have more Councillors than Labour and the Liberal Democrats combined – with almost 10,000 Conservative Councillors, and more than 200 Conservative-run councils.

Cameron said that local government could cut spending through more transparency and by working together. In return, they would get much power. “I’m going to give you much more power and control”, he said. “I’m a Conservative, I trust people, I believe in local power.”

“I believe that when decisions are made closer to people they are better decisions, they are more effective decisions, they are cheaper and they tend to make people much happier too.”

Click here to read his speech in full

“In Stalybridge and Hyde the Conservatives have never received any finance from Lord Ashcroft, all the money for our campaign comes from our local members, unlike Labour. Labour seats like Stalybidge and Hyde are helped hugely by large donations from unions gathered from levies of subs paid by hardworking people” explains Rob Adlard.  

Lord Ashcroft is a Conservative party donor who has given about 1% of the party’s funds in the last year, far less than donations to the Labour party by so-called ‘don-dom’ donors, and all donations have been legal and Lord Ashcroft has been paying tax on his UK earnings. There will be relief that Lord Ashcroft has now cleared this up and comparison can be made.

The Labour mudslingers are already out in force, so let’s compare and contrast what the Labour Party DOES re non doms, compared to its rhetoric.

Gordon Brown has previously claimed it is ‘a scandal’ that there is not greater transparency on the tax status of party backers. But latest figures show that since 2001, Labour have taken over £10 million from eight reportedly ‘non-dom’ donors:

• Lord Paul – £69,250 in donations to Labour, including £45,000 to Gordon Brown’s leadership campaign. A close friend of Gordon Brown and appointed to the Privy Council last summer, he has admitted to being ‘non-dom’.
• Lakshmi Mittal – £4.125 million in donations to Labour.
• Sir Ronald Cohen – £2.55 million in donations to Labour. Cohen was appointed chair of the Social Investment Taskforce, which was announced by the then Chancellor, Gordon Brown.
• Sir Christopher Ondaatje – £1.7 million in donations to Labour.
• Sir Gulam Noon – £532,826 in donations to Labour.
• William Bollinger – £510,725 in donations to Labour.
• Mahmoud Khayami – £985,000 in donations to Labour including £5,000 to Hazel Blears’ deputy leadership campaign. He has helped bankroll two flagship schools, one of which Gordon Brown opened, and was personally thanked for a donation by Tony Blair.
• Dr David Potter – £90,000 in a donation to Labour. He has previously delivered a lecture at Downing Street.

And compare this with the donations from Lord Ashcroft’s Bearwood company…

• Only one per cent donated by Bearwood this year. In the last calendar year, Bearwood’s donations contribution to the Conservative Party amounts to just one per cent of all donations – £329,859 donated out of £32,508,866 received by the Conservative Party (Electoral Commission register).

• Less than five per cent donated by Lord Ashcroft and Bearwood since Cameron became leader. Since David Cameron became leader, less than five per cent of cash and in-kind donations have come from Bearwood Corporate Services, a company in which Lord Ashcroft has an interest. Since Q1 2006, Bearwood has donated £4,131,995 in cash and in-kind out of a total £90,723,018 donated to the Conservative Party in the same period (Electoral Commission register).

• At most 10 per cent of marginal seat funds donated by Bearwood. Of the funds spent in marginal seats, the amount received from Bearwood is no more than 10 per cent at most (Electoral Commission register). The Independent put this at 18% in their Saturday edition, but those who have done the calculations disagree and out it at a maximum of 10%.

The point is that David Cameron has made clear that in future all donations will have to be made by domiciled UK taxpayers. Gordon Brown, so far as I am aware, has made no such commitment. Lord Ashcroft has said he will abide by the new rules. Will Lord Paul and Sir Ronnie Cohen and their friends?

“I’d rather than we focus on policies and the real issues in our country today” says Rob Adlard.

“Our country is in an absolute mess, dropping down the international ratings for education, on health and our economy has been ruined. One man is responsible, Gordon Brown. It’s Brown’s ideal campaign to focus on anything other than these facts, don’t let him take you for a fool, it’s our duty to hold Gordon Brown and James Purnell to account at the ballot box.”

In a boost to Rob Adlard’s ‘Support Our Small Shops’ campaign, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne announced a Conservative government would reduce the tax burden on small business, and create incentives for small business to create more jobs click here for more on that story.