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Tuesday, 30 March, 2010 
A few weeks ago my Labour opposite number complained about or posters pointing out how there wasn’t a local person on the ‘never voted Tory’ before campaign, (see news 12/3/10). How ironic it was that a few days ago one of our Councillors received a post card from the Labour Party which had a picture of a business man on it. In the background you could clearly see the name of the company and the telephone number which started with 0191, I googled the firm and found they were based near Sunderland in Hougton-le-Spring. A case of ‘people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’?
By the way our latest posters have a bloke from Scotland on them, sorry about that.
Monday, 29 March, 2010
Today we announced we will not implement Labours’ planned rise in National Insurance because it will kill the recovery with a tax on working people – so we'll cut Labour waste to stop it. 7 out of 10 working people will be better off with the Conservatives than under Labour. How we’ll do it
That means we will make £6 billion of spending savings from other departments – equivalent to 2.8% of remaining departmental spending.
The choice at the election is now clear:
For the last 13 years, working people have seen their taxes go up and up and their money wasted. Labour themselves say there is £11 billion of waste but want to wait a year before dealing with it. Now Gordon Brown is planning a tax rise that would hit anyone earning over £20,000 a year, destroy tens of thousands of jobs and put the recovery at risk. That’s why the re-election of a Labour government with more debt, waste and taxes will bring us a new recession.
Labour will kill the recovery with their tax on working people – so we'll cut Labour waste to stop it. 7 out of 10 working people will be better off with the Conservatives. And we'll cut Labour's debt to stop higher interest rates and your mortgage going up. We’re all in this together, and we need new energy and fresh ideas to get Britain working for everyone.
Sunday, 28 March, 2010
One of the issues raised with me most often is what we will do for Pensioners so I wanted to set out our pensioner pledges on this blog. When Labour came to power in 1997, Britain had one of the best pension systems in Europe. Millions of people were saving prudently for their retirement. Gordon Brown betrayed them, robbing them of security in retirement through his £100 billion stealth tax raid on their pension funds. And many pensioners miss out on the benefits that they are entitled to because of the complicated system Gordon Brown has put in place.
We can’t go on like this. As our population grows older, we need change if we are to give people security and dignity in old age. Our approach is based on our belief in responsibility – we should encourage people to take more control over their lives. People should be encouraged to save for their retirement, not punished by means-tested benefits which undermine the need to be responsible about your personal finances. So we will restore the link between the basic state pension and average earnings to help stop the spread of the means test.
Restoring the link to average earnings will benefit all pensioners. This will be made affordable by bringing forward the date at which the state pension age rises from 65 to 66, which will start in 2016 for men and 2020 for women – so no-one who is a pensioner today or approaching retirement soon will be affected.
We want to give people more choice over how they deal with their pension savings, more control over their income in retirement and more peace of mind in retirement:
As the election approaches, I expect our opponents will spread lies about us. So let me make this absolutely clear:
People often say that you can judge a country by how it treats the elderly. I believe that people deserve to look forward to retirement with confidence, not fear.
Saturday, 27 March, 2010
Tonight I had the pleasure of joining the Walney First Responders for drinks to celebrate their launch. I was very impressed by the drive and dedication of this group who will be the first responders to any medical emergency on Walney. Given the obvious bottleneck of a single bridge this is an invaluable group and I congratulate them on setting this up and on our Councillor Des English who helped them get their first funding.
Friday, 26 March, 2010
I didn’t write this but I think it sums up feelings quite well. Not pensioners. The biggest stealth tax in Labour’s empty Budget – the freezing of income tax allowances – will hit pensioners hardest of all. The basic state pension is going up by less than inflation – a real terms cut of more than 1 per cent. Together, this means that many single pensioners will be more than £110 worse off. And that’s even before the £25 increase in an average band D council tax bill. Who’d have thought that this would happen under a Labour Government? So much for Labour’s pledge to help the poorest and most vulnerable in society.
Then there are the strikes. First British Airways, now the railways. Gordon Brown’s party is being bankrolled by the strikers’ cash. Passengers facing chaos and cancelled holidays will justifiably ask “whose side is the Prime Minister on?”
Finally there’s the NHS – our priority. Yes, Gordon Brown has spent more on it – but look what’s happened. New official figures published yesterday showed that the number of NHS managers increased more than FIVE TIMES as fast as the number of nurses. What does that show about Gordon Brown’s priorities? Whose side is he on – patients or bureaucrats?
That’s why it’s a clear choice at the election. Five more years of Gordon Brown, with the same debt, waste and taxes that got us into this economic mess. Or David Cameron and the Conservatives who offer you energy, leadership and new ideas to build an economy that grows – and an economy that works for everyone.
Wednesday, 24 March, 2010
Well the big news is that we will only borrow £167bn this year not £178bn, well excuse me if I don’t hang out the bunting. This was a deeply political budget, not designed to make a serious attempt at setting out how the budget deficit will be dealt with but instead a political gimmick in advance of the election. In six weeks time you will have the chance to make your mind up on whether you want another five years of this lot, with their spin and scheming and their inability to answer questions and actually govern rather than posture, or whether you want change. We can’t promise the earth but what I do think we can promise is honesty and I hope over the next few weeks people will have a chance to see this as we set out our plans.
Labour may have hoped we have missed the hidden tax rises in the budget caused by freezing personal allowances, and the national insurance tax rise due next April, but I guess by our pay packets we won’t.
Saturday, 20 March, 2010
My press release on the Death Tax was in the Evening Mail yesterday and you can read it here and in the news section of this website. My Labour opponent completely missed the point of the question and not only went off topic about his fantasy five year delay on Trident but showed he was clueless about the real world. He said that our proposals to have voluntary one off payment of £8,000 to prevent people having to sell their homes if they needed residential care would ‘force people who can’t afford a big lump sum for care to sell their homes.’
Duh!…this is happening now; people who have saved all their lives are forced to sell their homes to fund residential care. This is precisely what we think is unfair and why we propose a voluntary scheme to give people the security of knowing their homes are safe and can be passed onto their loved ones.
The simple fact is that someone has to pay for Labour’s gimmicks and their so called free services. As usual Labour would hit the hard working families who they seem to think are cash cows just there to be taxed, in life and now in death.
Can we afford another five years of this nonsense?
Copy of a letter sent to the Evening Mail 20th March 2010
Dear Sir,
I read with interest what John Woodcock had to say in response to my challenge for him to disown Labour’s Death Tax as reported in the Evening Mail on 19th March 2010. Mr. Woodcock said:
“Unlike Labour’s plans for a groundbreaking national care service, the Tory proposals would force people who can’t afford a big lump sum for care to sell their homes.”
Mr. Woodcock clearly has no idea of the real life challenges people face in providing for the old age and he obviously does not know that people are forced now to sell their homes to pay for care, something our Lib Dem opponent does actually know.
It is addressing this injustice: that people who have worked hard all their lives and done the right thing get penalized by ‘the system’ that our proposals seek to address. On the substantive point, just how does Labour expect to pay for a so called free service he has nothing to say, so I ask him again are you for or against the Death Tax, a simple yes or no will suffice, and don’t bring up your fantasy five year delay on Trident, just answer a straight question with a straight answer.
Yours faithfully
John Gough
Friday, 19 March, 2010
This evening we were canvassing in Walney and a lady asked me about the Dock regeneration plans. She asked what I thought about the marina and I explained that from my experience Marina’s are amazing to help re-vitalise local communities. She asked me if I had ever visited Hartlepool, where a marina development was undertook in the late 80s/early 90’s. I said I had as my Nan was from there and I so I saw the development at first hand as I was growing up. It turns out she went to college in the North East and knew the Hartlepool very well and hoped the development would be a successful in Barrow as in Hartlepool. It seems that the Barrow/North East connection is not just confined to the Hairy Bikers!
Wednesday, 17 March, 2010
While canvassing last night I had a fascinating chat with a gentleman about the yard. He started working there in 1952 (when my Dad was still in the Navy) and in his time worked on ‘Hermes’, ‘Dreadnought’, ‘Resolution’, ‘Repulse’ and ‘Invincible’. I even told him that many years ago I actually dived the previous HMS Repulse, a Battlecruiser sunk by the Japanese in the Second World War. It is amazing that all of the ships he spoke off are actually still afloat, the ‘Hermes’ is serving in the Indian Navy, the nuclear submarines are decommissioned but lying up around the country, and the ‘Invincible’ is along side in Portsmouth.
Canvassing is sometimes seen as a thankless task but I find it the most interesting part of campaigning. It’s where you meet ‘real people’ who tell you exactly what they feel, there is no escaping this when you are on the doorstep. It has been a big part of my campaign so far, and I intend to keep it up beyond the election, assuming I am elected that is, so if I haven’t knocked on your door yet, be patient I am on my way.
I’m still not sure on the etiquette of canvassing however, a lady also told me she used to vote Labour but now wanted to vote Green. Obviously I tried to persuade her to vote Conservative but she insisted she wanted to vote Green so I told her the name of the Green candidate, is this the right thing to do?
Monday, 15 March, 2010
Today, I toured BAE Land Systems with Geoff Gonzalez, IPT Leader, Artillery to see the proposed 155mm Naval gun. Touring the site was very interesting and it was amazing to think you are in the building where some of the big guns from the days of battleships have been made. Today’s visit was not about history but about the 155mm gun
BAe Land Systems has developed the new naval gun as a direct replacement for the 4.5 inch gun currently used on all Royal Navy frigates and destroyers. It has been designed to fit into the existing turret and offers significant payload and range advantages over the current gun.
The purpose of this visit was to help highlight the risks around the 155mm gun and the fact that the MOD has refused to commit the relatively small sums of money involved to maintain the development programme into the future, yet they have been able to waste some £2.5 billion on management consultants and £2.3 billion on refurbishing MOD buildings. The risk is that if the MOD stops funding this we will lose this capability and have to buy overseas guns for our ships in the future.
I will be writing to the Shadow Defence Team to brief them and asking them to help me ensure that this vital capability stays in the UK. In addition I will be asking that priority to maintaining capability is built into our defence budgets rather than wasting money on flashy new buildings and management consultants, which seems to be the priority at the moment.
It just seems crazy to me that the MOD, when everyone knows money is tight, should be wasting money and at the same time vital national capabilities, like the ability to make our own naval guns, is at risk.
We have long accused the Labour Party of not really caring about defence, after this visit you have to question whether they have any idea whatsoever. Who thinks it is ok to waste billions on refurbishing MOD buildings and paying for consultants when we can’t even find a few million quid for a naval gun.
Absolute madness!
Saturday, 13 March, 2010
Thursday, 11 March, 2010
Some of the canvassing answers you get that I find ‘strange’ to say the least.
Only in a democracy do people say this, in some parts of the world people will travel for days or queue for hours to vote, but in the UK every now and again you get answers like this, very sad to those of us who believe in democracy.
Wednesday, 10 March, 2010
I visited St Marys Hospice today and was impressed by the dedication of the staff and their positive attitude. As with so many of organisations of this type they desperately want some stability in funding and worry that as the belt is tightened they will lose out. I think, given our support for the third sector they will see their role expand under a Conservative Government rather than decline. Following this I joined many others for the official ‘ribbon cutting’ on the Walney Offshore Windfarm. This will see some 102 wind turbines, delivered in 2 stages, erected out to sea from the coast of Walney producing electricity. Like many I am sceptical of some of the claims made by wind power proponents, but I do believe that they have a role to play in diversifying our energy suppliers so I am fully supportive of this important project and look forward to the fierst electricity joining the national grid on 1st October .
Tuesday, 09 March, 2010
I have been ill with cold since Sunday and only today have emerged from my sick bed. Why is it that the minute you finish working really hard, for example I have just finished my latest contract to allow me to concentrate on the campaign, and therefore logically you should have more time, you fall ill? It seems to me to be one of life’s great mysteries that this should happen and it also seems bloody unfair, that the first day off you have for a while and you spend it coughing, spluttering and going to bed early.
Sunday, 07 March, 2010
I have been busy clearing the decks and finishing off the contract I have been working on. I have spent many years working as a Contract Accountant and in my time I have worked in both the private and public sectors. In most cases I have found the staff I have worked with to be dedicated, hard working and just want to be left alone and do their job. The most recent contract I have just finished was no exception and in a way I was sad for the contract to end. However, the election is upon us, probably only 8 weeks away so it’s time to focus fully on that.
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