26/11/2009 by Steve Barclay.

The Government’s Social Care Green Paper will hit 4,960 pensioners in North East Cambridgeshire, taking away their Attendance Allowance worth an average £60 a week.  A further 1,510 will lose their Disability Living Allowance worth £75 a week.  This is so Labour can pay for their latest eye catching announcement of a new National Care Service.

Both benefits are currently based on need.  Instead Labour plan to make them means tested.  So anyone who has been careful, lived within their means and saved will be penalised for doing so.

It is good to see Malcolm Moss MP giving a commitment to vote against this proposal and fight what is an attack on one of the most vulnerable groups in our community.  This is a bad policy, being introduced for political headlines at the expense of a vulnerable group. 

This is the tip of the iceberg for what Labour will do if Gordon Brown gets another five years in power.  If this money is to be pooled with the rest of the funding for social care, all disability benefits will become means-tested.

The message is also clear for anyone else with savings.  Labour will cut any benefits you are currently entitled to - if they have no care for the disabled then no other group will be safe from further means testing under Gordon Brown.

Posted in Labour Failure, Malcolm Moss MP | No Comments »

19/11/2009 by Steve Barclay.

£50 million for Network Rail announced today to spend on rail stations.  So how much will our share be?  Zero.  Ten stations have been earmarked for improvement, and nine of the ten are in Labour constituencies.  We don’t even get a share of the £3.25 billion planned to be spent over the next five years.

What about the money for new Colleges?  Earlier in the year we saw funding for further education colleges cut with just 13 getting the go ahead.  All 13 were in Labour constituencies.  Our new College was scrapped, one month before building was due to start.

Is it any better on road transport?  £1.5 million has just been announced today to be spent improving road safety - a major issue locally.  But this is money for roads overseas.  Fenland Road Safety Campaign earlier this month submitted their petition to No 10 for funding for the Fen roads adjacent to waterways, but we were told no money was available.

Network Rail has £3.25 billion to improve 2,000 stations over the next 5 years, but none of these are in North East Cambridgeshire.  Funding will improve Peterborough (so Labour ministers heading to their heartlands in the North East can have a smooth journey) and also in Cambridge (the south of the county again given priority) but none of our stations are included.  There are no plans for example to extend the platforms at Whittlesey and Manea, or to link up Wisbech.  Yet the Government wants more houses built here.

Taxpayers locally keep being short changed.  Safety on local roads matters.  Anything that reduces the loss of life from road traffic accidents is to be welcome in whatever country it is, but action overseas does not mean that no action at home is acceptable.  Likewise a good train service from Cambridge & Peterborough is great news for our commuters to London -but they have to get to Cambridge or Peterborough in the first place.   And scrapping our College will not help them have a job to go to in the first place.

Posted in Fenland Road Safety, Labour Failure, Manea, Whittlesey | No Comments »

14/11/2009 by Steve Barclay.

A great night at the Braza Club in March last night with our annual Conservative Ball sold out.  It was especially pleasing to see so many new faces, and a real buzz and upbeat atmosphere. 

Thanks to Debbie and Charlie for organising such a fantastic evening.  There was lots of speculation as to when the General Election will be - whether 25th March or 6th May.  For what it is worth, I am sure the Prime Minister has not decided yet (and he dithers at the best of times).  Given that he dislikes elections, and would not even allow one for the Labour leadership, I suspect he will cling on as long as possible.  If so, the budget will make for interesting reading in March next year - not least hearing about the over £1 billion a week being spent just to pay the interest on the debt he has run up.  £1 billion a week would pay the salaries of a lot of extra teachers, doctors and nurses.

Posted in March, Conservative Party | No Comments »

11/11/2009 by Steve Barclay.

A moving day today as record crowds came out to show their support across Fenland for our armed forces at remembrance day services.

I attended and laid wreaths at the remembrance day service in March in the morning and in Whittlesey in the afternoon, representing our MP Malcolm Moss.  Malcolm was at the Wisbech and Chatteris services this year which are held at the same time.

Great credit goes to the British Legion for organising both events so well, and to all the local groups, councillors, and residents who came out and showed their support in such large numbers.  All ages were united in what was a respectful, dignified and thought provoking occasion.

Posted in Remembrance | No Comments »

02/11/2009 by Steve Barclay.

People sometimes say that they only hear from politicians at election time.  I do not want this said in North East Cambridgeshire.  That is why we have been running our regular programme of coffee meetings across the constituency on Saturdays, chatting with a wide range of residents about the issues that matter to them.  It is why after being selected we put out 30,000 introductory leaflets.  It is also why a wide variety of local issues have been followed up over recent months, whether across the constituency on issues like the Fenland Road Safety Campaign and the lack of access to speech therapy, or on issues impacting specific areas - flooding in  Whittlesey and Coates, paramedic cover in Littleport, tourism in Wisbech, vandalism and anti-social behaviour in March, and leisure in Chatteris to name just a few.

This week I thought it would be helpful to report back on the last 18 months since being selected at the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate.  So we are putting out 48,000 newspapers, in five local editions to reflect the different issues impacting in different towns.  I still have a full time job which pays the bills so politics has to fit around this in my spare time in evenings and week-ends.  Hopefully the newspaper will be of interest to you, and shows that we are working hard all year round in North East Cambridgeshire.

To read the newspaper please click on the link to the relevant edition for you:

Wisbech
March
Chatteris
Whittlesey
East Cambridgeshire

This week-end I will be speaking at the NFU dinner at Chatteris on Friday evening, holding a coffee meeting on Saturday in Wisbech, and laying the remembrance wreath on behalf of Malcolm Moss MP in both Whttlesey and March on Sunday.

I hope the Prime Minister will reflect, as he stands before the cenotaph on Sunday, on the shameful news just from the last 7 days.  His proposed £20 million Territorial Army cuts which even his own backbench MPs described as shameful, the leaked email from Lt Colonel Rupert Throneloe warning that the lack of helicopters was forcing him to take unnecessary road trips risking lives (which tragically included his own and a teenage private after £2.4 billion was cut in the helicopter budget in 2004 by Gordon Brown), the inquest into the 14 deaths in the faulty Nimrod showing a catalogue of errors, and the 7 deaths from ignoring safety warnings behind the fatal helicopter collision in Iraq.  Tony Blair was quick to send the army to war but Gordon Brown has always refused to pay the costs.  Lives have been lost as a result.  I hope he reflects on this on Sunday. Make do and mend is not an adequate strategy for our armed forces.

Posted in March, Chatteris, Whittlesey, Wisbech | No Comments »