These are the questions asked at the Petroc hustings on Monday night:
1) Andrew Norden, of Barnstaple:
Whose fault or responsibility is the MPs’ abuse of expenses scandal?
2) Thom Walker, of Burrington:
Do any of the panellists foresee a time when the UK is independent of EU governance?
3) Elizabeth Burton, of South Molton
It’s been widely reported that Lord Ashcroft is putting money into marginal seats that he thinks the Conservatives can win. Philip Milton says he hasn’t had any. Does that mean he can’t win?
4) Roger Warren, of South Molton
The next Government will face many pressing national and international issues. How will you ensure that the voice of your constituents in North Devon will still be heard?
5) Gavin Boudean, of Knowle
Do you believe that illegal immigrants should, in some circumstances, be given citizenship?
6) David Ayre, of West Down
What would the candidates do to help the rural economy and halt the loss of local services etc?
7) Andrew Cooper, of Croyde
Given that this constituency is a high incidence ‘Bovine TB hotspot’ do you regard a flourishing badger population above a flourishing cattle trade?
8) Mel Grant, of Barnstaple
We need MPs to stand out from the crowd – to be radical like William Wilberforce. What are you passionate about changing for the good of the people of the UK?
9) Mr Austin Philip, of Barnstaple
Combatting climate change will need tough and unpopular polices. What unpopular polices are the candidates prepared to support that will reduce our dependence on burning fossil fuels?
10) Gill Ellis, of West Buckland
What is your policy on supermarket opening in small North Devon towns like South Molton?
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
UPDATE: Campaign news updates...
- Tory party chairman Eric Pickles will be in North Molton tonight with North Devon candidate Philip Milton.
- A number of Conservative campaign signs have been damaged in the grounds of Trimstone Manor, which is owned by Philip Milton. Mr Milton has also reported a number of thefts of Conservative signs in recent days.
- North Devon independent candidate Rodney Cann alleges that Lib Dem candidate Nick Harvey has not "worked to get North Devon a better and fairer share of central government resources" or "helped to defend local fishing, agriculture and tourism" in his time as an MP here. Mr Harvey totally disputes those claims, of course. Mr Cann has also said a Tory vote in North Devon is a "wasted vote".
- Lib Dem candidate Nick Harvey has been out and about today canvassing in Chulmleigh and South Molton with councillor David Worden.
UPDATE: Recent electoral history...
Adam Wilshaw takes a look at recent election results in our two constituencies. Has it always been a two-horse race in North Devon?
FOR more than 50 years the constituency of Devon North (as it is sometimes known at the ballot box) has been a battleground dominated by two parties: the Conservatives and the Liberals.
But before Liberal superstar Jeremy Thorpe took the seat in 1959, North Devon was solidly Tory.
Thorpe’s influence has continued, with his electoral success mirrored by one of his political descendants, Nick Harvey.
And a glance at the election results of the past 51 years reveals an interesting pattern.
In 1959, when the Conservatives won the national vote, the Liberals took North Devon by a whisker — Thorpe had less than 1% more votes than his Tory rival.
Thorpe then easily beat his Conservative rivals in 1964 and 1966, when Labour formed Governments, and the flamboyant Liberal was perhaps at the height of his popularity locally and nationally.
Over the years Labour never had a strong showing in North Devon, even at the height of New Labour’s powers. Their best polling in recent decades in North Devon was in fact in 1950, when they got 23.24% of the vote.
By 1970 Labour was down to 12.29% and since 1983 they have struggled to hit double figures. In 1970 the Liberals won again in North Devon — but the Conservatives, who won that year’s national vote, were snapping close on their heels. Just four years later Thorpe was back on barnstorming form, thrashing the Tories by 17.22 percentage points.
His political career came to a dramatic halt at the 1979 election when he was easily beaten by Tory candidate Tony Speller. That loss was largely blamed on the extraordinary events surrounding Thorpe’s personal life; he had been accused of conspiracy to commit murder and of having illicit gay love affairs. An ex-model and stable lad called Norman Scott claimed he had a sexual relationship with Thorpe in the early 1960s, when such acts were unlawful.
In 1975, a former airline pilot called Andrew Newton ambushed Scott on Exmoor and shot his Great Dane called Rinka. Newton was convicted of firearms offences and during that trial Scott used the protected privilege of court to make public his gay affair allegations against Thorpe. During Thorpe’s trial for conspiracy in 1978, the prosecution alleged Newton had been paid £5,000 from Liberal Party funds to kill Scott. Thorpe was found not guilty.
As a result, the 1979 election was a colourful and controversial affair in North Devon. The journalist Auberon Waugh stood as a candidate for the Dog Lovers’ Party, a joke at the expense of Thorpe. And 1979 was, of course, the year the Tories came to power under Margaret Thatcher.
North Devon elected Mr Speller with healthy majorities again in 1983 and 1987.
But in 1992, when the Conservatives under John Major won a surprise victory, North Devon decided to elect a 31-year-old Liberal Democrat, Nick Harvey, who won by a small margin. In 1997, when Tony Blair scored an historic win for Labour, Mr Harvey shored up his North Devon support by beating the Tory opponent by a clear 11.28 percentage points.
He won by a slightly narrower margin again in 2001 and 2005.
The picture in Torridge is more complicated because of boundary changes in recent decades.
The constituency of Devon West and Torridge (as it is sometimes known at the ballot box) was created in 1983. Before then, seats like Torrington (last contested in 1970) and Devon West (last contested in 1979) were solidly Conservative, in common with other South West rural seats.
In 1983 the seat was won by Conservative Peter Mills.
In 1987 and 1992 Emma Nicholson won again for the Tories but she defected to the Lib Dems in 1995.
The election in 1992 in Torridge was close between the Tories and Lib Dems, with fewer than six percentage points between them.
And in 1997, the year of the New Labour landslide, the Lib Dem candidate John Burnett won the seat and held it again in 2001, albeit narrowly, against Tory candidate Geoffrey Cox.
Mr Cox took Torridge back for the Tories in 2005, beating the Lib Dem candidate David Walter by five percentage points.
FOR more than 50 years the constituency of Devon North (as it is sometimes known at the ballot box) has been a battleground dominated by two parties: the Conservatives and the Liberals.
But before Liberal superstar Jeremy Thorpe took the seat in 1959, North Devon was solidly Tory.
Thorpe’s influence has continued, with his electoral success mirrored by one of his political descendants, Nick Harvey.
And a glance at the election results of the past 51 years reveals an interesting pattern.
In 1959, when the Conservatives won the national vote, the Liberals took North Devon by a whisker — Thorpe had less than 1% more votes than his Tory rival.
Thorpe then easily beat his Conservative rivals in 1964 and 1966, when Labour formed Governments, and the flamboyant Liberal was perhaps at the height of his popularity locally and nationally.
Over the years Labour never had a strong showing in North Devon, even at the height of New Labour’s powers. Their best polling in recent decades in North Devon was in fact in 1950, when they got 23.24% of the vote.
By 1970 Labour was down to 12.29% and since 1983 they have struggled to hit double figures. In 1970 the Liberals won again in North Devon — but the Conservatives, who won that year’s national vote, were snapping close on their heels. Just four years later Thorpe was back on barnstorming form, thrashing the Tories by 17.22 percentage points.
His political career came to a dramatic halt at the 1979 election when he was easily beaten by Tory candidate Tony Speller. That loss was largely blamed on the extraordinary events surrounding Thorpe’s personal life; he had been accused of conspiracy to commit murder and of having illicit gay love affairs. An ex-model and stable lad called Norman Scott claimed he had a sexual relationship with Thorpe in the early 1960s, when such acts were unlawful.
In 1975, a former airline pilot called Andrew Newton ambushed Scott on Exmoor and shot his Great Dane called Rinka. Newton was convicted of firearms offences and during that trial Scott used the protected privilege of court to make public his gay affair allegations against Thorpe. During Thorpe’s trial for conspiracy in 1978, the prosecution alleged Newton had been paid £5,000 from Liberal Party funds to kill Scott. Thorpe was found not guilty.
As a result, the 1979 election was a colourful and controversial affair in North Devon. The journalist Auberon Waugh stood as a candidate for the Dog Lovers’ Party, a joke at the expense of Thorpe. And 1979 was, of course, the year the Tories came to power under Margaret Thatcher.
North Devon elected Mr Speller with healthy majorities again in 1983 and 1987.
But in 1992, when the Conservatives under John Major won a surprise victory, North Devon decided to elect a 31-year-old Liberal Democrat, Nick Harvey, who won by a small margin. In 1997, when Tony Blair scored an historic win for Labour, Mr Harvey shored up his North Devon support by beating the Tory opponent by a clear 11.28 percentage points.
He won by a slightly narrower margin again in 2001 and 2005.
The picture in Torridge is more complicated because of boundary changes in recent decades.
The constituency of Devon West and Torridge (as it is sometimes known at the ballot box) was created in 1983. Before then, seats like Torrington (last contested in 1970) and Devon West (last contested in 1979) were solidly Conservative, in common with other South West rural seats.
In 1983 the seat was won by Conservative Peter Mills.
In 1987 and 1992 Emma Nicholson won again for the Tories but she defected to the Lib Dems in 1995.
The election in 1992 in Torridge was close between the Tories and Lib Dems, with fewer than six percentage points between them.
And in 1997, the year of the New Labour landslide, the Lib Dem candidate John Burnett won the seat and held it again in 2001, albeit narrowly, against Tory candidate Geoffrey Cox.
Mr Cox took Torridge back for the Tories in 2005, beating the Lib Dem candidate David Walter by five percentage points.
DAY 21: There the pencil of democracy awaits...
Did you know that 22,457 people in North Devon and Torridge will be voting in this general election before the election campaign ends?
That's the number of postal voters in the two districts.
I know a number of these people will be elderly or disabled or perhaps away from North Devon on polling day.
I would not readily give up the excitement of walking to the local polling station, collecting my ballot from the slightly-flushed person at the trestle table, and then going to the plywood booth in the cool hush of a parish hall evening...
There the pencil of democracy awaits!
The constituency boundaries have changed (some wards have gone into a new Mid Devon constituency), making it difficult to compare elector numbers of previous years, although the number of postal voters has increased overall.
This year in North Devon there are 74,508 "regular" voters and 10,211 postal voters, a total of 84,719.
In Torridge there are 63,684 "regular" voters and 12,246 postal voters, a total of 75,930.
Some people do not vote at all. As the cliche runs: if you don't vote, the politicians can happily ignore you. I bet a lot of the people who don't vote are the sort of people who think all politicians are charlatans. Not voting for that reason is a cop out, isn't it?
Turnout was historically low in 2001 and 2005.
People in the know in North Devon have been telling me they expect another low turnout this year.
I wonder if they're wrong; I get the feeling this will be the highest turnout since 1992 because the campaign has been energised by the leaders' debates and the fact Labour have been in power for 13 years.
I also get the feeling there is a bit of "love them or hate them" mood about our local candidates, which could bring out a fair few negative votes. As ever, the tactical vote will be major.
Since 1983 the largest turnout in the two constituencies was in 1992, when 84.36% of electors voted in North Devon compared to 81.47% in Torridge.
In 1997, the year of the Labour landslide, turnout dropped to just about 77% in both constituencies, meaning almost a quarter of electors didn’t vote at all.
That dropped again in 2001 when North Devon had a 68.3% turnout and Torridge had 70.5%. And at the last election, in 2005, turnout was 68.19% in North Devon and 70.47% in Torridge.
Before 1983 turnout locally was typically above 80%, which was only slightly higher than the national average.
Whatever the turnout it's going to be a nail-biting finish at the North Devon leisure centre in the early hours of May 7 when the results are declared.
That's the number of postal voters in the two districts.
I know a number of these people will be elderly or disabled or perhaps away from North Devon on polling day.
I would not readily give up the excitement of walking to the local polling station, collecting my ballot from the slightly-flushed person at the trestle table, and then going to the plywood booth in the cool hush of a parish hall evening...
There the pencil of democracy awaits!
The constituency boundaries have changed (some wards have gone into a new Mid Devon constituency), making it difficult to compare elector numbers of previous years, although the number of postal voters has increased overall.
This year in North Devon there are 74,508 "regular" voters and 10,211 postal voters, a total of 84,719.
In Torridge there are 63,684 "regular" voters and 12,246 postal voters, a total of 75,930.
Some people do not vote at all. As the cliche runs: if you don't vote, the politicians can happily ignore you. I bet a lot of the people who don't vote are the sort of people who think all politicians are charlatans. Not voting for that reason is a cop out, isn't it?
Turnout was historically low in 2001 and 2005.
People in the know in North Devon have been telling me they expect another low turnout this year.
I wonder if they're wrong; I get the feeling this will be the highest turnout since 1992 because the campaign has been energised by the leaders' debates and the fact Labour have been in power for 13 years.
I also get the feeling there is a bit of "love them or hate them" mood about our local candidates, which could bring out a fair few negative votes. As ever, the tactical vote will be major.
Since 1983 the largest turnout in the two constituencies was in 1992, when 84.36% of electors voted in North Devon compared to 81.47% in Torridge.
In 1997, the year of the Labour landslide, turnout dropped to just about 77% in both constituencies, meaning almost a quarter of electors didn’t vote at all.
That dropped again in 2001 when North Devon had a 68.3% turnout and Torridge had 70.5%. And at the last election, in 2005, turnout was 68.19% in North Devon and 70.47% in Torridge.
Before 1983 turnout locally was typically above 80%, which was only slightly higher than the national average.
Whatever the turnout it's going to be a nail-biting finish at the North Devon leisure centre in the early hours of May 7 when the results are declared.
Monday, 26 April 2010
UPDATE: Interview with Green Party candidate...
L’Anne Knight, Green Party candidate for North Devon in the 2010 general election.IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:“You have to vote where your heart is and I have got past this tactical voting scenario and had enough of it”/ “We are a single issue party but not the issue perceived by the general populace”/ “We are in one of the windiest spots in the world and we could do so much more”/
Question: How and why did you become involved in politics?
I always had a strong sense of injustice. I can remember as a teenager being so upset about what was happening in the world.
My mother belonged to the Peace Pledge Union.
When I met Ricky (a Green Party parliamentary candidate in Bristol this year) when I was 13 that started to kick in because he was from a political background of anti-nuclear campaigning and socialist principles.
He and I got together and went through the 1960s when you were impassioned, spoke out, and demonstrated and you did your thing to try to make change for the better.We became active some 30 years ago with the North Devon peace group which led towards the Green Party.
Question: The perennial question people will ask is: why vote for a candidate who has no chance of winning?
You have to vote where your heart is and I have got past this tactical voting scenario and had enough of it. I’m standing because I need to give people in North Devon the opportunity to vote Green.It’s the only way we’re going to make change in this dinosaur system.
Question: Generally, and more than ever, you could argue, issues which were once the preserve of the Green Party have been adopted by the mainstream, not least in terms of climate change; have they not stolen your thunder?
It’s a dual-edged sword. I like to think we have been a watchdog.On the other hand I’m pleased they are listening and are at least taking it on board. It grates a bit when you hear people using the word green when it really is our platform, but I’m relieved.The problem is: put your money where your mouth is. Are they just giving it lip service?
Question: Your manifesto contains policies on many other things, not just the environment. One of those is about jobs and living wage. Can you explain what that means?
We are a single issue party but not the issue perceived by the general populace; I think we are the single issue of sustainability and that covers every topic you care to mention.We want to raise the minimum wage to £8.10 and search for equality in our community.
That living wage will also be reflected in our taxation policies.We would set income tax at 50% for incomes over £100,000.
You tax people for the value they subtract, not the value they add, to the community, and that’s what we need to look at.
We need to look at the greedy grabbers and tax them.The essence in all this is the green new deal, which is about providing a million jobs which are going to benefit the environment, (and) look towards renewable energy, look towards housing and insulation.
Question: The question of nuclear energy. The likes of James Lovelock are saying the only way we can provide our energy needs and retain any form of civilisation as we know it is through nuclear.
I am very much anti-nuclear energy. I don’t think we know enough about it yet and I think we are taking risks with this venture.
We need renewables and I wish they had put more R&D into renewables decades ago.When I was really young we were told the energy would be “too cheap to meter”.Renewables will give pound for pound better value.
Question: Can I ask for your views on wind power?
I was very much involved in the campaign for local wind power. You have to be circumspect in terms of where they are put and how they are planned and I do think we have been held up by a vested interest perspective.
Wind power has to happen, it is happening, but it is part of a collective of ways forward with renewable energy, be it tide turbines, the wave, or the sun.
The sun is going to be brilliant; we can access sun from North Africa and bring it up through a grid through Europe.
We are in one of the windiest spots in the world and we could do so much more. We have to encourage people to go this way, to use them.
I think it’s very sad that people have been so anti-wind turbines with some very spurious arguments about bats and so on.Now we have the off-shore development happening and I’m very happy to hear it.
Question: A lot of the campaigning so far has been about the cuts in the public sector as a result of the financial problems. What is your take on that?
I think our cuts would come from knocking Trident into touch, from knocking the ID cards into touch, from various aircraft manufacturing that would be knocked into touch.
The NHS computerisation is a load of nonsense; they need to rationalise on that.We could pull out of the Afghan war.
There would also be a Robin Hood tax.There’s loads of other places to make cuts if only people would go there.
Yes, we would want to reduce the deficit but not straight away because that could impact on recovery.We would aim for half of the deficit being cut by 2013.
Question: Affordable housing is a large and often hidden problem in North Devon. What would the Greens do to help people buy or rent homes?
Our policy is we would want affordable housing, we need to make sure that all housing is very well insulated and environmentally-friendly. It helps the planet and it helps people with their bills.
We would like to make better use of existing housing. In the country there are 750,000 empty houses. To have homes standing empty while people are homeless is an absolute disgrace.We would minimise the use of green field sites.
Question: What is your view on the regional spatial strategy and the council joint core strategy, plans for lots of housebuilding?
I think it’s got to be very carefully done. Let’s look at what we already have in existence before we put up new builds. There are still green jobs there for builders doing renovation and insulation and so on and micro-renewables.
Question: Your party is making much of its plans on pensions. Can you outline what that might mean in practice?
We do feel it’s so crucial that people do have a good living wage as pensioners. Our proposal is £170 a week, £300 for a married couple.We would abolish tax relief on private pension contributions and it would be non means-tested.We have budgeted for it and seen how it could be done.
Question: How would electing you improve the lives of people in North Devon?
I would be there to make a sustainable, caring community, where well-being was absolutely crucial.
I would want to work with young people to not be so disillusioned about the future that they can make a difference.
Two things that really, really get me are people’s anger about taxation and about politicians and they are crucial for a fair society.If you have a more equal society you have a happier society, it’s been proven.Then, not to leave North Devon. We have to look locally, we have to work locally, to try to and build up our communities locally, and enjoy that.
Question: Can I ask you about the threat of climate change?
If you’ve got cancer, what do you do? It might be so far gone you just roll over and die but on the whole most people will do something about it. I say to everybody: don’t take it lightly, let’s do what we can and even in the doing we will be improving our environment.
UPDATE: Interview with independent candidate...
Interview with Rodney Cann, independent candidate for North Devon in 2010 general election.
IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:“I’m not big on promises; I prefer action. I feel that I have made a difference in North Devon”/ “I’m probably one of the most high-profile councillors in North Devon. I think I can win”/ “I feel it’s time for someone who is free to vote in the best interests of North Devon”/
Question: How and why did you become involved in politics?
I was invited by a Conservative agent many years ago to stand in a no-hope seat, Fremington, for the council. I’d always fancied my chances at fighting an election and I won it.I found that politics can get into your system, it can get into your blood, or people totally reject and are glad to get out.I’ve really enjoyed being engaged in local politics. I’m not big on promises; I prefer action. I feel that I have made a difference in North Devon.
Question: Why would anyone vote for someone who has no realistic chance of winning?
There has never been a better opportunity for an independent to stand and win an election, particularly one that’s got a reputation for getting things done. I’m probably one of the most high-profile councillors in North Devon. I think I can win.
I think are particularly fed-up with all the sleaze and frankly the cynical promises of the party political candidates.
Every election they appear out of the woodwork, make all kinds of promises, then four or five years later making the same promises, trying to send out the same messages.
I feel it’s time for someone who is free to vote in the best interests of North Devon, not following the party line and that’s such a positive thing at this time.T
here’s a very real threat of a hung parliament and someone like me could well hold significant influence.As for no hope, I think my campaign will be a first class campaign.
Question: You have been a lifelong Conservative. Will your standing simply not make it harder for the Conservative candidate to win because you will draw votes from him?
I would urge people to vote on the experience and record of the candidate.I have always been a Conservative but I’ve never considered myself to be a bigoted Conservative. I will take the decisions that are in the interests of North Devon rather than the political party and that has always been my stance.
Question: Would you feel bad if Nick Harvey (Lib Dem) won on 1,000 votes that Philip Milton (Cons) might have got?
I believe in the democratic process. I believe in the first past the post system and people should make their choice for the candidate that will best serve the interests of North Devon, regardless of political party.
Question: Looking at your policies, you are not tied by any party, but they seem to a few similarities with the Conservative outlook. What are the clear differences between you and the Conservatives in terms of policy?
I’m fighting on my record and on the best interests of North Devon.I’m fighting on the fact North Devon has always been a poor relation.
Usually governments are geared up to look after the interests of the inner city areas and don’t pay enough regard to rural areas and the particular problems we have.
They don’t take into account rural sparsity. In Devon we spend about £23million a year on school transport and the average funding of pupils is £400 per head less than the national average. That’s a deplorable state of affairs.
There’s no specific recognition of the fact we have a high number of elderly people in North Devon.I’m dismayed at the hypocrisy of the Conservatives.
For weeks they have been lambasting the Labour Party on not taking a rigid enough stand to cut our national debt. It seems to me they have changed their public relations and have started to make us all kinds of promises, extra money for married people, not cutting the NI, I find it so cynical.I find it truly remarkable when they produce Mr Gershon out of the woodwork and say we can save Xbillion by finding efficiencies.
This has been a policy of local government for the last two years at least. Already in social services and education are screaming out for more money.
Question: Public perception of MPs is perhaps at an all-time low after the expenses scandal. What will you do to improve that?
If ever there was a time for North Devon to be represented by a strong independent voice, it’s now.Many of our MPs have let us down.We have to reform and strengthen our democracy and restore trust.People are looking for a genuine change and I think I can provide that.
Question: The other side of the coin is the argument that you wouldn’t have the power of the big parties behind you and you could end up being marginalised or ignored?
I would put the opposite argument. I think it gives me the freedom to break through any party political posturing and work in the best interests of North Devon. I feel people like myself could well be at a premium in the parliament and hold the balance of power.
Question: During the campaign there have been various competing claims such as “less waste”, “more fairness”, “more change”. Are not these sort of claims rather vacuous because no could seriously argue for the opposite, “more waste” for example?
Since time immemorial candidates have been coming and saying “we’re going to solve the problems”, “we’re going to cut that”, and what do you find? Five years on you’re in the same situation. We need a radical re-think. We need new blood in there and we need people who are capable of taking on the establishment and making a difference.
Question: There is this endless to-ing and fro-ing about cutting waste in the public sector. Parties always promise to cut waste at election time and it never seems to happen does it?
You can’t spend what you haven’t got. We have been living on borrowed time since North Sea oil was found.
We have got an economy that has been financial and service led and we have allowed our manufacturing industry to be sold off or fall away.We were promised we would have a new technical revolution, and the reverse has occurred.
As the third world countries have taken on conventional manufacturing it has gone hand in hand with the white heat of technical evolution, so we’ve lost in all ways.
Until we start restoring our manufacturing base we are on a no-win situation.We’ve got to look at education and recognise that not everybody has to go to university.
Question: On the economy, there is a fear being voiced that cutting the public sector and taxes could lead to a worsening recession. What are your views?
I don’t think we’re in a position to start cutting taxes. We have to look for more efficient ways of working. There are many that can be achieved. In local government for example there is so much political correctness being forced on us from Europe.
Some health and safety is important but it’s being taken to the extreme. There are hundreds of millions being spent on local authorities examining themselves every year.
I believe there are far too many councils, far too many highly-paid senior officers and that needs to be looked at.
Question: There seems to be quite a bit of overlap between your views and with UKIP?
My philosophy is we are a part of Europe and we should be partners and be allies but Europe must not be our masters. I don’t think it’s realistic to withdraw but I do think we sold out to Europe too cheaply.
Question: We’ve had a lot of talk from Labour about cutting poverty and inequality and they claim their measures such as Sure Start, tax credits, minimum wages, spending on education, has helped. Do you share that view?
Sure Start has certainly been a success but I wonder if this is the way forward, does it provide the value?Does the solve the fundamental problems of poverty in our communities, especially rural communities? I don’t think it does; I think it puts a sticking plaster on it.
The reality is we need to create a vibrant economy with job opportunities. Yes, we’ve got to have compassion, but sometimes we’re too keen to put a sticking plaster on.
Question: What would be another way of tackling poverty?
North Devon is well placed to take advantage of the economic upturn. There is geographic disadvantage for manufacturers and distribution.
I think the one realistic thing we ought to be looking for is to upgrade the Tarka Line to transport goods.We have the opportunity to provide a diverse and prosperous economy. We have opportunities in many areas, but it requires drive and leadership.Agriculture still has a major role to play.
The fishing industry is often overlooked but its contribution to Ilfracombe alone was over £1million in the last report I received.Sustainable tourism.
We have the opportunity to promote three types: the traditional family beach holiday; exploration holidays; and farm-based holidays.
Industry. Local government has a role in providing service land to attract business.
We must play on the fact this is a very desirable area in which to live and work.We have good training resources at Petroc.We must take advantage of the fact we have some of the highest tidal flows in the world to encourage renewable energy research and development.
Question: Affordable housing. How could you help local people to get decent homes to own or rent?
One of the problems we have is much of the land we would use for housing is on brownfield sites in the Barnstaple floodplain. I believe it is a defeatist attitude to ignore these sites because of the long-term threat of flooding.
Question: Many people are saying that climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity. Do you agree with that view and what’s your view of people who say that claims about climate change is a “conspiracy” or a “con”?
I think we would be very foolish to ignore what is happening around us but I’m not entirely convinced that it is not the natural phase of the Earth, I think it might be a bit of both.
I have yet to see evidence that it isn’t partly due to the natural cycles of the Earth. Having said that I play my part as far as recycling. I’m committed to a reduction in carbon output and recycling and wasting the resources on our Earth, which are limited.
Question: What can you point to from your many years as a councillor and say: that’s an achievement?
One thing I’m particularly proud of is the Fremington Quay project. It was an old Victorian quay and half of it had fallen into the river. I came up the idea of a restoration project and everyone said “that’s a great idea” and I’m sure they thought I was quite mad so they gave me a free hand.So we raised £750,000 and that quay and centre has been a major success. We have something like 160,000 visitors a year.
Question: How will electing you improve the lives of people in North Devon?
I think the first thing is I would like to see us receive the same recognition in North Devon as the urban areas.I would like to be able to say we have achieved something for Ilfracombe; they’ve been living on empty promises for so many years now.
The other thing is I would like to be able to look back and say we have achieved a buoyant economy. Yes, we have started to dig into our housing problems.
But no we have not destroyed countryside or the character of North Devon.The joint core strategy (planning document) will change North Devon and it will never be the same again.
We have to look carefully at the amount of development that is being forced on us.
DAY 20: Interview with Communist candidate...
Gerrard Sables, Communist Party candidate for North Devon in 2010 general election.
IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:
"The first person in space was a communist; he certainly wasn’t a Liberal Democrat"/ “We find capitalism to be completely wasteful”/“Everybody has got the right to a decent home. Nobody has the right to three houses”/“I think a participative democracy would terrify the Tories and the Liberals and in an area like this”/“We’ve got a budget”/“I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said a communist is a socialist who means it”//“I don’t think there has been a communist standing in the South West peninsula ever”/“I’m not going to predict a communist landslide”
Question: Can I ask you how and why you became involved in politics?
It was back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Vietnam war was going on. All sorts of colonial wars were going on. The anti-Apartheid movement. CND. I was involved with that and I was a trade union representative. It seemed the communists were the only ones who had the answers to the questions I was asking. I joined in 1972.
Question: Can you describe the over-arching aims of your party and its revolutionary aims?
We find capitalism to be completely wasteful. The things that Marx said in the latest credit crunch have been found to be completely true.Communist economists had been predicting this terrible crash for about a decade. We knew it was going to happen and the worst is not yet over.
Our aims are complete transformation of society.
The economy belongs to the people, not the bankers.That means we are going to need a flowering of trade unionism and activity to fight for what we’ve got and to get more. We need tenants movements. We need the pensioners to be active.
There would be no room for a monarchy or a House of Lords for instance.We still want political parties and democracy and elections.
We would work towards pulling out of the EU because MEPs are lest get-atable than MPs; they are so far away and the EU has a very un-democratic structure.Nestle has more influence on what happens in the EU than any MEP.We see no need for NATO.
We see no need for nuclear weapons. We would say no more building of nuclear power stations and would look at green alternatives.We would also open up the coal mines again and use carbon capture.
Question: People will attack communism in a way they won’t attack capitalism. They’ll say capitalism is a system which allows people to be more free. How would you respond to that argument?
I don’t think the OAP freezing of hypothermia in a rich country feels that free.I don’t think people who have been chucked out on the stones because of a decision in a boardroom feel that free.I know the problems of what people think about the Soviet Union but you have got to remember that came out of a very repressive system, Tsarist Russia.
If you look at what the Soviet Union achieved. It went from a medieval, backwards, illiterate place to one that was able to send somebody into outer space.
The first person in space was a communist; he certainly wasn’t a Liberal Democrat.Things did get better for people in the Soviet Union but there was severe repression under Stalin; he was a bit paranoid, but what closed the Soviet Union down was the arms race.
Question: In a practical sense, how would communism work, changing the structure of British society?
We believe in a planned economy which means public ownership and every Journal reader would agree the water prices are too high here since privatisation.Electricity and gas: they’ve really ripped us off.We would say that we are spending £100billion bailing out the bankers for their gambling debts; we should control the banks and own them.
If you do that you can give low interest loans out to kickstart industry and to help our agriculture.Communications. We are opposed to the privatisation of the Post Office; there is no need for it.We also say that any company which is making a profit should not be allowed to lay people off in order to get a bigger profit.
Central to all of this is getting rid of the anti-union laws because capital can be withdrawn immediately, you have to give notice to withdraw labour. That needs to be turned around.
Question: What do you make of what the other parties are offering the people this time around?
I saw the Conservative election manifesto and I thought: you hypocrites. They are giving this image of people participating in things. I’ve never heard a Conservative or a New Labour politician saying: if you’re at work you ought to be in your trade union.I
’ve never heard a landlord like Philip Milton saying to his tenants: you really ought to set up a tenants movement to make sure I’m doing my job as a landlord properly.
I think a participative democracy would terrify the Tories and the Liberals and in an area like this where the Liberals flogged off all the council houses.
Question: What are your views on property ownership, from the point of view of individuals having mortgages from banks, for example?
I heard an estate agent saying 0.1% last year were first-time buyers so there’s a big crisis.We need millions of homes to be built.
That would also help the economy; houses need carpets, ovens, beds.I remember during the Thatcher years when mortgages went up to 15%; banks were being greedy and people were in despair.Everybody has got the right to a decent home.
Nobody has the right to three houses.I’m not against anybody owning a house per se. The whole question of land ownership needs to be looked at.
One third of all land in Britain is still owned by the descendants of the people who came over with William the Conqueror. There is a movement that says you should tax land value.Britain owns two thirds of the world’s tax havens; they could have been closed last week.
All of them. Billions are being lost in tax revenue.We decry this call to close down tax offices and sack civil servants because they are penny-wise and pound-foolish. Every public servant is worth their money, plus.
Question: What are your views on income tax?
I don’t think somebody on a low income should be paying any income tax at all.We’ve got a budget. Close the tax avoidance loopholes; that would bring us £70billion.
A 20% windfall tax on super-profits of British-based banks, oil corporations, energy utilities and retail monopolies and that would get us about £16billion.A Robin Hood tax on major transactions: £30billion a year.
We would also levy a 1% wealth tax on the richest 10% of the population: £39billion a year.We would increase corporation tax on big business profits: another £10billion.
Empty property tax: £3billion.We could save £3billion by stopping using private sector consultants. We had an example of that with the changing of the name North Devon College to Petroc and the other was the proposed incinerator; those two must have cost £700,000 in consultancy fees.
Replace PFI schemes by public funding and management: that would save £3billion a year.Scrap ID cards would save £6billion over the next ten years.
Scrap Trident and its replacement which would save at least £76billion.We would reduce military expenditure to average European levels which would save £13billion and take the British troops out of Afghanistan which would save £4billion a year.
We would halve the local Government bill for bringing in the private sector and that’s another half-a-billion.We are saying it can be done.
We’re saying there is no need for cuts in public spending.We are against private education so we would bring all schools into the public sector and have each school to get the same level of funding that is given to city academies.
Question: What is your take on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
They were about resources, dodgy dossiers. It’s about oil and gas and big finance, utterly corrupt.
Afghanistan is a ludicrous, ludicrous situation for us to be in. The Moghul empire that controlled India for centuries couldn’t do it in Afghanistan. The British empire lost. The Soviet army couldn’t do it.The best thing to do with Afghanistan is to leave it to the Afghans; they’ve got to sort their own problems out. The main problem for Afghanistan is foreign intervention: us.
Question: There has been an argument for international solidarity with workers which could lead to an interventionist view?
The one thing about military intervention in a country is that once you’ve done it, they never invite you back.Imperialism is anti-democratic. It can’t be pro-democratic.
Question: When people think of communism they do think of the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba, all very different countries but still associated with communism in different forms. What’s your take on how the ideology has manifested itself in those situations?
I like Cuba. I had an email from a Cuban comrade who we had speak in Barnstaple last year and she wished me luck in the election. I’ve also been wished luck from a person in the William Morris society in Canada.I think it’s got to be what the people decide. A people has a right to decide its own form of government and democracy. North Korea is an awful place but it’s been at a state of war for the past half-century. That creates the internal repression.
Question: You wouldn’t say the examples of North Korea or Stalin have destroyed the ideology of communism?
I know that by putting myself as a communist, I know there is this communist bogey there. But there’s a long communist history in Britain that pre-dates Marx: the peasants’ revolt; the Diggers; the Chartists.We do have a long tradition and William Morris said communism is a system of neighbourly common sense. We’ve got to get that over to people and it’s going to be a difficult job, I know that.
Question: When I interviewed the Labour candidate for North Devon he said he was a socialist. But he’s not a socialist in the way you’re a socialist is he?
I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said a communist is a socialist who means it. The reaction to us shows we are understood to be serious. If there as a communist majority in the House of Commons I don’t think the capitalists would be happy; they would be quite happy with New Labour.
Question: Why would anyone vote for a candidate who has no hope of winning?
Standing in an election is part of a process of educating people as to what we believe in.This election gives me a chance to have a leaflet delivered to 47,500 homes and they will either throw that away or read it.
If they agree with what it says, if it touches them, they will have to consider: am I going to vote for somebody to keep somebody else out or am I going to vote for this, which happens to answer the questions I have been asking?Standing in a rural area; we’ve never done it before.
I don’t think there has been a communist standing in the South West peninsula ever. I think the last time anybody who could be described as a communist was in 1847 when a Chartist stood against Palmerston in Tiverton. About 160 years later, here I am.
Question: How would electing you improve the lives of people in North Devon?
I’ve talked about the education and that would make an enormous difference not immediately but a few years down the line.
An educated people would bring their income up.Another thing I would be doing is encouraging people to get involved in their trade unions. I’d really make an issue of that because a trade union member’s income is more than a worker that isn’t in a trade union, as a general rule.And also there are the fringe benefits that trade unionists get, like legal help.
Another thing that concerns me is the isolation of villages. The public transport isn’t really much better than after the Second World War. There are still villages with only one bus a week.There’s no reason why people should be isolated in the way they are. For example you can’t leave Lynton after 5pm unless you are driving a car and what does that say for elderly, disabled or blind people?
Question: How well do you think you’re going to do in terms of votes?
Haven’t got the foggiest. Its never been done before so I don’t really know. I was out the day before yesterday delivering leaflets and a bloke said: “My father was a communist but he died a while ago. How do you get to vote?”. I told him and he said: “I’m going to register and I’m going to vote for you.”
I’m not going to predict a communist landslide.Most people do not know the Communist Party exists; the media are very quiet about it. There’s a kind of conspiracy of silence.
Friday, 23 April 2010
UPDATE: Interview with Green Party candidate...
Interview with Cathrine Simmons, general election 2010 Green Party candidate for Torridge and West Devon.
IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:“I’ve always been socialist”/ “We used to have a good public transport system before everybody owned a car so we can go back to that”/ “We think the balance between home and work has been disproportionately tipped towards the job and it’s taking people over”/ “I think we need to stop these large numbers of house building”/ “We also want to create a million green jobs across the country”
Question: Can I ask you how and why you became involved in politics?
Many years ago, in 1982, I went to Braunton and saw Jonathan Porritt. He was inspiring to listen to and there was a small, burgeoning green party but it was called the Ecology Party. I’ve always been socialist, really, without wanting to be involved with the Labour Party.
Question: Why vote for a candidate who has no realistic chance of winning?
In 1989 we had Peter Christie in the European elections and he got 50% of the vote. Because of that the other parties became much greener and started to take green policies much more seriously.
If we can get enough Green votes I think it makes the other parties greener.I don’t mind if the Green Party disappeared tomorrow if we got what we wanted out of it.
If we had started putting some of our Green Party policies into practice 20 years ago we would have had a different scenario now and probably wouldn’t have such serious carbon emissions and a lot less fuel poverty and everyone would be better off because they wouldn’t be spending large amounts of their income on fuel.
I think it’s sad that things have been allowed to slide by the other parties and we need to send a clear message that it’s really important.
Question: More than ever you could argue that policies which were once the preserve of the Green Party have now moved into the mainstream, particularly climate change. Could you not say in some ways the other parties have stolen your thunder?
They have marginally but they don’t go anywhere near as far as us.We want to end the road building programme and that would save money.
We want the road tax to be put into public transport.We used to have a good public transport system before everybody owned a car so we can go back to that.
Driving yourself to work every day is quite a tedious job. I share with somebody.But we just don’t want to spend all our money on fuel.
Question: Jobs and a “living wage” is one of your central policy themes. Can you explain in practical terms what that means?
We think the balance between home and work has been disproportionately tipped towards the job and it’s taking people over.
We want to up the minimum wage and provide a better income for pensioners and a citizens wage is what we’re aiming for.
What irritates me is that people who pay people on the minimum wage are being subsidised by the taxpayers through working tax credits and other benefits.
Question: Can you tell me how the Green Party would tackle the severe pressures on the economy?
We’ve got quite a few things we would save money on, for instance Trident.
We would end all nuclear weapons and we want to have fewer weapons as well.
That would cut the defence budget substantially.
If we had the troops out of Afghanistan, that’s costing millions a day.
(Cutting the) roadbuilding programme, troops out of Afghanistan, end of Trident, and we would increase tax to those on higher wages as well.That’s not the whole list, but those are some of the ways.
Question: Affordable housing is a huge problem in this constituency. How would the Green Party help people to have better and more affordable housing?
That’s something I’m an expert on, because that’s what I do for a living.
I think we need to stop these large numbers of house building for everybody and it should be proper housing needs surveys carried out so we’re building for local people, at an affordable level.
I know it will take some subsidy but I think the great growths in the towns has been very unpopular.We also need to get our empty homes back in use. There’s hundreds of those in Torridge and West Devon.
Question: We’ve had this massive house price bubble. Would the Green Party take economic measures to bring the overall cost of housing down?
I think that’s very expensive and I’m not sure there’s enough money, especially with the deficit, to do that.
I think it would be impossible. I think we have to let market forces take its place.A personal policy, which isn’t in the manifesto, is that second homes should have to apply for planning permission.
Some villages in the South Hams are 50% second homes now which is just ridiculous and it’s destroying our villages.
I would like to have some quota system, like they have in Austria, which seems to work, or a planning requirement, so that pretty parts of Britain don’t get their house prices pushed up.
Question: Your party is making a lot out of its plans on pensions. Can you outline those?
We want to end pension credits because a lot of pensioners don’t claim it and we want to up the pension level to £170 for single people and £300 for couples and we think that would give pensioners a good income.
Question: And that’s a costed plan?
Yes. By increasing income tax for the higher earners, over £100,000.
Question: Can you address the image problem the Green Party has in some quarters, in the sense you are seen as a one-trick pony?
I know that is a problem but our manifesto doesn’t dwell all the way through on climate change and green policies.
It does talk about we want to safeguard the NHS. We want to make a living wage.We want to try to close the gap between the rich and the poor.
And we want to make more social justice. I know people feel very strongly against the bankers and their bonuses and people are hopping mad about that and they feel very unfairly treated, and I think they’re right.
We also want to create a million green jobs across the country. We’re not a one-trick pony and I don’t think we ever have been, actually.
Question: How would electing you improve the lives of people in Torridge and West Devon?
It would be a voice for Torridge. I’ve lived in Torridge for nearly 40 years so I know the area really well.
I’ve been a local councillor.
If I was elected I would unusual so my head would be above the parapet and I would want to raise the profile of Torridge and West Devon throughout the country so it was a place to come and visit.
UPDATE: Interview with Labour candidate...
Interview with Darren Jones, Labour candidate for Torridge and West Devon in the 2010 general election.
IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:“I was very pleased to see that Mr Cameron wasn’t very good”/ “There are a lot of Labour voters in this constituency”/ “I’m confident we’ll have a fourth term Labour Government”/ “I like Europe. I’ve only recently become a fan of Europe and I used to be quite Eurosceptic”/ “I was firmly against the war in Iraq”/ “Labour Party has done a great deal through Defra”/ “There’s a fine line between the views of these people and the parallels between the rise of Nazi Germany”
Question: Can you tell me why and how you became involved in politics?
I was at university in Plymouth and had been a Labour Party member for a few years. I started Plymouth Labour Students and was its president and worked with the national organisation. One thing led to another and I was offered the seat.
Question: You’re from Plymouth. People might pick up that you’re not that local?
It’s quite hard to be local in Torridge because it’s so huge. Plymouth is close to Tavistock and people in that area would say it’s local.
Question: Would you describe yourself as a socialist?
I would describe myself as a democratic socialist in the sense I’m member of the New Labour generation. I recognise being a far-left winger doesn’t work across the country.Tony Blair and the third way was an example of how we need to work together, to support business, need to have a strong economy and a strong market, and be able to bring money to allow growth.
At the same time we need to be compassionate. We need a welfare system that protects those that need support.
Question: Did you see the leaders’ debate last night? (First TV debate)
Yes, I thought it was going to be awfully dull but it was quite interesting. There was some good debate going on.I was also pleased Gordon did so well.
Nick Clegg was always going to do well because he’s very good at these sort of things.I was very pleased to see that Mr Cameron wasn’t very good, and he squirmed when he was being pushed on his policies.
Question: Why would anyone vote for a candidate who has no realistic chance of winning the seat?
Anything’s a possibility and what I’ve been saying to people is that Labour may not have had the same history as the other parties in this constituency but the message and values and policies we are putting forward is relevant regardless of where you live.
There are a lot of Labour voters in this constituency, it’s just that before they have voted tactically because we’ve not had much of a presence.
People laugh when I say this but I’m confident we’ll have a fourth term Labour Government and people will have more influence if they have a representative that is of the party of Government.
Question: The tactical voting question. If you are a Labour supporter in Torridge and West Devon the surest way to help keep the Conservatives out of power is to vote Lib Dem, isn’t it?
That is the traditional strategy and it is correct.I don’t want to go about telling people how to vote. I’m here because I believe I provide a viable option.
In the country it’s a choice between Labour and the Conservatives and I think the main aim is to make sure we don’t have a Conservative Government.
Question: You are making your arguments as public perception of MPs is at an all-time low. Electors will say: you’re all a bunch of crooks. What can you and your party do to help with that perception?
I think MPs need to remember they are the representatives of their constituencies.There are MPs who feel they have to have a constituency presence almost as an annex to their role in Westminster but it’s about representing local people and their communities.
As long as we keep that at the core of what you’re doing you can build trust.It’s been awful what’s happened in parliament over the last couple of years and I’m part of a cohort of people who have been disillusioned by this and ashamed by this.
People in my own party have pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable and we won’t let that happen.
Question: The parties are making a lot of claims which might be seen to be vacuous: things like arguing for “less waste”, “more fairness” and “change”. Do people not switch off from that because you can’t argue the opposite can you? You can’t argue for “more unfairness”?
The difficulty we have is on the one hand we have the Conservatives who are using these vacuous claims such as “vote for change” and you ask them what is the change and they can’t tell you.
We’ve got really detailed conversation over tax policy, all these numbers are being used.What we need to try and do as politicians is find the middle ground, where we can talk about our values and what drives us but also talk about the policy decisions we are making and why without it going into the fine detail that people don’t want to concern themselves with.
They want to know what their money is being spent on.
They want to know that the deficit is going to be cut.They want to know their schoolteachers are still going to be there to teach their children.
We are saying in the Labour Party we are going to make £35billion of savings in the next financial year in order to put money to paying off the deficit within four years.We’ve said where the money will come from, for example from the National Insurance rise, and we’ve said where we’re going to spend money.
Both the Liberals and the Conservatives have uncosted proposals.
Question: There is this endless to-ing and fro-ing about cuts and efficiencies. There is almost an auction going on for who can make the most breathtaking savings. This is something that is always claimed at elections but it never seems to materialise. Why will it this time?
I don’t know if I agree with that. I do know that we are in a very special situation this time. We’ve got an awfully large structural deficit to pay off.
I think it was right to take on that debt in order to keep our economy afloat. Now we have to be responsible and start paying it off.
You can’t say you are going to make savings and not do it.The Labour Party message is we will be responsible with the economy, we will pay off the deficit.
I’m confident that where we have said we will make efficiencies, we will do that.With Gordon Brown at the helm, his priority is we pay off that deficit and get our economy back on track.
Question: What role do you think the state has in reducing poverty and inequality?
This is an important, fundamental question.The Conservatives want to allow community groups and the third sector to do the work.
I partly agree with that; we should have communities working to support themselves.We should be supporting the third sector and we have done over the last 13 years.
The trouble is in areas where you have efficient charities set up and people with the skills and time to contribute, that’s fine.
In the places where you don’t, it will just go and the people relying on these services won’t have them.
I don’t think we want to go back to that approach that happened before 1997 where in some areas you might have had to wait two years for a hip replacement.I’m not advocating central targets for everything and I don’t think that’s the best way to go in local planning...
Question: That’s against your party’s policy then?
It is. I understand why they’re doing it but I think they should take more time in allowing local communities to say: this area isn’t right.
The state is very important in reducing poverty and inequality and we have a very strong track record of that over the last 13 years.
In education, by driving standards as opposed to changing structures, which was the case in the previous Government, we can bring a standard across the country which is fair for the most.
Without the state you are going to end up with inequalities.
Question: The inequality gap has got bigger under Labour, which some people find quite shocking...
Yes. The poorest people in this country have become wealthier through things like tax credits.
We do have this inequality gap which is a problem. It’s about finding that balance because what we don’t want to do is inhibit investors.
We don’t want to inhibit people who are earning significantly large amounts to go somewhere else because we would like their tax.
At the same time we need to make sure the people on the lowest salaries are getting a fair deal.
We’ve increased the income tax band on the highest salaries, which was right to do, but it was a break in manifesto, which is uncomfortable.
If you elect a Conservative Government, who have already shown they want to save tax increases on businesses at the risk of tax increases on people. They want to give £200,000 tax break to the 3,000 richest people with their inheritance tax policy.
Question: Affordable housing is a massive problem in your constituency. There is a massive gap between incomes and house prices and that has been buoyed up by the bubble. How can you and your policies help people to get affordable homes to buy or rent?
We have increasing numbers of people and the cost of housing has increased over the past few decades.We have said new affordable housing has to be built, with the emphasis on affordable.
In rural communities there are young people, young families who are having to leave where they live.
The Government has said we need more affordable housing and said “here’s the money, these are the numbers, build more affordable housing” but we need to get the balance right where local communities are able to sort that our for themselves, with the support of the state.
It’s no good us saying you’re going to need to build 10,000 houses in location X. We need local people to come to the conclusion of where they should be built.
Question: There are areas where the local authority is saying we need homes, here or here, and its causing massive opposition; I know as a journalist that any house-building always does in this area. If you’re saying the local communities need to have a key say, frankly, in my view, they will always say no. So, how do you get around it?
It’s difficult when you’re living in a countryside location where you’ve got beautiful views and Dartmoor further down. It’s the same issue with wind turbines.
There is huge opposition because people don’t want their landscape to change.It’s about saying to people: this is the issue and we need to be able to solve it and frankly, unless we can come to a solution, it’s going to have be imposed.
But you don’t want to start giving those ultimatums too early.I’m confident, from the people I’ve spoken to that they know there’s an issue, and they do need to get together to find a solution.
Question: Another tension that politicians are reluctant to address, because it will lose them votes, is a lot of people whose house prices have increased in value, that increase is one of the main reasons why so many younger people are excluded from owning a home, but no politician is going to say to those people: look you can’t continue having these house price rises and they might even have to come down.
It’s embedded now over a number of decades that we have market-driven values in the housing sector. It’s the rise in housing prices which has caused the problem but how do we solve that?
If the Labour Party were to say we’re going to start controlling house prices, we would never get elected. It’s too left wing a way of dealing with it.
We need to put solutions in which balances the needs of the market system we have with the provision we need for people we need most.We are doing that by setting quotas of affordable housing.
Question: Europe seems to be a subject that a lot of electors seem concerned about in this constituency. UKIP say withdraw now and the Conservative candidates are Eurosceptic. What’s your take on the Europe debate?
I like Europe. I’ve only recently become a fan of Europe and I used to be quite Eurosceptic.As cheesy as it might sound I love Britain and how it is, and parliament, and its values.
I always feared that by becoming more European we would lost all that but you have to look at these things on a larger scale.
You look at America, China, Russia, India. Huge economies, huge populations, will be deciding on how we run the world.Britain has a good, modern history of having the right values and the right approach to having influence around the world and I think we need to keep that.
But as a country we won’t be able to in the country because we’re too small.We’re awfully lucky to have a seat on the UN security council and at the G8.
We do need to work with Europe and we want Britain to be at the heart of Europe, driving it and I think that’s where I stand.
Question: There’s a lot of ill feeling from farmers against the Labour Government (on bovine TB, the Rural Payments Agency, Europe). How would you address that?
It’s difficult. On some of those points I agree with Geoffrey Cox; there is more to do.I would argue the Labour Party has done a great deal through Defra for our rural communities but I can recognise that much more needs to be done.
When people are seeing all the money that has gone into cities they might think the Government does care about their rural communities but it does. It’s about getting the balance across the country.
Question: The Rural Payments Agency has been a fiasco, hasn’t it?
It has and it’s been recognised it’s not worked as well as hoped.People expect a lot of Government and so they should. You can’t always get things right. You take the consultations, you take the advice, you instigate these policies and you try them.
If they don’t work you have to put your hand up and say sorry, we now need to look at reform.It’s Labour commitment to look at reforming the commons fisheries policy.
Question: We’ve had the extremely controversial war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. Can I ask for your views?
I was firmly against the war in Iraq. I can partly see Blair’s argument on how it may be good for the region in the long run but we won’t know if that’s true or not yet.My biggest concern with the war in Iraq was that so many people were clearly against it and it still went ahead.
On these big issues it’s important to show you are listening to your constituents across the country. The problem was largely the lack of planning after the invasion.
The invasion was quite efficient, as far as wars go, but then once Saddam Hussein had been toppled, the redevelopment wasn’t planned efficiently and that stays in people’s minds.
Afghanistan, we were right to go in. The Taliban needed dealing with and there was a UN resolution and international agreement.
The trouble we have now is we’re still there.Afghanistan is one of those countries through history where it’s difficult to be able to come to a conclusion.I think we’ve got a duty to support them because we’ve gone in and removed the Taliban.We also need to recognise it’s our people out there as well, dying out there.
Question: You’ve picked up on the historical viewpoint and lack of planning. A lot of people have said that anybody with even a basic understanding of Afghanistan, which you would hope the Government would have, shows the invaders, or external agents, have never been able to be successful there.
It’s a shame that certain things have happened.We need to learn from the mistakes we may have made with an aim to know we are going to have to pull out at some point.
Question: A lot of people say climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity. And what about these people who say “it’s a conspiracy, it’s a con”?
I think that’s nonsense. The science is proven. It’s important we deal with it, because we caused it.We can only deal with these global issues by global co-operation.
If we want to lead the way we need to be part of Europe.This Government has shown huge commitment to tackling climate change; there’s Ed Milliband and his department. There has been the various legislation, carbon trading, limits of carbon emissions.
One of the linked problems are renewables and how we deal with that.
I take quite a harsh line on people that deny climate change and people that say that we carry on, we’re fine.
Question: You always get disillusionment with parties who have been in power for a number of years. They are disillusioned with the Tony Blair era, with the spinning, the two contentious wars in the middle east, an economic catastrophe and Gordon Brown who’s not often seen as a charismatic or winning leader. How do you respond to all those problems you’re facing?
I think Gordon came across really well in the leaders’ debate. TV is not his natural territory.The nearest thing we have now to the Blair style and the Blair machine is David Cameron.
He’s fashioned himself on the Blair rise in 1997, although he’s a diet version of it, not quite as good as the full fat Tony Blair.I’m an example of how the Labour Party is very good at bringing young people into politics in order to renew and refresh themselves.
Question: It’s the first time we’ve ever had BNP candidates here. What do you think about that?
I think it’s a shame and quite scary.I was a hustings in Tavistock and thankfully the BNP candidate didn’t come because we have a “no platform” policy when the BNP are there. There were members in the audience and the things they were saying was shocking.
There’s a fine line between the views of these people and the parallels between the rise of Nazi Germany and I don’t want to sound melodramatic, but it’s true.
Britain has a proud tradition of being welcoming to diverse populations.
Question: It is this question of the white working class, isn’t it? The BNP, and maybe some in Labour, will say Labour has neglected the white working class by seeking this middle ground, the middle-class swing voters who can win elections. How can you reassure white working class voters that the BNP are not the way to go?
I don’t think neglect is the right word.Being a member of the BNP, they’re never going to be in power, I hope never, and very unlikely to get MPs elected. You look at the choice that’s available and it’s the Labour Party.
Question: How would electing you improve the lives of people in Torridge and West Devon?
People that have met me would agree that I’m awfully energetic but my approach when it comes to the candidacy is about listening to people and making a jolly good effort to make sure you do that properly.
UPDATE: Interview with BNP candidate...
Gary Marshall, BNP candidate for North Devon, speaks to the North Devon Journal during the 2010 general election campaign IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:
“...the indigenous people of Britain are white...”, he says/ calls for a “British resistance”/ Immigration remains focus/ Candidate claims there is “nothing dark or sinister” about his nationalism/ Bring back the cane in schools, the death penalty for terrorists and murderers, and chain gangs for criminals, he says/ BNP wants to ban the import of some foreign goods and scrap foreign aid to stricken countries/ “To say I’m a Nazi, that I support Nazi ideology, or anything stupid like that, I find incredibly offensive.”/ Candidate denies BNP is a “pariah party” bu admits many people revile his leader/ Candidate remains cagey about RAF career/ “We don’t want to see any disorder or any violence”
Question: You are often accused of being racist, bigoted, fascistic even. How can you convince electors in North Devon, including non-white electors, that your party isn't those things you are accused of?
“The first thing I can say is I’m not racist, I’m not xenophobic, I’m not Islamaphobic, I’m not homophobic, or any other phobic you can think of.
“It’s very easy for what I call the old guard parties to try and keep the BNP as a small and what they would hope is an insignificant party by throwing at us words such as you're racist, you’re fascist, or you’re neo-Nazi.
“There is no getting away from the fact the BNP is still a young party and it was born out of something else. But like all political parties it has developed and it has grown.
“Yes, there was a time when the mainstream in the party, particularly under Tyndall, where they wanted to get back Britain back to pre-1948, which if that was still their policy now I wouldn’t be a member of it.
“What I hear about now is nothing to do with the colour of somebody's skin or what religion they are.
“For the vast majority of the people in the party, those aren’t the issues they are concerned about. The things they are concerned about when it comes to immigration are nothing to do with ethnicity or culture; they are to do with the number of people coming in, the mass immigration into this country.
“That’s an issue that neither Labour or the Conservatives or the Liberals are prepared to confront head on.
“Even UKIP, which shared policies similar to our own on some issues, isn’t prepared to meet it head on either.
“Everyone knows about the Equalities Commission court case; there's no doubt the constitution was saying you had to believe in certain things to be a member of the party and all right Trevor Philips was saying that was racist. That link has now been cut within the party.
“Even prior to that court case, although ethnic minorities or Afro-Carribeans who were from groups that had been settled in the country since the 1950s couldn’t have been a member but we did have supporters in those ethnic groups, also from Sikhs, Hindus and other people.
“I think it’s far better those people can now join the party. I’ve always thought it would be far better for people of any ethnicity to be able to join the party if their core beliefs and their core values were the same as our own, that being: Britain first, basically.
“Not about being ethnic British or civic British and I know that distinction has been made and I think that’s been made on common sense grounds, again which are called racist.
“It’s about supporting Britain, supporting British values and wanting to put Britain first rather than worrying about things like the EU.
“I can’t make people believe something they don’t want to believe.
“If you’re black, if you’re brown, if you’re white, whatever colour you are, I wouldn’t keep you out of my house just because of your skin colour or because of your religion or because you are not ethnically British, so how on Earth can I be a racist?”
Question: I was having a look at the BNP policies on your website and a few of them include the phrase "indigenous"; what does that mean?
“If you were saying this about any other group of people on the planet it wouldn’t cause a ripple on the water.“This is where people like Peter Hain say ‘what you mean is white’.
“It is inescapable that ethnic Europeans, whether they be French or German or from Scandinavian countries, they are indigenous white people. And yes the indigenous people of Britain are white; that is just a by-product.
“When we are talking about indigenous people we are talking about people whose heritage is either from the British isles or from Europe who have over, over the centuries, into Britain and integrated into British society.”
Question: Would you be opposed to mixed-race relationships?
“I don’t think politics has any place at all in trying to say who somebody should or shouldn’t love. That’s it, bottom line.”
Question: The word British is in the name of your party. What does the word British mean to you?
“British for me is a people, a country, a culture, it’s based on fairness, acceptance, democracy, and a common goal for people, whether that be a neighbourhood, a community, a region.
“If you have a group of people and they have something in common with each other then that forms a community in society; that’s what Britain has always been.
“It doesn’t matter that the Romans have been here, or the Vikings or the Danes, and all this other rubbish that gets thrown up all the time.
“Britain is something which hasn’t happened overnight; it’s something which has developed over millennia and has created a race of people, just like it has in any other part of the world.
“Nobody would raise an eyebrow or make any derogatory comments if someone said something about native American Indians, or indigenous Indians, but because we say indigenous British all of a sudden that is supposed to be something rather racist and unpleasant. It’s nonsense.”
Question: I guess the difference that would be made is, as you've said, in the past the party has been linked to racism.
“It’s absolutely true. All right, there have been links with the National Front, the original leadership of the BNP came out of that area. That leadership has now gone and every political party has to evolve.
“There was a time when the Labour party used to have socialist values; now you couldn't get a cigarette paper between Labour and Conservative. The modern Labour party is more Thatcherite than the Thatcherites.”
Question: The BNP website is urging people to "join the British resistance"; what's the resistance against?
“The resistance is not against immigrants. I don’t blame immigrants for coming here. I blame a Government and an ideology who invite people into this country, promising them something which isn't here.
“They build up hopes for people from the third world on a lie. What happens to the vast majority of people when they come here is they’re exploited; they’re working for the minimum wage; they’re working in poor conditions and I’m not saying all employers, because that would be extremely unfair, but there are some employers which exploit these people.
“Whether you’re talking about indigenous or civic British people, I’m talking about everybody who is in this country legally now, and is contributing to this society, they’re not being given a fair deal because what is being done to this country; no one’s ever asked us.
“No one took the time to turn around to the people and say: is this what you want to happen to your country, is this what you want to happen to your culture. So the resistance is against those who have decided to go down a particular path without a mandate from the people.”
Question: When you say a particular path, can you expand on that a bit?
“Have a look at immigration for a start. Gordon Brown has been saying, and prior to that Tony Blair, for the last 13 years we have been told that immigration is good for business, is good for this country; they’ve never been able to prove that. When you look at the actual figures, what they are coming up with is a nonsense.
“They say we have to say in Europe because 70% of our trade is with Europe but it’s not accurate. This country does 40% of our export market to Europe but we import 60%. We have a trading deficit with Europe.
“We are one of the two major contributors to the EU. It’s ourselves and Germany. We give all that money to Europe and we get it back in targeted grants so it’s an inefficient way of using our own taxpayers’ money.
“There’s still £7billion of that money left in Brussels to be distributed to other countries.“Now, when this country is financially so close to bankruptcy, the last thing we need to be doing is contributing into a European pot which doesn’t benefit Britain at all.
“There is so much waste in Europe. There is so much fraud in Europe. And it’s being financed by the British people.
“We have as a surplus with the rest of the world and a growing deficit with Europe. It makes perfect sense to leave the EU, raise our taxes and use it on our own country and for our own people.
“In addition, Gordon Brown and the Labour Party say it creates jobs in this country. Well, again, not true.
“Trade deficit with the EU means there are 700,000 fewer jobs in the UK than there would be if we left the EU.
“Going back to immigration. We’ve totally lost control of our borders. They keep saying we can put a cap on things or we can do a points system. Two thirds of all immigration into Britain comes from Europe.
“The only way we can control our borders is by leaving Europe because they tell us what we can and cannot do.
“Farming. The amount of legislation which comes out of Europe is killing farmers. An example is the double-tagging you have to do on cattle and sheep.
“Same with fishing industry. We have fleets coming in from all over Europe and they are depleting our stocks at such a rate that we’ll have barren seas around our coats very shortly.
“We need to take control of our fishing fleet and rest certain areas”.
Question: If you look at nationalism as a creed in an of itself, where can you look to history and see any examples of where this type of nationalism had led to a peaceful and harmonious society?
“There’s nationalism all over the world. There’s been nationalism in the past, there’s nationalism now.
“There’s only two types of politics: there’s nationalism or there’s internationalism.
“Internationalism goes down the route of globalisation. We’ve seen what a disaster that is.
“I know what a lot of people, our detractors like to say, is because we have the word ‘national’ in our party, ah national socialism, again an absolute nonsense.
“Nationalism for me and the party is putting the interests of your nation and your nation’s people first. There is nothing Nazi, there is nothing fascist about that at all. It’s common sense.
“You look after your own home, you look after your own family, your own people. That’s what nationalism’s all about.
“It’s about looking after your own industry, your own farming, your own fishing, your own people. There’s nothing sinister or dark about it.”
Question: BNP policy states there is an “overwhelming extinguishing of Britain and British identity under a tsunami of immigration”. Is that the case in North Devon?
“In North Devon we haven’t got a huge number of ethnic minorities or third world migrants but the very impact of immigration into this country, whether that’s from Europe or anywhere else, is having a knock-on effect, even down into the rural areas of this country.
“Once the cities are filled up and people want to move out. I know one term that’s used a lot is ‘white flighters’, I don’t think that’s a friendly comment, but people who want to leave an area, who don’t feel they identify with an area, move out into the rural areas.
“In addition you only have to look at the latest regional spatial survey over the amount of urbanisation that’s going to take place in the South West between now and 2026.
“They are talking about the South West having to build another 600,000 houses. They have already had to admit that somewhere between 84% and 86% of that new housing will go to migrants.
“The reason for that is quite simple: the South East is full. So they are having to move large numbers of people to other parts of the country now.
“The first stage of that is already in the process of coming to fruition in North Devon. We have draft proposals for another 10,900 houses to be built in North Devon between now and 2016.
“We need a plan for North Devon which will alleviate the housing problem we’ve got for local people. This plan for 10,900 houses isn’t going to do it at all.
“It’s an inescapable fact that the gap between house prices in the South West and wages has grown immeasurably and the boom and bust we have seen over the last few years has seen young people trying to save a deposit never getting any closer.”
Question: Where your opponents might pick you up on some of that is they would have concerns about the house-building linked into the regional spatial strategy but the reasons the BNP give for the need for that housing is immigration, whereas the reasons they would give are the statistics that people are living much longer, people are living in more single-person households, and there has been a collapse of housebuilding over the past few years. That’s why there’s a need for housing and immigration is balanced by net emigration.
“That’s a fallacy again as well. The fact of the matter is people are living longer now and that’s a good thing.
“That only accounts for a very tiny proportion. The majority of people that are living longer already own their own homes. People living in single households: yes, usually in the rented sector where prices are far too high.
“The old guard parties refuse to accept the fact the population of Britain is going up for one major reason and that is mass immigration.
“The legal population of Britain right now is between 60 and 61 million people. In the next 20 years we are going to see that exceed 70 million if we continue with the numbers of immigration we are seeing now.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a cap or a points-based system for that one third of people coming from outside the EU. The vast number come through the EU and until you get a handle on that you can never stop mass immigration.
“The figures they are giving about the numbers of people leaving the country balances out the number coming in is not true.
“Net emigration from the UK in 2008 was only 87,000 people. But you have in 2007 330,000 people coming into the country and 2008 250,000 people.
“Overall immigration figures are staying fairly consistent.”
Question: The BNP is calling for “voluntary resettlement whereby immigrants who are legally here will be afforded the opportunity to return to the land of ethnic origin assisted by generous financial incentives”. What do you mean there by immigrants? Does that include people who were born here?
“Anybody who is legally in this country and doesn’t feel they want to remain will be able to go home with a financial incentive and that’s nothing new. That legislation already exists now.
“No one will be forced out of the country. Anyone who wants to stay and contribute to British society is welcome; it’s their home too.
“People who have come to the country and don’t want to integrate with society, they want to change it, they don’t feel they can assimilate into society, and they don’t like the fact a Government would be there that is going to say ‘no, this is Britain and if you want to be here you have to sign up for the British ideals of democracy and everything that goes with that.
“If they say ‘we want to go home’, then, yes, they would be given financial incentive. It’s not a Draconian measure.”
Question: How would it work in practice, though? How would people know about it?
“The vast majority of people know about it now because the biggest publicist of that sort of policy are the Labour Party and the Conservatives trying to say it’s a terrible, Draconian policy and yet it’s their Governments who put it on the statute books in the first place.”
Question: I mean would you write letters to people and say this exists?
“I have no idea how it would be brought to people’s attention. How would you write to people? Would you just target people because they have a foreign-sounding name? That sounds a bit silly to me.
“An advertising campaign maybe or perhaps in the simple fact that people would know this is here because it would be discussed.”
Question: The BNP wants to reintroduce corporal punishment. How would that work and for which crimes?
“It should be an option which is available. Why shouldn’t it be?
“Society has got to a point where if someone points at you in the face that can be classed as assault. How can that be assault? It’s ridiculous.
“If a teacher points at a child there’s so many things that can happen. There are people who take advantage of that situation and it makes common sense that a teacher has that as an option.“Anybody who abuses their power or their position needs to be dealt with.”
Question: Would that be the cane?
“Yes, why not? When I was in school once or twice maybe when I was a little out of hand I got the cane and I tell you what, you didn’t want to go back and do it again.”
Question: The BNP believe the police are constrained by a “politically correct straightjacket”. Can you give some examples of that straightjacket?
“A perfect one is if a police suspect an illegal activity is going on in a house and they want to launch a raid they can go in and do it.
“If they feel there might be an illegal activity going on in a Muslim household, first they have to go to their community leader to let then know what they are going to do, then they have to make sure what time of day they go to make sure they don’t interrupt prayers or that they don’t catch female members of the family in their bedrooms or anything like that.
“They can’t take dogs in there. I mean this is political correctness gone mad.”
Question: I’ve not heard of that before. What other sort of things do you think are constraining them?
“There’s a lot. You get directives from individual police forces where they will tweak the rules and say ‘don’t approach certain ethnic groups of people because it might create racial tension.
“What it comes down to is it doesn’t matter what skin colour you’ve got or what religion you are, if someone is breaking the law or is suspected of breaking the law, then the police should be allowed to do their job, not worry about sensitivities.”
Question: The BNP wants the death penalty and chain gangs. Which crimes for?
“We’re not talking about an automatic death penalty. What we’re talking about is once someone has been found guilty and only when there’s incontrovertible DNA evidence to support a conviction, the judge should have that as an option.“One of the things for that would be terrorist activities, like the London bombings. Child murderers. Police murderers.”
Question: And chain gangs?
“If you have people who are a low security risk in prisons, why not make them work for the country? It’s all part of them paying something back to society and it’s far better for them to be out doing something for the community.
Question: Your policy talks about “non-indigenous crime” as a specific category. What’s that?
“Are you talking about non-indigenous people committing crime in this country?”
Question: I don’t know. The policy talks about specifically about measure to deal with “non-indigenous crime” and I wasn’t sure what it meant.
“I think what you’re talking about is people who have committed crimes in this country and get custodial sentence. Once they have completed that custodial sentence, why should they be allowed into our society? They should be immediately deported.
“Nobody is saying immigrants are more prone to criminality than people in Britain. We are quite capable of growing our own criminals. But why would we want to import them?“
Question: Where would that policy begin and end? Would that be for illegal immigrants?
“Illegal immigrants shouldn’t be in the country anyway.
“We have an underclass of people being exploited in this country working in the black economy.
Question: Just to clarify. The policy talks about deporting immigrants if they commit a crime?
“If they have committed a serious crime which brings a custodial sentence then once they have completed that custodial sentence...we’re talking about foreign nationals who reside in this country. We’re not talking about people who have been granted a British passport.”
Question: On the economy, you want to exclude certain foreign imports from our markets. How would that be organised and policed and could that not just cause mayhem and confusion or make the country a bit of a laughing stock?
“Not at all. We have a trade surplus with the rest of the world. We only have a trade deficit with Europe. By coming out of the EU and investing heavily in our industry again, not to produce cheap and cheerful, but high-quality industry, whether that be in the new technologies or energy production.
“We’ve got some great minds in this country. What we haven’t got is the investment in the industries.
“What we’re talking about is by becoming an independent, sovreign nation again, building up new industries, and entering into trade agreements with individual countries, and saying there would be certain items we would produce for ourselves and that we wouldn’t want to be imported but we can come to a reciprocal arrangement with those countries.”
Question: The BNP wants to end the foreign aid budget. That could have several consequences for people in very impoverished places in Africa. Babies die of malnutrition, that sort of thing.
“What you have got to remember is what we’re talking about is a budget which is £9billion...this is at a time when we are constantly listening to these politicians on the radio or TV scrapping over where they’re going to find another £2billion or £3billion from and how many jobs they are going to have to cut and what efficiency savings they are going to make.
“Every time we have a financial shortfall we’re told we can find that money in efficiency savings. We must have been incredibly inefficient because we have one every year.
“We still have child poverty in this country and we also have an incredible amount of pensioner poverty.
“What we’re talking about is we put things right at home first. We’re not saying to hell with the rest of the world.
“When the books are balanced again that’s the time you can say we have a surplus of cash we would be willing to give to other parts of the world.
“We have been giving aid to Africa and other parts of the third world for decades and nothing is seeming to get better. It comes down to the governments in those countries.”
Question: Last year there was some fury from Second World War veterans over the appropriation of imagery, Spitfires and Winston Churchill specifically, and some of them said things like “the BNP were the people we were fighting against”, accusing you of being Nazis. How do you respond to that?
“There were some people who made those allegations. At the same time there were people who had fought the Nazis who are members of our party. I’ve been to a meeting last year in Exeter where a benefactor of our party was a Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot.
“It’s very easy to pick on people who have fallen for the lie that we are a racist, neo-Nazi party, and people will have their own political views and are quite entitled to those.
“I have got no objection with people having their own beliefs. It’s just a shame that a lot of the people who say these things, they’ve never actually read our policies, never actually spoken to any of us and tried to find out what we’re trying to do for the country.
“They’ve just taken it as read.
“I find it quite offensive to be called something like that. My grandfather died in World War Two fighting the Nazis. My great uncle was sent to the far east and was captured at Singapore by the Japanese and had to spend the war working on the Burma railway. He survived it.
“To say I’m a Nazi, that I support Nazi ideology, or anything stupid like that, I find incredibly offensive.”
Question: Another thing often put to the BNP is about the Holocaust. Nick Griffin has been linked to comments calling it a “hoax”. What are your views on that?
“Nick Griffin, a long time ago, long before I ever spoke to him or met him, said that he didn’t deny the Holocaust, I’m not going to support him because they’re his comments, he questioned the numbers.
“He has since retracted that, so if you want to know what Nick Griffin thinks I think you should talk to Nick Griffin.
“I have never denied the Holocaust, never thought it was a bit of propaganda.
“It’s quite evident the Holocaust did happen, for the Jews and for a number of other people, political dissidents as well. There were a number of groups of people affected by mass exterminations and I don’t support that and I don’t defend that and I have never, ever denied it happened, and I never would.”
Question: Comments are made on the right that there is some sort of media conspiracy and that’s linked to a Zionist element. What are your views on that?
“A Zionist element, no. I think there are a very few number of people that control an awful lot of the media that have their own political agendas and they are quite happy to propagate rather outlandish stories about the BNP.
“I’m not saying all journalists tell lies at all.
“There have been a number of occasions when retractions have had to be made.
“I know there are certain rules journalists have to work by and unfortunately I think that does push people towards negative responses rather than just having an unbiased reporting”.
Question: One more thing which has been in the news which has been on people’s minds. Your former publicity director, Mark Collett, he was arrested on April 1 on suspicion of threats to kill. That’s the sort of thing that doesn’t happen in a serious political party, isn’t it?
“He has been expelled from the party and he has been released on police bail and my personal view is: good riddance.
“He has made some incredibly inflammatory comments in the past and he is exactly the sort of person who we need to get out of the party and fortunately there are very few of them left.
“The sort of comments he would make were the old BNP not the new BNP.
“He has been arrested and questioned for making threats to kill; the party chairman, yes. He wasn’t talking about going and killing members of the public.”
Question: Can I ask you about Nick Griffin, your leader. How would you describe him as a man, as a politician?
“I’ve met Nick Griffin on several occasions and I’ve also had dinner with him in a public restaurant, not on my own, with three or four other party officials, on a couple of occasions, and I’m still trying to see where this monster is that our political opponents try to portray.
“He’s a perfectly decent married man. He loves his wife, he loves is kids, and he loves his country and I don’t see that’s a terrible thing.
“I’ve had perfectly normal conversations with him. He laughs, he jokes. He’s just a normal guy. But he’s got strong beliefs.”
Question: He is reviled, isn’t he, by a lot of people?
“A lot of people, yes, but reviled by people who have never actually spoken to him or met him.”
Question: It is fair to say that the BNP is something of a pariah party, isn’t it?
“No, not really, not any more. We have still got the same old lies coming out of the same politicians. We have been given Europe, we have been given mass immigration, by successive parties who have never asked the British people their opinion.
“Political parties might come from one place and they have to evolve and the BNP has done that.”
Question: Can I ask you about local support? What is the sort of network you’ve got in North Devon?
“It’s growing very rapidly. We have an awful lot of members down here. Devon has more party members than any other county in the South West and it’s growing.”
Question: What sort of numbers are we talking about?
“I don’t want to tell you numbers. It is considerable and on top of that we have an awful lot of people who actively support us who haven’t become members as yet. There have been a lot of people who wanted to join and couldn’t because of the membership suspension; a number of those people have now joined.
“There are other people who are at that half-way house stage, where they like our policies, they want to help us, maybe they want to see how things run for a little while, and for example, during this campaign, I’ve got an awful lot of people who have offered to help me with the campaign.
“There will be leafleting teams out on the streets and we will be making our presence known in the area, in a good way.
“We don’t want to see any disorder or any violence. There has been an attempt by certain anti-BNP groups, and the UAF, that would like try and turn it into some kind of a circus sideshow. I have already spoken to the area commander and said we are here and we don’t there to be any violence or any trouble caused and explained how we are going to fight the campaign.
“We want to be treated the same as you would any other political party. You don’t have to agree with us but you should respect the people who are part of the BNP or support the BNP.”
Question: You’re a sales manager, can I say who for?
“No. I don’t want to put my employers in a position of being questioned about things. I think it’s unfortunate that anybody who is simply just standing for a political party has to be careful that the people around them don’t get hurt or affected by it.
“I do my job extremely well. I don’t discuss politics in work. Obviously the people I work for know I’m standing for election. I keep my private life and my work life as two separate entities.”
Question: About your previous career. You were in the RAF. Can I ask about that; where you a pilot?
“No, I wasn’t a pilot. I was trained in intelligence.”
Question: Intelligence. Can you tell us any more about that?
“No, I don’t really want to talk any more about it. I left the RAF with an exemplary conduct record.”
Question: And how long were you in for?
“I don’t want to talk any more about the RAF.”
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