Nick launches new Facebook campaign page

Nick Perry, Liberal Democrat parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye, has launched a new web page as part of an effort to use new campaign techniques and to reach younger, and first-time voters.

Nick has set up a Facebook page to help his campaign for the General Election.

Speaking at the weekend Nick said,

“It is imperative that parties like ours, which are not funded by big business or the Trade Unions, make use of all this important new technology that is on offer free of charge.

“If I have got the numbers right, the Conservatives spent about £70,000 in the constituency over the last financial year. We want to get our Lib Dem message across, but we just don’t have that sort of money available to us.

“I hope that local people who are signed up to Facebook will stop by the campaign page.

“This technology could no doubt be of assistance to local businesses as well, that are starting up in difficult financial times, and need cost effective means of promoting themselves.”

[Please sign in to your Facebook account, and sign up as a supporter!]

Hastings Legends 3, Arsenal Pro-Celebrity 1

Went up to the Pilot Field on Sunday to watch Hastings Legends against the Arsenal Pro-Celebs for their pre-season charity match.  There was a lovely atmosphere, and we even got to see Michael Foster’s knobbly knees, as he kicked the game off. 

It was reminiscent for me of the years we spent watching the Saints at Knowsley Road.  Happy memories.

There was some good football to watch and, even better, my friend’s husband – Bexhill United’s player-manager Pete Heritage – scored in the 86th minute.

Drinks on Sarah then!

A straight answer to a straight question

Believe it or not, I would much rather agree with my political counterparts than disagree.

Week in week out we see the adversarial goings-on at Westminster – what David Cameron calls the Punch and Judy show of British politics. A show which he has pledged to change…

Just like our voting system, this way of doing politics is of a bygone era – it is outmoded. It is has outlived its usefulness. But it persists because it is in the vested interests of the two largest parties in British politics.

A more mature and vibrant political system would be based on the key premise that every vote counts, and policy-making procedures which encourage co-operation, collaboration and the pursuit of excellence.

It is against this backdrop that I am pleased to pass on that I wrote to my Conservative counterpart this week to tell her that I have signed her petition against the proposals for the Hastings to London Cannon Street service to be cut, possibly in 2015.

This proposal from Network Rail has received similar responses of outrage from across the three main political parties in our constituency.

I am glad that the Conservative Leader of Hastings Borough Council has been so outspoken about it. The proposals fly in the face of widely held views on the needs of the area, particularly in respect of regeneration.

My personal perspective is that, just as it is important to say when you disagree with a political opponent (and why, and what you would do differently) it is also important to put on record when you agree, and to support those people in any endeavour which you feel will bring benefit to the constituency.

This does not, and will not, stop me from raising issues that are of concern; from challenging hypocrisy where it can be found.

So, on the same day as I wrote about the petition, I wrote to our Tory candidate asking her whether she supports the formation of the new European Conservatives and Reformists Group at the European Parliament (which David Cameron has spearheaded), and whether she supports the newly elected Leader of that Group. This is a Polish MEP by the name of Michal Kaminski, who is accused of holding seriously unpleasant views about Jews and gay people.

My feeling is that the Conservative Party should be deeply concerned and embarrassed about this current situation in Brussels, and I think it is right and proper for us to hear from our Conservative parliamentary candidate as to where she stands on this issue.

My own pledge to the people of Hastings & Rye is that I will always try to give a straight answer to a straight question.

I have not been able to elicit any answer whatever from my Conservative counterpart regarding Michal Kaminski.

This may be of concern to you as well…

Nick meets with Hate Crime campaigners

On Tuesday morning I met up with Amanda Bigden from Victim Support and Cath Champion, one of her community advocates, at the Chapel Park Community Centre in St Leonards. 

They told me about the new initiative they are leading in East Sussex to support the victims of hate crime.

It was great to learn about this, and the other work that this easily-missable community centre has been doing in the heart of St Leonard’s. 

Ann Reid, the part-time centre manager, gave me a whistlestop tour and a glimpse of the effort and passion that goes in to supporting some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in our community.

There was a bit of nostalgia for me also, as one of my first jobs after leaving university was to undertake some community development work for a newly built community centre in an Anglican church in Cambridge.

Chapel Park, and those organisations that use it, are a credit to themselves and each other.

Happy Birthday to the Fellowship of St Nicholas!

On Monday I was lucky enough to be invited to the Brickwall Hotel in Sedlescombe to join the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the Fellowship of St Nicholas.

It was very interesting to rub shoulders with some of ‘the great and the good of the area’ as one wag had it.

I don’t think I qualified as either, but I was very pleased to be the guest of the Freeman of Hastings Borough – Pam Brown.

I was glad to be there to help celebrate this anniversary not just because the Fellowship has, as its patron, a very well-named saint, but because it has done such wonderful and important work over the years, with some of the most deprived families in an area which is considered one of the poorest in the South East of England.

From the website, I have gleaned the following about the Fellowship’s founding aims:

‘Its purpose was to retain and develop homes for boys and later girls whose parents for various reasons were unable to look after them. From 1939 until late 1985 FSN continued this work in its homes based in Hastings and St. Leonards. Staff lived with the children sometimes bringing them up alongside their own children.

‘From 1985 FSN moved away from running children’s homes and responded to new needs and by developing a range of community based services.’

FSN now runs a host of different services for children – many of whom will be from families which are the hardest for helping services to reach. 

Please consider sending a donation, so that their work can continue for another 70 years.

Nick presses Tory candidate over new Leader of Euro Group

 

 

Dear Amber,

I have read the following article in The Times this morning:

\’Right-wing Polish MEP Michal Kaminski becomes Tories controversial EU leader\’

regarding the European Conservatives and Reformists Group.

This is the new grouping at the European Parliament that the Conservatives have spearheaded.

The appointment of Michal Kaminski as leader of this Group is deeply worrying, and embarrassing for the Conservative Party.

I note the comments of Edward McMillan-Scott in the article.

Would you put on record whether you support the formation of this new Group, and whether you support its newly elected leader?

I look forward to hearing from you soonest.

Yours truly,

What are the Tories doing to save our fishermen?

Earlier this week I was interviewed by BBC Sussex because I have called for our Labour MP to resign from his new job as Equalities Minister.

I have done this because of the Government’s refusal to help Hastings & Rye fishermen.

This is a significant matter of principle – just as it was a matter of principle for the Government to deliver a public inquiry into the Iraq War.

Labour has failed on both counts.

Whilst I have supported and acknowledged the considerable efforts of Michael Foster on behalf of our local fishermen, (just as, I believe, he has supported Liberal Democrat efforts on their behalf) he obviously does not agree with me that he should use all the tools in his political box, and raise the plight of our local fishing industry up the Government’s agenda, by giving his ministerial resignation.

I should be clear. I have not asked him to resign as an MP – although I would love to fight a by-election. I have asked him to give up his ministerial pension on this issue.

I am told that his office made ‘no comment’ to BBC Sussex.

Whilst this is disappointing, it is not half as disappointing as the Conservatives record on this score.

Shortly after the recent elections, I wrote (I admit) a tongue-in-cheek note to my Conservative counterpart congratulating her on managing to get a Conservative Party poster on the net huts in Hastings Old Town.

I said to her that this was a remarkable achievement, given the record of the previous Conservative Government, and of Jacqui Lait (the town’s previous Conservative MP).

I asked Amber what the Conservatives were doing locally and nationally to deserve their poster site.

I was directed to the Conservative Party national website, but could not find any information about the under-10 metre fishing sector.

When I pressed Amber, in a follow-up email, to tell me what Conservatives have been doing locally to help our fishermen, there was no answer forthcoming whatsoever.

This is another example of when a strong and radical political voice is needed to advocate on behalf of an important set of constituents, and a historic trade for our area, and we find the Conservative Party sadly lacking.

Let’s be frank. Unless something radical is done, our fishing industry will die.

We need leadership from our local MP, and from his Government.

There is a way to avert disaster.

The quota agreement of February this year must be re-instated.

What is required in order to achieve this is, as the Spanish might say, political cojones.

We must work together. We must do whatever is in our power to do.

To paraphrase President Obama – ‘Yes we can.’

Lib Dem Cream Tea is jam-packed!

On Sunday, Roger and Vivien Weeden held a cream tea in their beautiful garden at Three Oaks, in order to fundraise for the Liberal Democrat General Election campaign.

The event was a sell-out and there were good takings for the Hastings & Rye local party.

Speaking after the event, parliamentary campaigner Nick Perry said, “I don’t know how Roger and Viv arrange the weather every year. But on the basis of Saturday’s success, I think they will be getting very prominent roles in our General Election campaign!

“Thanks must go to them for their hospitality, and all the other members, supporters and friends who contributed so generously, and made this a great afternoon for all ages.”

St Leonard’s Festival scores well again

Fantastic day out for the family again on Saturday at the St Leonard’s Festival.

A really eclectic mix of community organisations, food stalls, fun for the kids and the music on stage.

My personal favourite was (I think they were called) The Rattlebags, who performed acapella in front of Warrior Square train station at the end of the afternoon.

Shame about the weather, but at least it didn’t rain.

Thanks to all those who contributed to make this event a great success!

Whose economic truth will you believe?

Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are attacking Gordon Brown about his honesty with the public over the state of the public finances.

Quite right too.

The Prime Minister is not being straightforward about the effect of the recession in respect of public spending.

But what the Conservatives are hiding in all of this, and the story that the Labour Government is failing to tell adequately, is that the argument is also underpinned by different schools of economic thinking.

The Government has adopted, as I understand it, John Maynard Keynes’ view that in order to get through the recession and get back to growth, governments have to keep on spending when private individuals can’t or won’t.

Alternatively, the Conservatives like economists such as Friedrich Hayek, and believe that you can run the country’s finances like Margaret Thatcher’s father ran his grocer’s shop.

This is bonkers.

Just as bonkers (and here I declare an interest as a public sector worker) is the increasingly frequent tendency (fuelled by the media I might add) to concentrate on the levels of public sector pay, because it is easier to do this than to discipline errant banks and City institutions.

It was the banks and the City got us into this mess – not the police, not nurses, not teachers and (dare I say it) not social workers.

But the Tories have latched onto Gordon Brown’s ineptitude at communicating in order to misdirect us.

Dave is the ultimate political conjuror.

He has now set about re-branding Gordon, just as he has re-branded the Conservative Party.

But we should be afraid – very afraid…

I went over to Eastbourne at the end of last week – to the Big Sleep Hotel, for the state of the economy debate organised by the Federation of Small Businesses.

I went to support the ‘1066 Country’ branch, but also to support the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Eastbourne & Willingdon – Stephen Lloyd.

The Conservative MP for Eastbourne, Nigel Waterson, was on the panel.

It was amazing.

With this rebranding of the Tories undertaken by David Cameron, and the textbook Cameroonian politics of my Conservative counterpart in Hastings & Rye, I had almost forgotten what an unreconstructed Tory sounds like.

It was very important to be reminded.

Waterson was horrific. Pompous of demeanour, he was pretty objectionable on policy – especially when talking about welfare fraud.

Whilst benefit fraud is a problem, it was utterly unpalatable coming from an MP, given the current crisis of confidence in the integrity of Parliament.

Let’s be clear. Change in the Conservative Party is only skin-deep. And even then it depends on whose skin you’re looking at.

This is as true of their prospective parliamentary party, as it is of their economics.

I urge those of you who are considering voting Conservative at the next election to go and hear the likes of Nigel Waterson, before you finally make up your mind…