The Constituency of Durham North West

My roving reporter spotted this nice Jamie Devlin poster near Iveson over looking Consett.

He has a better camera than I :-(

In a article in the todays Telegraph it is stated that:

"Council tax is expected to rise sharply after the election following Labour's decision not to raise the retirement age for local government workers from 60 to 65, leaked Government papers revealed last night."

Oor own Hilary Armstrong is given a mention also:

Hilary Armstrong, the chief whip, underlined the need for a rise in the retirement age in a letter to MPs. She said it could not be delayed "without serious consequences building up for the future".

Hilary has made one of her flyers avaliable for download from her official site.

It makes much of the economy in our area, something that the other candidates have yet to respond to, and it is a hard argument to fight against.

The tories are going to find it hard to fight against this as the last time they were in power this area was worse off, would we be better off with a Tory goverment? It is a hard case to make and Jamie has yet to respond...and Alan Ord is possibly trying to find North West Durham on the map (Left a bit and up a bit from Durham Alan)

Now I do have to take issue with the better deal for pensioners. Labour are offering a £200 council tax refund..this year only though! Funny that its an election year. Now the Tories are topping that offer with a £500 rebate and I am guessing that doesn't have a time limit on it. With the Libdems basing their council tax on income the pensioners would probably pay nothing at all.

No metion of, ID Cards, the War or even Tony Blair or Mr Brown though.

(Sing above to 4 seasons in one day, if your daft like me)

Jamie Devlin has updated his website with news. (Still nothing on Jobs in the area and the scraping of the New Deal though....)

I'll list the stories and links below, but heres my run down of them.

(In reverse order)

First off we have Jamie Devlin talking about Rural communities, North West Durham is a strange area in my opinion. (He met the future Queen too, see picture below.)

You have lots and lots of old mining/industrial towns/villages which are traditional Labour areas and I'd guess don't give two hoots about the farmers etc. Then you have wear dale towns such as Stanhope and Wolsingham which are traditional farming areas and Jamie will have a bit of support from these areas. Problem is that the mining/industial voters will out number the rural voters in our area 2 to 1 at least..if not 3-1/4-1. So Jamie needs a high turn out from these voters to make a dent.

Next Jamie was in Newcastle throwing his "weight" behind a homeless charity tour bus (Did it need a push? ;-) Also are their many homeless tour buses? Must be hard to find homes for them, need a big garage...). Now I can comment about the areas I know, thats Crook, Wolsingham, Stanhope..I don't think their is a large homeless problem in those areas....I have asked a workmate who lives in Consett and he doesn't think their is a homeless problem either. Hardly a vote winner, all those floating voters will be rushing to the Tory party to help these homeless people! ;-)

Finally we have council tax, a proper vote winner! Right a couple of flaws in Jamies news release.

Jamie is quoted saying this:

The Lib Dems have also conceded that thousands of hard working families will be worse off under their flawed plans for a local income tax.

Now I have done my own research (well read others) on the Libdems local income tax plans. The institute for fiscal studies have done an analysis of the council tax plans. Which I have given a good read (Download the PDF). Now from this study it claims that only the top 20% earners in the country will pay more per week under this plan. The rest of us (80% of the working population) will pay less per week. I am sorry Jamie but the hard working families thing is rubbish, the LibDems have said that working couples will probably pay more (Roughly £2.50 a week more) but generally working couples have high disposable income, they would have twice as much income as myself for example.

The rest of the population (80%!) will save between £1.43 per week and £6.33 per week (Thats £30+ a month! Which would pay my petrol for a week, ace!)

The second flaw is probably not really a flaw more of a bandwagon. I can not find where it says in the Tory manifesto that they would stop the rebranding process. Howard has only just mentioned it, I am not the only person to notice this and even if you say it lots and lots of times doesn't make it true ;-)

The stories in full..

Rural Communities Let Down By Labour

North West Durham Conservative Candidate, Jamie Devlin, today attacked Labour’s record on rural affairs in North West Durham and confirmed that only the Conservative Party would introduce policies to support our rural communities.

Read what Jamie Devlin had to say here.

Jamie Supports Big Voice Tour

Jamie Devlin, Conservative Candidate in North West Durham, today pledged his support to end homelessness as a priority for the next Government.

Read more on Jamie Devlin and his homeless bus here.

Council Tax Bills Soar Under Labour

Conservative Candidate for North West Durham, Jamie Devlin, today outlined Conservative plans to stop council tax bills soaring even further after the Election.

Read more on Jamie Devlin and council tax here.

Right I must visit the candidates news pages every morning, repeat 100 times. (Do you still get lines at school..anyway....)

The campaign website for Hilary Armstrong was updated, this week..says the 18th but I am sure I was on the site on Monday and yesterday (I had a slow blogging day yesterday as I had to work so I might have missed it.)

Anyway she was at Durham Castle in the rain to launch the North East Manifesto.


I am guessing that this is the "Manifesto for the North"

Families better off
- Unemployment in the North has fallen by 51 per cent since 1997.
- Long-term unemployment has fallen by 88 per cent since 1997.
- Long-term youth unemployment has fallen by 83 per cent since 1997.
- 94,730 people have found employment through Labour’s New Deal in the North.
- Families with children are on average £1,350 a year better off than in 1997.

Every child achieving more
- Standards in the North are up:
- 16 per cent more 11-year-olds are achieving good standards in literacy and the number getting good grades in numeracy has risen by 13 per cent.
- 13 per cent more 14-year-olds are achieving good standards in literacy and the number getting good grades in numeracy has risen by 13 per cent.
- 12.2 per cent more 15-year-olds in the North are achieving five or more good GCSEs since 1997.

Giving every child the best start
- 273,200 families in the North are benefiting from tax credits.
- Already over 65,506 children in the North are eligible for The Child Trust Fund.

Hilary has got a mention in two newspaper articles out of this:

Minister visits factory
North is poor pay relation

The last one I suppose is the Tories response.

Now I am not telling Jamie how to respond/run his campaign, but Hilary has been in the Cronical/Journal 6 times this month and unless Jamie is running adverts in these papers he has not been given a mention.

The Liberals are not bothering to campaign as far as I can tell, Hilary is a headline grabbing name, get stuck into her man.

Lets make this an interesting campaign.

Right I know Tories are mostly pro-war (with only 2 of them voting against the war) and you might be pro-war..but if you say your not (good practice) and start pressing her on it could make for some interesting news.

Go on...or are we living in Fawlty Towers...don't mention the war....

Now using this handy tool, I can compare my views against those of Hilary Armstrong.

For the record:

I am strongly against foundation hospitals
I am strongly against student top-up fees
I am strongly against Labour's anti-terrorism laws
I am strongly against the Iraq war
I am strongly against introducing ID cards
I am neutral/mixed on the ban on fox hunting
I am strongly for equal gay rights

Compare against Hilary and the other parties.

Numbers are from 100% agrees strongly to 0% disagrees strongly.

Issue	Me	Labour	Hilary Armstrong	Tory	LibDem
foundation hospitals	Disagree (strong) 0%	Agree 80%	Agree (strong) 100%	Disagree 14%	Disagree (strong) 6%
student top-up fees	Disagree (strong) 0%	Agree 85%	Agree (strong) 99%	Disagree (strong) 2%	Disagree (strong) 1%
Labour's anti-terrorism laws	Disagree (strong) 0%	Agree (strong) 88%	Agree (strong) 100%	Disagree 15%	Disagree (strong) 4%
the Iraq war	Disagree (strong) 0%	Agree 76%	Agree (strong) 100%	Agree 71%	Disagree (strong) 1%
introducing ID cards	Disagree (strong) 0%	Agree 83%	Neutral 50%	Neutral 41%	Disagree 13%
the ban on fox hunting	Neutral 50%	Agree (strong) 92%	Agree 74%	Disagree (strong) 9%	Agree 63%
equal gay rights	Agree (strong) 100%	Agree (strong) 89%	Agree (strong) 99%	Disagree 37%	Agree (strong) 89%
Comparison with your opinion: 100% voted same as your view 0% voted opposite to your view		Disagree with you 34%	Disagree with you 32%	Agree with you 65%	Agree (strong) with you 93%

Just to highlight Hilary Armstrongs voting record:

• Hilary Armstrong is strongly for foundation hospitals
• Hilary Armstrong is strongly for student top-up fees
• Hilary Armstrong is strongly for Labour's anti-terrorism laws
• Hilary Armstrong is strongly for the Iraq war
• Hilary Armstrong is neutral/mixed on introducing ID cards
• Hilary Armstrong is for the ban on fox hunting
• Hilary Armstrong is strongly for equal gay rights

So a vote for Hilary Armstrong is a vote to say yes you are happy with her voting record.

Are these the views of her constituency? Does she care?

Now most things in that list have been and gone, water under the bridge etc.

Except one, ID cards, now the argument that whats the problem with them as if you haven't done anything wrong etc....is a strong one.

But what is being swept under the carpet is the cost, they are going to cost every one of us roughly £55 each.

£55 for something that to me has no value, what is the value of them?

The Tories and Labour would say they will fight terrorism, so does the Chief of the Met. Now not that I don't believe you (Ok I don't) but how is a bit of plastic going to fight terrorisim?

The answer is this:

If "baddie" is asked for ID and doesn't provide ID card is taken down to the police station.

Hold on a minute, what happens if I have lost my wallet, jumped out the house to grab a paper and leave my ID Card at home. I'm off down the police station and have to prove I am not a terrorist just because I am forgetful.

Now, Hilarys voting record says she is neutral/mixed on introducing ID cards, but if you look at her voting record on that she has been absent from most of the votes.

As she is Chief Whip she will be voting with the goverment and forcing others to do so.

If you are planning on voting Labour and do not want an ID card then tell her.

I have been promised a reply to my jobs election issue post by Jamie by tommorow, the email was sent 3 minutes to midnight yesterday so thats either today or tommorow then depending on your clock! ;-)

I guess the Libdems are not bothering, I wish could find out if they are campaigning.

Alan Ord was picked to run again after increasing his share of the vote in 2001, going by his efforts so far was it just a fluke or less people voting Labour.

Got a shock when I got home last night.

I had an election leaflet through my door, and this one wasn't requested.

It is just a replication of what is on Jamies website of course but not everyone has a computer, and I doubt the ones that do use it to find out about candidates..they are not as sad as myself!

Anyway a couple of photos of them:





Oh also that Conservative poster I spotted on the rat run (Wish my phone had a zoom):

In an earlier post I highlighted jobs as an election issue and attempted to get a response from each of our candidates.

Hilary Armstrong has responded on her campaign website.

The news release follows:

Hilary Armstrong has revealed new figures showing that 2830 people in North West Durham have been helped back into work with the New Deal. The General Election gives the British people a clear choice: the New Deal scrapped and back to the bad old days of 3 million on the dole with the Tories; or forward to the future, investing in skills and jobs, with Labour.

Labour's Hilary Armstrong said:

"With more people in work than ever before, Conservative plans to scrap the New Deal can only be described as sheer madness. I'm proud that Labour's New Deal has ended the mass unemployment that blighted Britain when Michael Howard and his Thatcherite friends were last running the show.

"In North West Durham, over 2830 people have got back into work through the New Deal. Both the Tories and the Lib Dems are pledged to dump the New Deal. They would take us back to the bad old days of economic failure and people being paid to remain on the dole without any help to get back into work or training.

"Record numbers of people in work has meant big savings on unemployment benefits. And that's freed up extra cash to go straight into Labour's number one priority - our public services.

"I believe people in North West Durham deserve every chance to make the most of their skills and that's why Labour are the only party who will take North West Durham forward at the election, not back to the bad old days of long term unemployment under the Tories."

Now I don't know if I was just lucky and asking the question 2 days before a planned release..but its a slight victory to the small guy.

I will update my older post with the Libdem policy on jobs, and then do an indavidual post if I get any official response.

The new deal and employment does not effect me in anyway, I work outside the constituency and doubt that the New Deal would help me if I was ever unemployed.

Think for my next "issue" I will try and pick something that effects my life in the constituency. (Council Tax is a good one ;-))

I will pull over on my way home to get a photograph of this momentus occasion.

Now its taken me all morning to figure out if it actually was in North West Durham, using http://www.election-maps.co.uk I found out that it is right on the border with Bishop Auckland but on our side.

The poster was in the front padock of Red Barns farm on the Toronto round-about.

Oh by the way..you only have until the end of play tommorow (19th of April) to register as a candidate, anyone interested in standing for this lot?