A Message from David Cameron

The expenses scandal is still the number one topic of conversation across the country. In offices, on buses, at home, the strength of anger being voiced is like nothing we've heard for a long time. But I don't think that anger begins and ends with expenses. I believe it stems from a long, deep dissatisfaction with the way that politics and power work in our country.
The fact is that people feel they have very little control over the world around them - and they're right. While some areas of our lives offer us choice and control as never before - in media, travel, shopping, entertainment - when it comes to the things we ask from politics and the state, there's a sense that someone else is always pulling the strings, always pulling power away from people.
Today, in a speech to the Open University, I set out our plans for a radical redistribution of power back to the people: from the state to citizens; from Whitehall to communities; from bureaucracy to democracy. This is a massive, radical change. But I believe that through decentralisation, accountability and transparency we can take power away from the political elite and hand it to the man and woman in the street. You can watch the speech - and look at the live Q&A blog I did afterwards - by clicking here. David Cameron

Post Office to Re-Open

The Post Office have written to confirm that a new main post office for Ashford Town will be opening on 4th June at 72 Church Road, Ashford. Local Conservatives have campaigned hard for a main post office in Ashford after the closure a year ago of the main post office in Church Road. This is a good example of how the community can work together for a successful result.

Petition - Against Capping of Surrey Police

Please support our campaign against capping of Surrey Police
A petition has now been opened on the Surrey Police Authority website for local people to sign in support of the case.
This can be accessed at www.surreypa.gov.uk<http://www.surreypa.gov.uk> In two days, the petition has received more than 2,100 signatures, and they continue to come in at a rapid rate. Please do add your name now.

Ashford Town Investment

Spelthorne Borough Council will be investing £100,000 over the next three years into improving Ashford Town. As the County Councillor for Ashford, I have asked to be involved in this, and would like to use some of the funds allocated to me through the Spelthorne Local Committee to add value to the scheme. I will be at a stall on Sunday 7th June, at the Ashford on The Map day at the Brooklands College, Ashford Campas, asking Ashford residents and shoppers what improvements they would like to see. Please do come along on the day, or if you can't make it on the Sunday, come along to my surgery on Saturday 6th June in Ashford library from 11am to noon. If you can't make that either, please do give me a call to discuss what you would like to see.

David Cameron to reopen the Conservative Parliamentary Candidates List.

David Cameron has announced that he will reopen the Conservative parliamentary candidates list.
In an interview on the Andrew Marr show, David said he wanted to “open up the talent that is available in Parliament".
And he urged people to apply for our candidates list even if they have never been involved in politics before:
“If you believe in public service, if you want to help us clean up politics, if you share our values come and be a Conservative candidate.”
David said he wanted to see more "open primaries" where everyone in a constituency can vote for the next Conservative candidate:
"We have had open primaries for many of our candidates for the forthcoming elections and they have been really successful. Opening up the hall and saying to anyone in the constituency – whichever party they belong to – come along and vote for the next Conservative candidate has worked fantastically well.”
If you are interested in becoming a Conservative candidate and believe you would make a good Member of Parliament, please write to Gareth Fox at Conservative Campaign Headquarters (30 Millbank, London, SW1P 4DP) setting out why you would like to be a candidate, and enclose a copy of your CV. Please set out any work you have done in your local community, and achievements in your work or your personal life which you think would make you an effective MP.

Make Labour's next U-turn an EU-turn

Richard Briers digs in to stop the third runway

"This new runway is just such a daft idea. It's obvious to everyone who digs a garden that the climate is already changing, and things are set to get even worse, so why make Heathrow the biggest single emitter of CO2 in the country?" - Richard Briers
When the time came to dig an allotment on the Airplot, we knew that we needed some expert advice. And who better to turn to than the man who brought allotments to the attention of millions in 70s TV sensation The Good Life, and organic gardening supremos Garden Organic?
Yes, the latest guest to the Airplot is Richard Briers, who has dusted off his spade and started digging up the land earmarked by Gordon Brown for the construction of a new runway at Heathrow airport.
Richard is joining Gardener's World presenter Alys Fowler to plant organic carrots on the plot - they want to send vegetables to every member of the cabinet, in the hope that they'll enjoy them so much they'll ditch their plans for a third runway.
The allotment will be cared for using organic practices for the benefit of the local community. Unless of course, BAA and the government get their way and a new runway tarmacs over the allotment and the local community with it. But with businesses, environmentalists, gardeners and celebrities joining the tens of thousands of people who've signed up to the Airplot, that's never going to happen, because we own their runway and they're not getting it back!
As Richard says: "If thousands more people sign up to become beneficial owners of the allotment land we'll be able to stand together against Gordon's Brown's silly idea, armed with root vegetables and the knowledge that we're right and he's wrong."
To find out more and join Richard Briers as a beneficial owner of the plot, visit the Airplot site.

The Plan, Twelve Months to Renew Britain

Are you sick of the news about MP's expenses? Are you disillusioned with our government?
Britain is heading in the wrong direction. The Plan shows how to put our country on the right track. Daniel Hannan and Douglas Carswell show how a future government could actually shift powers back, from Brussels to Westminster, from Whitehall to town halls, from the state to the citizens. Their plan aims to restore honour and meaning to the ballot box. It would disperse power among communities, through localism and through referendums. Things do not have to be as they are. The Plan shows how we can change our country for the better.
“In the USA, people want to go down a different road. The British people also want change. This is the road we should go down” - Frederick Forsyth
"The Plan offers an analysis of why people are sick and tired of politicians, and what can be done about it." - Boris Johnson's blog
"Gripping material .... I recommend it to anyone who wants to see democracy restored and people empowered in these islands." - John Redwood MP

Conservative Top Ten Schools Policies

1. We will change the law to make it easier for teachers to deal with violent incidents, remove disruptive pupils, and physically restrain disruptive children without fear of legal action.
2. We will change the law to give teachers a general legal power to ban any items they think may cause violence or disruption - a power the Government refuses to give because of human rights laws.
3. We will end the right to appeal against exclusion to an independent panel, which has sent children expelled for knife crime back to the school they were excluded from.
4. We will scrap the Standard Assessment Test at the end of the second year of primary school and replace it with a simple reading test so that every parent will know whether their child has been taught to read.
5. Heads need more control over staff pay and conditions. We will give all headteachers the power to pay bonuses to teachers based on teaching and dealing with violence, disruption, and bullying. Schools must be able to attract specialists - especially in reading, maths and science.
6. We will create 'Teach Now' to expand the number of highly qualified people in teaching. These graduates could learn on the job, like with the successful Teach First programme, instead of having to spend a year in a college as now.
7. We will create an independent body to ensure exams are tied to world class standards. We will give state schools the same freedom as independent schools - the freedom to offer their pupils the best international exams, which the Government does not allow now.
8. We will create a new generation of independent, free, and non-selective primary and secondary Academies, so that different communities, form deprived inner cities to rural villages, can create and nurture good local schools. We will change the rules to make it much easier for groups of parents and other organisations, such as educational charities, to start new Academies. We will give all parents the power to take their child out of a state school, apply to a new Academy, and automatically transfer the per pupil funding from the old school to the new Academy.
9. We will allow successful schools to opt out of political control and become independent Academies.
10. We will make sure that badly run schools, such as those with major behavior problems, are taken over by new leadership with a record of success. There must be greater freedom for teachers from political interference and more responsibility of schools to parents.

Save Our NHS - Conservative Plan for Change

Sustain NHS values: Free at the point of use. Based on need not ability to pay.
Access for all: Defend local Services.
Value for money: Dismantle Labour's bureaucracy. Make competition work.
Excellence for everyone: Some of the best health outcomes in Europe.

Over to the professionals: Trusting clinical judgement. Better workforce training.
Unleash patient powers: Information revolution. Decisions closer to patients.
Respect for patients: Build more single rooms. Dignity and privacy for patients.

National plans for prevention: New focus on healthy living.
Have your say: Healthwatch - a national consumer voice for patients.
Spending secured. Real terms increases in spending.

Latest News on Heathrow Expansion

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/

David Cameron Blog

Last week we had the Budget - when Gordon Brown ran out of money.
This week we've had the votes on the Gurkhas and MPs' expenses - and now the Prime Minister has run out of moral and political authority too.
Take the Gurkhas. They are the bravest of they brave. In WWI, in WWII, in the Falklands and today in the dust and heat of Afghanistan, they have fought and died for this country in some of its toughest battles.
We owe them a huge debt. We need to treat them properly in return. That's why I believe there should be a presumption that Gurkha veterans who want to live in this country should be able to do so.
This week the House of Commons stood up for the Gurkhas, by defeating the Government, and voting decisively in favour of allowing them to come to Britain. It was a tremendous victory for Joanna Lumley, who had campaigned so hard on their behalf. And Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg deserved great credit for calling the debate.
And yet only hours earlier at Prime Minister's Questions, Gordon Brown had insisted to me that it was impossible for Britain to show more generosity to the Gurkhas. It showed how out of touch he has become.
On Thursday it was the issue of MPs' expenses, which the House of Commons debated and voted on. And again, another master-class from the Prime Minister in how to make a complete mess of an important issue.
Several weeks ago I demanded a meeting with Gordon Brown, together with Nick Clegg, to sit down, get a grip and clean things up.
Instead, Gordon Brown popped up on YouTube last week to announce his own brilliant idea: pay MPs to turn up and do their job - they would get a daily allowance for doing so, no receipts required. Within minutes the phone rang in my office - it was a message from the PM saying he would like a meeting to discuss his idea.
Unsurprisingly his scheme got panned, and by the time of the vote yesterday he had to abandon it. Another humiliating defeat for a Prime Minister who just won't listen.
It's been an important fortnight in British politics. Everywhere I go, people tell me they want change - change to a Government that focuses not on tomorrow's headlines, but on the long-term good of the country. They want a Government that treats them like adults.
Over the next few weeks, I will be out on the road campaigning in the local and European elections, which take place on 4th June. That's your chance to send Gordon Brown a message, and Vote for Change.
That's a month away. In the meantime, I hope you have a great Bank Holiday weekend.
David Cameron