The Conservatives are launching a major new initiative to revive local politics by reaching out beyond traditional Party boundaries.

“A big part of the problem facing local Government is the lack of involvement of the kind of important local ‘movers and shakers’ that used to take pride in running our towns” said Torbay Conservative Group leader Kevin Carrol.

“There is actually a lot of common ground amongst bodies like the Civic Society, the Hoteliers, the small business community and the Chamber of Trade but the proper forum for shaping the Bays future is through the local council itself.”

“In recent years we think lots of the influence that should have been there (in the council chamber) has been put off because people have felt that being involved had to be a political act. We want to get away from that preconception”

The Conservatives have decided to try persuading leading members of the bay community to become involved in their campaign.

They are planning an ‘open evening’ at the Town Hall to unveil some of the plans they have for Torbay’s future if they are successful in winning control in local elections due next May.

“We have been working on plans for some time and we want to invite the Bays leading lights to have a look at our vision of the kind of Torbay we want to see” said Conservatives spokesman Marcus Wood “This isn’t going to be an evening about Conservative politics or free market mumbo jumbo - it’s all about what Torbay ought to look like, what kind of place we want the Bay to be to live in, work in and visit.”

The Conservatives hope that new people might be encouraged to stand as Conservative councillors if they understand what it is that a potential future Conservative controlled Council would be trying to achieve.

“We want to find locally successful people who are interested in putting something back in to the Borough. We are especially keen to attract people who wouldn’t normally consider themselves as interested in politics but are genuinely concerned about the future of our glorious Bay.”

“What we are saying is, come a long and have a look at some of the ideas we have for the future of Torbay, and if you like them, join with us.”

The evening will include a slide show presentation showing a few of the ideas to already being looked at, a short presentation to give an idea of the work undertaken by councillors and the commitment required to be one, and an open discussion forum.

It is hoped that Mayor Nick Bye and council chief executive Elizabeth Raikes will be attending.

The meeting is scheduled to take place at the Town Hall on the evening of Wednesday March 15th.

Anyone can come along but guests must pre-book their place by calling the Conservatives at the town hall on 01803 207 069.

Sorry seems to be the hardest word.

This is Lib Dem councillor Chris Lomas who last Thursday launched an unexpected tirade against the Herald Express.

Calling the local newspaper 'corrupt' was not only particularly ill mannered and slanderous, it was politically inept.

Everybody in politics has an axe to grind against the media - I think the local press are biased against my party; until I chat with someone from UKIP or the local Labour party and discover that they feel exactly the same!

The truth is a good newspaper wants to reflect the views it believes it's readers hold -and at the moment most people still think badly of politicians from all sides.

This latest outburst has come on top of a run of bad publicity for the local Lib Dems in which they have been heavily criticised for their behaviour towards campaigner Suzie Colley; as well as making themselves very unpopular by shunning Mayor Nick Bye's offer of a cabinet post..

Many Lib Dems are very bitter about the outcome last year of the mayoral election which meant -in effect- that they were dismissed from office barely half way through their term. But blaming the electorate and the press for your own mistakes is something the Conservative Party used to do - and look where it got us.

In fairness many of Mr Lomas' colleagues have moved to distance their group from his comments and yours truly is now wondering whether or not this man has the grace - or the intellect - to do the right thing and issue an apology.

I doubt if Brendan Hanrahan (Editor of the Herald Express) is holding his breath waiting for one though.

1984 is closer than you think.

I have never been more unhappy about the way our country is going than I have been after the votes in the House of Commons recently.

In the space of just a few days we have lost the right to be free citizens -at least if you want to travel abroad, that is.

Under the ID cards bill in future you will HAVE to be registered in order to hold a passport.

So not only will it be almost impossible to carry on a day to day existence without an ID, (in spite of assurances to the contrary) it will be impossible to travel without one.

It's already a legal requirement to offer proof if identity for a daft range of activities, including instructing an estate agent or applying for a childs piggy bank account.

Add to that the rather Orwellian concept of making the 'glorification of terrorism' a criminal offence and the fact that MP's have now made a perfectly legal passtime illegal anywhere but in your own home (smoking, and no -I am not a smoker) and our legislators have clearly got themsleves into a very illiberal state.

We alre also subjected to the nonsense where Police Officers, who refuse to respond to shoplifting offences of less than £75 (as reported in some parts of London) arrested a protester in the Mall for reading out a list of the Iraq war dead.

Worst of all, we seem to have lost our liberty without complaint or protest. I just hope that an incoming Conservative Government will be prepared to give is some of these liberties back again.

More trouble for Torbay Lib dems today as they try to defend keeping ex leader Cllr Harris on the payroll.

The local Lib Dems appear to be so desperate not to have a by election in Tormohun (Cllr Harris' ward) that they have decided to take yet more flak about him remaining in post while he in fact is living in London.

If they thought they would get away with this they were wrong.

Local campaigners have fought a high profile campaign to keep this issue in the public eye; running a campaign which culminated this week in presenting a petition to the councillors - at which point the majority of Lib Dem councillors apparently walked out.

The Liberal Democrats have treated local campaigner Susy Colley disgracefully; enraging her but also further alienating local residents, the local newspaper and many of their own supporters and donors.

This discredited bunch should learn to take note of a great piece of political advice.

IF YOU ARE ALREADY IN A HOLE, STOP DIGGING.

Real change? - Or is he simply playing to the press?

This is the question I get asked the most about David Cameron by our members and supporters.

Is he really changing our Party or is he merely trying to make us look and sound more moderate to keep the press on side?

The Conservative Party has always been the home of pragmatic politics. Since the days of Disreali the party has been kept in power by a survival instinct based on remaining up to date with public opinion and keeping our underlying philosphy simple.

In the 1970's the country was sliding into an abyss and the Party required a much more determined and strident set of solutions to combat trade union power and economic decline; but even under Thatcher real spending on the NHS went up, Grammar Schools were replaced by Comprehensives, major pieces of race relation and sex discrimination legislation were introduced and the level of overall tax in the economy stayed at historically high levels - hardly an extreme 'right wing' administration.

But since then the Thatcher Tories have been portrayed by our opponents as 'extremists' hell-bent on distroying the NHS and returning British society to some kind of Victorian class-ridden nightmare.

At last the Party has recognised that this parody of our politics has become the image of us that most non Tories have and are doing something about it.

Cameron has done nothing to change our basic philosophy - keep Government small.

What he has done is ruthlessly drop any policy that offers ammunition to those who would wish to mislead the public about our goals and to beef up the policies -always there but overlooked by the press and public- that stress our belief in a fair society.

A society where people have equal opportunity to make the best of the talents and abilities that they have; where we look after those for whom circumstances have made life difficult; and where we have a society that shows consideration for each other and for the environment we share.

Not new Conservatives, in fact just reminding people of long held priorities we have always had.

Another day, another embarrassment.


The events of the last few weeks have been a shocking series of blows to the Liberal Democrats - a political party far more at home dishing the dirt than receiving it.

Liberal Democrats are rightly embarrassed and humiliated by a string of alarming disclosures that reveal what many involved in Westminster have known for years, that the Party has just as many problems with some of it's MP's as any the other party.

Were it not for the fact that the Lib Dems have made such a meal out of the problems suffered by various Conservative MP's in the past (including Mark Oatens predecessor in Winchester and Adrian Sanders' in Torbay) their own current difficulties wouldn't amount to much beyond the personal family tragedies they involve.

But the fact is Lib Dems consistantly promoted themselves during the 1990's as being somehow not like the (mostly Conservative) MP's they were trying to replace. They endlessly criticised each and every target Conservative MP for any and every personal difficulty or salacious press story; as we know only too well in Torbay, and happily mopped up the votes on offer from an electorate who became disaffected as a result.

Well that was their choice, but Liberal Democrats need to remember the old saying - "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword."

MP's are a cross section of society and represent in their midst all the failings and weaknesses that Mankind possesses.

Lib Dems are no better nor worse in this regard than the rest of us; maybe a few of their activists ought to remember that if future and start to fight and win votes on their policy, not on personality.

Labour to the Rescue?

I was interested to read the report in last nights Herald Express of Nick Bye and Elizabeth Raikes' trip to the House of Commons to meet the local Government minister Phil Woolas last week concerning the budget grant made by his department.

Clearly 'anything is worth a try' when the budget deficit is £9,000,000 and we have a Government more interested in piling new costs and new responsibilities onto local authorities than putting in the cash to pay for them. There is little doubt that on top of this, the Government do have an agenda to redistribute grant monies away from areas like Torbay and in favour of areas that they belive are more needy -mostly in the North- which a cynic might suggest means more help to many marginal Labour constituencies.

During the Lib Dems disastrous budget crisis of 2003/4 I can remember a very great deal of public hand-wringing about the government grant situation from our Lib Dem MP and I know that he spent a great deal of time trying to dissuade the Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford from capping the tax rise.

Again in 2005 under a Lib Dem council he spent much time and effort blaming the Government for the woes of Torbay council and pleading for more cash. Sadly he failed to achieve anything on both occasions.

However I am hoping that the Government are more likely to take Mr Bye and Mrs Raikes pleas more seriously than they were prepared to listen to Mr Sanders; for one simple reason (and it's not because Labour ministers don't like the Liberal Democrats!).

Mr Sanders' colleagues were asking for more money having awarded themselves a 65% payrise and after having wasted hundreds of thousands on madcap schemes like the toilets fiasco.