Cllr Pearl Lewis

Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

Today I helped John leaflet for the general election in Long Crendon. It rained. A lot. But being out working for the election does give me an immense sense of pride in our democracy… I hope that the publicity around the election in Buckingham, with John being Speaker, will really boost the interest and consequently the turnout – and that can only be a good thing in my eyes! The constituency has a total electorate of 71,000 (!) in Buckinghamshire so there is still a lot of hard work to be done – if the election is May 6^th, then that leaves us just under seven weeks…. And the Conservatives are fighting hard in Milton Keynes South too for the marginal seat there. I hope there will be time for me to head over there for Iain Stewart too.

If you would like to help out with John’s campaign then you can contact his PA at the Speakers House: warrenj@parliament.uk or telephone 0207 219 6346

On Thursday 11 March, the Right Honourable John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons and MP for Buckingham, lectured at the University on five of his personal heroes and heroines: William Wilberforce, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher and Aung San Suu Kyi.  John began by explaining his three criteria for being a hero: beginning from a point of prior weakness or adversity, displaying immense courage and passion in achieving your goal, and choosing a goal that is of moral purpose. His five examples show all these traits, as I summarized for the University website:

Aung San Suu Kyi - A true 21st Century heroine

Wilberforce campaigned relentlessly (and successfully) for the abolition of the slave trade, despite heavy opposition and his weak power as a back-bench MP. Churchill’s time in politics gained him a number of enemies, but his performance and courage as Prime Minister during the war earned him the legacy of being one of the greatest wartime leaders. Mandela, who spent 26 years in jail for his anti-apartheid work and campaign for one nation, forgave his enemies, and served as the President of South Africa. Thatcher’s heavy opposition in her own party at a time when women were a very small minority of MPs did not prevent her from taming the power of the trade unions, winning the Falklands war, standing up to the Soviet Union and privatising the state industrial sector. Aung San Suu Kyi’s struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma has seen her put under house arrest, separated from her children, and refusing the tempting offer to be released if she commits to never returning.

John Bercow reminded the audience that we should not use the word ‘hero’ as lightly as we do. For real change in our troubled world, we need true heroes like those he described.

On 6^th March I attended the Conservative Councillors Association Annual Conference at Hotel Russell in London. David Cameron was the key speaker, and opened the conference urging councillors to ‘go forth and mobilise’ in the run up to the election in 2010. He promised more powers for councillors to make decisions under a Conservative administration and encouraged councils to be more transparent with their expenses, salaries and expenditure – publishing records online for the general public’s information.

David Cameron spoke to the Conservative councillors at the conference

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, came on to much applause – and did not disappoint. His speech was vibrant and encouraging, recognising the challenges that the upcoming election will bring. He reminded the party that a win is not certain: there is a long way to go and we should not be complacent. His humour throughout was not misplaced, and meant he came across in a very honest manner.

Caroline Spelman MP (Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) outlined the plans for housing and the abolition of the infrastructure quangos preventing elected councillors from making decisions about planning. She committed to opposing Labour plans for a revaluation of council tax (Council tax rates would be based on the market/rentable value of a property under Labour plans), to much agreement from councillors. She spoke of the Green Belt protection under plans for flexible land use (for example, using old retail sites instead of carving up our fields and countryside). A matched council tax scheme for all new developments would mean council tax incomes would be matched by the Government to fund relevant infrastructure. She committed to abolishing the Standards Board and its accompanying bureaucracy and money wasting, by increasing the powers of the Local Government Ombudsman and also the District Auditor to scrutinise local government and deal with cases of maladministration.

I had the pleasure of meeting Caroline Spelman – she was pleased to see a young face and reminded me that we needed more women politicians.

Boris Johnson came on to much applause

There were few young faces at the conference – I discovered in one of the breakout sessions that the average age of Conservative councillors is 68 (!) which shocked me greatly. We discussed that it is unfortunate that councils are not more representative of the people of Britain. Most who are younger need their full time jobs to keep going, meaning they cannot progress higher for time constraints and some councils holding daytime meetings. The younger people that were at the conference were standing for London boroughs that hold their elections on May 6^th alongside the General Election.

I met some interesting people – two brothers from Tendring council in Essex who are both councillors, a candidate for Westminister City Council, the leader of Ealing council who spoke to the group of the challenges of being effective after taking political control of a council, Grant Shapps MP, the Shadow Housing Minister who was also the after dinner speaker, and Cllr Merrick Cockrell and Cllr Rory Love of the CCA Board.

The most valuable part of the day was seeing councillors being given the opportunity to quiz members of the Shadow Cabinet about their policy for a new administration.

After all, we are the ones that are delivering the services to our people.