Tuesday 6 April 2010

Ready, steady, go!

So the starting gun has been fired and the race for the House of Commons has begun. Pollsters and pundits are going into overdrive, as this election promises to be the most hotly contested, and the least certain in outcome, for decades.

Here in North East Cambridgeshire, I and my team will be campaigning hard to challenge the successor to Malcolm Moss as Conservative candidate for the seat. This area has a proud Liberal tradition going back to Clement Freud and further. We're clear about our policy priorities, for a fair tax system; a fair start in life for every child; fair, transparent and more local politics; and a fair and sustainable economy that creates jobs. You can read more about our priorities here.

The Conservative party under David Cameron has tried to airbrush itself into credibility, but it's nowhere near fit to govern. The public has waited in vain for details of its policies and its tax and spending plans. And whether it's the decision to ally itself with some incredibly unsavoury partners in the European Parliament, or the complete shambles over issues such as gay rights, those parts of the Tory world view we can see aren't at all encouraging.

As for Labour, even if their national record suggested they deserved another chance to govern - after the banking crisis and the recession, ID cards, the underequipping of our troops in a misjudged war, the list goes on - on the ground in North East Cambridgeshire they're next to invisible. In the Chatteris by-election last month, they scored 33 votes out of 656. In the forthcoming Wisbech contest on 15 April they're set to do scarcely better. In last year's county council elections, Labour came third or worse in every single part of this constituency. Any claim that they can challenge the Conservatives for Malcolm Moss's North East Cambridgeshire seat is frankly laughable.

It's time for a real change with the Liberal Democrats: no more to-ing and fro-ing between two Labservative parties who have run the show for over 60 years.

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