ELECTION ON THURSDAY – A Final and Vital Favour

Dear fellow resident

I want to start by thanking everyone who has supported my campaign over the past few weeks.

Irrespective of the final result, it has been an honour to be your Liberal Democrat candidate in this most unpredictable of elections. I will be back in touch to report on the result, but for now I want to ask for your help for one last time…

With polls open in less than 8 hours, I want to ask a favour of all of you who have friends and family in the constituency. Don’t worry, it is not a plea to deliver leaflets or knock on doors, it is a favour that you can do in 5 minutes without ever having to leave the comfort of your own home…

I want us to remind people to vote via text message.

It is a tactic that was hugely successful in the Obama campaign and while I do not pretend to be a Barack, I want to make sure we get every vote we possibly can on Thursday.

Please take just 5 minutes to send a text to the people you know who live in Woking and the surrounding villages . I would suggest the message below, but of course feel free to adapt to suit your own style. Remember that after tomorrow you might have to wait another 5 years to shape the future direction of our country.

I hope you can spend just 5 minutes to send this text:

“On Thursday, I will be voting in the General Election. My vote is for Rosie Sharpley – our Liberal Democrat candidate. Please forward this msg to your local contacts. In this election every single vote will count”.

OF COURSE- MAKE SURE TO VOTE YOURSELF!

Thanks again

Rosie

ELECTION ON THURSDAY – A Final and Vital Favour

Council for Protection of Rural England’s Manifesto for Surrey

I today pledged my support for the CPRE’s Manifesto for Surrey. As someone who has campaigned on environmental issues for many years, I am pleased to support them and their valuable work, which aims to protect green belt land in Surrey today and for future generations.

The Manifesto pledges to protect the life and protection of the environment around us. There should be no building of housing on green belt land and protecting wildlife and the landscape in places that are currently under threat should be foremost in any plans. Simply creating new Green Belt to replace that which is lost to housing is unacceptable. Current green belt has taken years to establish itself and the new green belt is no substitute.

We all have a responsibility to protect the landscape around us not only for our own personal enjoyment, but also for the impact that it has on our natural environment and resources.

I am proud to support the CPRE in their work

Nick Clegg launches ‘My Personal Guarantee’

Nick Clegg‘s pledge reads:

“This is my personal guarantee that I will use all the support you give me on Thursday to deliver fairness in Britain.

“We need a fairer tax system. I will use your votes to cut taxes for those at the bottom and in the middle and close the loopholes for those at the top.

“We need to support our children. I will use your votes to ensure extra funding for schools, to cut class sizes and give all children a fair chance.

“We need to clean up politics. I will use your votes to reform Parliament, to deliver a fairer voting system, protect your freedoms and give you the right to sack corrupt MPs.

“We need a new economy. I will use your vote to split up the banks, get them lending again, invest in green infrastructure and so create jobs.

“This election campaign has shown us that millions of people want us to do something different this time.

“Politicians should work together to solve the nation’s biggest problems.

“That is why, whatever the outcome on Thursday, I believe we should be prepared to work together to fix the terrible state of our public finances and ensure economic stability.

“These are the key steps to a new, fairer Britain. Give me the power of your vote and we can make it happen.

“Together, we can make the difference.”

View Nick Clegg‘s guarantee here.

Let’s talk about tuition fees

On Wednesday I spent a few hours with the students at Woking College. It was a very enlightening few hours talking to them about their feelings and concerns for the future. One of the biggest fears that students and their parents have today is the level of debt that they will be left with then finish their higher education.

This is why I was pleased with Nick Clegg’s comments this week:

“The Liberal Democrats are different. Not only will we oppose any raising of the cap, we will scrap tuition fees for good, including for part-time students. We can’t do it overnight, but we can start straight away with students in their final year – that way means anyone at university this autumn will have their debt cut by at least £3,000. Students can make the difference in countless seats in this election. Use your vote to block those unfair tuition fees and get them scrapped once and for all.”

Under the current system of tuition fees and both Labour and the Conservative plans to raise tuition fees further over the next 5 years, students could be saddled with debts as high as £44,000. Only the Liberal Democrats are committed to scrapping tuitions fees altogether and oppose any attempt to raise them.

Leader Nick Clegg said: “Labour and the Conservatives have been trying to keep tuition fees out of this election campaign. It’s because they don’t want to come clean with you about what they’re planning. Despite the huge financial strain fees already place on Britain’s young people, it is clear both Labour and the Conservatives want to lift the cap on fees. If fees rise to £7,000 a year, as many rumours suggest they would, within five years some students will be leaving university up to £44,000 in debt. That would be a disaster. If we have learnt one thing from the economic crisis, it is that you can’t build a future on debt.”

We all want our children to do well and have the opportunity to go into higher and further education. The proposals to raise tuition fees will serve only to ensure that only a chosen few get that opportunity. Once again this government and the Conservative opposition are trying to fix the system so that those from poorer backgrounds and on lower incomes do not get the chance they deserve, regardless of how academically qualified they may be.

As someone who has championed the rights of the young throughout my service in Woking, I will be campaigning strongly on this issue in the months and years to come.

“It’s time we all took more care of our eyes ….”

I today took part in a quiz from RNIB to raise awareness amongst election candidates of the leading causes of sight loss. Questions also ask who can get free eye tests and how many of us are already living with sight problems.

Six million older people at risk of blindness

There are around 1.8 million people in the UK already living with sight loss, with around 2700 in [name of constituency]. RNIB’s quiz revealed that pensioners are most at risk of losing their sight, in fact two-thirds of partially sighted people are aged 75 or over. Yet, six million older people in the UK (47 per cent) are needlessly risking their sight by not having their eyes tested regularly, despite being eligible for free eye tests.

Saving sight

I was also shocked to learn that nearly 50 per cent of all sight loss is avoidable. This includes people with refractive error – that is people in need of a correct prescription for glasses or contact lenses – and people who have lost sight through conditions that could have been treated if detected early enough, such as glaucoma.

Sight is the sense we most fear losing, so why are so many of us are potentially putting it at risk through not having regular sight tests? There needs to be a greater public understanding that a sight test isn’t just about whether you need glasses, it can also detect signs of eye disease. It’s time we all took eye health and sight loss seriously.

RNIB recommends that everyone should get their eyes tested every two years, or more frequently if recommended by an optometrist. You can see more about their work here at www.rnib.org.uk

Hustings dates for your diaries

If you want to have your chance to come and hear what myself and the other candidates have to say on matters that affect you before you cast your vote on May 6th, then why not come along to one of the hustings that are coming up.

There are two more before the election, details of which are listed below

St Johns, Woking
When:    Monday 26th April at 8pm
Where:  St John’s Memorial Hall, Festival Path, St Johns, Woking, Surrey GU21 7SQ

West Byfleet, Woking
When:    Sunday 2nd May at 5pm
Where:  St John’s Church, Junction of Parvis Road and Camphill Road, West Byfleet, Surrey KT14 6EH

I look forward to seeing you there.

A wonderful week with local students

Bilal points out a pothole in Woking

At this time in one of the most exciting election battles in years, getting our message out to young voters is crucial. Two weeks ago we saw four first year Godalming Students, who are not yet able to vote, join our campaign.

They prove that you don’t have to be 18 to participate in politics, and if you feel strongly about any issue, now is the best time to help make a difference. With the help of experienced Liberal Democrat campaigners they hit the streets of Horsell and Westfield helping to spread our election message as best they could. Although some of them were initially wary, they quickly got into the swing of the things and were able to canvas on their own.

It was impossible to miss Joe, Bilal, Shaan and Jared when walking into Town Square on Wednesday; each one deep in conversation with passers by as part of their young voter registration drive. Bilal even found time to strike the traditional politician pothole pose, saying that:

‘you see so many posters and leaflets with people pointing at potholes, I thought I would do my own’!

Their efforts showed just how much young people care about politics, and when better to get involved than in a general election campaign?

I’d like to thank the students for all their hard work and enthusiasm over the course of their time with myself and the team and hope they come and help us again.

Christ Church Hustings Interviews

On Wednesday evening i took part in a hustings at Christ Church in Woking Town Centre. All the candidates were interviewed prior to the event. You can watch the interviews below:

Support the LibDems in Woking – Download your poster here!

Show your support for the Liberal Democrats in Woking by downloading your own campaign poster here.

It’s a much more environemtally friendly option!

LiberalDemocratsWindowPoster2010

Proposed cuts to Ruth House

The Children and Families Select Committee produced a report recently discussing ‘efficiency options’ with regards to spending by Children’s Services and Safeguarding.

Outlined in the document from Surrey County Council (under Conservative control) were concerns that they were not delivering services within their ‘financial envelope’. This is political speak for ‘spending too much money and we need to make cuts’

One area where they have identified they want to make cuts is Ruth House, the residential part of Freemantle’s school (to which it is attached) where students have extended learning programmes.

The committee reported that “Efficiencies of £1.3m were identified from this financial envelope the majority of which (c£1.1m) will come from the reduction of internal provision. Namely reducing Ruth House beds from 20 to 10 and delaying the opening of Applewood, (in Caterham) a new resource that has not yet started to take in children.”

What these proposed cuts do is threaten the very existence of a public service that brings much-needed respite to parents of children with severe learning disabilities not only in the Woking area but all across Surrey. The entire project has been a catalogue of disasters from start to finish with failures in planning permission for alternative sites, considerations over means testing and general reorganisation of the service as a whole. It is another example of the catastrophic cuts already being considered, and in many cases already underway in Conservative controlled councils up and down the country.

Action needs to be taken now to save our essential public services and whilst we are all aware that cuts need to be made, cutting them where they are needed most in places like Ruth House is not the way forward. It is bad enough that our NHS and other public services are stretched to the financial limit, but taking aware key services like this without so much of a whimper is downright wrong whichever way you look at it. It speaks volumes that even the local councillor for the area in which Ruth House is located had to read about the proposals in the newspapers. Where is the transparency and openness that is essential where our public services are concerned?

I am appalled that such a thing as this can even be considered.