Friday was a very special day for more than one reason. It was my youngest son James’ 21st birthday. My gift to him was that he got to drive me around in our ‘campaign bus’ for the day! Bus is a bit of a grand name for it (it’s basically an old camper van) but it is proving a popular attraction as we get lots of thumbs up and toots as we drive around.
We spent the day focussing on local communities. This is an issue right at the heart of this constituency. Under Labour’s centralising big government so many people feel that there lives are now run from Westminster and we have very little influence over the decisions that affect us. The Conservatives have a number of policies that will return real power and influence to local communities on issues such as planning. This is something I am committed to make sure happens as soon as possible.
We started the day with our weekly campaign team briefing over breakfast – these weekly meetings have been going on now for almost 5 months. They have become very special to me as we regularly have up to 30 local people who get up early every Friday to keep in touch with our campaign. It is so important for me to know that I have the backing of so many local people who give up so much of their time to help.
We then headed into St Austell to deliver leaflets and talk to people in Bethel. Then we visited St Stephen. Here we spoke to lots of local people as well as visiting some of the local businesses – it is so important that we maintain small businesses in the villages to provide services and employment where people live. We spoke to the hairdressers, laundrette and the Hawkins Motors car dealership where I was able to talk about the Car Scrappage scheme and the Conservative Party’s plans to continue to support the motor trade as we come out of the recession.
We then called into the campaign office for lunch and to catch up with our campaign team and deal emails and some requests from the press. Then it was off to Trevisco – this beautiful small community is right next to the proposed site for the incinerator and I was able to again confirm my support for the fight against it.
We finished the day off with a special family meal to celebrate James’ birthday including a surprised visit from my sister.
Saturday was another beautiful day and the focus was the NHS with the Conservative Party launching the NHyeS campaign. We believe that the National Health Service is vital to every household in the country and we have made it our No1 priority. We are the only party that has not only committed to ring fence the heath service to protect it to any cuts but also to promise to actually increase spending year on year throughout the net Parliament.
We started the day in St Austell where we visited the Local Produce Market – this has been a great addition to the town and came about with the active support of Conservative Town Councillors. We then gave out leaflets explaining our policies on the NHS and spoke to lots of people in the town.
Then it was over to Newquay where we visited the hospital, and again spoke to lots of local people about their concerns for the NHS, before finishing the day knocking on doors in Treloggan, Pentire and Newquay Central.
I am so encourage by the response we are getting as we get out and talk to people. A recurring theme is numerous people who have in the past voted for other parties but have pledged their support for me at this election. It is clear that more and more people believe it is time for change after years of the Lib Dems failing to deliver for Cornwall.
On Sunday I had a day to relax a little with the family, catch up on house work and deal with emails. Looking forward to much more activity in the week ahead - 24 days to go and counting!
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