The Final Push

Last week was certainly the most intense of the campaign. The week started with the recording of the BBC Radio Cornwall Any Questions programme on Monday (this was aired on the Laurence Reed show on Wednesday), followed by a live BBC News 24 Town Hall Debate on Tuesday lunch time which was also streamed on the BBC website. You can listen or watch both of these again on:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s91cy/BBC_Town_Hall_Debates/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p007gkz0/Laurence_Reed_General_Election_St_Austell_and_Newquay_debate/

At both events there was a good variety of questions covering both local issues and national policies. The highlight of both debates was when a question was asked asking all the candidates if they had fought a clean and positive campaign. As many of you will know most of my Liberal Democrat opponent’s campaign has been aimed at attacking me and in recent weeks has become very personal. However, I had no intention of dignifying this by talking about it, so it was quite a surprise to find Lee Jameson, the Labour candidate, speaking out, off his own bat, on my behalf!. He called the Liberal Democrats’ campaign against me petty and childish and Stephen Gilbert then acknowledged that his campaign has not always been positive and he apologised. It will be very interesting to see now we are in the last few days of the campaign if he genuinely meant this and changes his approach.

Then on Thursday we had the Churches Together hustings in St Austell. It was good to see St Austell Baptist Church packed out and everyone really engaged in the debate. Again, lots of good questions. I received great positive feedback from the audience at the end with a number of people saying they had decided to vote for me after hearing me speak that evening. The ‘undecided’ and ‘floating’ voters are taking their role in this election very seriously and all politicians are having to set out their stall and discuss their policies. All very good for politics in general.

The rest of the week was taken up with canvassing, again calling on homes right across the constituency. On Thursday we visited Churchtown Farm near Lanlivery which was a special time.

Saturday morning was spent in the foyer of Asda in St Austell. I met many folk and saw lots of familiar faces too. It was very affirming and interesting how many people came up to tell me they had already voted for me by post.

Then on Sunday, the team and I had the pleasure of welcoming David and Samantha Cameron to Lewannick Lodge, on Pentire Headland in Newquay. We gathered together a number of local business representatives and tourism leaders. It was a stunning setting which showed off Newquay and the North coast at its best. David spoke about our policies for job creation in order to kick start the economy to pull us out of the recession. He then answered questions.

He addressed many of the real issues that concern the business community in Cornwall as well as acknowledging that Cornwall’s services are under funded and that the funding formula needs to be reviewed and based on need. This is exactly what is needed for our county. But as David said this is unlikely to be achieved if we only have Lib Dem MPs as they just do not have the political clout in Westminster to get things changed – as the last 13 years has shown. He stated that Cornwall needs Conservative MPs sitting at the ministerial table with real influence.

So we now enter the last few days which will bring the culmination of the last three and half years of campaigning. On Thursday the people of this new constituency will decide who they want to send to Westminster to represent them.

I do not know if I will get time to post again before Thursday so I want to finish by saying that I hope I have demonstrated over this time that I will be a hard working MP who will have the influence our communities need. This is a crucial election for the future of both our country and St Austell and Newquay. After 13 years of Labour in Government and a Lib Dem MP locally, very little has been achieved for our towns and villages. It is time for change and I believe that only our party offers the real leadership and vision to bring about the changes we need. So please come out and vote – I hope you will feel I deserve your mandate to work on your behalf in Westminster.