Tuesday January 6, 2009 - 08:06:02 AM

	As a former OFSTED Lay Inspector, education is one of my primary interests. I believe that a good education is absolutely fundamental to the well-being of our country, whether it is for the economy or for social cohesion. We must ensure that every child is engaged at school whether it is through academic or vocational training. Not everyone is good at taking exams and there must be good alternatives. We must return autonomy to our schools so they can decide on how to run their school rather than giving them almost daily instructions from Central Government. We have some good schools in Portsmouth and they have improved dramatically over the last few years. This is largely due to the dedication of our impressive Head teachers and classroom teachers. I have visited some schools already and hope to have visited all by the election.
	Health The National Health Service is at the top of our political agenda. Everyone uses the NHS at some point in their lives and we are incredibly lucky to have an easily accessible service and one that is free at the point of use. I have lived in several different countries and this is not the case in many of them. In the United States, just visiting a GP can cost $100 (£50) unless you have some private medical cover and 50 million people do not. We need to give control to our doctors and nurses who are under government restrictions and targets. They know how to keep the NHS running effectively and keep our hospitals clean. I was pleased to see at a recent Queen Alexandra Hospital Governors meeting that I attended, that cases of MRSA are falling to a minimal amount and that only 1 case was reported in December 2007. I am also concerned that there are not enough NHS dentists although the PCT assure me that there are NHS dentists available. If you are finding it difficult to find a dentist you can ring 0845 0508345. I will continue to monitor local NHS provision and will keep you updated. There is an online petition to show your support for the NHS, you can sign it at www.conservatives.com/NHyes
	Environment Climate change and our local environment affect our daily lives. Balancing the needs of our modern lives and preserving the future environment is a huge challenge for us all and particularly for politicians who are going to have to make difficult decisions. The car has been a huge contribution to the quality of our lives but I would like to see more money spent on cleaner technology and alternative fuel. Our global economy means that air transport and flights are crucial, aviation only contributes a small percentage to greenhouse gases but this will increase with more flights. Climate change will affect Portsmouth which is in danger of flooding and it is disappointing that DEFRA have not allocated enough money to our flood defences. We can all help climate change by using our bicycles. Portsmouth is flat so there shouldn't be an excuse not to get out on your bike. I will be encouraging more bike lanes so that we can all cycle safely. We can all recycle more too and use fewer plastic bags. Buy your environmentally friendly 'I love Albert Road' bag from most shops in Albert Road.

Public transport can be very expensive and we need to have a debate on how to encourage more people to use public transport. It is all very well investing in public transport but it has to be affordable to everyone. I am pleased that the City Council is still providing tokens as well as bus passes.

I welcome talk of a park and ride facility but it needs to be bigger than 500 spaces and must have an excellent bus or light railway service into the City to make it effective.

I will also be campaigning for more comfortable and faster trains to London, I think that it takes too long to get to London considering we are only 69 miles away. This would bring more business and investment in our city.

We are committed to putting more police on the beat and reducing their paperwork. There is no reason that they have to spend time filling out unnecessary forms when they should be out solving crimes.

Crime is reducing in Portsmouth but there are still problems in Guildhall Walk in the evenings and many people are frightened to go out at night. Respect seems to be missing from some people and we need to work on making sure that it starts at an early age.

Many of our prisoners are there for drug-related crimes and we need to spend more on drug rehabilitation and prevention. There must be a more effective drug awareness programme in our schools and we need more research into why our young people are taking drugs and how to prevent them from doing so.

As a former Territorial Army soldier in the Intelligence Corps I am really disappointed that our armed forces are not being properly equipped. If the Government is going to send our troops into battle, we must ensure that they have the latest equipment and support.

We must ensure that Portsmouth retains our naval base and I will fight any attempts to close it. There are 35,000 jobs in the area which are connected to the naval base and any closure will have a huge effect on the local economy. The threat seems to have diminished but we must be ready to campaign at any time.

We believe that ID cards are a bad idea and they won't prevent any terrorist attacks. Spain has ID cards and still suffered from bombing by terrorists. The scheme could cost up to £20 billion and will cost us all money to apply for them.

Gordon Brown's £100 billion stealth tax has left Britain with one of the worst pension systems in Europe, and it used to be the envy of everyone. The Conservatives are calling for a 'Lifeboat Fund' to top up the pension income of those who have lost pension savings.

One of the biggest burdens on pensioners is the doubling of council tax since Labour came into power in 1997. It has gone up far more than inflation and we must look at ways of reducing this for people on fixed and low incomes. It has become a stealth tax. We are doing research on this through our policy review groups and I hope we will come up with a sensible solution.

I believe in equality and equality of opportunity. No one must be discriminated against on grounds of race, belief or sexual orientation. We can only build communities on a mutual feeling of respect. Many families struggle through poverty and social deprivation and I believe a government‘s responsibility is to help vulnerable people get the support they need.

We must look at ways of supporting parents and making sure that they have the capability to bring up children to respect others and contribute to their community. Parenting is one of the hardest jobs in the world (I know I have four children) and I think that some of the supermen and superwomen of our communities are those that stay at home, often making big sacrifices, to bring up the next generation. Society and government do not seem to recognise the contribution that parents make and I will be campaigning to make sure that this is recognised.

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