One of former Mayor Frank Branston’s innovations was to emphasise Bedford as a “town of markets”.  With specialty food markets and other events, Frank’s insight has done much to boost the town centre while we wait (and wait) for the much needed regeneration of the bus station area.

So, it was with great delight that I gave Nick Herbert, a tour of the fruit and veg market on Wednesday.  Topics we discussed with shoppers and shop owners ranged from the importance of locally grown produce, to preferences for brown versus white eggs, to the increasing cost of weekly shopping.  With wages flat and prices increasing, budgets are being squeezed for many of the shoppers in the market.

Talking with the inspiring Rakesh Ram at Community LD, a town centre group that provides training and support for people seeking employment, I got a clear understanding of what a crushing burden the top down, bureaucracy beloved of Prime Minister Brown can be.  Rakesh is local, highly motivated, experienced and capable. In short, he is exactly the sort of person that someone in Bedford would want to turn to get advice and encouragement.  However, because of the intrusive, restricting and obsessive requirements of the bureaucracy, Rakesh finds much of his time taken up by the requirements of form filling, and less of his time available for doing what he loves to do –serve the needs of his clients.

In this election , there are competing visions for how we provide the social goods – the schools, the health services, the policing etc – that we all share and we all benefit from.  Labour’s proposal is more of the same obsessive and controlling formats of the bureaucratic state. The stifling of local initiative, the restriction on the exercise of judgement by those – the teachers, doctors, police officers etc – who we trust to provide those services here in our local schools, hospital and on our streets.  More of the same is what we will get if Mr Brown and Labour are re-elected.

The other model, proposed by Mr Cameron and the Conservatives, is to push authority for our public services down to a local level.  We want to empower local communities with enhanced authority over their hospital – with more foundation hospitals; their schools – with more rights for parents and teachers to establish their own schools; and with our local policing – via directly elected heads of our local police authority.  We also want to empower more discretion for those who are on the frontline – freeing them up from the “box ticking”, target driven culture that is so loved by the bureaucrats, but so frustrates those whose job it is to provide the services.

This is a big change – and one that will free Rakesh and his team to achieve all they would wish to achieve here for the people of Bedford.

As the Prime Minister of this discredited Parliament was heading to the Palace to seek a dissolution, we were looking forward to electing a new Government under David Cameron’s leadership, by winning the key seat of Bedford and Kempston.

Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, highlighted the importance of winning the seat by making Bedford the first stop in his countrywide campaign to stop Labour’s Job Tax.  Labour’s proposed tax on jobs would hit local people hard – many are already struggling to find work, with local unemployment way up on the regional average and nearly double what it was when Labour came to power in 1997.  Labour’s Job Tax will snuff out, not nurture, the recovery and to listen to Labour ministers claim that it would help employment just goes to show how out of touch they are.

George and I visited The Charles Wells brewery and we were given a tour around talking to people on the bottling line as well as the chief brewer.  We also caught a few moments to chat with Tom Wells and the key managers to discuss the impact of Labour’s proposed Jobs Tax and to listen to how the next Conservative government can help strengthen local businesses.

Jim Lawrence, Chief Financial Officer of Unilever PLC, was my guest at the inaugural meeting of Bedford Futures Business Club.  Unilever is a major local employer and I toured their Colworth facility learning about Unilever’s new conference centre and their advances in ice cream technology!

Welcoming Jim Lawrence, Chief Financial Officer, Unilever PLC at the Embankment Hotel, Bedford

Jim spoke about Unilever’s recession beating strategies and expressed support for my campaigns to strengthen Bedford as a business location.

When I was growing up in Bedford there were many large employers providing local jobs.  I am determined to rebuild our economic strength and give our young people real opportunities for a good local job.  The Member of Parliament should always be reaching out to business leaders, speaking up for Bedford and promoting the advantages of our town and our people.

Conservative Parliamentary candidate, Richard Fuller, is highlighting the continuing negative trends for local people seeking work shown in the national unemployment figures released today. 

“The July unemployment figures show just how tough it is getting for people in Bedford and Kempston to get a job.  In our home town there are now nearly 10 people seeking work for each unfilled vacancy – that is fourfold increase from just two years ago.  Compared to the rest of the Eastern Region, this mismatch of job opportunities and people seeking work is getting worse, and getting worse at a faster rate.” 

Richard is undertaking a survey of local businesses to see what can be done to improve local opportunities for more employment and is reaching out to those whose families have been impacted by the recession to see what help can be provided. 

“Long term the answer has to be the creation of more local jobs for local people, but in the short term we will be providing practical help for people seeking work, wherever it can be found.”

The latest dismal unemployment statistics prompted me to research the data on the personal stories that I am hearing on the doorsteps across town.  Many of these are from mid-career people who have found themselves out of work and with tough prospects of getting back a job, or getting back started running their own business.

Much of this unemployment would be hidden from the national statistics, because many do not claim Jobseeker’s Allowance, but the statistics tell the story anyway.

Compared to the national average, Bedford & Kempston has a high level of people aged 25-49 seeking work.  Perhaps you are one of these people, or maybe one of your family members or friends?  If so, or if you care about how we can get people back in to work in our town, please send me your views by taking our survey, available here.

When Labour came to office in 1997, the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in Bedford and Kempston was the same as the national average – 4.3% of the working population in both case.

Today, whereas the national average is still below that June 1997 figure at 4.1%, the rate in Bedford and Kempston is much higher at 5.3%.

Employment prospects in Bedford and Kempston have suffered under Labour.  We have not capitalised on the boom period to attract new employment, promote local businesses or even to shape a coherent, consistent strategy to restore our economic health.  As a Bedfordian, and in my heart, I know we can do better.