Richard and Supporters Celebrate Winning Bedford

Thank you to everyone who participated in the General Election in Bedford on May 6th.  I was delighted to win the seat and to have the opportunity to represent the people of Bedford and Kempston in Parliament.

You can get in touch with me in any of the following ways:

Email: richard.fuller.mp@parliament.uk       

Write: Unit 1, Hassett House, Hassett Street, Bedford MK40 1HA

Phone (Bedford) 01234 261487             Phone (Westminster) 0207 219 7012

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.

In the first week of talking with voters on the doorstep in Bedford and Kempston here are some of the reactions and issues that stuck in my mind.  First and foremost, people want change.  Bedford and Kempston have not been well served by Labour these past 13 years, and people here know that the government of Mr Brown has had its day. They want change.

People are worried about the recession – no surprises there – but interestingly, people are very curious to know more details of what a Labour or Conservative government will actually do – to promote growth, to nurture the recovery, to protect jobs and key services.  People understand that there are savings that can be made in our public services – and people want those savings to be made.  They trust the Conservatives to do it and they want to know the details.

The issue of immigration is often mentioned.  The discussion quickly turns to the impact on our infrastructure – the schools, hospitals and roads – where the impact of a rising population is being felt.  Labour have let us all down with their lack of control on immigration for many years.  The annual total of net immigration – well over a hundred thousand a year for each of the past ten years – has exacerbated people’s concerns.  David Cameron has rightly called for an annual cap on net immigration and that the annual figure should be measured in the tens of thousands not the hundreds of thousands each year as it has been under the Labour government.  Bedford is proudly a diverse community and a peaceful and harmonious community.  Conservative policies on immigration will help us all focus on the positive contributions being made by all our citizens.

Getting more local jobs resonates.  I have met many families where one member has been made redundant, or where someone is looking for training and is not able to find a programme that they qualify for.  When I am asked what I can bring to the town as the MP, my answer is straightforward: leadership in the task of attracting more business and more jobs back to our town.  I cannot guarantee success, I can guarantee that I will try.

Finally, people know that we are all in this together and they want to know that we are all pulling our weight.  People want our benefits system to be simpler – less means-testing, fewer forms to fill – and to be more targeted – with more encouragement to help those who can contribute to get them off benefits and back in to work.

I thought the first TV debate was excellent television, and that ITV and their host, Alastair Stewart, were the clear winners.  The key comparison was between Mr Cameron and Mr Brown as one or either of them will be the Prime Minister.  With an easier wicket to play on, I thought Mr Clegg answered some questions well, but he was very vague on details in some areas and was given an easier pass than the other two.  Overall, congratulations to all the participants, but especially to the excellent chairmanship of Alistair Stewart.

I am all for cost-saving measures by the Council, but the proposal to convert the Civic Theatre in to a “one stop shop” for council services is daft.  The Civic Theatre should remain in its role as a dignified part of our cultural community.  Has the Mayor no sense of the value of amateur productions  – of plays, of music, of other cultural events?  With vast swathes of the town’s retailing locations vacant, is there no other building available?  Why wreck the role of a key building when alternatives exist?

This proposal does not make sense and I am proud to support the campaign to save the Civic Theatre and to have signed their petition.  You can support their efforts too by signing here.

We only keep these landmarks if we organise – so come on, let your friends know about the threat to the Civic Theatre – and let’s keep this proud building in the service of our community and its culture.

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.

Labour’s campaign literature continues to feature stories that are meant to scare people about supposed Conservative party policies.  I have mentioned the Sure Start Scare in an earlier post – but now there is more!  The target for this round of Labour’s smears and unfounded fears are the elderly.  See the Beds on Sunday article here.

Literature from the Labour party delivered in Bedford and Kempston tries to insinuate that free bus travel will not be safe under the Conservatives.  As this is a complete fabrication, and because the Labour party know that they are not telling the truth, their leaflets are “spin” at its worst.  Shame on the Labour Party for treating the electorate like this.

With people’s trust in politics so badly shaken by this departing Parliament,  I call on the Labour MP for Bedford and Kempston to disown the Smears and Unfounded Fears that are becoming a hallmark of his campaign and join with me in a “clean election pledge” that will concentrate on the issues and on the facts and on our competing visions for the future of our town.

Richard with participants in the Evening with the Entrepreneurs Event at Bedford College

The question that is most on the minds of people when I chat with them on the doorstep is “What can we do about the economy?”

People know that the country’e economy is in a mess – and they will render their judgement on those responsible when the time comes.  They know it is tough to answer all the questions; that there is no magic wand that can wave away the colossal debts racked up by the Government.  What people are looking for is a clear way forward and for leaders who can inspire confidence and who can lead.

Well, Bedford College was the venue in late March for a panel of leaders of business and social enterprise; people who can inspire, who have led, and who had very clear views of the way forward.  Their audience was the next generation of leaders – those in our upper schools, our colleges and other young people who have an idea, an inspiration of their own – and who were looking for advice and guidance about how to move forward.  You can see a video clip from Local News TV below:

Hosted by Irfan Latif, Deputy Head of Bedford School, the panellists took turns to describe their passion for what they do, how they got a start in life and what drives them forward.  First up was Adele Blakebrough, a pioneer in social enterprise and founder of the Breakthrough Foundation.  Damon Buffini, the Chairman of Permira spoke next and spoke of his work with Fairbridge, a nationwide charity that helps young people in to work.

Tim Campbell, the winner of the TV show “The Apprentice” spoke about the motivations from his childhood, about working with Alan Sugar and of his current project, The Bright Ideas Trust, that invests in businesses started up by young people in London.  Next up was our own, Lance Haggith, founder of Sports Traider and he was followed by Shaa Wasmund, who spoke directly of the drive that came from her experiences at school and which led her to work for Chris Eubanks, Bob Geldof and James Dyson.

Sparking, nurturing, investing behind and supporting entrepreneurial talent is the key to our country’s future success.  We have enormous talents here in Bedford and Kempston, and also across our nation – talents that can revolutionise our social services, create breakthrough ideas and build world beating companies.  Government can help to enable those who aspire; it can break down barriers that inhibit people from stepping forward with their idea; it can encourage people to take entrepreneurial risks; it can reward those who succeed from those risks, and for those who fail, give them a second chance to learn from their mistakes by trying again.

It was an exceptional panel discussion, expertly hosted by Irfan Latif who managed to draw out common themes and produce a vivid picture of entrepreneurship that can inspire a new generation of Bedfordians.

Caroline Spelman & Richard Fuller with Dawn Giles from Bedford Creative Arts and Nick Gibson from Sight Concern

When Caroline Spelman, the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities visited Bedford, I wanted her to meet with the people leading Consortico.

I am a big fan of Consortico – a new initiative by local charities that serve our community in Bedford, Kempston and the villages.  Consortico helps the charities to work together to bid for public sector contracts more efficiently and effectively than they could if they operated individually.

The effectiveness of charities in helping people in need is well known, but because they are so careful with their money, charities often have limited resources available to prepare all the paperwork and administration necessary to bid for local and national government contracts.  As a result, they often miss out on opportunities to extend their good work and we, the people, miss out on their skills, care and compassion.

I believe Consortico is on to a big idea – and they deserve our encouragement and support for a new idea that in the future we could be proud to say “Started and Based in Bedford”.