Published by Michael Kilpatrick, 30 Royston Road, Whittlesford
on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, c/o Timothy Stone, 4 Church Lane, Whittlesford.
The views expressed are those of the candidate and party, not of the service provider. Website hosted by Pipex

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Personal Politics

I have voted Liberal Democrat since I was first able to vote and have been a party member for a number of years. I am looking forward to the challenge of covering as much ground as possible in Whittlesford and Thriplow over the next four weeks and building on the Liberal Democrat support there.

I confess to having strong views in a number of policy areas at the international, national and local level. In many cases it is difficult to divorce national politics from city, district or county politics when, for example, the lion's share of money for local authorities comes from the United Kingdom treasury, not from local taxpayers. Recent governments have squeezed local government grants thus landing Council Tax payers with above-inflation increases year on year and the false impression that the majority, not the minority, of councils cannot manage their costs and services effectively. Liberal Democrats across the country rise to the challenge of setting sustainable local authority budgets whilst preserving services.

I believe that local government is very important. Furthermore I believe that there must ultimately be devolution to the English regions with power devolved downwards from Westminster to give strong government at the district level and at a regional level. In the East of England this might provide a body with the power and resources to build a proper railway link from the East Coast ports to the centre of England, removing freight traffic from our roads. It might also put local planning firmly under the control of district councils without interference from Westminster.

I believe in the Liberal Democrat goals of local taxation through income tax, not Council Tax. I believe that English regions should have the same powers and tax-raising abilitiy as the Scottish Parliament but I do not believe in a single English Parliament. It's a silly idea. England makes up 85% of the population of the UK. To have one "devolved" body that big would simply create a carbon copy of the undemocratic, anachronistic, House of Commons. I want to see a diversity of powerful regional parliaments, between 6 and 8 within England, with a greater diversity of political parties of national and regional flavours. Let's make the United Kingdom a colourful, free and varied political landscape!