My Wisbech South election campaign

Polling is only a few days away and I have more or less finished my campaign. About 95% of the houses in my division have been leafleted twice and we have also been out knocking on doors canvassing. Indeed, there is no substitute for actually talking to people to get to know their concerns.

At this point I would like to thank all those who came to help me, it was great to meet up with other like minded individuals from the Libertarian Party and I know some of you made long journeys to get here.

But I have to ask why am I the only candidate who have been round canvassing and leafleting. In a way I can understand why the labour, libdem and Ukip candidates are mere paper candidates only on the ballot to make their party look good. They are discredited parties with nothing new to offer the voter.

But what I can’t understand is the attitude of the incumbent tory, Cllr Simon King, does he hold the voters in contempt?

He must do, otherwise he would have at least made the effort to put out a leaflet.

But he couldn’t even bring himself to do that. Does he think the position is his by right, that just because he is also a district councillor and town councillor that he needn’t put in the effort?

What sort of message is he sending to the people of Wisbech?

The message is coming out loud and clear, he takes you for granted.

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

Reply to James Edwards

A member of the public Mr James Edwards, who lives in Wisbech South has replied to one of my posts here.

(Mr Edwards comments are in blue, mine are in black)

sorry to have to mail you but as a life long resident of the local area i find it disturbing that an ex police constable is able to believe in these stupid idea’s about less restrictions.

All these restrictions (drug laws, gun laws, database state) do is make things worse. If drugs were fully legalised all the drug pushers would be unable to compete with proper businesses like Tesco and would have to take up another way of making a living (like working behind the tobacco kiosk of the local Tesco). Crime would plummet and the tax on drugs would be enough to fully fund really excellent treatment of addicts. Even the drugs themselves would be of much more consistent quality so no more overdoses. Think about the ending of prohibition in America. The incidence of public drunkenness went DOWN, and organised crime hand to do something else ie a lot of them stopped being criminals. The whole of American society benefited.

As a life time english man I find that the only source of reason in the local area is cllr King and Cllr Tuck.

Cllrs King and Tuck believe in a large and powerful state with heavy taxation and ordinary people being pushed around at the politicians whim. I don’t call that reasonable, perhaps you do.

Yes I do not agree with some of the conservative ideals well a lot of them but hey If wisbech can be bought into the present day then only people like Cllr king and prospective candidate Steven Tierney.

Steve Tierney has told me he has libertarian leanings. If David Cameron wins the next general election Steve will end up severely disappointed that the tories only pay lip service to freedom.

About the Library Funding I went to a meeting about this and only 500k is coming out of the local budget and that money was transferred from central gov the other 2 mill is from the lottery

I have already pointed out elsewhere that £2m of the cost is voluntarily funded (as people are not forced to play the lottery) and that £500,000 comes from taxation (where people are forced to pay) Never the less, this spending is still a total waste of taxpayers money, the new library will not have any more books and doesn’t need a cafe, there are plenty of commercial cafes already in town.

now where would you rather this go to the library or the Immigrants or even worse wasted in some foriegn country.

I think this money should not have been taken by force from the taxpayers in the first place.

Also, libertarian policy is to scrap the foreign aid budget, stop giving immigrants any taxpayer funded welfare and only let in immigrants on a points basis based on skills shortages. We would also abolish Income Tax. Totally and for everyone. So if individuals really wanted to fund foreign aid or immigrants, even if they had minimum wage jobs, they would have an extra £108 a month with which to indulge themselves.

If YOU as an individual want foreign aid or welfare for immigrants then put your hand in your own pocket.

Also with less laws and control are you condoning the rule of power. Cause if so can i get your telly(joke).

Libertarians believe in strong law and order, for instance, I think parole should be abolished and that little old ladies should not live in fear of walking the streets at night but should be allowed to arm themselves with the best tools for self protection if they so wish. Anything other than this is nothing more than a criminals charter. Criminals can already get as many guns as they want, and being criminals they don’t care about the law. Why should the law mandate that little old ladies should be easy prey? If criminals didn’t know if their intended targets had the means to fight back, they would be much less likely to take the chance and crime would plummet.

I do belive that this country needs a shake up and certainly those up the next rung of power need a good boot up the rear but in the local area, we need the stability that certain people bring and yes your not one of them.

The tories have been in charge of the council since 1997. Now admittedly, the labour govt keeps a tight rein on councils with regard to what they can and can’t do but the local tories have not shown any ability to run things properly.

If you keep on voting for the same tired old parties you will keep on getting the same tired old results.

as i said sorry and i hope you use my blog cause i’d love the reply. Also long live my country keep it ours don’t give it away, but no hate we are all built the same under the skin.

I would be quite happy to comment on your blog but you have to let me know its name first. I also care deeply for my country, that’s why I am standing for the Libertarian Party whose policy is to trade with Europe but not be ruled by them. We also despise the left wing socialist racists of the BNP.

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

Even the leaders are guilty

So far, about 13 MPs are to stand down at the next election. Many more have already agreed to pay back the money that they fraudulently took.

Why don’t they RESIGN NOW and step down immediately.

They are already in disgrace, nothing they say or do can put right their clear moral failings.

The only reason they don’t go now is purely financial. They want to cling on until the general election in order to claim another years salary and if they step down then instead of now they can also claim a tax free £30,000 for leaving office.

Indeed, the leaders of all three parties are also in it right up to their necks.

Why should Gordon Brown claim £6,500 for cleaning a flat when for the past 12 years he has been living at 10 Downing Street. (He was even living at number 10 when Blair was PM because the flat above 11 Downing Street is much bigger and they swapped because of Blairs larger family).

David Cameron claims mortgage interest but why should he when he would have brought a house outright in such a claim were not allowed, Cameron and his wife are worth about £30m between them.

Even Nick Clegg, leader of the libdems was forced to admit that when he was an MEP he took the cheapest flights he could to Brussels but claimed for first class travel (all within the rules).

Clearly the cancer of corruption reaches to the top.

The only thing these corrupt politicians care about is staying in power so lets give them and everyone else in their parties a message that they can relate to, lets give them a kicking in the ballot box on the 4th of June.

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

Another reply to Steve Tierney

Steve Tierney has left another long comment in reply to the “Steve Tierney gets a reply” post here.

(Steves points are in blue and mine are in black)

When you put a message on my blog that you had responded to me and I should come back and take a look I was quite excited. I thought I was heading for a decent debate.

What I got was a party political broadcast, and not a very good one.

Are you really trying to claim that your comments are not also party political. We are both interested in politics, we are both candidates and it IS election time.

You didn’t answer any of the points I made (with a couple of exceptions) and instead charged ahead just saying the things you wanted to say. Why use my post at all? You might as well have just written a new post.

I answered all your substantive points which you wrapped up in waffle to make your point. I don’t mind you being verbose, that’s just your writing style, and I’m not going to censor you, I am a libertarian, after all.

There were so many inaccuracies in your post, particularly relating to our local area, that I am at a loss where to start.

The Wisbech library – most renovations paid by the lottery fund, actually.

The total cost of the redevelopment is £2.5m of which £2m comes from lottery funding and £0.5m comes from the hard pressed Cambs county council taxpayer. Considering that there was nothing wrong with the current library and the redevelopment adds a cafe (there are plenty of commercial cafes nearby) and larger toddlers play area and NOT any more books, I think it is right and proper that I point out this clear waste of money. Considering that there are about 250,000 dwellings in Cambridgeshire, that works out as an additional £2 council tax for each house. You might think that its such a small number, why bother. After all, its only a few quid here, only a few quid there. But it all adds up and explains why every year since 1997, the conservative administration have put up the council tax by more than the rate of inflation. If I get elected I won’t mind spending taxpayers money where necessary but unlike the local conservatives I won’t regard the taxpayers wallet as a bottomless pit to be filched when ever the fancy takes me.

The College – The building is falling down and is in a terrible state. We don’t think “new buildings” are better than old buildings, but they are better than NO buildings. It is the LABOUR party who have dropped funding for the college and Conservatives are fighting tooth-and-nail to try and rescue the situation. I’m sure you know that.

The college is NOT falling down, don’t talk such rot. It may need a lick of paint and some renovation work but even so that would cost only a fraction of the £70m that a new college at March would cost. I’ve been out canvassing and the main topic of conversation was not potholes but the wanton destruction of the Wisbech college.

When the new March college was first proposed the conservative councillors went along with it with barely a murmer. A few local electors started to kick up a fuss and write to the local paper etc. Several conservative councillors then started to say that this wasn’t such a good idea. The labour govt ran out of other peoples money to waste and funding was then withdrawn and there was a big splash in the paper where Jill Tuck and my opponent Simon King said “we won’t let the govt off the hook”. In other words the local conservatives are using the situation as a convenient stick with which to beat the labour govt irrespective that the news appears to be just what local voters want.

Simon King also has the blantant audacity to claim support for a local nursery that uses the college buildings but has not even attempted to explain what happens when the he gets his wish for March and the college is bulldozed. Talk about treating the voters with contempt.

You seem to like having a pop at Jill Tuck, but you don’t specify any detail in your criticism. The Leader of a County Council is SUPPOSED to do precisely that, lead. Nothing that is being done at County Level is purely because Jill Tuck wants it to be so. It’s party-controlled, not a dictatorship. But I’m sure you know that too.

It certainly is party controlled. CONSERVATIVE party controlled. I have heard of no conservative councillor who thinks that forcing the taxpayer to cough up an additional £250,000 over and above what is strictly necessary, to be spent on comunity projects that the ruling conservatives agree with is a bad idea. Why not, NOT take the money and let individual taxpayers decide for themselves what local charities they want to support. It’s because you are all conservatives, and therefore authoritarian, that you act like this.

In fact, this streak of authoritarianism goes all through your party like a cancerous growth. Even your national party leader David Cameron has refused to say if he will allow a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty if he becomes Prime Minister next year.

You take a few paragraphs to have a personal go at me, which I’m not sure I appreciate but I suppose I can expect no better. You suggest i’d like to ‘bully’ people, which is a bit low really. You don’t know me from Adam, but I hope we’ll meet at some point so you can see that your criticism is far from the mark. My intention, should I be elected for my seat, is just to try and do my best to help people. I got into it for the same reasons you did, I’m sure.

I’ve never met you and I suppose that at an individual level both you and Mr King are decent enough sorts of chaps, most people are. It is only when an individual dons the uniform of a concentration camp guard that they start to become nasty and brutal.

You and Mr King are freely standing as candidates for the conservative party. This is a party that wants to give well off married people like me a tax break (simply for being married) that will be paid for by single young men working in factories. I am happy to accept your definition of that sort of behaviour as “bullying”.

Your party also have a policy of giving tax breaks to people like me (who is rich enough already to save money every year) to be paid for by those on the dole through no fault of their own. Again, if that meets your definition of “bullying” then I am happy to accept it.

I’m not going to engage with you any more at this point. It seems that, during ‘campaign season’, anything you say is going to be campaign-speak. I suppose that’s, at the very least, understandable. It’s pointless you and I bashing heads on it since we probably agree on more things that we disagree on.

It’s campaign season for both of us. To pretend otherwise would be silly and we both have campaigning to do.

However, if you really do have libertarian leanings then you will have to put up with the majority of your party ignoring you. I would invite you over to join us but you know as well as I do that you would lose the social side of things from Fenland conservatives if you did jump ship.

Your commentor “Henry North” says “I smell fear in the Blue Camp”. Henry, I’m a pretty relaxed sort of guy. I don’t tend to get worked up about these things. But I do understand what you are trying to say and let me just put you straight. Simon King, who Andrew is standing against, is one of the best councillors in Cambridgeshire. In my most humble and very personal opinion he will absolutely, completely and utterly wipe the floor with Andrew Hunt. I don’t speak for Cllr King so I can’t say if there is ‘fear in his heart’ or not. But if I were a betting man I know where my money would be.

To be fair, it did come across as being a bit “young upstart, how dare he”, although I am happy to accept that you didn’t mean it that way.

In conclusion, I once again wish you the best of luck Andrew. I admire somebody prepared to put themselves on the line, say what they believe and stand for election. I’m one of your constituents. I look forward to a leaflet, or being canvassed. Or something. Becoming a councillor is more than just grandstanding for your pocket audience.

Actually, I hadn’t realised you were one of ‘mine’ until I was in your road yesterday. I did go into your shop and try to canvass you but the young lad behind the counter said you were out (leafleting like me, I expect).

Since I didn’t get the chance to canvass you face to face, shall I put you down as a “don’t know”.

I’ll wish you ‘good luck’ anyway.

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

Cllr Simon King is a hypocrite….

…. who will say anything to get elected.

Cllr King appeared on page 2 of the 20th May Fenland Citizen as a petition to save the nursery based at the Isle College was handed over.

The campaigners say that these child care facilities are vital for Wisbech families and that the college management should think again about the £30,000 budget deficit.

Cllr King used this event to get himself in the paper and to appear as though he cared, but the reality is that Cllr King thinks the college should be bulldozed and rebuilt in March.

Perhaps if the campaigners were less trusting of Cllr Kings sincerity and integrity they could question him as to where the nursery would move to once the college is no more.

The truth is, Simon King is playing politics with the people of Wisbech, he obviously takes their votes for granted.

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

The welfare system is broken

But don’t worry, every cloud has a silver lining.

Due to the labour govts mishandling of the economy and their propensity to spend other peoples money like a drunken sailor, the recession will be both deep and hard and a lot of ordinary decent people will, through no fault of their own, find themselves affected.

They will suffer, but their eyes will be opened to the reality of the welfare system in this country.

This is a fantastic post by “Max Headroom” over at Money saving expert and I have reproduced it in full below.

The one thing this recession is going to do is wake people like myself up to what the benefit system is actually about.

I’ve worked full time in continuous employment since I left school 25 (is it really that long!?) year ago. And I’ve been fortunate enough never to need to claim anything, I’ve just jogged along earning my money, paying my taxes, living my life.

And naively (as it turns out) I’ve paid those taxes in part in the belief that I’m contributing to the countries benefit system which is helping out those that need help, safe in the knowledge that there but for the grace of God go I. And that should I ever be in the unfortunate position of being unable to support myself, that very same benefit system will be my safety net should I need it.

Sure, I’ve had the odd rant in the past like everyone else about the benefit scroungers of society. It seems every other month the Daily Mail unearths another family of eight pulling in £30K a year worth of benefits and living in a five bedroom detached house all at the expense of Joe Taxpayer. and on a more personal level, I know of several people seemingly able to live life quite happily without a thought toward getting a job, nice little terraced house, secondhand car, treats for the kids and a modest holiday once a year. And that irks, but as is often said, that’s the price we pay in this country for a safety net that keeps everyone afloat. The system is bound to be open to some abuse, that’s just how it is.

Ok so, recession hits, the business I’m working in almost completely flat-lines, and after a year of sitting in my office staring out of the window and wondering how long they’re going to continue to pay me for doing nothing I get my answer. They’re not. I’m out. Fair enough, I can cope with that, honestly can’t blame them. The business isn’t there and only a major re-structure is going to save the company. Unfortunately I’m (along with many others) re-structured out the door.

I hit the ground running, my CVs are in the post like confetti, I’m all over the job sites, I’m on the phone, I’m Mr. Proactive, I’ve got history, I’ve got experience, I’ll get another job and we’ll keep the plates spinning.

No.

Two months and one deafening silence later and I’ve not had a single offer of an interview. The enormity of all those hours of BBC news broadcasts and reams of newsprint hit home. This is serious. And this isn’t happening to somebody else, this is happening to me, now.

So thank god for the benefit system this country proudly boasts. Thank god for the safety net that has it’s problems, but doesn’t allow anyone to slip through, a cradle of support for those in dire need. And I am in dire need.

So I find myself on the phone and I find myself in the job centre and I find myself answering question after question and I’m signed on.

And what do I get? £64-30/week. That’s less than £3.5K a year. That’s £279 a month. I can also claim help with my council tax. And that, I’m told, is it.

And for that I have to trot down to the job centre once a fortnight with my homework for marking. What jobs have I applied for? Who’ve I phoned? Where’ve I looked? After all, they don’t want me putting my feet up and retiring on this bountiful income do they?

So what happened to this safety net? What, in fact, am I supposed to live on? Ok I’m fortunate, I’ve got a small amount of savings. But what if the roof falls off tomorrow and the builder tells me it’s going to cost all of that to fix it? What, actually, will I live on then? I live very modestly but the JSA barely covers the bills. I can’t actually therefore afford to eat. Pretty basic stuff I’d have thought.

So, like many others, I find myself questioning.

Why is this “safety net” failing a hard working tax paying single man? What were all those tens of thousands of pounds I’ve put into the system for?

And how is the single girl I know who’s been living on benefits as long as I’ve known her (several years) able to afford to run a car and has just bought a pair of £130 Nike trainers for her sons birthday? I can’t afford to eat on my benefits!

There is something very messed up with this system. And I think that as this recession bites deeper and deeper and people like myself suddenly become face to face with a reality they thought would never affect them, there’s going to be a sharp learning curve as to what the benefit system actually is and a lot of people like myself are going to have the benefit system brought into sharp focus.

And what they (we) will see is that it’s not a safety net at all. It won’t save you when you need it, it won’t provide temporary support at all, it just doesn’t work that way. But yet it does at the same time allow many many people to live quite happily for years carving out a reasonable standard of living from it.

Something here is very very wrong.

And it desperately needs to change.

Libertarians have always maintained this. If you give a man a fish, he can feed himself for a day (and becomes dependent on you to feed him), if you teach a man to fish, he can feed himself forever (and become a decent upstanding member of society who can stand on his own two feet).

Why won’t the advotates of the ‘nanny state’ understand this or is this simply part of their plan to make people dependent on them?

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

Steve Tierney gets a reply

Local conservative candidate for one of the neighbouring divisions to Wisbech South, Steve Tierney has left a couple of comments on my blog. They are worth replying to, in full as a new post.

(Steves is in blue and my response is in black)

From

http://caligulaspalace.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/councillor-jill-tuck-authoritarian-to-the-core/

Nonsense. It does not ‘prove’ any such thing. You weaken your arguments with all this pointless mud-slinging. Jill Tuck is neither ‘nasty’ nor ‘authoritarian’. Meet her some time and you’ll quickly see that.

Perhaps you think the Council Leader is the fairy godmother? She actually isn’t. Jill Tuck doesn’t get to reverse the countries slow decline into CCTV-Central with a wave of her magic wand. The situation is the result of many social factors and governmental factors which need to be addressed first. You’re a smart guy, so I’m sure you know that.

Jill Tuck wants to use the full power of the state to remove £250,000 of taxpayers money to be spent on unnecessary projects that she herself supports. That meets my definition as being ‘nasty’ and ‘authoritarian’ or perhaps you use a different dictionary to everyone else. She could stop this waste quite easily, the conservative group, of whom she is the leader have a clear majority on Cambs county council. This particular expenditure is nothing to do with social or governmental factors. Admit it, the tories are no longer the party of low tax and small govt.

If you are serious about being a councillor then get out there are TALK to some people. The most common thing you are going to hear in and around Wisbech (well, second-most-common after ‘I’ve got a pothole’) will be “can we have a speed camera on our road?” When you tell those people how opposed you are to such things you aren’t going to gain very much support.

I’ve been out talking to plenty of people, and the message I get loud and clear is they want much lower taxes and an end to the nanny state. Something you don’t offer them.

The public have become so used to cameras everywhere it is starting to seem “normal” to them, and indeed many think of it as the obvious way to tackle crime. This is mostly because of Labour’s failures to properly man and fund the police.

Now I’m with you actually – I don’t like CCTV either. Many Conservatives don’t like the rise of the surveillance state. But we can’t seriously do anything about it without addressing those other pertinent factors first. Which means we can’t do more than gesture politics in this area until we win a general election. People need to see properly funded law and order (a Conservative specialty) to feel safe and secure again and only then will the acceptance of CCTV be something we can actually challenge.

Lets get this straight, even though you, like me, are against the surveillance state you won’t try to convince the voters of that. You are so afraid of being rejected that you are happy to lie by omission. If you actually treated the voters as decent normal people instead of voting fodder to get you into the trough, you too, would find that the voters are just as concerned about CCTV as we are and they also recognise that it does little if anything to reduce crime.

When that time comes, hopefully soon, I’ll be challenging it right alongside you – but with a blue rosette on!

In regards to taxation: you’re on a hiding to nowhere. Conservatives are the party of small government and low taxation. The fact that we are constrained by cuts and directives from a wannabe-socialist government is something we are looking forward to putting right. But offering some funding support to the Citizens Advice Bureau at a time when people are losing jobs and houses thanks to Gordon Brown’s mismanagement is absolutely correct in my humble opinion.

The conservative controlled council is happy to spend £2.5m on redeveloping the library, it is less than 35 years old and perfectly functional. The new building will have a cafe and larger toddlers play area, it won’t contain any more books.

The conservative controlled council is happy to go along with the bulldozing of the Isle college and rebuilding it at March at a cost of £70m. It beggars belief that you think new buildings automatically make the standard of teaching better.

Party of small govt and low tax, don’t make me laugh.

From

http://caligulaspalace.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/why-do-intelligent-people-do-stupid-things/

The Tories will be an excellent vote. I’m very sympathic to the Libertarian cause myself and I am a dedicated Tory.

Your party leader, David Cameron, has mentioned in several speechs that he is definitely NOT a libertarian and that he believes in extremely unlibertarian “nudge” economics”.

Let me tell the readers what “nudge economics” is. It is the idea that if politicians don’t like the behaviour of ordinary voters they can use the tax system to change it, ie politicians think ordinary people drink too much so have set the taxation on beer at 90 pence. In other words, almost a third of the cost of a three pound pint is tax. Politicians think ordinary people shouldn’t drive their own cars but use public transport instead, so about 70% of the cost of a litre of petrol is tax. Politicians don’t like people smoking so the tax on tobacco brings in £8bn a year and tobacco related illnesses only cost the NHS £2bn.

You, Steve, might think that ordinary people are there for you to push around. I don’t, that’s because I’m a libertarian.

The idea that the Conservatives will be “the same as Labour” is quite frankly ludicrous. It’s the sort of line trotted out by opposition as a desperate attempt at weak spin. I suppose Conservatives “have no policies” too? If you want to engage in proper debate, let’s do it… but give the tired (and wrong) soundbites a rest, huh?

The tories have no plans to significantly cut Income Tax, unlike the Libertarian party would plan to abolish it completely. By merely returning to the govt spending levels of 2001/2002 we would have more than enough income from other sources to immediately abolish Income Tax.

Have the improvements to our public services since 2002 really been worth 40% of everything that you’ve earned? Could you have got better value buying these services directly, leaving your family better off?

And tory plans are…..what exactly?

I find it interesting that you wonder why “intelligent” people vote for parties other than your own and then justify your supposed intelligence by what is little more than name-calling.

Jackart (the original poster) is intelligent and also a libertarian. He will be unhappy with what you do if the conservatives form the next govt. Perhaps his judgement is clouded because of his hatred and dispair over what labour are doing, so for him it’s a case of any port in a storm.

But as a libertarian he will end up disapointed with you.

The fact is, the Libertarian party is so desperately unlikely to get elected to anything much beyond very local seats in very close-fought places. Perhaps a true Libertarian is showing they are “principled” by placing their vote with you, by some people’s reckoning, but they might as well vote for a Martian.

The Tories can win (and quite probably will win). The Tories have many Libertarian sympathisers within their ranks and some in the shadow cabinet. The Tories are open to Libertarian ideas (with the few far-right members the exception.) A Libertarian is well-advised to vote Tory, then.

There are two well known libertarian leaning tories in the conservative party, Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell, neither of which is in the shadow cabinet. The tories are NOT open to libertarian type ideas otherwise we wouldn’t get nonsense about giving married people a tax break and people rich enough to save a tax break, all to be paid for by the single working class.

In regards to your candidacy in Wisbech and NE Cambs – the sitting councillor (Simon King) and prospective MP (Steve Barclay) are both intelligent, respected, personable and hard-working men, as well as being absolutely top class Conservatives (I know both, personally) and I for one would be surprised if you could beat them in a debate, let alone an election.

There is a difference in being a good debater and having good ideas as you well know. That well known socialist Adolf Hitler was a very good orator, so good in fact that he got 43% of Germans to vote for him dispite his rhetoric about invading Russia and making Jews wear yellow stars.

Nevertheless, good luck to you. You’ll need it in Wisbech and NE Cambs. This is true Tory country. Our vast majority vote Blue because they believe in it, not just because Labour are a busted flush. If you think they are just voting ‘against Labour’ here then you’re in for something of a surprise, I think.

All three main parties have aimed for the centre ground. The Libertarian Party is something completely new in politics. We offer the voters something completely different that they can’t get elsewhere, low taxes and freedom.

What matters is not that we win power (because we don’t want to push people around, we arn’t fixated on winning at any price) but that we exist to offer a credible alternative. And that, old boy, is why your party is unable to counter us. Every since the 1950’s the main parties share of the vote has gone down and minor parties have got bigger.

The BNP is economically, 1970’s socialist labour which is why they will never amount to anything (and only take votes from labour anyway).

The greens are state control and stealth taxes by the back door.

UKIP are tory lite who hate being ruled by Europe and who only exist because people like your party leader still refuse to sanction a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

By standing we spread our message and let the voters decide.

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

Improve standards – Wisbech Standard

Another letter, this time in the Wisbech Standard, 22nd May 2009.

With the recent allegations over politicians’expenses and being a candidate for Wisbech South in the upcoming local elections, I have declared that should I win, I will only accept expenses to which I am morally entitled.

My full pledge can be found on my blog at http://caligulaspalace.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/i-will-publish-my-expenses/

I hope that all my opponents will do the same and that Cllr Simon King will reveal the full details of all that he gets from the three councils that he sits on.

The local elections provide an ideal opportunity for the public to comment on the greed and gravy train culture.

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

College – facilities perfectly adequate – Fenland Citizen

I’ve just had another letter published in the Fenland Citizen, 20th May 2009.

Facilities Perfectly Adequate

Local residents have every right to be outraged at the decision to close the college.

It is a valued local landmark and its destruction would be nothing more than Government vandalism.

Why waste another £70m of taxpayers’ money to rebuild elsewhere when the current facilities are perfectly adequate?

The new building in March will be nothing more than a monsterous white elephant causing traffic congestion at the proposed site.

It offers no economic benefits and neither will the standard of education be enhanced.

Indeed, the college seems to be using the furore as an excuse to close down the child care service early.

The fact that the Learning and Skills Council has made a right “pigs ear” of the funding has turned out to be something of a silver lining.

I’m happy that it curtainly gets the message across.

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

Bluelabour, still nasty, still authoritarian

There is a good post over at the LPUK blog which points out that even if David Cameron and the conservatives win the next election they will be little different from labour.

Both parties are authoritarian you see. Labour love the nanny state and bossing people around and they spend other peoples money like a drunken sailor. The tories also love to boss people around, also want to spend hugh wodges of taxpayers money (albeit on slightly different things) and will do nothing about the nanny state.

Let me give you a clear example. Under Cameron I will get a large tax break simply because I am married and have 4 children and a single man working in a factory or an unwed mother on benefits will find themselves paying for this.

Now come on, how nasty can you get. Cameron and the blue rinse brigade will use all the power of the state to force unfavoured groups to feather bed a select favoured group.

Labour on the other hand want to feather bed the lazy feckless workshy and get the hard working to pay for it. Large companies have already started moving their headquarters abroad (together with well paying jobs) and now with the 50% income tax band wealthy private individuals are following.

Did you know there are over 8,000 UK citizens living in Monaco simply because they don’t want to pay extortionate rates of tax.

Libertarians want to slash all the unnecessary govt spending in order to abolish Income Tax altogether, for everyone and will return power back to where it belongs, back to ordinary men and women that will no longer be political pawns to be pushed around.

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

On the 4th of June, UKIP and Len Baynes

On the 4th of June there are two elections. One for about 27 county councils, in which I’m taking part by standing for Wisbech South in Cambs county council and also the European elections.

The Libertarian Party policy is clear. We refuse to take part in the European elections, and why should we.

Our policy is simple. We want to trade with Europe but not be ruled by them.

It would therefore be the height of hypocrisy to enter the European elections. Instead we want to form a govt at Westminster where we will be able to pull out of being governed by Brussels on the first day of a libertarian administration.

So why are UKIP, the well known single issue party standing at the Euro’s. They know full well that their 11 MEP’s can’t change european policy as they are drowned out by the other 700 odd members.

A well known Fenland figure, Len Baynes, was the driving force behind Fenland UKIP. I like Len, he’s a right character and he will always let you know where he stands on the issues.

About six months ago Len disbanded Fenland UKIP and took about half the membership with him to a new political party, UKFirst. Having listened to Len explain why, it’s a home for those disillusioned with UKIP because UKIP have gone native. They have joined the gravy train (or boat as Len calls it, a train not being big enough). Apparently, if UKIP leader Nigel Farage does another five years as an MEP he will become entitled to a pension of £60,000 a year.

I can certainly understand Lens frustration. UKIP may well be a decent protest vote for the Euros but is totally wasted in the local elections.

Indeed, one of the other candidates for Wisbech South is a UKIPper. His name is William Schooling. I haven’t seen any leafleting or canvasing by him and I have no idea what his policies are on local issues. Perhaps he doesn’t have any!!!

So don’t waste your vote. If you want to be free of Europe and think taxation and govt control is too high then vote for me.

ANDREW HUNT for WISBECH SOUTH

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

Good riddance to bad rubbish

Michael Martin, the speaker of the house of commons has resigned and he will be stepping down shortly.

This is excellent news, he is not only just as guilty as any of the other MPs with the gravy train expenses claims, but also has done immense damage to the office of speaker.

He was promoted way beyound his ability, he was at the centre of the attempts to hush up the expenses scandal and has always been a lousy partisan speaker.

My only hope is that he isn’t offered a peereage as is usual.

Some people might say that this is all snobbery just because Martin used to be a sheet metal worker. That’s rubbish, George Thomas and Betty Bothroyd also came up the hard way but they brought dignity to the office instead of demeaning it.

But what I find most amazing about this whole affair is that all the other MPs are suddenly using the useless Martin as a scapegoat merely to take some of the heat off themselves.

In other news, Douglas Hogg, who charged £2000 to the taxpayer for cleaning his moat is also reported to be stepping down at the next election.

I look forward to the day when Elliot Morley and Hazel Blears are found guilty and sentenced for their deliberate fraud of the taxpayer.

For those that don’t step down of their own accord there is only one alternative. They must be booted out of office.

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

Malcolm Moss is clean (well, sort of)

Malcolm Moss the conservative MP for North East Cambs (which covers Wisbech) was in the local paper bemoaning the fact that MP sleaze has left him “on a downer” as he will be standing down at the next election.

Mr Moss has published his own expenses for the previous three years and is about to publish this years details.

“I have never brought furniture or televisions on expenses, I have only claimed for mortgage interest, rent , utilities and council tax.”

All well and good you may think, an honest MP at last. Mr Moss has always struck me as a decent sort of bloke even though we disagree about politics, so I can’t say I’m surprised that he hasn’t been tempted into deliberate fraud in the way that some have.

However, as an MP he gets an allowance of about £100,000 a year for staffing costs paid for by the taxpayer.

A lot of MPs use some of this money to employ their husband or wife or even their children. Loadmouthed fat oaf Home Sec, Jaqcui Smith (of the £10 porn film expenses claim) employs her husband as a “political advisor”. Derek Conway was stripped of the conservative whip after “employing” his two sons whilst they where away at university etc.

Mr Moss employs his wife as a “secretary” at £40,000 a year. Does she really do a proper secretarial job for her husband or are they both fiddling the taxpayer to increase the family budget. Indeed, do secretaries usually earn £40,000 a year.

The public don’t know and simply can’t tell, which is why the Libertarian Party have a rather unlibertarian policy on this important matter here.

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

Question time

I watched Question Time, the BBC1 current affairs programme the other day. Usually, the audience are reasonably deferential to the panel but this week they really showed their anger at the three MPs.

After all, the rules are quite explicit. MP expenses have to be “wholly, necessary and exclusively incurred” as part of their job with no extravagance.

It beggars belief that £18,000 bookcases, scatter cushions, £600 of hanging baskets and all the rest could possibly be considered as necessary to the job of being an MP.

And as for reclaiming £16,000 and £13,000 for non existent mortgages and claiming £2000 a month rent when it only costs £910 like James Purnell or claiming the full cost of your council tax when you get the 50% single occupier discount like Jack Straw, well that’s simply fraud.

If you keep voting for the same people, the same parties, You will get the same sleaze, over and over again……

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX

Looking for Mr Camerons spine

David Cameron the conservative leader is trying to portray himself as tough and fearless when dealing with the voters anger at the antics of his MPs.

But look at how he handled the Andrew McKay affair.

Cameron sacked him as his parliamentary aide.

He didn’t withdraw the whip from McKay and he has done nothing to McKays wife Julie Kirkbride either.

This shows that Cameron is all show and spin but bugger all substance.

McKays conservative association are another matter, they have the knives out for him. Grassroots members are by and large decent people, it’s such a pity they are lead by the weak and spineless Cameron and just proves to any libertarian conservatives that their proper home is the Libertarian Party.

Indeed the Libertarian Party has always had a policy on the abuse of expenses here.

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Imprint – as required by electoral law. Printed and promoted by Andrew Peter Hunt of 73 Camargue Place, Wisbech, Cambs, PE13 2SX