The Conservative Manifesto 2010

A country is at its best when the bonds between people are strong and when the sense of national purpose is clear. Today the challenges facing Britain are immense. Our economy is overwhelmed by debt, our social fabric is frayed and our political system has betrayed the people. But these problems can be overcome if we pull together and work together. If we remember that we are all in this together.

Some politicians say: ‘give us your vote and we will sort out all your problems’. We say: real change comes not from government alone. Real change comes when the people are inspired and mobilised, when millions of us are fired up to play a part in the nation’s future.

Yes this is ambitious. Yes it is optimistic. But in the end all the Acts of Parliament, all the new measures, all the new policy initiatives, are just politicians’ words without you and your involvement.

How will we deal with the debt crisis unless we understand that we are all in this together? How will we raise responsible children unless every adult plays their part? How will we revitalise communities unless people stop asking ‘who will fix this?’ and start asking ‘what can I do?’ Britain will change for the better when we all elect to take part, to take responsibility – if we all come together. Collective strength will overpower our problems.

Only together can we can get rid of this government and, eventually, its debt. Only
Together can we get the economy moving. Only together can we protect the NHS. Improve our schools. Mend our broken society. Together we can even make politics and politicians work better. And if we can do that, we can do anything. Yes, together we can do anything.

So my invitation today is this: join us, to form a new kind of government for Britain.

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01 Invitation to Join the Government of Britain
02 Contents
03 Foreword
04 Chapter 1_Change the Economy_Introduction
05 Benchmarks for Britain
06 Ensure macroeconomic stability
07 Create a more balance economy
08 Get Britain working again
09 Encourage enterprise
10 Ensure the whole country shares in rising prosperity
11 Reform public services to deliver better value for money
12 Create a safer banking system that serves the needs of the economy
13 Build a greener economy
14 Chapter 2_Change Society_Introduction
15 Build the Big Society
16 Make Britain the most family friendly country in Europe
17 Back the NHS
18 Raise standards in schools
19 Fight back against crime
20 Chapter 3_Change Politics_Introduction
21 Make politics more accountable
22 Make politics more transparent
23 Make politics more local
24 Restore our civil liberties
25 Strengthen the union
26 Chapter 4_Protect the environment_Introduction
27 Combat climate change
28 Conserve and enhance the natural environment
29 Chapter 5_Promote our national interest_Introduction
30 Defend our security
31 A liberal Conservative foreign policy
32 An open and democratic Europe
33 One World Conservatism

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Annabel Goldie MSP, Scottish Conservative Leader, says:

“Labour’s mismanagement of Britain’s economy has been catastrophic. Debt interest payments alone will soon reach £60 billion, twice the entire amount spent on Scotland’s health service, schools, police, roads and local services every year.

“Scotland’s share of Labour’s debt mountain is an estimated £72 billion. We need a government with a credible plan and the political resolve to put Britain back in the black. The risk of 5 more years of Labour is more waste, higher tax, a worse credit rating, higher interest rates and higher mortgages. Britain is billions of pounds in the red as a result of Labour’s mismanagement of the economy.

“In Scotland, the Conservatives have helped tens of thousands of businesses weather the worst of Labour’s economic storm by ensuring business rates were cut or abolished, a move which the Federation of Small Businesses says has prevented 1 in 8 small firms from going bust.

“We have to deliver that kind of real help right across the United Kingdom.

“That is why a Conservative Government would scrap Labour’s tax on jobs, get credit flowing again, protect and create jobs to boost the recovery, and get to grips with Labour’s debt. Dither and delay would risk the recovery, not help it. The time has come for action, and for change.”

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May 6th has now been officially declared as the date of the next General Election.

Over the last two years I have been a serious political Candidate and campaigned hard during this time.
Visiting every area,  holding regular coffee mornings and surgeries, canvassing and leading from the front.

The people of this region deserve to be heard and the weakness shown by those currently in office, to properly represent the people of the Highlands needs to come to an end.
My main motivation for standing is to ensure that real support is brought to the Highlands and the people of Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey. My desire to bring the high degree of support that a Conservative Government would bring and to do so it is imperative that this region elects me to represent them in Parliament.

Out of every other Candidate who is standing, only I will have the ability, as a member of the party in power to get the investment and infrastructure to ensure that the businesses and people of this region get the top support they deserve.
All  the other Candidates will be in opposition and can only ask what they will of a Conservative Government.
I would remind everyone  that I would be the MP of the party in power and it is  that thought that I ask you to seriously consider.

This General Election is a clear choice. A vote for any other party will help to keen Gordon Brown in power.
Do you want Gordon Brown for another 5 years or David Cameron as Prime Minister?

I would ask that every person in this region look closely at what I can offer. It’s time to play this to your advantage and ensure this region gets the strongest support from a Conservative Government possible. If you have never voted Conservative before, you need to seriously consider doing so now.

I am not a career politican,  I have worked hard all my life with a family business that I started from scratch 16 years ago.
If you invest your trust in me, you can be certain of having an honest and hard working MP who understands what you are all going through and who acknowledges that your concerns and interests are my concerns and interests.

It’s time for change and true representation for the people who live and work in this region.

Make your vote count – there is much at stake!

Jim Ferguson

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Monday, April 5 2010

The Conservatives have launched a poster as part of a wider campaign highlighting how Labour’s job tax will kill the recovery.

“Labour have confirmed today that they are going ahead with a national insurance tax rise on jobs that Britain’s business leaders say will endanger jobs”, said George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor.

The Conservatives have also unveiled new research showing how National Insurance has become Labour’s favourite stealth tax:

• Total receipts from National Insurance have risen over five times faster than income tax receipts over the last decade.
• Average National Insurance Contributions (NICs) per family have risen over twelve times as much as average income tax receipts per family over the same period.
• In that time Gordon Brown cut the basic rate of income tax once (as part of the 10p tax con) but he increased National Insurance rates in three different ways – and that’s even before Labour’s new tax on jobs planned for 2011

“With Gordon Brown now finally forced to call the election, the choice is clear”, Osborne added.

“Labour’s jobs tax and debt will stamp out the green shoots and kill the recovery. Conservative plans to cut wasteful government spending and stop the jobs tax will get Britain working.”

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Gordon Brown now leads a discredited Government.

The latest revelations regarding the three Labour MP’s who were caught in a sting operation offering to influence  Government policy for money is sickening. Confidence in the members of Parliament is at an all time low as people form the opinion that none can be trusted with even the basic decency of someone expected in such high office.

I find it quite embarrasing to see the greed of people surface like this and ofcourse as a political candidate I feel uncomfortable with the fact that as a political candidate people are looking at me and asking if I am the same. Would I also conduct my self in this greedy dishonest way ?

The answer is no. I am horrified at how far those we trusted to run the country have fallen but perhaps we are also to blame !

Thats right we as in the electorate are also to blame. Let me explain.

Its not political parties who elect MP’s to parliament. Yes they select the candidates but its the people who vote and give those people they elect the mandate to enter parliament.

Perhaps we need to look at what we base our decisions on not only on party policy but to look with a far more critical eye at those we are preparing to vote for.

I believe that the general public need to be very certain that they know exactly where the political candidates stand on the fundamental issues of importance to them and to the good of the country.

Why vote for someone who has never experianced the real working world for example. ? A Career politician who knows noting of the pressures or issues of everday life ? Some career politicians are perfectly capable ofcourse but the question remains valid.

Scrutiny of the candidates views is fundamental to ensuring that only candidates of good character and trustworthiness should enter parliament. If there had been more scrutiny of the candidates themselves and a hard look at what they may have already achieved in life instead of a blind vote cast purely on party lines then I believe we could have avoided a lot of the problems that we have seen.

Patricia Hewitt, Geoff Hoon and Stephen Byers are now disgraced former Labour cabinet ministers who have shown their true nature. What appals me is that these people were involved and sat at the most senior positions in Government. The question is did they conduct themselves in this way while in those positions of power and influence.

Are there more Government ministers on the take ?

As for myself I will stand with the people of the Highlands in this region and give every support and assistance in a truthful and honest way. If I am elected to Parliament then the trust that has been invested in me will not be wasted but I will lead this region with strength and integrity.

I have been involved in business and hold positions of the highest order in other organisations where truth and honesty are beyond doubt.

There would be no distinction made as far as my views on parliamentary affairs are concerned.

The people require politicians who can be trusted and who will assist the country to go forward with honesty, hard work and above all who they can trust.

Jim Ferguson

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Wednesday, March 10 2010

William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, has argued that the biggest risk for Britain is five more years of Gordon Brown.

Speaking to the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, he said that ”our ability to undertake economic modernisation will be critical to Britain’s future influence”.

“When capital, labour and technology are increasingly mobile we cannot stand still”, he said. “That is why James Dyson’s report about how we can give more weight to science and technology in our economy is so welcome”.

“That is why our proposals on business taxation are oriented towards attracting and maintaining investment, why our programme of education reform explicitly draws from best practice across the globe, from Alberta to Sweden to Singapore, to ensure we make the most of every young person’s talent in the future.”

Hague warned that the modernisation our economy needs is not guaranteed. “If our opponents’ mistaken arguments and mistaken principles prevailed Britain will move backwards towards a ’70s style model, with a bigger say for the trade unions who want to impose rigidity and unaffordable regulation across the public and private sector. The bridge will be drawn up against innovation and investment.”

He also warned that Labour is no longer “the outward-looking thinking of the late 1990s”, but that it’s taking “an explicitly old-fashioned Left approach” – particularly in selecting candidates who are ”hardened union activists with a track record in resisting modernisation”.

Hague said Gordon Brown was right to refer to the economy being “at a crossroads” in a speech he gave today. “We could continue with five more years of his debt, waste and taxes. We know where that would lead – just yesterday an international credit rating agency warned that Labour’s plans would result in the loss of our credit rating. ”

“That would be a catastrophe for our economy and for our reputation around the world”, he said.

“So the biggest risk for Britain is five more years of Gordon Brown. The alternative is to change direction, deal with our debts more quickly and restore confidence in our economy. A new Conservative Government will be a chance to send the signal far and wide that Britain is once again open for business.”

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Sunday, March 7 2010

Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps has warned of a ‘tax bombshell’ faced by community pubs this April.

New research by the Conservatives reveals that Gordon Brown’s tax inspectors are hiking up business rates for local pubs across country. Friendly community pubs with darts and pool tables face the biggest threat.

This comes as figures show that a net 3,690 local pubs have closed under Labour, according to official records held by tax inspectors.

“Gordon Brown has pushed local community pubs to the wall”, Shapps said, pointing out that at the same time Labour has ignored “the binge-drinking dens that have wrecked our town centres and fuelled violent crime”.

The three key elements of the tax bombshell are:

• New tax hikes on local pubs: New analysis of Government figures slipped out before Christmas has revealed that pubs, pub restaurants, wine bars, wineries and coaching inns face above-inflation hikes in their Rateable Values – and thus their tax bills. This will be top of Brown’s above-inflation rises in alcohol duty imposed in the Budget.
• Stealth tax on pub sports: According to the tax inspectors’ guidance, features such as a pool room, skittles alley, bowling green, children’s play area and darts have been targeted. The clipboard-wielding inspectors have secretly toured pubs, recording “pool, darts or football teams playing in leagues”. Pubs showing sport will not escape, as Sky Sports will be taxed extra, Ministers have admitted.
• Stealth tax on nice pubs: The tax manuals tell the state snoopers to take photographs inside and outside the pub, and record “Does the pub appear friendly and popular?”. Factors being logged include good beer cellars/stores (thus taxing real ale), “rare and unspoilt pubs”, and beer gardens (taxing those which have ducked the smoking ban).

“Not content with a council tax revaluation to tax people’s home improvements and scenic views, Gordon Brown also wants to hammer the nice local pub with higher local taxes”, Shapps said. “Only Conservatives will stand up for the local community pub”.

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