Why people should vote for me

People should vote for me because Wales is facing massive problems that the current government cannot solve. The Labour-Plaid coalition underfunds our school children by £600 per child, per year. This has delivered exam results that have fallen behind the the rest of the UK when our schools were once the envy of Europe. As a Welsh Liberal Democrat I will remedy this by freeing up teachers to teach and investing more money directly into schools.

The Labour-Plaid government allows massive waste in the NHS and protects high salaried management jobs whilst cancer care is left to decay. I will fight to ensure we cut spending money on expensive car hire schemes and invest it in ensuring waiting lists are cut and cancer care is prioritised. I will insist on a review of NHS waste unlike the current AM who has voted against investigating the £1bn of misspent funding. Our NHS is a national treasure and unfortunately under the current government in Cardiff it is being mismanaged.

Finally I will work all year round for residents of all the wards in Alyn and Deeside. From my campaigning I am hearing the same message of neglect and apathy. People are telling me they havent seen their AM or even know his name. This is a travesty and highlights why politicians have a bad name. I will promise to do my utmost to represent Alyn and Deeside in Cardiff and ensure that the people feel that their AM works hard for them and delivers value for money.

TCC Accountability meeting in Shotton

Last nights accountability meeting was a great success. It was really nice to meet the other candidates – except John Bell who didnt show, or send a representative! There was four prepared questions that we had on bigotry, health, living wage and engaging young people. It was very disappointing to watch Carl - who has been doing this for years – fail to answer a single question with a specific policy idea. It saddens me that he will still take votes without having any new plans! The final thing about Carl was that he kept saying how he would listen to the people, which would have been more believable if he hadnt kept getting the Plaid candidate's name wrong – Shane not Sean.

Shane Brennan from Plaid was a lovely chap to speak to and obviously holds politics close to his heart. It was sad though that he failed to link all the failures that we have in Wales with the fact that Plaid have been in power for the last 4 years! Again his answers were vague in places, he failed to really inspire me with his rhetoric, the answers were just moans about what was wrong – again very little (but more than Carl) on specific policy.

We also had suprise questions from the floor, they were on jobs for older people, sustainability and traffic flow problems in Deeside. Its a tough job having to think on your feet but should you be briefed and honest there is nothing to worry about. I struggled with the traffic question, I am not fully briefed on the issue and therefore did not try to fluff my answer – in fact it was 'I dont have a clue, but I will find out'. I hope the audience appreciated the honesty. Both other candidate's had a long drawn out policy answer that was not specific to the question and full of 'spin'. Carl got a small bonus point from me as at the end of a 2 minute essay on Welsh transport issues (with no real point) he did say he didnt know either. I would have appreciated brevity more that an typical politicians answer.

Afterwards the tea and biscuits were excellent and I made a point of speaking to many people. All of them were so friendly and kind, but still challenging on the issues. I feel I did well from the feedback – especially from the lone Tory audience member who had me down as the best candidate, I hope I would have still got his support had John Bell turned up! The only area I wasnt happy with was the Labour supporter, who made a point of telling me that Nick Clegg was going to be taught a lesson with a smirk. I want people to vote on Welsh issues and how we can work together. Politics SHOULD NOT be about point scoring – but im not naïve enough not to expect some backlash from die hard Labour supporters!

Overall though it was a great evening and I was pleased to make some new friends.

Flintshire Chronicle Questions 2

What are your own personal views on the Flintshire Muslim Cultural Society's

plans to create an Islamic culture centre in the county?

I strongly believe in the right of freedom of expression and freedom of worship. It is NOT the place of elected representatives in a democracy to turn away peoples rights based on their religion, race or creed. I support wholly the rights of any person, of any background, to buy property (especially disused property) and make an positive contribution to society with it. The people who are looking at moving their worship down the road from Queensferry are not terrorists, fundamentalists or criminals. They are hardworking Flintshire residents who contribute to the local economy.

Islam has had a bad press, there are elements of it, especially around the world that I abhor, but this is a world away from what we are talking about. This community centre would have been available for use by anyone for their own events, instead of being boarded up. Now it is a smouldering wreck. I will defend the rights of ALL of my constituents as long as they are peaceful, make a contribution and work for the good of the community. All of this applies to the Flintshire Muslim Cultural Society. Do not let caustic rhetoric from nationalist groups sway you, as a community we are better than that.

If elected, what would you do to address the perceived bias of the Assembly

towards the south?

I recognise that there is a bias for the south and to be honest im jealous. It is not the fact that the Assembly as an institution is to blame – it is our poor standard of representatives! Representatives in the south achieve more for their constituents. This should not be slated, it should be copied. We should insist on getting a fairer slice of the cake for Alyn and Deeside. I am sick of reading about how money and services are funnelled down south. Why do our current representatives not remedy the fact that the transport committee for ALL Wales only contains Southern AM's? Why does Flintshire sit bottom of the league for arts and heritage funding when we are home to Theatre Clwyd? We does this new train go from Holyhead to Cardiff – and all over North Wales - but avoids Flintshire?

I will ensure that I represent the people of Alyn & Deeside in Cardiff. I live here, will fight for here and I will do my utmost to make politics local and accessible. Now is the time for change and a new voice because this question about south bias says it all; our current representatives are failing us in Alyn and Deeside.

What do you think of the proposed changes to the NHS, and what effect do you

think they would have on patients if introduced?

For a whole series of treatments, Wales is dropping further and further behind. We have lower survival rates than the European average for cancer and several other medical conditions. Life expectancy can also vary by nearly 20 years, depending on where in Wales you live.

Despite this poor performance, the Labour-Plaid Government has refused to investigate the claim by an NHS Finance Director that £1 billion of the NHS Wales budget is “not being used optimally” – in other words wasted. That huge sum could be spent more effectively to provide urgently needed better treatment.

They have introduced a centralising re-organisation, which gives the Minister unprecedented control over the way the NHS operates. The reorganisation also led to thousands of pounds being wasted on protected salaries for NHS managers for years ahead. We believe that a Government should develop the overall performance framework and that local bodies should implement in a way that suits their local area.

Wales needs a more localised service for the majority of healthcare needs. Heath and social care organisations need to work together more closely to manage patients’ needs as they change, for example as we grow older. And much more needs to be done to reduce illness and accidents in the first place.

TCC Questions from students from St Richards Gwyn in Flint

Accountability meeting questions St. Richard Gwyn

What changes will you put in place if elected, to ensure suitable jobs for those lucky enough to graduate?

3 main areas, training, plan for growth and encouraging regeneration in local communities in Wales.

5000 training grants a year

Its a valid concern, many employeers are concerned about the relative skills shortage in Wales. Its a fact that other countries have skills and productivity that are higher – this stems partially from underfunding in education but thats another conversation! We need to ensure that the high level of youth unemployement in Wales attracts employeers who see the potential in Welsh youth. We will offer grants of up to £2000 to employeers who take on an unemployed person who is aged under 25 and has a training need. The employer will apply for this grant and we will ensure that the grant is for training that will benefit the Welsh economy. For example we wouldnt allow funding of courses in areas that are over subscribed or are not relevant to the area (gold mining!). This will ensure that companies are encouraged to help people get a foot hold on a career AND it helps them!

As liberal democrats we are not going to have a top down approach to which courses we are going to fund. Quite frankly we are not all experts in the next big business field and it would be arrogant to think so, therefore we will be open minded to what companies want to use the grant for. This training can be in whatever form the companies want – assuming it passes our earlier criteria – if they want it to be academic, masters based, PHD etc that is fine if it brings prosperity, if they want it to be an accredited courses from a further education college again that is fine as well.

If there is an over demand for this scheme (which we expect as it is a good scheme for individuals, companies AND Wales) we will focus it on small businesses as they are often times the groups that need the leg up – larger companies can swallow the cost themselves. This grant is good for youth unemployment and it will ensure that people have a chance at becoming whatever they want to be in a vibrant Welsh economy.

Welsh Stock Exchange/Jobs and Growth Innovation Programme

We will ensure that businesses in Wales have the access to capital that unfortunately isnt always there from banks. The Welsh Stock Exchange will ensure that small businesses become growing businesses which ultimately become HIRING businesses. This is a long term plan and will ensure that we are helping people start their careers for years to come.

We will also establish a Jobs and Growth Innovation Fund (worth £20m a year) that will have specific remit to fund new and modern tech and invest in new programmes that will make sure that modern business have infrastructure and facilites to create jobs in Wales. This money can be used to fund research for green industries (which make no doubt IS the next multi billion £ sector), aerospace firms like Airbus in Broughton or to help build infrastructure and skills in new and growing areas. Finally the Welsh Lib Dems will encourage this money to be used for smaller businesses to get business mentoring to help them grow and become the next companies to provide us with Dragons on Dragons Den or to allow universities to develop intellectual property which means that Wales can increase the number of patents we have based here – again bringing money into Wales which will ensure that jobs are available for people in Flintshire for years to come

Council Regeneration

Finally there will also be chances for Local Authorities to attract jobs to the local area. We believe that by giving councils new powers to regenerate areas through what they receive in business rates. This model is already being used in Scotland and is being looked at by England – We have been left behind with this and its a travesty. If we can encourage local authorities to fund business regeneration it will encourage jobs and will ensure that younger people neednt fear a live being unable to contribute.

Therefore in summary, we will invest in training our new work force to be the best it can be, we will provide the infrastructure for growth and we will encourage investment and regeneration to ensure jobs are there for people!

What initiatives will you put in place, if elected, to ensure affordable housing for young people?

Being a relatively new home owner I understand the position first time buyers are in. Asking for huge deposits whilst facing wage freezes and uncertain financial futures is tough. We want to change that. The price of houses is largely down to a supply and demand issue. There are simply not enough houses being built and we would like to increase the amount of construction and the renovation of empty properties to fulfil the need. Estimates say we will need over 250,000 new homes by 2026.

I will support the Welsh Liberal Democrat plan to bring empty properties back into use with the Wales-wide Empty Homes Programme. This will

• Give grants to owners of long term properties to renovate their property and bring it back into use. In exchange the owner will have to use the property as social housing for 10 years.
• Allow councils to charge additional council tax on empty properties. This compensates the community for the wasted house and provides an incentive for the owner to bring it back into use
• We will also make it easier for councils to return empty properties to use by streamlining the Empty Dwelling Management Orders. Basically making it easier to get houses back on the market which means supply will increase whilst demand decreases

We will help authorities and housing associations to borrow cash and to use grants to turn properties into homes to rent. This influx of housing will decrease demand for homes and will ensure prices come down. Welsh Lib Dems will also support first time buyers in Wales by offering 'shared equity schemes'. This will enable people to partly own their homes making home ownership cheaper and a more realistic possibility.

Our plan for a Community Bill of rights also has bearing on this issue – we want to hand more power over to communities with regards to planning law. This will mean being able to purchase a second home in another community will be more difficult. Tightening up this planning area will mean that local communities will be able to utilise the local housing for people in the area, this will increase the supply, lower the demand and mean that more people are able to get a foot on the ladder in Flintshire.

Welsh Liberal Democrats will bring more private money into the sector through the Welsh Housing Investment Trust.

WHIT would lever an additional £100 million of capital market investment to make the Social Housing Grant go further.

This new body would invest directly in property including property leased to Registered Social Landlords (RSLs).

It would enable us to overcome many of the barriers facing social housing in Wales by ensuring that funding was there to build, maintain and expand affordable housing in Wales.

Finally, this is linked to the wider economic question. We don't want people in Flintshire crippling themselves financially to afford mortgages. When we kickstart the economy we will ensure people have the security to make their payments, raise their living standards and be able to contribute to the wider economy by getting more skilled, better paid jobs!

So to summarise, there is a problem, not enough houses are available, we need to make them available by ensuring investment in areas in need of regeneration, filling empty properties, finding private sector money for the area of social housing and offering shared equity schemes for new owners.

What would you do to counter claims that we have a South Wales Assembly Government?

I wouldnt, however I would attempt to clarify where the blame for this lies. The buck stops with out elected representatives. Basically I think we need harder working AM's as quite frankly at the moment they are ineffective. Let me give you some facts about our level of representation in North Wales. This is not a witch hunt against any specific AM's. They can defend their own voting records on issues but its worth knowing how much of the cake we get in North Wales:

The WAG instigated an economic recovery program aimed at ALL of Wales. It was designed to help us get out of the economic rut we face. This Single Investment Fund and Economic Renewal Programme invested £48 million in Wales which sounds excellent but when we dig down. It equates to just over £10 per person in North Wales, compared to £24 to everyone in South Wales! If we dig deeper Wrexham, a massive industrial base not far from here got 0.68p, compared to Newport in the south (song) which got £70!!!

Not too long ago (2007) we had a furore when the Labour Plaid Government in Cardiff wanted to make all patients in Wales attend southern hospitals for Brain surgery – fairly complicated stuff! It was more important to send them to a Welsh hospital rather than 30 miles down the road to Liverpool! Thankfully there was a climb down from Labour who relented rather than send desperately sick people on a 400 mile round trip. Why wasnt a North Walian approach considered first?

In North Wales we are underfunded again with regard to arts and culture. The bottom 5 funded councils are all in the North and Flintshire is dead last! Flintshire is the home of Theatre Clwyd, one of the premier culture centres in the UK, never mind Wales and it comparitably less funding that South Wales? Is it the WAGs fault? It is the standard of representation, I would go for the latter!

Considering there is issues with north/south we would hope that transport links where a major concern of the WAG and specifically North Wales AM's however again we are not represented – this just underlines the question that raises as to whether we do have a Southern Assembly? There is a new high speed train that goes from Holyhead to Cardiff stopping in all North Wales constituencies – apart from the most populous (FLINTSHIRE!) Why do our AM's not do something about this? Arriva who run it say its a WAG issue and we have AM right here in Flintshire who are not standing up for us when vital services like this are being proposed? Indeed something else to consider is that in Wales there is a public transport planning committee which helps build up Welsh transport links – but ALL of the representatives are from south Wales!

What are our representatives doing!!!! Why is Flintshire and the north being overlooked?? Its not the Assemblies fault, its an institution. Its not the fault of South Wales AM's, quite frankly they are doing a great job and I would be proud to know my AM was working so hard for my constituency! We need to ask searching questions of our own representatives. Why does South Wales get so much? Is the fact that you consider yourselves to be safe seats mean u dont have to work hard for your constituencies or is it that they are out of their depths?

Policy Questions

Havent posted a blog in a while, have been so, so busy with work.  I have a new job and juggling this with the campaign has been hard - worthwhile - but hard!  Leafleting is going well and i am talking to dozens of voters every day.  Issues that are constantly cropping up included the AV referendum, both for and against, education and what Cardiff does for us.  Its nice to see that people are getting more and more engaged in the political process, hopefully im getting the chance to make people think a little differently!

The local paper, The Flintshire Chronicle, is running a very commendable set of articles in bringing politics home to the people of Flintshire.  They have asked the A&D and Delyn candidates from all parties a set of questions that will clarify party positions and give the readers the chance to hear from candidates.  This will continue in the run up to May 5th and this Thursday will be the first edition to print the answers!  Please see below and let me know what you think (there is a word limit of 200 if u think its brief:

If elected, what would you do to encourage more businesses to establish themselves in Flintshire, creating jobs and boosting the regional economy?

As a Welsh Liberal Democrat, I believe that getting Wales moving again economically should be one of the main aims of the Assembly Government. Under Labour, Wales has not fulfilled its potential. We are the least competitive nation in the UK, we have falling levels of business start ups and few internationally competitive businesses. We will change this by creating a Welsh stock exchange to allow capital to flow into fledgling Welsh businesses that cannot access it elsewhere. We must ensure that small businesses in Wales are encouraged to settle here by allowing the local councils to redevelop areas through business rates. This will drive regeneration of areas as well as creating jobs in them.

I also think it should be an aim of the next Assembly Government to reduce the bureaucratic red tape on small businesses so that they spend more time creating jobs for the people of Alyn & Deeside rather than jumping through hoops! Finally, I will campaign for setting up a Jobs and Growth Innovation Programme. This will help modernise the Welsh economy by establishing business mentoring schemes and will upgrade old manufacturing sites for new businesses in order to create jobs for Alyn & Deeside.

What will your party do to help young people in Flintshire get a foot on the housing ladder?

Being a relatively new home owner I understand the position first time buyers are in. Asking for huge deposits whilst facing wage freezes and uncertain financial futures is tough. We want to change that. The price of houses is largely down to a supply and demand issue. There are simply not enough houses being built and we would like to increase the amount of construction and the renovation of empty properties to fulfil the need. Estimates say we will need over 250,000 new homes by 2026. We will help authorities and housing associations to borrow cash and to use grants to turn properties into homes to rent. This influx of housing will decrease demand for homes and will ensure prices come down. Welsh Lib Dems will also support first time buyers in Wales by offering 'shared equity schemes'. This will enable people to partly own their homes making home ownership cheaper and a more realistic possibility.

Finally, this is linked to the wider economic question. We don't want people in Flintshire crippling themselves financially to afford mortgages. When we kickstart the economy we will ensure people have the security to make their payments, raise their living standards and be able to contribute to the wider economy by getting more skilled, better paid jobs!

What can be done to improve the standard of education in Flintshire and
Wales?

I feel that there are four things that we must do to improve the standard of education in Flintshire and Wales. Firstly, we need to ensure that teachers are given the correct training to ensure that they can deliver a first class service to our children. Secondly, we should reward the excellent teachers that we do have by extending pay flexibility so local education authorities can encourage higher standards from them. Thirdly, we need to reduce the curriculum in Wales. The Labour/Plaid coalition has made it mandatory for 6^th forms and colleges to offer at least 30 different subject courses. This has meant that local councils are forced to try and reorganise educational priorities which is not only expensive but means that schools may well focus on the quantities of courses over the quality! Finally, we need to close the massive funding gap that Labour have allowed on their watch. Welsh Liberal Democrats will introduce a Welsh pupil premium to target the most disadvantaged of our students with £2500 of extra funding - thats £3m extra in our area - to ensure that they are never left behind and will have the same opportunities as their cousins across the border in England.