British general election (14): what does my local Conservative candidate think is the key issue in his campaign?
I live in the constituency of Brent North in north-west London where the sitting Labour MP is Barry Gardiner who is standing for re-election and expected to win. His Conservative opponent is Luke Parker and, in an earlier posting, I highlighted how his initial leaflet supported something called “compassionate reform of the benefit system”.
Four days before actual polling day, I’ve received another flyer from him and virtually the whole of one side of it is dominated by the statement: “To fight the bin tax and build a better Brent, vote Luke Parker on Thursday 7th May”.
Now I don’t know how closely you’ve been following this election. I’ve watched all five television programmes featuring debates between and interviews with the party leaders and I’ve read a lot in print and online – and I’ve never heard anyone talk about “the bin tax”. Indeed I am pretty confident that you have no idea what Parker is talking about.
In fact, it is not a tax (which is mandatory) but a charge ( which is voluntary). If you live in the Borough of Brent, the charge is the princely sum of £40 a year to have garden waste collected from your home every two weeks or every month (depending on the time of year). We do live in Brent and we have signed up for the service and paid the charge.
There are two points to be made to Luke Parker:
1) This is a charge levied by the London Borough of Brent -which happens to be Labour-controlled – and it has absolutely nothing to do with the British Government or the British Parliament – except that boroughs are having to make such charges because central government funding to local government has been cut so much.
2) Even if this charge was a matter for national government, is it really more important than the deficit, the National Health Service, child benefit, jobs, housing, immigration, education, Europe, Trident … ?
The voters of Brent North deserve to be treated more intelligently than this.
May 6th, 2015 at 8:32 am
In fairness to Luke Parker, my local Conservative candidate, who has – to his credit – engaged me in debate, I should post his response when I put my view about his leaflet on his Facebook page:
“Roger,
Good to hear from you again.
I have to say I disagree with your definition of ‘voluntary’. Voluntary means you have a choice whether to pay or not. In this case, you are obligated to pay if you need your garden waste removed. By your definition, car tax is ‘voluntary’ because you’re not obligated to drive and income tax is ‘voluntary’ because you’re not obligated to work.
The fact is, this service has always been covered under council tax and is now an additional charge.
You say we should treat the electorate with more intelligence; Brent Council said they wouldn’t raise council tax but then introduced this charge by the back door, adding it to bottom of people’s council tax bill!
As for the other issues on which I am standing in this election, please refer my other three leaflets which you kindly point out you have received, as well my website and the Conservative Party’s manifesto.
I wholeheartedly disagree with your view that MPs can’t effect council decisions: if elected, I will work tirelessly to shine a spotlight on the woeful inefficiencies of Brent Council and their mismanagement of people’s hard earned money (exemplified by the 25% pay rise that their own councillors recently awarded themselves).
Lastly, I couldn’t help but notice that you pasted our last conversation on your (very impressive) blog and described the 2 million jobs created by this Government as ‘self employed people and zero hours contracts’. In fact 80% of the jobs created are full-time and fewer than one in fifty are zero hours. The only way we can carry on with this jobs miracle is staying on our current path and not returning to the dark ages of failed socialism.”
May 10th, 2015 at 4:07 pm
For the record, the alterations to councillor basic and special responsibility allowances did not add to the overall bill, and the basic allowance had not been altered for half a decade or more. We did, quite rightly in my view, stop the outcome of the 6 Conservative coincillors splitting into 2 groups each of 3 councillors resulting in two Leader allowances, two Whip allowances etc.
It is interesting Luke Palmer doesn’t see the unfairness of those in flats above shops, those in mansion flats and tower blocks an in upstairs flats in terraced roads subsidising a free service to those with gardens (who ought in any case to be composting a good deal more); but the same lucky beneficiaries of the erstwhile free service were quite happy to see the “crackdown” on the spare room subsidy, or bedroom tax, addressing how council tax benefit operated when the number of bedrooms was greater than one per adult or eligible child. Of course under-occupation by those not requiring support escaped attention altogether. Of course.