VOTE PARVEZ AKHTAR FOR BEDFORD'S MAYOR!

PARVEZ AKHTAR - THE CONSERVATIVE MAYORAL CANDIDATE

Our Conservative campaign to elect Parvez Akhtar as the Mayor of Bedford is proving successful. Parvez outshone the other 5 candidates on the Sunday BBC Politics Show and at the Wootton Upper School Debate last Thursday evening. David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party, came to Bedford today to support Parvez' campaingn and Eric Pickles, Party Chairman is coming here tomorrow.

Parvez is a highly intelligent and well educated senior Ford Engineer. He is one of "Thatcher's children" whose father came to England to work in the Stewartby Brickworks. Parvex is a living example of social mobility, fostered by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980's, which has almost disappeared over the last 12 years under an incompetent and spendthrift Labour Government.

Parve is a modest, unassuming family man with a gentle charm and polite manner. He cares deeply about Bedford and its people and will be an excellent Mayor. As a father of 5 children, all at Bedford schools, he is passionate about education as the key to future success in life. It is time we had a fresh pair of eyes and brain leading Bedford Borough, instead of the same old politicians who have run Bedford Borough Council for 20 years and failed to solve our major transport, infrastructure, policing and employment problems.

I fully support Parvez' campaign and have worked hard over the past 10 days organising the delivery of 7,200 leaflets to the villages of Elstow and Wilstead. Election Day is in just 3 days' time........

Vote for Parvez Akhtar on Thursday for strong leadership and a vibrant Bedford Borough in which we can all be proud to live.

DAVID CAMERON VISITS LUTON

David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party, visited Luton today soon after making a brilliant speech attacking Gordon Brown's Policy Relaunch "without a price tag" as there will be no Government spending review before the next Election. Cameron lambasted the Prime Minster for his Policy's "lack of honesty on spending" and lack of real reform of our public services".

Today he British-North American Committee, a group of academics and businessmen, published a paper stating that the true cost of pensions for all public sector workers is £1.2 trillion, equal to 85% of Britain's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ie £20,000 for every man, woman and child in Britain for only 25% of the population. Gordon Brown lives in cloud cuckoo land and expects us to believe that the Government can carry on borrowing and spending vast amounts of public money without it having any effect on the British public. He seems to think that the electorate are stupid, which we are not. As Ken Clarke, Shadow Business Secretary said today:
"Britain has a dying Government, past its sell-by date and needing to be replaced"

Cameron rightly attacked Gordon Brown for his proposals which were 'rehashed' or amounted to "timid and bureacratic top-down tinkering" rather than real reform and stressed: "The truth about today's statement is it only serves to highlight the decline of this Government. Their money has run out. Their political capital has run out. And now their time is running out".Later David addressed a group of 80 Conservatives in Luton from across Bedfordshire, answering several questions clearly and honestly. He then went on to address members of the general public at one of his popular Cameron Direct meetings in Luton.

This was my first meeting with David Cameron and I find him an inspirational leader and an open, honest and empathetic speaker. David will be an excellent Prime Minister in 2011 when Gordon Brown is finally forced to call a General Election and loses.

CAMERON BITES THE BULLET OVER MP EXPENSES FIASCO

After days of embarrassing revelations about greedy MPs manipulating their expenses, David Cameron showed real leadership qualities, and seized the initiative from the Prime Minister by ordering some senior Conservative MPs to repay expenses claimed for spurious items like garden improvements and housekeeping. Cameron is now campaigning for the whole system to be overhauled as soon as possible.

The Prime Minister Gordon Brown continued to dither, showing poor leadership skills, while Speaker Michael Martin behaved outrageously in the House of Commons by verbally attacking Kate Hoey, a brave Labour rebel MP who challenged him for calling in the police to 'find the mole' instead of criticising greedy Labour colleagues. In 2000 the Labour Party broke the convention of alternating the Speaker between the two main political parties when Betty Boothroyd retired, and Michael Martin became the 2nd consecutive Labour Speaker. Martin has exploited his expenses in the past,
eg by allowing his wife to lavish money on taxis for personal shopping and spending a fortune on refurbishing his accommodation in a grand manner at public expense. He was once a shop steward, and behaved like one in the House of Commons, supporting MP's misdemeanours and attacking the source of the leaks to the Daily Telegraph.

A clear example of Labour greed is one of the Luton MPs Margaret Moran, pictured above, who represents Luton South and lives in the same road as Kelvin Hopkins, the highly respected Luton North Labour MP. Kelvin has one home and commutes to London daily, while Margaret Moran has 4 homes in Luton, London, Southampton and Spain. She claimed £22k for dry rot work at her partner's home in Southampton. When challenged on why she needs a 2nd home 100 miles from Luton, she wittered about her need for family life and her partner working in Southampton. So why is he is on the Electoral Roll in Luton? Moran has now been shamed into offering to repay this money.

Hazel Blears has agreed to pay £13,000 to the taxman for Capital gains tax she should have paid before on selling her second property and the Corby MP is repaying £42,000! None of this would have happened but for the Daily Telegraph informant.

The general public now think that all MPs are corrupt and I know that Nadine Dorries and Alistair Burt have not indulged in these dishonest allowance claims. Alistair was on the TV tonight stating that he rents a small London flat, simply claiming an allowance to cover the cost of his rent and utilities, which seems quite fair.

As a local Councillor even I have come under fire while tramping round 1,000 houses canvassing, but we local Councillors receive very small allowances, and have to do all our own administration work - it is often a thankless 24/7 task dealing with issues raised by local residents. Yesterday I overdid it and strained a muscle, so I have had to stay at home today, catching up with paperwork. I still have to get round 1,250 more houses in the next 2 weeks - a thankless task indeed!

JOANNA LUMLEY'S STUNNING VICTORY OVER GORDON BROWN

Joanna Lumley celebrates her historic victory with Gurkha veterans brandishing a kukri Gurkha knife




Yesterday Joanna Lumley scored a stunning victory over Gordon Brown, when he lost an Opposition motion in the House of Commons to allow retired Gurkha soldiers to settle in Britain. The denial of residency to 36,000 former Gurkhas who served in the British Army before 1997 made Britain look meanspirited and Brown misread the mood of the nation - again! Joanna Lumley has led the Gurkha Justice Campaign because her father served with the 6th Gurkha Rifles fighting the Japanese in Burma in the 2nd World War and his life was saved by a Gurkha.

The Liberal Democrat motion was supported by David Cameron and MPs of all parties, including 27 Labour MPs and the result was totally unexpected. To quote Ann Treneman in the Times:

"For a split second Opposition MPs could not believe their eyes. They stared, goggled eyed, as the tellers for the Gurkha vote lined up before the glittering mace at 4.15pm. It had been a hell of a debate, the highlight being a blatant Labour bid to buy votes, all watched over by a luminescent Joanna Lumley.

But now everyone could see, from the order the tellers stood in, that Labour's jiggery pokery hadn't worked. ... As the vote of 267 to 246 was read out, Nick Clegg's back was slapped so much he began to list.

The government front bench looked ill. Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, had the stunned look of a rabbit with myxomatosis. He was speechless, possibly for the first time in his life."

They say that problems come in threes and this is the third recent disaster for Gordon Brown and his second unintentionally comic moment in a week. The first was a short video on You Tube in which he announced his ridiculous solution to the problem of MPs expenses - a £150 daily attendance allowance. The rest of the working population turns up for work in return for a salary, and we all know that our MPs receive a generous salary package including expenses for second homes etc etc.

This half baked scheme has had to be dropped due to lack of support from David Cameron and Nick Clegg, and only minor measures remain, eg scrapping 2nd home allowances for Greater London MPs and requiring MPs to submit recepits for all expense claims and declare outside earnings - which they should do anyway!

We have nots forgotten the fiasco surrounding, Damian McBride, one of 84 Labour publicly funded political advisers, most of whom focus on inventing dirty tricks and lies about the Conservatives instead of dealing with our acute economic crisis.

Gordon Brown and his incompetent Labour Government are doomed and 2010 cannot come soon enough for me and millions of British people. I intend to do my bit by standing as a Conservative candidate in the Bedford Unitary Elections on Thursday 4 June. Thank you Joan Sygrave for your kind response to yesterday's Gurkha Blog.

"Here here to you Councillor. Keep up the great work. Good luck with your election - well not that you need good luck - you clearly work very hard.

Best wishes Joan Sygrave - Peterborough"

GORDON BROWN SUFFERS A SHOCK DEFEAT IN HOUSE OF COMMONS GHURKHA MOTION

Joanna Lumley campaigning for the Ghurkha Justice Campaign

Today the Ghurkha Justice Campaign, led by actress Joanna Lumley, has won its battle for citizenship rights to be granted to all the Ghurkhas who have fought in the British Army. Gordon Brown's Labour Government was defeated in a Commons Motion proposed by the Liberal Democrats and supported by David Cameron and MPs of all parties. The voting was 267 votes to 246. Phil Woolas the Immigration Minister then effectively admitted defeat by announcing that new proposals would be published before the Parliamentary summer recess, respecting the will of the House of Commons.

Britain has no greater friends than the Ghurkas who have served across the world in the defence of Britian for 200 years. Over 45,000 died in the two World Wars serving in the British Army and they are still fighting in the British Army today.

Gordon Brown decided on 25 April to discriminate against Ghurkhas with less than 20 years' service in the Army, a target impossible for lower ranks to achieve as they can only serve for 15 years. 36,000 Ghurkas would be denied UK residency because they served in the British Army before 1997 and do not meet new qualifications in respect of service, medals received and injuries - a poor reward for years of loyal service to Britian by these brave soldiers.

Meanwhile Gordon Brown has just returned from yet another overseas jaunt to persuade world leaders of his 'global economic expertise'. His first visit was to Poland. There at a joint press conference the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk extolled the virtues of avoiding debt. Mr Task said that Poland has gained from 12 years of consecutive economic growth, due to efficient supervision of banks and a refusal to live on credit. Last month the Chilean President Michelle Bachelet embarrassed Mr. Brown before the G20 Summit when she said that the Chilean economy had performed so well because they saved during the good times as a cushion for the economic recession.

It is about time Gordon Brown stopped preaching to world leaders, listened to their greater wisdom in managing their own economies and come home to sort out the huge economic mess he has created in the UK over the last 12 years.

SALISBURY CATHEDRAL & ST. GEORGE'S DAY

Hello everyone. On Friday I returned to Elstow from a few days away at a Conference in Salisbury and a flying visit to my widowed brother in Chichester to a mountain of mail and emails, various local crises and an election campaign to plan.

On the morning of St. George's Day, 23 April, before leaving Salisbury I visited its superb Cathedral, with the tallest spire in Britain and the best preserved copy (one of only four)of Magna Carta, signed in 1215, the foundation of our British legal system. The Cathedral also has Europe's oldest working clock and is set in the largest Cathedral close in Britain. A truly amazing building and fine part of quintessential England - a very suitable place for me to visit on St. George's Day. That evening the Cathedral had a concert and a series of poems was lit up on the Cathedral roof as part of the St. George's Day celebrations.

While away I received some panic emails on my Blackberry pc about my new upright wooden bench, donated to the Abbeyfields estate from my Community Leader Fund. I paid £750 to Bedford Borough Council to buy and instal it securely on Abbeyfields parkland. They installed it without telling me, and it was not secured strongly enough so my residents told me it was wrenched out of the ground on the day it arrived. Fortunately I got Council officers to remove it before it disappeared. Now they have to ensure that it is more securely concreted into the ground - a sad indictment on the dishonesty of some people in today's world! Once upon a time people respected the property of others but no longer.

The Budget was a damp squib which failed to address the huge economic crisis facing this country. Gordon Brown continues to spend money like water and refuses to cut back on public sector spending, eg huge sums for the new NHS computer system and the new ID system. Every proposed budget change is delayed until after the 2010 Election. However, the British people have seen through Gordon Brown and his incompetent government who have ruined the sound economy they inherited in 1997 - eg destroying our pensions industry and selling off the gold reserves at a low price.

Every Labour Government in the 20th Century departed leaving the British Economy in a mess and this one is no exception. David Cameron will be left a 'poisoned chalice' to cope with the huge public debts Gordon Brown has amassed in 12 years.

GORDON BROWN REFUSES TO APOLOGISE

Cabinet Office Minister Tom Watson

Yesterday I was told that Gordon Brown had apologised personally to David Cameron, George Osborne and Nadine Dorries for slanderous lies emailed by Damian McBride, a Civil Servant in Brown's personal office at No. 10 Downing Street. Now I understand that he merely expressed 'regret'. I should have known better.

Gordon Brown never apologises for anything but boy does he have a lot to answer for! He sold off our gold reserves, sabotaged the pensions industry and squandered the Conservative legacy of a strong economy over the past 12 years - and is now the self appointed 'saviour of the global economy'/ Naturally this is challenged by Nicholas Sarkozy, President of France, and the frugal Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany.

Now the Prime Minister is trying to protect Tom Watson MP, Cabinet Office Miister and his close personal advisers who sat in the same office as Damian McBride and should have known about McBride's slanderous emails. Watson writes a left wing Blog which tried to blacken the names of leading Conservatives and Paul Staines, the Guido Fawkes Blogger, who exposed the left wing bias of the Smith Institute. Not surprisingly Tom Watson is now trying to distance himself from McBride and Derek Draper to save his own skin, to say nothing of Gordon Brown who is in charge.

Benjamin Snow sent me this comment in response to yesterday's blog;
"Lynne, the sooner this government is thrown out the better. They are lower than low. They are an insult to our country and deserve to be unreservedly rejected from office at the next General Election. Our Country needs a new Government desperately!"

Hear, hear! June 2010 cannot come soon enough for me, and I can only do my little bit in June 2009 by winning my modest Unitary Council Election.

Today Frank Field, one of the most highly respected and upright Labout MPs in the House of Commons broke ranks to attack Gordon Brown's style of government and the email scandal which is damaging the Labour Party. Gordon Brown could easily have defused the situation with a simple heartfelt apology but 'sorry' is not in his vocabulary. By contrast David Cameron was dignified and impressive on TV News and looks more and more like a future Prime Minister.

LABOUR GOVERNMENT SINKS INTO THE GUTTER

Damian McBride and Gordon Brown


If anyone doubts that Gordon Brown and his sleazy Labour Government are doomed, the scandal over Damian McBride's scurrilous activities in spinning poisonous lies about leading Conservative politicians, including my local MP Nadine Dorries, pictured right, has exposed its corrosive political culture.

Damian McBride was a senior civil servant, paid for by the taxpayer as Gordon Brown's Head of Policy and Strategy. In the middle of a serious economic crisis when the Labour Government was lending £10 Billion to banks and fighting two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, McBride had time to draft emails which aimed to assassinate the reputations of leading Conservative politicians including David Cameron and George Osborne. He invented a story about the mental state of George Osbone's wife Frances and told a pack of lies about Nadine Dorries who now plans to sue him for libel.

McBride's activities in briefing the media and starting a Labour Blog Red Rag to spread vicious lies about the Conservatives was exposed by Paul Staines in his popular Blog Guido Fawkes, which receives 100,000 unique visitors a month.

As a local Conservative Councillor I am now planning my campaign to be elected as a Conservative Bedford Unitary Councillor for Elstow and Wilstead on Thursday 4 June 2009.

Roll on 2010 when a Conservative Government will be elected and we can be rid of Gordon Brown and his incompetent and dishonest political colleagues and repair the economic damage caused by Gordon Brown and Tony Blair for the last 12 years.

WILSTEAD FOOTBALL CLUB

Wilstead is a small Bedfordshire village (population 2,300) but it has a splendid Football Club with several adult and youth teams, ably led by the Chairman James Struthers and Chief Coach Ben Wisson. Recently I gave the Club a grant from my County Community Leaders' Fund to refurbish their showers and on Saturday I watched them play a home match against Renhold. They scored 2 goals but Renhold scored 4 so Wilstead lost the match but there was lots of action.

My home town is Portsmouth and my 2 brothers once dragged me to watch Pompey play a match at Fratton Park when I was a teenager. I was bored stiff because no goals were scored until the 89th minute and swore I would never go again. Apart from watching World Cup football on TV I have never watched another football match since until Saturday but it was fun - I just blocked my ears to the occasional four letter words!

I drove 160 miles south down the M1 from Leeds for the match as I was at the CCA (Conservative Councillors' Association) Annual Conference, at which David Cameron was due to speak. David could not attend as he is in mourning for his 6 year old disabled son Ivan who died on Wednesday. David and Samantha Cameron have been devastated by the sudden loss of their eldest child and his funeral takes place tomorrow in Oxfordshire

Alan Duncan gave a keynote speech instead of David Cameron and we had a feisty after dinner speech from Baroness Warsi, the youngest and sole female Moslem peer in the House of Lords who described her relentless battles against discrimination and prejudice, especially from within her own Moslem community in Dewsbury, Yorkshire.

Thank you to Cathy Burridge, from Texas, USA who sent me the following kind comment:

"I have just visited your lovely town and was delighted to have also visited Elstow, what a beautiful place you live in!

It was a whistlestop tour of the City of Bedford, but it was such a shame I did not get to meet a local celebrity as yourself.

Thanks for this blog. Its very informative, it looks like you too travel a lot, have you been to Cambridge, its fantastic?

Oh, I so agree with you, your country needs more trees, so I hope you will be planting some more soon. Best wishes Councillor Lynne"

US CONGRESS APPROVES $700 Billion BAILOUT

Albuquerque Balloon Festival







So the US Congress finally blinked and averted a world economic crisis by backing the Bush $700 Bn.rescue package for US Banks. On Monday the US Congress rebelled against the plan due to partisan squabbling between Republicans and Democrats - in marked contrast to the UK where David Cameron and Conservative MPs cooperated with the Labour Government over the UK banking crisis.

Tonight my brother Martin, who lives in the US, sent me these photographs of the Albuquerque Balloon Festival - the largest in the world. This seems appropriate after a week in which the amazing shenanigans of US politicians with their 'heads in the clouds' came close to causing the collapse of the world economy.

The credit crunch will bite us all hard. There was a ray of hope tonight when UK petrol prices fell 5 pence to 105 p per litre - but probably not for long, hence the long queues at petrol stations!

DAVID CAMERON - OUR NEXT PRIME MINISTER

Hi everyone. I am back from the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham where I enjoyed 3 inspiring speeches from our Conservative Leader, David Cameron - who will be a great Prime Minister. Unlike Gordon Brown David is empathetic, decisive,
strong and stands up for his core values - family, social responsibility and public service with a clear vision of how to repair our broken society.

David also has by a strong Shadow Cabinet. William Hague, the former Leader is the Conservative Party's finest orator and made a masterly speech on Sunday attacking Gordon Brown's poor financial record as Chancellor and Prime Minister. Britain now has a larger level of public borrowing than any other Western country apart from Egypt and Hungary, in spite of inheriting a strong economy from the Conservatives in 1997 and enjoying an 11 year economic boom, largely based on credit and borrowing.

George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor also gave an excellent speech on the Economy.
The next Conservative Government will freese Council Tax for 2 years for those Councils who agree to keep their own Council Tax increases down to 2.5% or less.

Other memorable debates including one on the NHS with a devastating indictment of the current problems from 6 Prospective Parliamentary Candidates, all NHS doctors.
There are now more NHS managers than nurses and inefficiency and waste are rife.
Conservatives want the NHS to be patient focused instead of target obsessed.

On Saturday before the Conference started I went to the 6th Birthday Party of my granddaughter Jessica with 33 other children - a noisy and exhausting experience!

CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE 2008

Tomorrow I am off to my granddaughter Jessica's 6th Birthday Party in Staffordshire and then on Sunday go to the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. The 2008 Conference promises to be an exciting one as according to a recent IPSOS-MORI Poll over 50% of voters want a Conservative Government. Gordon Brown's Labour Government is now looking increasingly tired after 11 years and it is time for a change. By contrast our Leader David Cameron, pictured above is young and vigorous with lots of good ideas on how to put the Great back into Britain and repair our broken society.

The Conservative Party has just launched a new Website and and a new Blog called The Blue Blog. There is a video message from David Cameron on the website.