16th March 2010

News story

It's about time the badger TB issue is sorted out!

Last Tuesday I took myself off to Hatherleigh to visit the farmers market. Actually, I have been there several times before, buying ducks for our pond (yep we have a Duck house… paid for by us, I should add!). But this time it was an opportunity to meet with farmers about issues of the day. I was most interested to hear about their views on badgers, said to be causing...
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10th March 2010

News story

I am concerned that this election will be decided by how many don’t vote

As we edge ever closer to the election, the candidates have starting to be invited to question time sessions, the first of which was this past week with sixth formers at Okehampton College.

Actually, it was the first time the candidates got to meet each other (except the Green Candidate who couldn’t make it) so for me it was good to finally put a names to a faces.
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2nd March 2010

News story

Real politics will be lost in a world of sound bites and photo opportunities

This past week has been super busy as we fought a by-election and I did my last piece of freelance work for Devon as well as fitting in another of my ‘big interviews’, this time in Bovey Tracey.

Now for those sane readers of this website, by-elections I guess are limited to leaflets being pushed through your letterbox and the occasional knock on the door from the candidates’ team...
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24th February 2010

News story

interview your next MP?

When I was writing my selection address before Christmas, I mulled over the election expenses and the effect on the public. It seemed to me, the shortcomings of some of the MPs increased the feeling of estrangement between the public and politics. I have often said that MPs are, in fact, employed by their electorate. So I thought, why not offer the opportunity for the public to ‘interview’ someone who...
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16th February 2010

News story

electoral aftercare

This week I was watching the head of Toyota apologise to its customers for the recall of their cars, and thought how lucky we were not to buy one when we were looking for a new car late last year. Then the next day what should pop through our letterbox, but a recall for our Vauxhall car.

Apparently, it needs to be reprogrammed or the Diesel Particulate Filter...
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8th February 2010

News story

democracy goes back to school

They say a week is a long time in politics, I have to tell you actually It’s not, well not this week anyway!

With a by-election in full swing and my commitment to meet as many people as I can before the election, it has made for a busy week.

In between canvassing I fitted in a brief visit to a rural primary school, with a very interesting...
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2nd February 2010

News story

i want to make a new contract between the voter and me

Just over two weeks ago my life changed. There I was full of ‘man cold’ (which is of course the worse kind), watching my pile of votes grow ever larger at the Lib Dems Hustings. My wife, Rachel squeezed my hand and whispered “I think you’ve won.” It suddenly dawned on me that I really was going to be given a chance to represent the people of Central Devon.
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