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SHAKESPEARE IN THE DOME

Tonight we attended a performance of Much Ado About Nothing. It was performed in the Dome at Buxton which was a fabulous setting for it. The performances by the cast were terrific and whilst I was never a big Shakespeare fan at school, I have to say that I was enthralled by the whole performance and the storyline. It was made extra special though by the setting within the Dome.

TINTWISTLE LANDSLIDE !!

Bill Clarke our Conservative Candidate won the Tintwistle by-election yesterday in a landslide victory. Bill polled over 69% of the vote as the Labour vote collapsed. The LibDems suffered a particular humiliation, polling only a meagre 40 votes ! Bill now has to get stuck into the work started by Cynthia which I am sure he will do very well. It will be a steep learning curve for him over the next few weeks as he gets to grip with Council procedures, but as an existing Parish Councillor I have complete confidence that he will be up to the task.

ELECTION DAY IN TINTWISTLE

Today is the day for our candidate, Bill Clarke who is hoping to succeed the late Cynthia Mitchell as Councillor for the Tintwistle Ward. Along with Bill and the rest of the team we have knocked on pretty much every door in the Ward, introducing Bill and learning a lot about Tintwistle and the parts of Hadfield that fall within the Ward boundary.

BUXTON FOR YOUTH

My first High Peak Hike in 2007 was done in part for Buxton for Youth, so I am always interested to see how they are getting on. Tonights open evening showed very well that the project is going from strength to strength. The work they do is a real help to young people when they need it and a credit to all involved  

MPs' EXPENSES

Once again MPs' expenses are at the top of the political agenda as MPs return to Westminster to find individual letters waiting for them concerning their own claims. Our local MP is remaining coy about the contents of his letter. I have seen websites commenting on various aspects of his claims. For the avoidance of doubt, and following comments made by Mr. Levitt regarding the origin of these sites, I would like to make it clear that I only comment on this website and have nothing to do with any other sites.

My view is that Mr. Levitt's expenses seem excessive and some of the things claimed for do not appear to be essential in assisting him to carry out his role as the Member of Parliament. I drew up my Candidates Contract as long ago as May, where I have tried to outline what my position would be should I be elected as the MP for the High Peak.

CONFERENCE HEADLINES

Unlike the Labour party conference on which they spent their time talking to each other, I feel that at our Conference we spoke to the British people. We laid out a few things that a future Conservative Government would look to do. Whilst I know that some of the things will provoke further questions from people eg. raising of the retirement age, 1 year public sector pay freezes, we cannot duck the tough decisions. The country has been financially savaged by this Government and it faces the most desperate economic situation for many years. Thse tough times require tough decisions and for anyone to deny the seriousness of the situation as Gordon Brown is doing is disingenuous. Together with the measures proposed by George Osborne, reforms by Michael Gove in Education, Ken Clarke in business, I belive that a Conservative government can get Britain back on its feet, as it has done in the past, following years of Labour mismanagement.

CONFERENCE 2009

Today I'm off to Manchester for the Conservative Party conference. As the last Conference before the General Election it promises to be an interesting conference. I am expecting quite a few announcements on how we will be looking to deal with the dire economic circumstances should we form the next Government. Whilst it is impossible to lay out a full budget at this stage as we haven't had 'access to the books', we can make some indications.

PRESENTATION OF HIKE CHEQUES

Together with Emma, my walking colleague and the East Midlands MEP, I hand over the money raised by this years High Peak Hike. Once again we have made over £1,000 for local charities. The hike is always great fun, hard work, but very satisfying to see the money handed over to worthwhile local charities. This year the Buxton Summer Club, New Mills Young Womens Group and Glossop Newspapers for the Blind are the principle beneficiaries.

HIGH PEAK INDOOR BOWLS

After helping the High Peak indoor bowlers over the past few weeks and months, they are finally ready to launch their indoor bowling season. They have worked fantastically hard to make this happen and I applaud them for their efforts. Being asked to bowl the first 'wood' put the pressure on. My first two were awful, the third a bit better, but my fourth was only about 2 ft from the jack. I decided to retire from the sport there and then !

HIGH PEAK SPORTS AWARDS 2009

From the Freshers Fair, it's straight to the annual High Peak Sports Awards, which it is my privilege to be involved with. As part of my portfolio on the Council this is one of the most pleasurable events of the year. It is fantastic to see young people and old receiving awards for what they have achieved for themselves and also what they have done for the community. There were numerous awards presented and I wouldn't like to go through them all here, but I was particularly delighted to see Glossop North End honoured for their achievement of getting to Wembley for the F.A.Vase final earlier this year.

DERBY UNIVERSITY FRESHERS FAIR 2009

Once again, with colleagues we stand the DU Freshers Fair. A continual challenge in politics is to involve young people. By standing the fair I hope that the new students arriving in Buxton will see that politicians are not two headed beasts and we are working hard trying to represent people in the best way we can. We have a lot of people visit the stand, many of whom were critical of the present Government and showed an interest in politics and the coming General Election.

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