Andrew Percy's Blog

Meeting Sir Bob Geldof

andrew — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:44:39 +0100

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Sir Bob Geldof who was in East Yorkshire to speak in support of David Davis' by-election which our team have been assisting in. Sir Bob came to speak to a gathering of young people from across East Yorkshire about the erosion of liberty and freedom in the UK in recent years. His speech was brilliant and I particularly liked the extract below which talks about the loss of our freedoms and privacy in recent years.

"Let us ask ‘what is the point of England “ now that Parliament, whose primary purpose is to defend the liberties of the people have so gratuitously, so wantonly, so casually betrayed that trust and taken from us that same liberty which above all else defines this country and its constitution, and that which has been its greatest gift to the world its freedom, its tolerances, its civilisation which William Wilberforce so forcefully argued so many centuries ago."

There can be no argument with these words and sir Bob certainly struck a chord with the young people gathered who I have to say asked some fantastically thoughtful questions. The Government now has 266 powers to force its way into our homes, often for trivial reasons. Petty officials can now snoop through our bins, eavesdrop on our phone call and even spy on children on the way to school.

I was in two minds about whether or not David Davis should have resigned his seat and in fact I told him of my worry just before he did. There can be no denying now though that he has definitely put the erosion of our freedoms and the interference of the Government into our daily lives well and truly in the spotlight.

Perhaps Gordon Brown should listen and start dealing with proper criminals rather than snooping on the daily activities of ordinary law-abiding citizens.

Burringham Fun Day

andrew — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:49:01 +0100

It was my privilege to open the Burringham Fun Day yesterday which, despite a pour down later on, seemed to be a success. As usual I lucked out on the raffle (see photo) but did manage to come away with a nice bottle from the Committee for opening the event.

The Village Hall Committee do a great job in keeping the Village Hall running and deserve full marks for the effort they go to in organising the Fun Day. Last year I was there with a petition calling for action to improve road safety in the village which eventually led to action.

We will be back in the Village Hall on Friday night as we are organising a quiz night for local party members and supporters.

Average Family Is £400 Worse Of This Year

andrew — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:36:48 +0100

According to research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research the average family this year is £400 worse off thanks to Gordon Brown and the Labour Government. The doubling of the ten pence tax rate, the increases in car taxes and hikes in Council Tax have all hit hard working families and individuals hard.

I accept that the Government cannot control everything that happens in the world economy but there are things it can do to lessen the impact. Sadly, instead of helping hard-working families out, Gordon Brown and Labour have decided to burden them with even more tax rises.

Worst of all, they have decided to hammer the poorest families and workers the hardest.

Goole Gift Campaign for Heroes

andrew — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:35:30 +0100

I am delighted to have been able to support the 'Goole Gift Campaign for Heroes' who are doing a fantastic job in sending parcels to our brave troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Kerry and Darren Smith who run the campaign from their home in Swinefleet are doing a great job and deserve our support.

I wanted to do a little something so I decided to put a request for support in my most recent newspaper which was delivered across Brigg and Goole. We have had residents dropping in items for the parcels to the office and even got an offer of 60 boxes of Haribo sweets from Haribo! We are storing the rest in our office in Normanby until the first few boxes are dispatched!

The photo above shows me delivering some of the boxes to Kerry and Darren. Haribo deserve our thanks in supporting this non-political campaign. Well done to Haribo and well done to Kerry and Darren.

Anyone wanting to contribute items to the parcels can either drop them into our office at 32 Main Street in Normanby or to the office of the Goole Times or Goole Courier in Goole. Items needed incled, talc, deodorants, soups, sachet food, pot noodle type foods, cotton socks, energy bars etc.

Pensioner Poverty Up, Child Poverty Up, House Prices Falling, House Sales Falling, Fuel Bills Rising - Gordon Brown's Britain!

andrew — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:16:45 +0100

The above are all headlines in the news today and sum up just what a mess Labour have got Britain in to. Everyone I speak to at the moment just seems to be crying out for a change of Government and for Labour to be booted out.

It comes to something when a Government can manage in the same year to increase pensioner poverty, increase child poverty, undermine the housing market and still manage to raise taxes on hard working people. In fact, Labour's most recent tax changes, to scrap the 10p tax rate and raise taxes on older cars, actually hit some of our poorest people the hardest.

Who knows what people will think come the election. I am certainly not going to get excited by all these massive opinion polls leads we seem to have at the moment. Polls this far from an election mean nothing.

All is know is that local people are finding life harder and more expensive by the day. Our local Labour MP, who as the Vice Chairman of the Labour Party is at the heart of this Labour Government, seems to have little to say about any of these huge issues. Just the usual cheap photo opportunities and self-promotion in the local press. Not much use to local people facing higher taxes or negative equity! No wonder so many ex-Labour voters are contacting me to offer suport.

Young Farmers Rally

andrew — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:47:07 +0100

With my duties in Crewe and Nantwhich over with I spent this weekend out and about in the constituency. I was pleased to be invited to the East Riding Young Farmers County Rally which was held in Laxton just outside Goole.

The East Riding Young Farmers includes both the Goole and District Young Farmers (some pictured with me) and the Isle of Axholme branch and so it was good to meet members from across our area.

The Young Farmers are a great organisation and it was a pleasure to meet so many motivated young people all engaged in positive activities. For all we hear about young people's behaviour it is important to remember that the vast majority of our young people are honest and decent.

We need more groups such as the Young Farmers and the Scouts who positively engage young people and give them something to aim for. That's why I was so pleased last year when David Cameron announced plans for a six week National Citizen Service for all 16 year olds which would challenge young people and provide them with the opportunity to undertake work in the community, thereby gaining key skills and experiences.

Sunday I spent campaigning in West Butterwick where we received a very positive response on the doorsteps!

Snaith, Airmyn and Rawcliffe Campaign Day

andrew — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:01:31 +0100

Saturday saw another of our hugely successful campaign days, this time in the Snaith, Airmyn and Rawcliffe Ward. The response from local people was really positive with many uttering the phrase I seem to keep hearing at the moment "I've voted Labour all my life but never again."

I had one guy in Pollington who told me he was really disappointed that he had not ben able to vote on May 1st, there being no local elections in our area, and that the general election 'could not come soon enough.'

We are out every weekend and sometimes during the week too and I am really delighted at the level of support we are receiving - not least from people who have never been involved in local politics before.

If you would like to lend a hand leafletting, canvassing, helping with admin tasks or by attending our social functions please drop me a line. Our volunteer base is growing by the week and I would love to have you on board!

P.S. The photo only shows those who came for the morning session, we had even more helpers turn up later!!!

Ambulance and Flood Plan Update

andrew — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:37:29 +0100

Welcome back to my website which has been down for a couple of weeks. My website is devoted almost purely to local issues in the Brigg and Goole constituency and unlike other sites I could mention, I try to avoid self-indulgent ramblings and concentrate on the issues which are of importance to local residents.

River Trent Flood Catchment Plan

Despite the massive opposition to the above plan locally, the Environment Agency have decided to adopt the plan anywhere having altered the wording only slightly. It is still the aim of the Government Agency to reduce their activities on the Isle of Axholme in the hope of saving money. We will not know exactly what they are proposing until the more detailed strategies have been produced. The only glimmer of hope comes from the fact that the Agency have said that if the detailed strategies bring up new issues they may be willing to reconsider the policy approach adopted for the Isle. We must therefore wait to see what those detailed studies bring forth!

Brigg Ambulance

I attended the recent North Lincolnshire Scrutiny Panel hearing into the proposed changes which frankly did not really do this important issue justice. The Labour Chairman seemed determined to move the meeting on as quickly as possible and so there was little real question of the Ambulance Trust.

The Trust did however confirm that the Brigg Ambulance was being scrapped because of Government reviews and changes. The Trust obviously have to do as they are told by the Labour Government but it is a shame that once again local people have no real say in these changes.

We have continued collecting signatures for our petition against the scrapping of the ambulance and have been on the streets of Brigg gaining more support. Everyone was so kind to us on the streets and i lost count of the number of people telling me they had had it with the current Government.

MP Falls Under Bus Bandwagon

andrew — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:25:54 +0100

Oh dear, our poor old Labour MP really should be more careful when jumping on a bandwagon. For sometime now Cllr Rob Waltham and I have been campaigning to try to win the return of the bus to Hilton Avenue in Gunness. In fairness Rob has worked like a trooper on the issue and so really deserves the credit.

Anyway, through the Burringham and Gunness Community Chest we agreed to fund a Friday shopper service ourselves to help pensioners get into town to do their shopping. The Council refused to help and in fact Labour Councillors actually criticised us for putting the service on! They would rather residents had no service at all.

Following huge pressure, the bus service will now return to the Hilton Avenue area, although we will continue to provide our shopper service too, which we have new plans for too.

Sadly, the local Labour MP thought he would try and jump on the bandwagon and claim credit for the service by putting a leaflet around the area. The leaflet was paid for by our taxes as it was funded by the communications allowance - another expense MPs claim and which you and I pay for.

Judging by the response we have received from local residents that was a very very bad idea. Many residents we spoke to today were furious with his claims which frankly do not hold up to scrutiny. Quite a few residents said that besides not knowing who he was they couldn't believe he was trying to claim credit for something which Rob has so visibly worked for. Rob was the one who organised the petitions when the service was cut, raised it at Council and who found a replacement Friday service for the pensioners.

I thought I would blog this incident because it does rather demonstrate what our MP is up to in various parts of the constituency. Just last week I had a phone conversation with somebody from Snaith who said they really felt our MP was making a bit of a fool of himself at the moment. I can't argue with that, the only problem is that he is using taxpayers money in the process.

We shall certainly be watching very closely to see just how much of your money our MP uses to promote himself in the coming months and years.

Fire Cuts Latest

andrew — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:16:03 +0100

I attended the marathon 5 hour Fire Authority meeting last Friday at which the Fire Authority was to make a decision on the proposed cuts to the service. Needless to say, our local Labour MP who claims to be so interested in this issue never bothered to turn up!

Anyway, a decision of sorts was taken and that decision was that there should be a moritorium on the proposed closures for the next three months so that the Fire Service officers could go away and consider other options and, importantly, begin a dialogue with the Fire Brigades Union to find a more acceptable way forward.

That proposal came from one of our own Councillors, John Briggs, who highlighted the fact that the Fire Brigade had not provided a range of options for members and had failed to take into account such important issues as future development, the regional spacial strategy and the flood cathcment plans which are currently being drawn up.

Contrary to the impression given by my opponent in his increasingly bizarre ramblings - as commented upon by a number of residents to me - that proposal was agreed by Councillors of ALL parties.

That is rather embarrassing to Gordon Brown's Labour MP for Brigg and Goole who has been running around trying to give the impression that there is some sort of political split on this issue. That is not helpful and certainly proves that his interest in this matter is more about political points, than it is genuine concern for local residents.