The General Election "warm up" starts today ....

... with a Conservative Party leaflet flying through the door espousing the virtues of one Mr Rob Adlard. Apparently Mr Adlard "lives in our constituency", and of his four "pledges for a fresh start", three of them involve expenses, and the fourth is a very nebulous point involving "the values of our society, preserving what is great about Britain" and "promoting aspiration for all". One can probably understand the emphasis on expenses as Mr A is apparently a violinist and wouldn't want to be seen "on the fiddle"...

A brief glance through the pamphlet sees education as a big point - "as a professional violinist I had to struggle for years to make up for starting lessons much later in the state sector compared to those who had begun with private tuition" - as the guy is nearly 35 years old I guess "that early struggle" was while the Tories were running the show !

A brief glance at the chap's website shows some other interesting pointers - he first got involved in politics in 1992 assisting his local Conservative candidate against the mighty Mandelson - in Hartlepool - “It made me angry that a privately educated southerner, who was never going to be part of my town, was going to represent the area rather a hardworking local businessman" - it appears Hartlepool's loss is Stalybridge and Hyde's gain.

He moans about Labour cutting the higher education budget by £533 million - and then offers 10,000 extra fully-funded university places and the building of "hundreds of good new schools within the state system" ... to be paid for by ... ?? I assume the creation of thousands of new uni places could be funded by a deal with the moneygrabbing Student Loans Company maybe - love to find out more about the phrase "fully funded". He feels we need to "shift the balance of power in the classroom back to the teacher" (must talk to Mrs Smiffy about that one - i.e. someone down there in the real world !). There's great play in Carol Vorderman helping the Conservatives to analyse the teaching of maths in this country - hardly a new story (it was unveiled over 12 months ago), although I suppose a bit of "glamour" always helps to paper over the cracks ...

Apparently he was involved in the "NO" campaign for a congestion charge in Manchester (obviously what his fellow Tory Boris is doing in Greater London doesn't count for too much in the country's "second city") - I quote "however under the stewardship of the Conservatives, the Passenger Transport Authority is delivering a transport package for Tameside that will deliver significant improvements without the charge.". Now to the best of my knowledge the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority doesn't exist any more - it's now the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority and it's made up of 33 councillors from the ten local districts - and it's hardly under the stewardship of the Conservatives (my count goes Labour 15, LibDem 10, Conservative 8) - one site says Keith Whitmore (Lab) is the chair and another says Ian McDonald (Con) is the chair ... I'm sure someone will put me right !

Anyway - enough of this for now - don't get me wrong - I'll be looking at everything that comes through the door - and having a go as I see fit - I may have been a staunch socialist - I may well still be a staunch socialist - but I've just not had a staunch socialist party to vote for ... ever (just not enough Tony Benns and Dennis Skinners in this world). However I WILL leave you with a couple of quotes from the Rob Adlard website - remember this is the guy who appears to be putting education at the top of his list (once he's sorted his expenses out) ... I give you:

"People, no matter where they are or what they’re doing, need to feel free to persue their dreams and aspirations. "

"I’m always glad to hear from Stalybridge & Hyde residents. Tell me about a local issue, or join me and get invovled."

(sic) as they say in the literary trade !!
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