My focus is shifting
Posted by Alan Collins on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 00:02

Now don’t worry, I’m not about to say that I’m switching sides. When I say my focus is shifting, I mean that the focus of this blog on local issues is changing.

From now on, most local issues covered will either be generic (i.e. affecting all of Medway or Gillingham and Rainham) or specific to Rainham Central, Twydall or Watling Wards.

These are the three main wards of interest to me, and the ones in which I shall be working the hardest for the forseeable future.

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How to rip apart the Conservative Party
Posted by Alan Collins on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 23:45

YET another bad-news poll will be included in tomorrow’s Daily Telegraph, concluding that, two months after Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, David Cameron is still facing a landslide defeat.

The YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph has put the Labour Party on 41% and the Conservative Party on 33%, an outlook which the article claims means that Gordon Brown faces a 100-seat majority in the House of Commons if he was to call a snap election.

So at the end of Cameron’s bad few months (he is, after all, fighting back), I think a look back is required to demonstrate how to rip the Conservative Party apart.

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Lawless Britain: It’s time to fight back
Posted by Alan Collins on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 23:32

“What this country needs is new ideas and effective action … Today I am calling on the country to fight back … It is time to fight back against crime, and the fightback starts here.”

David Cameron’s call to war could hardly come at a better time. Ten years ago violent crimes such as the appalling murder of James Bulger were tragic one-offs. However, last week’s shooting of 11 year-old Rhys Jones was “the latest in a string of deaths by shooting in different parts of the country”, in the words of Michael Howard. Deaths which should never have been allowed to happen, and would never have happened in a society with an effective deterrent.

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An evening with Benazir Bhutto
Posted by Alan Collins on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 16:44

I HAVE been relatively quiet over the weekend in terms of postings on this blog, and there is one good reason for that: I have been a very busy boy!

Not politically, well mostly not politically, anyway. On Saturday I was working, before going to my soon-to-be-uncle’s stag night and on Sunday morning, I attended a christening (one down, two to go as I shall explain in another post on another day). Sunday evening, however, I got back into politics - well, sort of - by attending an evening with Benazir Bhutto.

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Friday, August 24, 2007
Posted by Alan Collins on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 11:48

Medway Messenger

Mail Services
We need some action post haste

I HAVE been interested to read on your letters pages the recent exchange between Cllr Andy Stamp and MP Paul Clark, about Gillingham Post Office.

Following Cllr Stamp’s latest remarks regarding privatisation, I felt compelled to offer my two pennies’ worth.

I am a Conservative and proud of it. However, I completely disagree with Cllr Stamp’s suggestion that selling 49 per cent of the Royal Mail is the answer to our prayers as concerned citizens - and one could use Metrnoet entering into administration as an example of why privatisation should not be considered.

I seem to remember a report published around the time of Chancellor Gordon Brown’s Budget earlier in the year revealing that, for every extra £100 raised by Mr Brown’s stealth tax increases, only £30 made it on to front line services. The rest, it was claimed, was squandered on bureaucracy and Government waste.

What is needed as a sustainable solution to this, and many other Government failures, is to cut the Government waste, particularly eradicate as much bureaucracy as possible, and see what we are left with:

• Police Officers on the streets where they belong, not stuck at their desks filling in forms.
• Doctors who know what they are doing in charge of our Health Service, rather than pen-pushers who haven’t got a clue.
• Most importantly, more money to invest in eductaion, the NHS, policing and post offices.

This is the common sense approach to governance, supported by the Conservative Party and their Parliamentary Candidate for Gillingham & Rainham, Cllr Rehman Chishti.

Perhaps Cllr Stamp and Mr Clark could consider using their common sense and agree, or perhaps only the Conservative Party can save valuable services such as the Post Office, before it is too late.

Alan Collins
Goudhurst Road
Gillingham

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