There are two County Council seats in Rayleigh, and we are fighting hard to win both of them!
Rayleigh North
Christopher Ian Black Liberal Democrats
John Hayter UK Independence Party
Malcolm Maddocks Conservative Party (sitting Councillor)
Roger Anthony Neville Labour Party
Can Chris Black win this after coming second 3 times in a row? The first time he lost by 907 votes. The next time he lost by 356 votes. Last time he only lost by only 295 votes! So he has a good chance this time. Malcolm Maddocks has the disadvantage of not living in Rayleigh – he lives in Hill Lane, Hawkwell.
UKIP seem to be in a national decline and John Hayter lost his seat on the District Council last May, so this doesn’t look like UKIP’s year. Labour came bottom last time, and will surely come bottom this time.
The big local issues are highways, overdevelopment, and the NHS.
Rayleigh South
 Jamie Clive Burton Rayleigh Independents
Keith Anthony Gibbs UK Independence Party (sitting Councillor)
June Rosemary Lumley Conservative Party
Samantha Reed Labour Party
Christopher Stanley Liberal Democrats
Andrew Charles Warren Strutt Green Party
Oddly enough, there are three candidates here who’ve switched from different parties. Jamie Burton used to be UKIP, Keith Gibbs used to be Conservative, and June Lumley used to be Lib Dem. All three have a chance of winning – but so does Chris Stanley standing for us.
Keith Gibbs has been a County Councillor for 4 years here, which would normally give him an advantage, but he doesn’t seem to have used that time to get much public recognition. He is claiming in his leaflet to have opposed the council’s development strategy since 2007, but the Lib Dems actually were opposing it since that time, and we don’t remember him ever giving us support….
Meanwhile June Lumley may lose votes over public concern over all the development to the West of Rayleigh and the lack of air pollution monitoring by the council (something that the Lib Dem councillors are now helping to pay for themselves).
And don’t forget people, if you don’t like the result just have another vote until you get what you want. After all it’s Tiny Tims Lib Dem policy on leaving the EU.
That’s NOT what the County Council elections are about!. Save your ammo Oz, you’ll have plenty of chances to use it later…
But to answer you- that’s what general elections ARE about. If people don’t like the way Brexit is being handled – quitting the single market and having cosy chats with American healthcare companies about them grabbing parts of the NHS – they have a chance to change the government . That is democracy.
Well….that’s told me ! But coffee and cake still on offer at Oz Towers…
The General Election is not solely about Brexit , in a nutshell –
The electorate all know the country is in deep debt and the current government are already applying very significant cuts to all manner
of services the only alternate being to increase taxation of all types.
The electorate also know that a resounding win (and increased majority )
will embolden the Tories to cut deeper / further – and put taxes up too,
our own one party dominated RDC have illustrated how they force their
will through via the WHIP etc;.
The dilemma is who else do you vote for as a protest ? , the Labour Party is quite clearly dysfunctional and cannot manage themselves let alone a National economy or Brexit complications of that economy.
So the LibDems do have an opportunity to make inroads into both the Labour and Tory electorate but almost certainly not enough to win outright – why ?
because their leader is focussing on only the 50% who voted to remain in the
EU by making it all about Brexit. The national debt will still be there and needs addressing and the NHS will remain in decline if not radically changed ( I am
not suggesting the ‘ USA solution is right ‘ ) but……..
The NHS is a very different being to when it was formed ( 70+ years ago ) and
it is now so sophisticated ( ££££££££££££££ ) that , again, you either cut or increase contributions to pay for it. Although a holy cow subject I believe it
will have to become a 3 tier system ( albeit will not be popular ):-
Free at point of delivery – life threatening aspects
Shared cost ( patient & system ) – fair wear and tear aspects
Self funded ( by patient ) – lifestyle choices!!!
Making this election Brexit only is what Mrs May wants ( strike while the
opposition is pre-occupied )…….
I’m very glad you are not suggesting the American system. They spend nearly twice as much (in terms of GNP) on health care than the UK, and have a shorter average life expectancy.
Personally, I think there ‘s a simple solution to the NHS . More money.