Last night saw the awards ceremony for the Litter Angels competition that has been running since January. The competition was sponsored by the Swale Community Action Project, a non party political initiative of which I am director, and was organised in an effort to educate our youngest children not to drop litter. The idea was that a child who cares about our local environment has half a chance of growing up into an adult who cares about our local environment.

Organising the competition was a challenge to say the least. The first task was to encourage schools to take part and then visit the participating schools to explain to the youngsters the importance of making Swale a litter free area. Some schools were enthusiastic in their support of the competition and I very much hope that with more publicity we will be able to increase the number of participating schools next year.

The next task was to design and print the certificates, which were awarded to all the finalists, design and produce plaques for the winners, purchase prizes and book tokens, and arrange for the winning posters to be printed.

In between I had to organise the judging and I was delighted with the good natured way in which our judges (Cllr John Morris (The Mayor), Cllr John Disney (Environment portfolio holder), Sioux Peto (Swale Arts Forum), Christine Rayner (Editor - East Kent Gazette), Matt Ramsden (Editor - Sheerness Times Guardian) and Geoff Rutt (Sittingbourne Community College) fulfilled their role.

Then, finally, the awards ceremony had to be organised and that is where I started to have nightmares. It was easy to find a venue (thanks to Sittingbourne Community College) and it was easy to set a date and time, but how to ensure that the winners turned up to receive their prizes? That was the difficult part because I didn't want to reveal the winners until the awards ceremony took place.

As at yesterday morning of the four winners and two runners up I had received confirmation that only one of the runners up would be attending the ceremony. On two seperate nights I woke up in a cold sweat thinking how embarrassing it would be if none of the winners turned up!

In the event, of the 31 finalists 26 of them turned up to the awards ceremony, accompanied by parents and teachers, including ALL the winners and both runners up! Nightmare over!

I took no part in the actual judging of the posters, except to explain to the judges the rules, which were that they had to award marks out of ten to every entry, after which I added up the aggregate score and the highest in eacj age group was declared the winner. However, when I saw all the posters one immediately drew my eye (see above) and I wasn't suprised when that particular entry eventually received the highest score in its category.

These are worrying times, and not just for the Government. Forget Gordon Brown'a woes. Forget all the gossip that is rife in the rarified air of the Westminster Village about leadership contests and Labour MPs resigned to defeat. Forget the opinion polls. Forget the huge defeat in the local elections. Forget the way in which Boris beat Ken in London. These are important signposts that political anoraks mull over with much excitement, but which mean little to the man on the Clapham omnibus.

In the real world in which most of us live, there are more imortant things to worry about. Things are tough and are likely to get tougher.  House prices are tumbling, whilst everything else is going up; taxes, food prices, petrol prices, electricity prices and gas prices are all going through the roof. People are starting to feel the pinch. Credit is tight, consumers are being hit in the pocket, the average disposable income is at its lowest for 17 years and businesses are starting to suffer. Job losses will inevitably follow unless action is taken. Home repossessions are forecast to hit 45,000 this year and that figure will be even higher if unemployment does start rising.

There is pressure to cut interest rates in order to help home owners and encourage consumer spending, but inflation is rising and any cut will push it up a notch more. My prediction is that inflationary pressures will increase still more later this year and early next year and this will lead to a period of even greater economic instability. If you think Britain's economy was in trouble now, I suspct that you aint seen nothing yet!

And the irony is that Gordon Brown or his ministers can do little to stem the flow of bad economic news that is waiting to buffet the Government. Of course, Mr Brown could have introduced policies two or three years ago to prepare the country for the bumpy ride ahead, but he didn't  and it is probably much too late now. Why? Events, dear boy, events!

The problem for the Government is that the inflationary pressures awaiting just around the corner are not home grown; they have a distinctly Oriental flavour. In a word the problem with inflation is China. Inflation in China is currently running at anything up to 15% per annum. Companies who import from China, which these days seems to be everybody, are being advised almost on a daily basis, of price increases in the pipeline.

I know of at least one company that is switching its purchase of components to a UK based supplier because after taking into account Chinese inflation and the increased cost of transport, it will be no less expensive buying in the UK and the logistical risk is dramatically reduced. But prices will still be higher than last year. Closer to home those who import from Europe are facing a devaluation in Sterling against the Euro of around 15% also, which will no doubt be reflected in shop prices. Everything from French wine to Spanish tomatoes will become more expensive.

That is inflation and the affects of that inflation will hit us all.

And what are the political ramifications of our deteriorating economy?  Historically, when the "feel good factor" fades, voters tend to give the government of the day a good kicking. That is what happened last week and as the economic gloom deepens, so the kicking will become more brutal. Labour is on its way out.

But although I am delighted that our present incompetent Government is in its death throes I cannot bring myself to gloat. When Labour MPs lose their jobs at the next General Election few of them will suffer because most of them will pick up a very generous pension package. No, those who will suffer will be all those poor people living in the real world who are most affected by the policies that Mr Brown and his colleagues have pursued since 1997. 

In the real world people are going to lose their jobs. People are going to lose their homes. It is to those people that my heart goes out.

This has been a good week if you support the "Blues"....!

On Wednesday Chelsea reached the European Champions League Cup Final, beating Liverpool at Stamford Bridge after extra time.

On Thursday Glasgow Rangers went to Italy and beat Fiorentina to reach the UEFA Cup Final.

Also on Thursday the Conservatives won a stunning election victory in England and Wales, achieving a 44% share of the vote for the first time in... well in a long time. At the same time we saw the Labour Party's share of the vote slump to 24%, behind the Liberals and their worst position for seventy years.

In Swale, despite all the predictions of a massive Conservative defeat, the Tories increased their majoirty and now have a majority of seven over all other parties. We had stunning victories in Iwade & Lower Halstow, Kemsley, Minster Cliffs, Queenborough & Halfway and St Michael's, came close to beating Labour in their Chalkwell heartland and pushed them into third place in Murston. As I predicted before the election it was national politics that ruled the day, however, local Tories still had to work hard to bring about such a good result.

On polling day I helped out across the constituency, doing stints in Sheppey Central, Queenborough & Halfway, Iwade, Kemsley, Chalkwell and St Michael's. I started the first shift at 8 am and finished at 8 pm but the effort was well worth it because we have laid the foundations for success at next year's Kent County Council elections and the General Election, whenever Mr Brown finds the courage to call it!

On Friday it was announced that Boris Johnson had beaten Ken Livingstone to become the new Mayor of London. Some commentators sneer at Boris and treat him as little more than a joke. I think they are wrong and that he will make an excellent Mayor and make his critics eat their words.

As an aside I was very impressed with David Cameron; after such a terrific result he had every right to be bullish, however, he got the tone just right and made a measured, statesmanlike speech that shows that he at least is plugged into the mood of the country. As he so rightly pointed out we cannot take for granted victory simply because of the unpopularity of the Government, we have to make voters want to support us and we can only do that by putting forward policies that will improve our great public services.

By contrast Mr Brown and his ministers had nothing to say except they had listened to the electorate and would learn. What did they hear and what have they learned? I suspect not a lot!

The only disappointment for the "Blues" this week happened today when Gillingham lost 2-1 away at Leeds and were relegated to the Second Division. Of course, the Second Division is actually the old Fourth Division. They can change the names but they cannot change reality!  As it happens I started watching the Gills on a regular basis in the 1973-4 season when they were in the Fourth Division and I have followed them through thick and think ever since. They rose almost to the top flight before sinking back to the bottom and next season I will still be there shouting for them because I know their time will come again. Just look at the Conservative Party!

I know! I know! Far too long between blogs! This time I make no apologies; the reason I haven't updated my blog is because I have been so busy supporting our local borough council candidates that I simply have not had time. I won't bore you with the details of the past couple of weeks' activities, but suffice to say that I have been doing three campaigning sessions a day. Morning, afternoon and evening.

Today was an exception, there was no evening session, but that was because this morning I was out in St Michaels by 8 am and then off to Iwade by 10.30 am, where I got soaked to the skin! This afternoon I was out in Queenborough and Halfway and again came home soaked to the skin. Tonight I was going back to Iwade for another session, but I received a quite scurrilous leaflet through the door from Sheppey First, which I felt had to be answered, so I have spent the evening drafting a response that will rebut all their lies and innuendoes.

I intend to step up my efforts tomorrow because I actually missed two days campaigning this week because of a business trip. On Monday I was in Rotherham doing a bit of consultancy work and on Tuesday I was in Gainsborough (North Lincolnshire) visiting one of Lou's suppliers to place our Halloween order. That's right; the Halloween that hits us at the end of October!

The problem with tomorrow is that I have to fit my campaigning round organising judging of the Litter Angels Competitions that the Swale Community Action Project has been running. Lots of excellent entries and I am sure that the judges (I am not one!) will find it a difficult decision.

On the subject of campaigning, there was an interesting opinion survey at the weekend that showed that Labout had narrowed the gap with Conservatives to just 5% (but still show David Cameron with a healthy lead). The poll was interesting because it simply bears no relationship with what is actually happening on the doorstep. All our canvassing returns show that the Labour vote is collapsing, OK, the dissatisfied Labour supporters might not be coming across to us, but even if they swicth their vote to another party, as long as out support holds up, it becomes a net gain.

There is one clear message on the doorstep; people are heartily sick of Gordon Brown and want to get rid of him as soon as possible. I sense that we are in a 1995 scenario where everyone had made up their minds that they were going to get rid of John Major, even thought the General Election was still two years away. The electors eventually ditched Mr Major in 1997 in exactly the same way as they are going to ditch Mr Broon in 2009 or 2010. The sooner the better!

Local residents in this part of Halfway have been campaigning for some time to have the drain culverts in The Crescent cleaned. I am one of those residents. Last September I wrote to the Kent Highways about the general state of Swale, using the blocked culverts in Halfway as an example of the poor service we receive (see http://www.sittingbournesheppeyconservatives.com/index.php?sectionid=3&pagenumber=228 ).

The blocked culverts are a particular problem because when it rains heavily water streams down Southdown Road and floods The Crescent and forms large puddles at the Minster Road junction, which are a hazard to motorists and a nuisance for often drenched pedestrians.

When nothing was done I followed up my complaint by telephone and was advised that the culverts were on a priority list for clearing. Nothing happened.

I raised the problem again at a local PACT meeting and I was assured by a Kent Highway Services officer that he would sort the problem. Nothing happened.

A couple of weeks ago I emailed the officer and received a suitably embarrassed apology saying that the staff member who had been tasked with resolving the issue had left the department without passing on details of the task. I was assured that something would happen in a couple of weeks. Lo and behold it has. The blocked culverts have been cleared (see the photo above) and local residents are happy bunnies!

What concerns me is that if somebody like me, who has knowledge, experience, determination and contacts, cannot get such a simple task performed in a timely fashion, what hope do other residents have? Is it any wonder that Joe Public is becoming disillusioned about the state of public services?

Now before I am accused of criticising Swale Borough Council and Kent County Council, let me make it quite clear that I pin the blame for this state of affairs squarely on the Labour Government. They have repeatedly increased the responsibiliy of our two local authorities for providing various new services without giving them the necessary funds to properly provide those services. Let me give you one example.

The Government has given everyone over the age of 60 so called "free" bus travel (it's not free of course as I will explain) and has placed the resposibility for providing that service on Swale Borough Council. The cost of the service is £850,000 per year, but last year the Government only gave the Council a £600,000 grant, which meant that councillors had to make up a £250,000 shortfall. Now, the Council only has one means of raising finance; by charging the self same council tax payers who are supposed to benefit from the "free" bus service. So most of the funding for the "free" bus service comes from General Taxation (paid by the people using the service) and the remainder comes from local council tax payers (paid by the people who use the service). Hardly free!

Of course, at the same time the Government, in an effort to appear to be on the side of council tax payers, places a "cap" on the amount of council tax that local authorities can charge, so by the time you take into account natural inflation and the increased services they are asked to provide, the only way councils can square the circle is by cutting services that they deem to be "low priority".

Of course the Government manipulates the grant system this way because it is a cynical way of appearing to keep down central taxation whilst blaming local councils for increasing council taxes and reducing local services.

When spending its share of the shrinking budget Kent Highway Services, quite rightly, puts as a top priority those issues relating to road safety and puts as a low priority cleaning and repairing roads. We might not agree with their priority list, but we can understand why they are forced to make such difficult decisions.

It is time for the Government either to give local authorities an honest grant settlement or allow them to increase council taxes in order to properly provide the services that people want.

Sorry about the absence of a blog recently, but this week has been so busy that I simply haven't had time to update it. Until now! It's Friday evening and at last I can catch my breath and take stock of the week's activities...

Monday morning saw me election campaigning in Sheppey Central and in the afternoon I was helping our candidate in Queenborough & Halfway deliver leaflets in Halfway West. The two sessions were split by meetings at Swale House with Andrew Bowles (Council Leader), Mike Cosgrove (Finance) and John Disney (Environment).

Tuesday was Leone's (one of our seven granddaughters) 7th birthday, so Louise and I took her and Leigha (one of her sisters) to Hever Castle. It was a cold day, but the rain held off. Hever is a great treat because there is so much to see and plenty of fun things for the little ones to do. We kept them well occupied for fours hours and they both fell asleep on the way home. Unfortunately I didn't have the same luxury, not just because I was driving, but because after the day out I had campaigning to look forward to! I spent the evening canvassing in St Michael's ward with "the team" and then went on to take in the last part of the Iwade Parish Council meeting. Interesting! It seems that due to an oversight the existing parish council members did not get their nomination papers for the parish council elections (due on May 1st) in on time, so there are no candidates! It seems that a member of the local Labour Party has been spreading rumours that the lack of candidates was a deliberate protest against Swale Borough Council. It is safe to say that the parish councillors are not very happy with the rumour monger!

Wednesday saw me start off with a visit to Bookers to pick up supplies for the Halfway Conservative Hall (of which I am a director). I then spent time printing and folding leaflets to be distributed in Queenborough. The afternoon was spent delivering leaflets in Halfway East and then in the evening I spent a couple of hours on BRFM 95.6 chatting about environemtal issues and playing some of my favourite tunes, including: Hurricane (Bob Dylan), My Generation (The Who), Albatross (Fleetwood Mac), ending up at 9 50 pm with A Day in the Life (Beatles), which just happened to be the very last record played on Radio Caroline before it was forced off the air by the Government way back in the Sixties.

Thursday was a real trial of stamina...!  I spent the morning helping to deliver opinion survey letters in Minster Cliffs Ward, the afternoon saw me helping finish of the delivery of leaflets to Halfway before moving on to deliver to half of Queenborough. In the evening I joined "the team" in Iwade to put out more opinion survey letters. By the time I arrived home at 9 pm I was too tired to eat a proper meal so made do with a bowl of cereals!

Today I was already out canvassing in St Michael's ward at 9.30 am, where I managed to fit in three quarters of an hour campaigning before joining our Tory Shadow Sports Minister, Hugh Robertson, on a visit to Sittingbourne Community College. We were there almost two hours and it was a really constructive meeting. I then fitted in a hour's delivering in Murston before dashing back to Sheppey for a meeting at the Port of Sheerness with Kent County Council's Cabinet member for Transport and Steve Gobbi the Port's new Managing Director. Once again it was a very productive meeting. I have been so busy today that nothing has passed my lips except for two cups of coffee and a cup of tea. This evening I am going to make up for last night's bowl of cereals and today's lack of food, because Louise and I are going to Charlie's for a Chinese meal.  Bliss!

I really do try not to slag off our local Local MP, Derek Wyatt, too much, mainly because his supporters criticise me on so many occasions tha I really don't want them thinking that I am rising to their bait by copying their tactics. However, occasionally I find it necessary to vent my anger and frustration.

Let me begin by commending Mr Wyatt for his unwavering opposition to that vile despot Robert Mugabe. Zimbabwe (I still think of it, unpoltically correct as I am, as Rhodesia - which is probably the only difference between Mr Wyatt and me on the subject) is one of the most corrupt regimes on our planet, but it is not alone. There are many other countries where human rights are non existent. One such country is China. And that is where I have a real problem with our Derek.

Mr Wyatt supports the Chinese government, apparently without criticism, condoning the suppression of political opposition in the country. Remember this is a government that massacred hundreds of protesters in Tianamen Square and still clamps down hard on any political dissent in the country and persecutes anyone who disagrees publically with the government. It is a regime which still insits that women must only have one child. It is a regime which denies Tibet a democratic voice.

And yet this is a country that is hosting the next Olympic Games! That is a travesty.

There are moves afoot to encourage a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, but what is Mr Wyatt's response to calls for a boycott? He is busy learning Mandarin in advance of a business trip to Shanghai and says that a boycott isn't necessary because Gordon Brown is behind the scenes "talking strong words to the Chinese". Wow! That will put the fear of God up them!

Let's be frank, the reason that Mr Wyatt and his fellow travellers are happy to attack Robert Mugabe but suck up to the Chinses, is because Zimbabwe is a small, broke, powerless country in Africa, whilst China is now an economic and political giant.

Mr Wyatt's position is both hypocritical and obscene. Just because a country is powerful, doesn't make its policies any more pallitable when it abuses its people and denies them even the most basic human rights. Our MP should be ashamed of himself.

I am just back from a stint delivering in the most easterly part of Sittingbourne & Sheppey.  I had a meeting in Faversham with the Faversham Assistance Centre (I am helping them in their efforts to raise funds to enable them to increase the amount of work they do on Sheppey), so since I was down in that neck of the woods I decided to deliver my Community News leaflets to Oare, Luddenham, Buckland and Stone.

We actually have a good delivery network in the Teynham & Lynsted ward, but I like to get out and deliver at least one leaflet myself to every house in every community in the constituency. I find there is no better way of familiarising yourself with an area than tramping the streets and lanes.

I have set myself a target of doing at least two hours delivering every day, seven days a week and so far I have managed to stick to that schedule, which over the past month has seen me out and about in most of the wards in the constituency. Unfortunately, because the area I covered today was so far flung it actually took me three hours. Still it was a nice day for a stroll in the countryside!

Tonight I will be joining the team for two hour canvassing session, so I will certainly get plenty of exercise today!

We've had a couple of interesting campaigning sessions this week. Last night we were out and about canvassing in Chalkwell ward. This has been a Labour held seat since it was formed so we didn't go knocking on doors with any great expectation of success, but we are committed to getting round the whole constituency and I am pleased that we did!

Our canvassing returns last night in Chalkwell were little short of sensational; those people who were listed as having voted Conservative previously were rock solid in their support, whereas the Labour vote appears to be collapsing spectacularly. Yes we did find a few diehards who said they would carry on voting Labour, but most of those who have previously voted socialist indicated they had had enough and "would never vote Labour again".

Some of those people said they hadn't made up their minds to whom they would vote, but it was amazing the number who indicated they were now willing to make the straight switch from Labour to Conservative!

And what was the main reason for vote disatisfaction? It was the Economy stupid!

And I am not surprised that this was such a burning issues because people are now beginning to suffer. I had an indication that all is not well with the local economy when we were campaigning in Iwade on Wednesday. I haven't seen so many for sale signs in a new housing development since the late 1990's when negative equitity ruined so many people and contributed to the downfall of John Major's government.

I think we are looking at the death throes of our current incompetent Labour government. Under normal circumstances this would be the cause of wild celebration, the problem is that the way the economy is nose diving, Mr Brown's political demise is likely to be accompanied by a lot of pain for a lot of ordinary people, and I that is something nobody would wish to celebrate.

I know Easter is early this year, but this is ridiculous! Who would have thought that I would be delvering leaflets on Easter Sunday in a blizzard? No sign of any Easter bunnies, but there was certainly potential for a few Easter snowmen!

As it happens, the snow didn't come as a huge shock. The weather has been getting worse all week. I have set myself a target of doing two hours delivering every day, come hail or high water. I haven't seen much of the latter this week, but plenty of the former. Which is why I wasn't entirely suprised when I checked out the weather last night and saw that snow was expected in the South East by noon.

Forewarned is forearmed, I thought and decided to get up early this morning and get my two hour stint in before the weather turned for the worst. At 8 am when I set out up Barton Hill Drive the sky was overcast but there was no snow, however, by the time I reached Lovell Road the flakes were starting to fall and by the time I had finished the estate and was heading back up towards the hospital I was in the middle of a veritable blizzard! Still it is all in a good cause - ensuring Conservatives keep control of Swale Borough Council and getting rid of our current incompetent Labour Government.

We have been concentrating on Sheppey Central during the last few days; our Conservative campaign team was out canvassing in the Scocles Road area on Thursday evening (it was dark and bitterly cold, which is not conducive to canvassing, because people aren't keen to open there doors in such conditions - roll on lighter, warmer evenings!), then on Easter Friday the team was delivering in the Parsonage Chase area and in Eastchurch. We're getting an excellent response!

Yesterday I took a break from delivering to help out in the Association office. Since Sue Norris retired we have all been mucking in to help Heather Pugh-Thomas until she is up to speed. So yesterday I printed and folded 2400 leaflets for our candidate in St Michael's before heading off to Priestfield Stadium to watch Gillingham beat Bournemnouth 2-1 to keep alive the chances of avoiding relegation. It is going to be a close run thing; a bit like the next General Election!

Today has been one of those days!

By 8.30 am I was delivering leaflets in Kemsley Fields. It's a new estate to the north of Kemsley village and its the first time I've been there so it warrents a few observations...

Kemsley Fields must be one of the better new developments in the area. It was well laid out and was noticeably less cramped than many of the other developments that have sprung up in recent years. The biggest impression that I had was that it was very peaceful, however, the lay out did throw up a couple of issues.

There are two blocks of (nicely appointed flats) at either end of the entrance to the estate (Lloyd Way) which I am sure will lead to much fun and much confusion. For instance, one of the blocks consists of six flats (we are not talking skyscrapers here!) three of which are in Samuel Drive and three are in Reams Way. That's right, one building, two addresses! For proof look at the six post boxes in the picture above! How confusing is that? What ever posseses developers, or the council, or the postal authorities to make such decisions? They must be a special breed!

Another observation (and this is something that I have noticed on other new estates) is that the developers always seem to use the cheapest possible letter box, which means that although this is a very new development (construction is still taking place) a number of the letter boxes have fallen apart already. What a nonesense. When developers are selling houses for £200k plus, you would have thought they would at least spend £9.99 on a decent letter box!

And a final observation...  there has been something of a controversy surrounding the fact that one of the houses on the estate is being used as a bail hostel, to such an extent that our local MP has put down questions in Parliament about the situation. When I went into one of the blocks of flats in the area closest to the house that was being used as a bail hostel there was a petition pinned to the notice board. It was interesting to note that the petition had been signed bu exactly... nobody!  Now it could be that this was a new sheet to a petition that had been signed already by every resident in Kemsley Field, on the other hand it could be that the occupants of the bail hostel have not actually caused local residents a problem. It would be interesting to know the truth, so if anyone knows, please contact me!

After my two hour session  in Kemsley Fields I visited somebody in Chalkwell who contacted me by emai; it was somebody who used to live in the same road in Chatham that I did as a boy. She has been following my political career and contacted me because she needed some advice. I popped round to see her and discovered that it was a smaller world than we thought. We reminisced about old times and she asked me how my sister was doing. When I explained that I actually had two sisters and a brother she was surprised, which turned to amazement when we discovered that my youngest sister (from my dad's second marriage, following the death of my natural mother) actually worked with my long lost friend in the local NHS up until relatively recently!

This afternoon I visited the Port of Sheerness where I met with the new boss, Steve Gobbi for a heads up on the company's future plans. I have promised to facilitate some meetings that hopefully will help those plans.

This evening I was at Sittingbourne Community College as an invited guest at the opening of their new £1.5 million sports facility.  SCC is now one of the best secondary schools in Swale and its' facilities are second to none. My only regret about the opening is that the football club which was there promoting the opening and which has the biggest involvement in the school is Charlton Athletic. Well done Charlton; but how I wish that Gillingham FC had as much input into our local community!

Recently our local Labour MP voted against having a referendum on the new EU Treaty (Constitution) despite Labour having promised at the last General Election to allow us to vote on whether the EU Constitution should be ratified.

His excuse for his decision to renege on his promise is breathtaking; firstly he tells us that the Lisbon Treaty is not a constitution, even though every rational person accepts that both documents provide for the same fundamental changes to our relationship with the EU; a similarity that has been camouflaged by the use of a new name.

Then our MP tries to further justify his actions by equating the Lisbon Treaty with the Single European Act signed by Margaret Thatcher and the Maastricht Treaty signed by John Major, pointing out that neither of those treaties led to a referendum.

Setting aside the obvious observation that perhaps those very important treaties should have been put to a referendum, the major difference is that neither Margaret Thatcher, nor John Major went into a General Election promising to have a referendum on those treaties.

Labour is now saying that to have a referendum on the EU Treaty (Constitution) “would be near to impossible”, on the spurious grounds that it is a complex document most of the contents of which are “not known in detail by most citizens”.

That situation is no different after the General Election that before it, so why did Labour promise to hold a referendum?  Answer; they wanted to win the election, after which they hoped we would all forget their promise. Do they think we are fools?

I have just come back from seeing Gillingham lose 0-3 to Crew Alexandra. Whilst I was watching the quite uninspiring match I was reminded of our current Labour Government.

Unless there is a rapid improvement in form over the last 9 matches of the season it very much looks as if The Gills will be relegated to the 2nd Division of the Football League. I still think of it as the 4th Division. It is the basement of League Football. You can't get any lower and still play League football.

And I am not suprised that the Gills find themselves in this position. Earlier this season the club recruited its new manager from non league football. The manager immediately drafted in a large number of non league players. So we now have a non league side led by a non league manager and quite simply, with a couple of honourable exceptions, they are out of their depth.

The manager has never successfully explained why he felt that non league players would be good enough to hold their own in the 1st Division. Surely if they were good enough for the Football League, they would already have been playing there? Of course, you do sometimes find undiscovered talent in non league football, but such nuggets are few and far between.

And our Labour Government is very similar; it is an administration made up of non league grade ministers and is led by a non league grade Prime Minister. A Prime Minister, who is even finding that his reputation as a competent Chancellor is slowing unravelling. An adminsitation of all the talentless.

William Hague got it right today when he pointed out that it comes to something when a Cabinet without John Prescott and Margaret Becket is less competent that a Cabinet with them included!

The Gills could well be relegated this May, wouldn't it be nice to think that Gordon Brown woudl have a rush of blood to the head and call an election at the same time, then we could relegate also the most incompetent government in history. Dream on!

A busy day today. By 9 am I was at Bapchild and Tonge Primary School to address the morning assembly. As I have done at several other schools I read the youngsters my Litter Angel story before explaining about the competitions we are running and encouraging them to take part. My presentation must be getting better, because the pupils launched into a spontaneous round of applause when I finished; either that or they were pleased to see the back of me!

When I left the school I delivered my Community News leaflets to the whole of Bapchild and the parish of Tonge. Now those unfamiliar with Tonge should know that it is a far flung community, one of those areas that often get missed when leaflets are being delivered. I delivered to every single isolated house. I told you I was on a mission...!

In the afternoon I was at the Conservative Association office in Halfway. Recently our stalwart secretary of many years, Sue Norris, retired. Her duties have been taken over by Heather Pugh-Thomas, who, unfortunately is on holdiay this week. I agreed to "mind the fort" while she was away, so I spent the afternoon printing In Touch newsletters, answering emails and generally keeping things running. Come back soon, Heather!

Flicking through the local papers I notice that the Sheerness Times Guardian is running the piece about our local MP questioning the legitimacy of the Swale Community Action Project and complaining about the fact that I call myself  "the director of SCAP". You would have thought somebody who continually boasts about being a "junior member of the Government" had more important things to worry about than what I call myself and what I am trying to achieve for our community. As Denis Healy once said... "What a silly-billy!"

Readers of our local Labour MP's website will notice that he has printed verbatim a letter from last week's Sheppey Gazette in which one of his supporters criticised me because my photo was in the newspaper. For those who don't know the true facts I reprint my response....

Dear Madam

There can’t be many Gazette readers who do not know that Colin Wiles is a long standing supporter of the Labour Party who takes every opportunity to attack me and to question my motives.

I make no complaint about such attacks, it goes with the territory of being a parliamentary candidate with ambitions of beating our current Labour MP at the next General Election and, as I have often said in the past, the people of Sheppey know me well enough to discount most of the insults levelled at me by Mr Wiles and his ilk.

However, for those readers who might actually be taken in by some of the claims made by Mr Wiles in his most recent letter (Presence explained), I would like to clarify a couple of points.

Mr Wiles criticises me for being in the photograph taken at the awards ceremony at which a very talented Island artist, James Allchin, won the first Swale Arts Forum Bursary. He asks “so why was Gordon there?” and then implies that somehow I prevented our local Labour MP, Derek Wyatt, from attending the ceremony.

Let me put the record straight: Both Mr Wyatt and I contributed financially to the bursary award, which is why both of us were invited to the awards ceremony. Mr Wyatt did not attend the awards ceremony because he chose instead to visit Twickenham to watch the England v Wales rugby match.

I did not criticise Mr Wyatt for that decision, so it saddens me that his supporters criticise me and feel the need to accuse me of using the awards ceremony as a photo opportunity. I am sure that if Mr Wyatt had been in Sittingbourne, rather than Twickenham, he too would have been in the photograph!

As for the suggestion that I somehow arranged for the press to be present when I cleared the alley in Halfway, that is laughable. Why would I do that when all I had to do was take my own digital camera with me to take a before and after photo which I then sent in to the local newspapers?  And why did I do that? Not for self publicity, but to embarrass the authorities into keeping our local area tidier. I make no apologies for that action.

With regards to the accusation that I seek every opportunity to have my photo taken to promote myself, the words "pot" and "kettle" spring to mind...!