Winning

What a great feeling.

Conservatives won East Renfrewshire at the European elections count last night, with Labour trailing in a despondent third. Not that any elected member of the Labour Party was there to see it preferring instead to stay at home and enter into a state of collective denial about the electorates desertion of their party as a result of their dismal failure to stand up for local people.

People are clearly realising that the only way to get rid of this tired and failing Labour Government at Westminster is to vote for David Cameron and his resurgent Conservative team. East Renfrewshire is crucial to achieving that aim and for the voters of East Renfrewshire to come out in such numbers and give the Conservatives their approval is a huge boost to the party.

Clearly the Conservative Party is the only party that can mount a realistic challenge to Labour. A vote for any other party may well allow Labour to win the seat by the back door. The SNP did well to come second and to deny Labour any comfort from the result of this election. Indeed, to find the last time Labour finished third in East Renfrewshire you have to go back to SDP days and 1987.

David Cameron has promised change at Westminster and is providing the leadership that Gordon Brown is so clearly unable to do. We need a General Election as soon as possible so that voters can have their say. We need a strong Government, not a divided one, to lead the country out of Labour’s recession.

Thank you for your support. My campaign team and I will continue to work hard to earn your trust and to ensure that East Renfrewshire becomes a Conservative seat again.

European Election Result for East Renfrewshire:

Conservative - 6872 (28.5%)

SNP - 5475 (22.70%)

Labour - 5000 (20.73%)

Lib Dem - 2136 (8.86%)

Green - 1565 (6.49%)

UKIP - 1201 (4.98%)

BNP - 441 (1.83%)

Christian - 404 (1.68%)

Socialist Labour - 301 (1.25%)

Duncan Robertson - 243 (1.01%)

Jury Team - 140 (0.58%)

No 2 EU - 131 (0.54%)

Scottish Socialist - 121 (0.50%)

Britian Deserves Better - Let The People Decide

We are just 24 hours on from European and County Council elections that have reduced the Labour Party to an electoral laughing stock and what is the Prime Ministers response? A Cabinet reshuffle, of the very people who have already failed to provide leadership, followed by holding a press conference in which he told members of the press his late father had taught him never to tell lies before denying he had wanted to sack his Chancellor when everyone knows he did.

Leadership is about many things and one of them is knowing when to give in. With five members of his Cabinet having resigned and Caroline Flint having launched a furious tirade against the Prime Minister in her resignation letter, (accusing him of operating a "two-tier Government" and of using women ministers as "female window dressing"), in standing down as Europe Minister it is plain for all to see that the Labour Party in complete and utter disarray at the very time when the country needs unified leadership.

And it is not only his own Party and members of opposition parties who believe the Labour Party is no longer in control. The people who voted in yesterday's elections passed a damning verdict on Labour having relieved them of control of every single County Council in England for the first time ever and pushing them into third place in terms of their share of the popular vote. On Sunday night a more complete picture of attitudes across the United Kingdom will become apparent following European election results. If predictions are to be believed it may well be that the governing party of the UK fall into third, or potentially even fourth, place - a position which does not afford legitimacy.

So, in light of recent event, because his Party is split at a time when our country needs united leadership most and to restore the public's faith in British democracy it is time for a General Election so that the British people can elect the people they feel are best placed to see us through the deepest recession in living memory. That's why I am backing David Cameron's "Sign For Change" campaign - demanding a General Election so that the public can pass judgement on every politician.

Time to prosecute the guilty and restore faith in the political system!

It is very difficult to persuade people that, as a candidate, you are not actually a full time, well paid politician.

Over recent weeks, and in the eye of the storm that is the MP expenses furore, it has become increasingly difficult to get any message across to ordinary members of the public. Instead, (almost to a man, woman and child), everyone wants to vent their anger on the disgraceful action of MPs who have cheated the expenses system of taxpayers money.

As an ordinary member of the public and taxpayer - I agree!

To start the process of restoring faith in our political system I believe that all those who have made fraudulent claims on their expenses MUST be prosecuted without delay. It is simply not tenable for people who have claimed mortgage interest on expenses when they don't have any mortgage to pay interest on to claim they are within the rules and anything other than dishonest.

These people must be thoroughly investigated and, if the Daily Telegraph are right, charged with having committed fraud.

Such action is long overdue and should be just the start of action against those who felt able to make expense claims that were not "wholly, exclusively and necessarily" incurred in service of their constituents.

Simply paying back money or paying back capital gains tax is not good enough! If a member of the public is a day late in their personal tax return or pays up late they have surcharges, penalties and interest to pay HM Revenue & Customs - so why do these MPs think they should be treated any differently?

David Cameron has called for a General Election so that the public can decide the fate of those implicated in this saga and I am happy to support his "Sign For Change" initiative so that ordinary members of the public are able to register their desire to shape our democracy. Put simply, David gets it in a way that Gordon Brown is simply unable to fathom.

The rules the public have to abide by should be good enough for MPs or they are not honorable members. So let's see the guilty treated the same as everyone else for the sake of fair play and let's have a General Election so everyone can vote for change and a better UK democracy!