I was born in London, but my parents moved to Wales when I was only a few months old. I was then educated in Wales for the majority of my education. I was educated at Brynmawr Comprehensive School to O level standard. I applied to for entrance to Welbeck College, the Armies Sixth Form College, designed to provide technical officers for the Army. I was successful and attended Welbeck for 2 years to study A levels. I graduated from Welbeck to the Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst.
I was commissioned as a Regular Officer into the Corps of Royal Engineers and attended engineer training at the Royal School of Military Engineering. I served for 10 years, seeing service in the UK, Germany, Norway and I was honoured to see active service during the Falklands War while serving as Second in Command of the Commando Engineers. In addition to this I served several tours in Northern Ireland.
I left the Army in 1985 and set up a Construction business in Harrogate, this became a multi facet company with many employees, but sadly became a fatality in the recession of 1993. After a period of unemployment I went to work as a business manager for Essex County Council Highways to help them prepare for Compulsory Competitive tender. I worked in Essex for over 2 years when I moved back to Yorkshire to run all the administrative and financial aspects of a large secondary school in Barnsley. My next career move was to join a company in Halifax as Sales and Marketing Director, while here I developed an interest in noise suppression after a noise problem at home from noisy neighbours. I discovered that most solutions did not work. After a period of research and development I designed systems that did work, and then formed my current company which specialises in all aspects of noise suppression.
I first became active in politics in the late 80’s and early 90’s while living and working in Harrogate where I was active at both branch and constituency levels in the Conservative Party. After moving back to Wales I again became involved in politics and decided that I would register as a candidate. I stood in the Welsh Assembly Elections in 2007 as a regional candidate. I was recently the fourth candidate for the Welsh Region for the 2009 European Elections.
I like many would be politicians have views on most things and here are a few of my personal thoughts. I firmly believe that a good constituency politician has to put their constituency first; this can normally be in line with party politics, but on some occasions this will not be possible. That is when I believe a politician has to have the resolve, strength of character and the diplomacy to do what is correct for the constituency; and given what has happened recently with expenses, all actions must be transparent and honest.
My first consideration is that of ensuring that our Armed Forces are looked after by our government. This means considering all aspects of foreign policy to ensure that our Armed Forces are only committed when they absolutely have to be. When this occurs they should be supported in full in every way. It also means that senior officers and systems such as procurement are fully efficient and carry out their functions as expected. It means that Admirals, Generals and Marshalls speak their mind and support our Armed Forces rather than worry about their own positions. I appreciate that this may appear naive but certain protective measures must be put in place to ensure this happens. How many times have we heard in recent years, senior Generals speaking out only as they are about to or after they retire.
Secondly I am very concerned about the way our society has become so closely monitored and spied upon, so individuals and groups appear not to be allowed to voice opinion without fear of being arrested or listed as possible extremists. I fully appreciate the requirement for good intelligence, perhaps more than most, but there are limits and the more natural things appear the easier it is to spot the unusual.
This linked to what appears to be a broken society, where ill discipline is the order of the day and punishment is more like a paid holiday, where the more serious the crime the less hardship suffered. I would like to see more active policing where the public see what the police are doing. I believe they are fully equipped to do all they need, without being granted extra powers. We need to look at reducing the paper trail that is required, how they are managed and tasked, and to see good policing policies implemented. When criminals are convicted they must be appropriately punished, and punishment must mean punishment. This punishment must involve learning new skills which will be useful to society which hopefully will result in employment, but linked to it that if there is a re offence then it will be punished much more severely
Thirdly we must establish a community which is in many ways self supporting. The creation of local self supporting small economies which trade with one another, so the local farmers produce is sold in the local shops and to local schools and hospitals, which in turn should help reduce transport on our national roads. There should be encouragement in terms of setting up new business, helping existing buisiness’s to diversify and help other business’s to develop and grow. Only too often support can be given in the early stages just to allow a business that is just finding its feet to have support run out and the business dies. We must formulate a system which ensures high rates of success and there by creates stable employment conditions. To achieve this we will also have to look at simplifying complex employment laws, company red tape and our complicated and punishing tax system from business rates to Employers National Insurance contributions. I believe a simple system which is more easily understood and quick to operate will contribute to creating additional secure employment and thus reduce the people claiming unemployment benefit and therefore more people contributing to helping our country run more efficiently.
As always it all appears simplistic; and of course in reality the last thing it is, is simple. Often the best plans are the most simple, the danger being that the person on the street will easily able to understand. This I believe will help to regain the trust of the electorate and it will also make politicians more accountable, which I believe is long overdue.
I look forward to the next General Election and playing my part in securing a good result for the party
