Kashif Ali
Conservative Party
Oldham East and Saddleworth Constituency
Address
Dolphin's Barn
Moorby Street
Oldham
OL1 3QU
Fight for the future
In just under two weeks we face the most important General Election for a generation, and I wanted to use this opportunity to try and persuade you to trust me and the Conservative Party with your vote.
Your vote will help determine the future of this country for decades to come.
I was born at the Royal Oldham Hospital. I went to Greenhill Primary School then Oldham Hulme before being lucky enough to go to Oxford University. I work locally as a barrister and sit on the board of a national housing charity. I also used to teach students at Manchester University. I live locally, in Higginshaw.
I got involved in politics because I was fed up and frustrated.
I was angry about the lack of jobs and opportunities in Oldham, the drug-dealing, the poor state of public transport, the fact we have been paying the highest Council Tax in Greater Manchester, and the complete lack of value for money from Oldham Council.
At a national level I was angry about Labour having taken us into the Iraq war — something I was always opposed to.
I was fed up with the increasing social and family breakdown which surrounds us in modern Britain.
And I was frustrated with not enough being done to help ordinary families through the recession. I’m not a career politician, so perhaps most of all, I was fed up with local politicians not representing our interests. I therefore decided the only option was to get involved myself.
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Biography
Born and brought up in Oldham, the 30-year-old barrister studied law at Oxford and Cambridge. A former law tutor at Manchester University, he was also deputy chairman of Manchester Conservatives.
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The really important message to get across is that your local Conservatives can win here. Times have changed and we’re getting huge support from all areas of the constituency. The most recent polls in the Oldham area were the 2009 European elections. The results showed the Conservatives were in second place only narrowly behind Gordon Brown’s New Labour by 667 votes. The Liberal Democrats were a poor third. Only the Conservatives can now realistically beat Labour here in Oldham East & Saddleworth.
And don’t forget the results of the local referendum in this area in 2008. More than 80 per cent of people voted with the Conservatives to defeat the Congestion Charge proposals which both Labour and the Liberal Democrats supported. What could better illustrate how out of touch and arrogant these parties have become.
And we still haven’t had a promise from Labour and the Liberal Democrats that they would not try to reintroduce a Congestion Charge after the election. I promise I will always fight against a Congestion Charge in this area, and I will always fight for a referendum if the other parties try to introduce it.
In fact we should never forget the other key Liberal Democrat policies. They wish to replace Council Tax with a local income tax meaning hundreds of extra pounds of tax on ordinary people. They want greater integration into Europe including signing up to the single currency. They want to scrap Trident and our nuclear deterrent leaving us weak and vulnerable on the international stage. They would give an amnesty to thousands of illegal immigrants, in effect rewarding illegal behaviour. They wish to introduce national road-pricing, namely pay per mile for motorists. In short, they are not a realistic alternative for Government and they have no credible policies. My key priority is fighting for economic regeneration across Oldham East, Shaw & Crompton, and Saddleworth & Lees.
This has included a petition for a cinema complex to be built in Oldham (officially the largest town in Britain without a cinema).
Oldham Council have now incorporated such a scheme as part of their plan for the town, though not a single Liberal Democrat or Labour councillor would sign my online petition for this (at www.cinema-for-oldham. co.uk).
A cinema complex would offer hundreds of new jobs, a bowling alley, restaurants, a gym, go-kart racing, and so on. It will offer non-alcohol focussed entertainment options and recreational facilities for people of all ages.
I have also been campaigning for the halving of all council car parking charges, building several park and ride schemes, offering more bus services, saving Oldham market, and a two-year freeze of Council tax and business rates. This year only the Conservatives pushed for Council tax to be frozen in Oldham. Sadly both Labour and the Liberal Democrats forced an increase of nearly 2 per cent on us all.
As part of my agenda for economic regeneration, we need to use our tourist assets and gateway function to the National Park to our economic advantage. Particularly Saddleworth needs to be further promoted as a tourist destination boosting the local economy and creating jobs.
I have also been fighting consistently for more police officers on the beat. Labour’s way is to swamp our police with paperwork. Our way is to scrap forms and get them out on the streets catching criminals. Oldham East & Saddleworth desperately needs a more visible police force. In my view anti-social behaviour is out of control. I would do everything I could to work with Greater Manchester Police and the next Government to ensure extra police on the beat in all parts of the constituency.
And I have been fighting for better value for money from the council, for better social care services for the elderly, to save local post offices, for the better treatment of our armed forces in Afghanistan, and to end the early release scheme for prisoners.
I’ve been listening to what people tell me when I’m out campaigning and have been trying to respond to local needs. When I speak to pensioners, they tell me how trapped they often feel in their homes. I want to involve the voluntary and charity sector, such as Age Concern, and offer free minibus services connecting pensioners to local amenities such as supermarkets, doctor’s surgeries, and parks. I am similarly campaigning for a free minibus service from Mumps to Oldham bus stations and the Royal Oldham Hospital.
I’m also saddened by drunken violence-filled weekends in Oldham town centre. It saddens me because I know a small number of louts spoil it for the rest of us law abiding citizens just enjoying a night out. Key to our strategy for dealing with alcohol related violence in Oldham town centre is to use current licensing laws to punish irresponsible pubs and clubs who serve overly drunk people.
In this country elections are won by either the Labour Party or the Conservatives.
The Liberal Democrats have never won a general election. In fact a vote for any of the smaller parties divides the opposition against Labour, and effectively means five more years of Gordon Brown’s New Labour. But Britain is ready for change. We have a broken economy, a broken society, and a broken political system. David Cameron is committed to addressing these challenges head-on.
The Conservatives will act now to deal with our debts and keep your mortgage rates lower for longer. And we will cut Labour’s waste to stop their jobs tax. This will make seven out of 10 working people better off by up to £150 a year than under Labour and save more than 50,000 jobs.
And we need to control immigration. Our public services can’t cope with hundreds of thousands of new immigrants each year. So we’ll reduce net immigration to the tens of thousands that it was in the 1990s.
There’s also a clear choice on our NHS. The Conservatives are the only party that has pledged to increase spending on our NHS — including a pot of cash to pay for lifesaving cancer drugs that currently aren’t available to people. The NHS is our number one priority and I am passionately committed to playing my part in helping to improve it.
There’s a clear choice on our politics too. Gordon Brown has tried to block the clean-up of Parliament time and again. In contrast it was the Conservatives who led the way on sorting out expenses. If we win the election we’ll cut the cost of politics, cut ministers’ pay and scrap the perks politicians enjoy.
And there’s a clear choice for older people. A Conservative government will re-link the basic state pension to earnings. And there is a personal promise from David Cameron that he we will keep the winter fuel allowance, free TV licences for the over-75s and free bus passes for pensioners.
As your local candidate, born in Oldham and dedicated to and living in this community, I will champion the interests of Oldham East & Saddleworth at Westminster. I promise I will always make myself available to you, listen to you, and do the best I can to serve you.
