Elwyn Watkins
Liberal Democrat Party
Oldham East and Saddleworth Constituency
Address
3 High Street
Delph
OL3 5DJ
Fighting to deliver for local people
OVER the past couple of years my team and I have knocked on many tens of thousands of doors and talked to thousands of people. I have never seen people so angry, so disillusioned and so fed up.
The old joke that no matter who you vote for the government gets in has never seemed truer.
People are angry about many issues, but the one that keeps on coming up time and time again is that of MPs’ expenses.
In the normal world anyone caught doing such things would immediately lose their job and face criminal prosecution. People simply do not understand why this has not happened to MPs and why MPs insist on being treated differently from the rest of us.
That is why one of the top priorities of the Liberal Democrats is the reform of Parliament. This would include the right to sack corrupt MPs and a reform of the expenses system.
Even before the expense scandal broke I had already publicly declared that I would publish every penny that my office spends and I will certainly not claim a penny for food. I will pay for my grub out of my wage like everyone else has to do.
When the Liberal Democrats put forward plans to clean up Parliament, Labour and Conservative MPs voted against them. They voted to keep many of the current discredited rules in place.
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Biography
Born and bred in Rochdale, the 46-year-old now lives in Delph. A former Rochdale councillor, he has worked for manufacturing businesses in Germany, the Middle East and the UK and as a business and financial adviser for a Saudi Arabian sheikh.
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As an MP, the Labour candidate here has to accept his part in blocking reform of Parliament.
I want to give local families a real tax cut.
From speaking to people on the doorstep it is also clear that many people here are just about scraping by. For many people it is a daily struggle to pay their everyday bills.
That is why the Liberal Democrats are proposing to increase the personal allowance to £10,000. This will mean an extra £700 a year for the average Oldham taxpayer or £30 a week extra for the average family. This tax break would also apply to pensioners.
This will be paid for by closing many of the tax loopholes for the very rich. It cannot be right for a millionaire to pay less tax than their cleaner or for a wealthy foreigner who lives here to pay no tax at all.
It also cannot be right for British-based corporations to avoid their fair share of taxation by placing ownership of their assets abroad.
We would also introduce a “mansion tax” which would force people with property worth more than £2 million to pay more. Making them pay their fair share would mean that the average tax payer would pay less.
There are very few people in Oldham who would lose out after these changes.
Real action to cut crime
In election after election Labour has tried to scare local people over crime.
Considering the dreadful increase in knife crimes and violent assaults under Labour they should perhaps look to themselves before they start criticising others.
Speaking personally, I can assure you that I have some quite traditional views in this area.
For me, life should mean life and I would like to see prisoners working in jail rather than sitting in their cells watching TV.
Here in Oldham, it is clear that many people also suffer from anti-social behaviour and youth nuisance. Oldham Council has shown that this can be successfully tackled, but we also need to make parents responsible and accountable for the actions of their children.
I also do not understand why we give large amounts of benefits to people who are so destructive to their neighbours. We all know of parts of Oldham where at 10am in the morning lads are sat drinking away their benefit. It is wrong that you and I as taxpayers are working hard to pay for them to do nothing.
We also could do with more traditional policing. You cannot beat the bobby on the beat and the Liberal Democrats have fully-costed plans to recruit some 3,000 more full-time police officers.
An MP who sticks up for you
It is also clear that people want a good local MP rather than a professional politician to represent them.
People still talk fondly about Geoffrey Dickens and Richard Wainwright. While their politics were very different, they both still have excellent reputations for sticking up for local people.
You never know when something might happen where you need someone on your side. If given my chance I will be a good person to have in your corner.
In that regard, perhaps it would also be useful if I explained a little about my background and experience.
I am a Rochdale lad born and bred. Hence I am reasonably local and what my mother would call a “proper northern lad”. Bliss for me is having a proper pint and a pie while watching the rugby. For me the best view of London is on the train leaving Euston.
When I was a young lad my father became seriously ill. It is only now that I realise the stresses and strains that my mother must have endured in raising five children on one wage as well as caring for my father and working full time.
Like a lot of women in the North, she didn’t have it easy raising us, and it hasn’t changed much since then. We all turned out pretty well. My older brother Hywel was a fireman for many years. My older sister Sian is a special needs teacher in Accrington. My younger sister Merryl is a GP in Derby. My younger brother Rhys runs his own business in Chadderton employing quite a few local lads.
I’m still really close to my family. I speak to them a lot. Certainly my two sisters who work in the public sector are very critical of how things have been doing.
The Government seems to want to control everything from the centre, rather than giving professionals the room and ability to make local decisions.
Indeed, it was largely due to the increased bureaucracy that led my brother Hywel to leave the fire service.
As for me, I went to local schools before getting an honours degree from the London School of Economics. Later on I added a double distinction MBA from Bradford University.
Proper experience of the real world
Over the last 25 years I have been around the world — mainly running factories and large construction projects, with a bit of finance and strategic planning thrown in.
If I am elected I will be one of the few MPs with proper manufacturing and construction experience. Manufacturing and construction are still employers of large numbers of local folk and I know that my knowledge of these sectors will be put to good use.
There are a lot of politicians who seem to know everything about everything, but who in reality know nowt about owt.
I am certainly not a know it all, but I like to think that I have learned something over the last 25 years and can put this to use in Parliament.
A race between Labour and Liberal Democrat
So what are my chances? Pretty good if the bookies are correct. They put me and the Labour candidate neck and neck. The election here is a clear two-horse race with the Tories placed as 40/1 outsiders.
The Conservatives were a good 10,000 votes behind in 2005. This is why many Conservatives are lending me their vote this time. They know that a vote for the Conservatives runs the risk that Labour sneaks in again.
Oldham East and Saddleworth is one of the key Labour/Lib-Dem marginals. There’s no risk of the Conservatives winning here.
You can choose between another five years of the Labour candidate, or a hard-working Liberal Democrat MP.
I know that you are all fed up to the back teeth with elections, election promises and politicians, but at this election we can actually deliver change that works for local people.
Oldham East and Saddleworth has a chance to elect an MP who really works for local people. Someone who lives here, and will put local people first.
An MP who will fight to clean up politics, deliver proper jobs for local people and cut taxes for local families.
For me, to be voted in as Member of Parliament for Oldham East and Saddleworth would be the greatest privilege of my life. If I am given a chance, I will be a good, hardworking, local MP.
