Nick Pickles

I was asked on the Pontefract Facebook group two questions, about why I got into politics, and why I’m a Conservative. Rather than clog up the group page, I thought it might make an interesting blog post.

To take the first part, well, first, why did I get into politics? I grew up in the Normanton parliamentary constituency, which before its abolition was the only seat to return a Labour MP at every election since the creation of the Labour party. An area that was once home to several pits, it would be fair to say it’s not your average Tory heartland.

Yet one thing I always got from the community, and my Dad, when I was growing up is that if you saw a problem, or someone you knew had a problem, there were two options: walk away, or roll up your sleeves.

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Today, Immigration Minister Phil Wollas was in Wakefield, apparently for a ‘debate’ on the issue of immigration in the Town Hall. Yet none of his political opponents were allowed entry.

Local Conservative Parliamentary candidates were not invited to attend, while Conservative councillors were blocked by staff from entering the chamber.

This is a hugely important issue and it should be debated calmly and in the open. Yet how can you have a debate when you don’t allow anyone with different views to you to participate? I will certainly be making my views on the issue clear during the campaign and holding Labour to account for their 13 years of government.

Make no mistake, it is sheer hypocrisy for Labour to now claim they have an immigration policy that is as tough as Britain needs after failing to secure our borders for so long.

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I am delighted to have been selected as the Conservative Party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford.

It’s of particular significance for me because the constituency covers where I grew up, and to all intents and purposes is home. I was born in Pontefract hospital, played football as a teenager across the towns of Knottingley, Castleford and Normanton (in the process achieving my greatest sporting accolade, Altofts U15’s Opposition player of the Season’ award*) and until moving to Harrogate in January 2008, I lived there.

In a week or so I’ll be moving back to Altofts but the campaign will be kicking off before then - I’ll be in Knottingley with our candidate for the local elections, Jon Wadey, all day and then spending the evening in Pontefract Conservative Club, enjoying a beer with the members.

If you’d like to get involved in the campaign, do feel free to email me on nickpickles@gmail.com and there will soon be a campaign website up and running, as well as a Facebook group. You can also keep upto date with what I’m getting upto via twitter - www.twitter.com/nickpickles

*At the time, I was playing in nets and it’s fair to say we didnt have a very good season. Despite losing pretty much every game by quite a few goals, I apparently saved enough chances for opposition managers to pick me as the best player on our team more often than any of my team mates. I decided to move to defence after that season, playing centre half or full back, believing it was best to hang up my gloves on a high point.

After what feels like a fairly hectic January, I thought I’d catch up with my blogging on two of Westminster’s current hot topics - topics which in the real world, nobody really cares about.

Much has been made of Gordon Brown’s desire to bring in the ‘Alternative Vote’ system of proportional* representation (*may actually be less proportionate than the current system) and how it is important after the expenses scandal.

Equally, Al Campbell has been getting very excited about the questions being asked about Lord Ashcroft’s tax status. He tweeted this morning it was a ‘scandal brewing nicely’

Yet I’ll be honest - after nearly four years canvassing people in Wakefield and assorted places around Yorkshire, neither of these issues has ever been mentioned more than once or twice. But you’d be forgiven for listening to the politicians on the news, particularly Labour ones, they were the most important things ever.

The problem is simple - too many in Westminster, and seemingly those in Labour’s high command, seem to think the public are stupid.

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It’s been a little while since I last blogged, in part due to the work I’ve been doing on a paper for the Conservative Technology Forum. Here’s a draft of the introduction, and it’d be interesting to hear feedback on the direction I’ve taken.

Basically, the paper - ‘Control Alt Delete’ - is looking at the role of technology, Government IT and the internet at a time of substantial economic pressure and after a decade of some pretty piss-poor IT projects undertaken by Labour.

So, here’s the introduction - let me know what you think. It’s just a draft at this stage, and definitely is *not* Conservative Party Policy, but any feedback would be appreciated

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A great article in today’s Evening Standard highlights new research from New Media Age on the prevalence of illegal downloading among children.

The study - which is based upon interviews with more than 3,000 children - found that nearly 1 in 3 children between the age of 6 and 14 have illegally downloaded or streamed TV shows.

This is yet another example of why going down the disconnection route is simply unsustainable. Given the Government has been woefully slow in making the connection between anti-social behaviour (and indeed, much worse crimes) and the responsibilities parents have for controlling their children, quite how it expects to punish 6 year olds is beyond me.

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So - David Cameron’s photo was airbrushed for the recent billboard campaign. A crap story, but I guess the Daily Mirror has to fill it’s pages with something. Not like they can write about the economy, as they’d have to acknowledge the gargantuan balls-up Labour have made.

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Government IT won’t be top of the public agenda at the next election. But to say it isn’t important underestimates just how much Government spending is tied up in IT, and how reliant public services already are on it.

I’ve been impressed with the approach the Conservatives have taken to IT, which has been to speak to those in the industry who aren’t the usual suspects, as well as academics, and slowly formulate a comprehensive policy.

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IT policy is not exactly the sexiest policy area a few months before an election. However, given IT underpins nearly every aspect of our everyday lives now, it should be on the radar of anyone aspiring to play a role in public policy.

Recently the Government published a draft IT strategy, which was pretty woeful in both its ambition and challenging of the status quo and largely panned by industry experts.

The Conservatives launched the Make IT Better website, attempting to crowd source an element of their own strategy, while the Centre for Technology Policy Research has launched a collaborative wiki to work on the Govt’s draft.

All this activity cannot be a bad thing, but it does raise a question about how much crowd sourcing is healthy - especially as far as Government policy is concerned. There is a need to consult the public and experts in policy formulation, but the formulation of concrete policy is something that cannot be done ‘out in the open’ so to speak - it requires both a degree of political and practical interpretation that most would not concern themselves with.

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From now until the election, Labour’s narrative is simple: The Tories are only looking out for the rich. There is only one response - to tackle the issue head on, and show it to be the lie that it is.

Having seen much of Gordon Brown’s new year address leaked to the press, it’s clear GB still sees the ‘dividing line’ as tory cuts versus labour investment. Nowhere in his message, it appears, is there any acknowledgement of the huge reduction in Government spending that will be required to get the defecit under control. Nowehere is there an acknowledgement that taxes will have to go up for everyone.

If Labour want to play the ‘many not the few’ card then I for one will be happy to throw it back in their face. This is a Labour Government, who, after all have taken the hugely progressive steps to:

• Abolish the 10p tax rate, hitting the poorest hardest
• Burden future generations with a collosall public debt
• Raid pension savings, hitting anyone who was responsible enough to save for their retirement
• Do nothing as managers in local government and public services inflated their pay packets to more than the Prime Minister
• Encourage schools to drop science, history and maths in favour of ‘less challenging’ subjects
• Stretch our armed forces to breaking point by invading Iraq before Afghanistan was stabilised - and with scant evidence of any real threat
• Allow a huge expansion in the unregulated labour market by failing to control immigration
• Oversee a massive increase in the growth of the surveillance state and the harvesting of DNA data from innocent people
• Do nothing as unsecured personal debt and 125% mortgages spiralled out of control
• Annointed a Prime Minister and a European President

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