My hustings speech

Performed in Chigwell, 25/6/24

The major political parties have failed us. Between them they have presided over a huge mess where our services and institutions are a disgrace, common sense no longer prevails and the needs of constituents come a poor second to the concerns of the party. Their priority is to get into power and stay there. They will do and say whatever they need to achieve this.

We see before us a Conservative Party on the verge of losing a government - having squandered a huge majority through a reluctance to do anything very conservative, and by locking down the country for far too long during Covid, crippling the economy.

And we have a Labour Party, who after years of losing is desperate not to mess it up this time, with a leader who will say anything to get them there. He lied to Corbyn supporters to become leader, and now he's lying to conservative voters to become PM. And of course Labour supported the lengthy lockdowns and now blame the Tories for their effects.

Honourable mention - the Lib Dems, who achieved the only power they ever had by propping up the Tories and raising student tuition fees to obscene levels.

The national affects the local. Both main parties have policies Epping Forest residents are bearing the brunt of. An example is austerity. After the credit crunch the government bailed out the banks. This caused a budget deficit - more money being spent than was coming in through taxes - and the Tories made cuts in response. Some say it was more than that - it was a long-planned assault on the public sector.

Whatever it was, funding declined massively across the board. Between 2009 and 2022 the central government grant  to councils was cut by around 40%. We are experiencing the effects of this now, as roads and public buildings crumble, and the litter piles up, while our council tax rises. The effects of the cuts have of course been greatly worsened by the pandemic.

Now, to illustrate how this national policy affects your local MP representing you. Say they are a Tory. Because their party, and at the moment government, is making these cuts, they will not be able to criticise the lack of funding if they value their career. They won't even be able to call out the problem, let alone secure that funding. They might have to vote for further cuts so as to not be deselected. They may make a pretence of sticking up for you, but the loyalty-demanding system generally prevents it.  The same would go for a Labour MP, and probably will because they'll also have to make cuts.

Another example is planning - overdevelopment of places in a response to the housing crisis. And it is a crisis. Young people cannot afford to buy a home because demand has outgrown supply and house prices are thus very high. However, local councils do not address it properly when giving permission for developments. Resulting residences are usually not affordable to most, are unsuitable for families, are high rises that dwarf the buildings around them, and crucially they often lack the extra infrastructure to support them. Where are the parking spaces, the school and doctor places, the extra public transport? Developments sometimes go up on green spaces, as was intended for Jessel Green in Debden. A lovely amenity for local people, somewhere for kids to play and adults to exercise would have become concrete if it wasn't for local pushback.

And the crisis is the main parties' doing. They sold off council housing and didn't replace it, brought in mass immigration without the housing supply to match. They repeatedly failed to build in an organised and sensible way. They failed to adequately pay for infrastructure and services in general. Now they pass it onto us, with minimal consultation and even less empathy.

Again, say Labour win this seat and  get into power. The government will set hard targets for councils to build housing, and Labour's targets will supposedly be much larger. Therefore the Labour MP could not outright condemn any proposals. She would be under pressure to go along with them, which would win out. If the Tories hold this seat and the  MP objects to a proposal, he will come into conflict with the Tory council. As an independent, I would not have these problems and would be able to speak out against such plans.

In Loughton both the government and the council are tempered by the Loughton Residents Association, who control most of the council seats. Their big victory was Jessel Green. It was saved - at least for now - by coordinated efforts of the LRA and the local community. This shows that there is an appetite for independent politics in the area, and I want to expand it to the whole constituency.

I am not a professional politician. Look - I'm reading my speech. My strength is writing. But what I do have is a free-thinking mind, a genuine local connection and a real sense of purpose. If I wanted to be a councillor or MP just for the sake of it, I would have persisted in the Labour Party or perhaps joined the Tories. But both would have come with a compromise, an allegiance to the party line and the need to sell this country and area short by not speaking my mind.

I'm not perfect, but I am something different. So join me in what has been dubbed by the absent Reform UK as 'the revolt'. A push back against the incompetent, big-money parties who let us down time and again. You may not agree with me on everything, but we can agree that something has to give, and that proper debates need to be had. If you can't yet vote yourselves, mention me to your families. Together let's ELECT A FRESH PERSPECTIVE and make July 4th Epping Forest's INDEPENDENCE DAY.