I am a Conservative. I won’t attack individual candidates in the London Mayoralty elections. But I am a Conservative. I believe less Government is good, fewer regulations and the resultant greater freedoms. I want as Mayor the person whose first instinct is the same. They may not always be able to deliver, but I want their instincts, and their values to accord with mine.
I believe that in a City in which transport is so vital, that the Mayor should make getting around and into the City easier for the many. I don’t want a Mayor who feels only the poor and hardest hit in Society should be our first or only priority. I want a Mayor who recognises it is the employed, the worker, the commuter, the business person who pays the bills, who should be weighed heavily in their considerations. I don’t want a Mayor who believes in focussing principally on spending money into areas which will not give a return on investment; instead I want a Mayor who believes with a business like mind that spending has to be paid for year after year from recurrent income thanks to investment in earlier years. In such a rich City, I want a Mayor who understands that those without opportunity get access offered by the wealthiest in their City, whether it is through schemes to locate people in those areas so they can earn from local jobs, making commutes cheaper, or social programmes to ensure professionals in our biggest firms interact with those who feel disenfranchised.
I believe in a City which is of international importance we need a Mayor who can be a global ambassador and with a business like mind pull in capital from around the world into London; who will fight for this City in Europe and the rest of the world. I want a Mayor who believes in conservation, tradition, history and looks back at the history of this great City, and not just a rush to demolish and change for the sake of advancement.
I want a Mayor with friends in Central Government, whose political will won’t be impeded by people with whom he needs to work. The bottom line is that business runs London and London pays for the deficits run by the rest of the United Kingdom – so I need a Mayor who makes it easier not for business alone, but the people who work in those businesses, the regular workers. If they are able to get to work easier, if they are happier with a greener, cleaner London, then London’s businesses are more productive. I need a Mayor who understands it is about making everyone in London more productive, both workers and the untapped unemployed. In a City of immense wealth, I want a Mayor pushing business to help the least advantaged, because it makes business sense, not because of class war.
I think my beliefs are best preserved by voting for the Conservative Party candidate.
