The Result

11,544 votes. It's a remarkable and rather humbling experience to know that such a number of people in Macclesfield voted for me and for the Liberal Democrats.
True, we came second. David Rutley won the seat fair and square - but we made the Tories work for it! We increased our share of the vote by 3%, against a national increase of 1%, so the local team did well. I had great support from the local party, in Poynton, Bollington and Disley as well as in the town of Macclesfield itself, and it was a real pleasure to work with them all.
The result establishes us firmly as the main opposition party in the constituency, which gives us a great base to build on in elections - general and local - in the future.

Election Day

Sometimes I thought May 6th would never arrive. But now it's here. The leaflets are out, we've pushed them through letterboxes and handed them out in the streets. We've had the hustings debates and I've talked to schools and answered hundreds (not an exaggeration) of emails. Now its up to the voters to make up their minds.

This is the piece I wrote for the Macclesfield Express - for the benefit of those who don't get the paper - or who save it till the weekend.

"On May 6, Macclesfield electors can vote for a real clean-up in politics, for action on climate change, for a fair tax system that helps those that need it most, for the protection and improvement of our health and education systems, and for a responsible but effective reduction of the public sector deficit that doesn’t damage the fragile recovery.

"These are the issues that people have asked about in the campaign, and it’s clear that they feel strongly about them. The Liberal Democrats - unlike the two old parties - have the ideas and the will to deliver.

"As an MP I would look forward to helping with local issues that make Macclesfield what it is – the town centre regeneration, preserving and opening up our heritage, local roads and homes and jobs.

"My aspiration is to be as well-known locally as Sir Nick – though for rather different reasons."

Macclesfield Civic Service

I'm invited to attend Macclesfield Civic Service by David Nielsen, the Deputy Mayor. It's a friendly town occasion. Good hymns and a well thought out format. Notice the Labour Candidate is also there, but I don't spot the Conservative.
The preacher says that politicians don't have visions, only policies, and that without a vision the nation will perish. I don't think that's quite fair. We certainly have a Lib Dem vision of a world free from poverty, ignorance and conformity. The other parties have theirs. It's just that when we talk about vision the public don't want to hear us and ask about specific issues and policies.

Campaigning in Disley

Disley on a sunny Saturday mornng with bright yellow leaflets and balloons. Anthony Berry takes me to the local coffee morning. There's a lot of local history, and a strong community spirit. Residents are friendly and interested - even those that Tony tells me afterwards are hard-line Labour or Tory voters.

Global Poverty

I've been getting a lot of email requests asking about our policy on Global Poverty. It's great to see how many in Macclesfield are concerned about our responsibility to help those who need it even more than we do. Charity may begin at home, as the proverb says, but it mustn't stop there.

• We will increase the aid budget to 0.7% of GDP, as agreed at Gleneagles, by 2013, and we would enshrine that figure in law.
• Aid to mitigate the effects of climate change, would be in addition to that. It is highly unfair that developing countries should suffer (through drought and rising sea levels) the effects caused by the developed world's use of fossil fuels.
  
• We will prioritise useful programs: health and education, promoting gender equality, reducing maternal and infant mortality, supplying basic needs like clean water, and curbing the spread of diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
• We will ban banks from handling the proceeds of corruption, and crack down on tax havens which enable large corporations to avoid payment of tax in developing countries.
• We will push for more cancellation of unpayable debts, and ban 'vulture funds'
• We will support a global fund for social protection to help developing countries build viable welfare systems.
• We will support reform of the World Bank and the IMF.

The Liberal Democrats are committed towards working for a world free from poverty, inequality and injustice. It's good to see how many in Macclesfield share our commitment.

Bollington Hustings

We had a lively and interesting election hustings meeting in Bollington on Wednesday. Pressure of time meant that not everyone could get answers to their questions, and several were handed in afterwards - so here they are, and here are my answers.

1.What is your attitude to enforcing UK custom and practice recently expressed by the Australian PM for entry to Australia ie ‘either comply or feel free to leave!' Burkas should be banned in UK – they provide perfect cover for a suicide bomber!

Differences in "custom and practice" can refresh and add to the rich cultural life of the nation. If anyone has different attitudes to clothing, cookery, music or culture then good luck to them. Only if they have values which are in conflict with ours - on the position of women, or the exploitation of children, or the acceptance of different viewpoints, should we draw a line to toleration. Everyone should be allowed to wear whatever they choose - I'm not going to get into a debate on women's fashions.

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2.What are the candidates’ views on the recent cuts in school places and current shortfall and what would they do to prevent a similar scenario in the secondary sector ?

The numbers of children in an area rise and fall according to demography. The LEA did not get its sums right, through not considering all the information it could have obtained. It should learn from the mistake and do better in future.

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3. After the floods last year and the current last year and the current travel chaos do the candidates agree that insurance companies should be forced to stop hiding behind the ‘small print’ and make their policies entirely transparent.

Yes, absolutely. We need to name and shame those who have done this, and ensure that restrictions are explained clearly.

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4. Is it true, as reported in the press, that the service personnel now serving abroad will not be able to vote?

This story seems to arise from the idea that it may take too long to send a postal ballot paper to a Forces address (especially in distant theatres like Afghanistan) and get it returned. The Electoral commission website contains full instructions on how service personnel can vote by post or by proxy (and voting by proxy avoids the delay). When the election is over there should be a review to see if this is a definite problem, and if so it should be solved by an extension of the timetable, as Richard Benyon suggests. I would fully support this.

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5. Do the candidates believe that a cap on top salaries in the public sector should be matched by an equivalent top salary in the private sector. Are we all in this together?

No, we are not all in this together. The bankers and finance 'wizards' who caused the crisis are doing nicely, thank you. We can legislate to reduce bonuses (if we have the courage), but I do not see how we can legally cap outrageous salaries in the private sector - though we will ensure that firms publish a list of all employees earning over £200,000.

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6. What have you to offer to support the unemployed of this country – both young and old?

Our 'green stimulus' plan will create 100,000 jobs in manufacturing wind and wave power, in installing insulation and microgeneration in people's homes, in making schools more energy efficient, and in renovating disused properties.

For young people we will have a work placement scheme, paying them £55 a week for up to 3 months so they could learn useful skills making them more employable. There will be more apprenticeships and more FE places.

All unemployed people will be entitled to training support and assistance, without havng to wait 6 months for the privilege.

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7. Would you support Her Majesty in maintaing the intention of her Coronation Oath, to maintain the Laws of God in this Nation?

Absolutely. Our nation is based on Christian values which we generally all share, whatever our actual faith. These include the need to strengthen the weak, comfort the afflicted, heal the sick, deal justly with all, and support widows and orphans. These are the values that motivate me - and many others, from all parties - in politics today.

BAe and the Woodford Site

I've just had a meeting with Mark Hunter about the British Aerospace site at Woodford.

Mark told me all about the long campaign he has waged, together with fellow Lib Dem Andrew Stunnel from Hazel Grove and also, truth be told, Macclesfield MP Sir Nicholas Winterton, to keep the site going and the workers in jobs - a campaign eventually frustrated by short sighted government insistence to buy a US plane rather than the British alternative.

As a result it is now inevitable that the site will be run down and closed. The buildings (hangars and offices) will in time be developed: we will campaign hard to make sure that this redevelopment is one which serves the community: it must provide jobs and facilities, not just homes for commuters. Local and national politicians have a hard job ahead to make sure that the future is one which is best for the community, not just the one which makes most money for the developers.

The airfield itself is Green belt and is protected. It presents lots of possibilities but - especially in the present economic downturn - there is no immediately apparent use. There are no planning applications in at the moment: we have to wait and see what ideas are offered and ensure that the space is preserved and used sensibly and sensitively.

Mark is clearly an enthusiast - pictures on his office wall, including the Vulcan - are proof of that.

Contract

If elected as MP for Macclesfield

• I will put local people first. I will be there to help, listen to your concerns and stand up for our community. I will run surgeries throughour the constituency, and also be available byt email.
• I will make sure your voice is heard- locally and at Westminster, whatever way you voted. I will be a strong voice for Macclesfield.
• I will be open and honest about all expenses incurred in representing you. No duck houses, no 'flipping', and no claiming rent for a flat already owned by the family. And total transparency.

Climate change

I'm getting a lot of emails about climate change, asking what the Liberal Democrats will do about it. This is great - it's good that people take the issue as important and are campaigning on it. So let me set out our general position in this blog.

First: atmospheric CO2 is rising due to our activities. It's obvious that we're pushing stuff into the atmosphere and it's accumulating.

Second: temperatures are rising. Year on year there are large fluctuations but the overall trend is definite.

Thirdly: the rise in temperature is caused by the rise in CO2. That is logical and obvious and accepted by all sensible commentators, with only a few, like ostriches sticking their heads in the sand, refusing to accept the obvious link. (Nick Winterton is one of these, but that's by the way.)

To sit back and do nothing and just enjoy the rise in temperature is not an option. It will bring rising sea levels and drought, and hit the poorest nations (like Bangladesh) hardest. Oh, and it will probably switch off the Gulf Stream so the UK climate will actually get worse rather than better.

So we would - after the failure of the Copenhagen talks - work to get a legally binding global agreement to reduce emissions so that the temperature rise is limited to 1.7C. We would enhance and tighten the emissions trading scheme so that low carbon alternatives flourished. In the UK we would set a target of reducing emissions by 40% by 2020 and elminating net emissions by 2050. To achieve this we would

• Reduce demand, through better insulation, a smart Grid, upgrading buses and encouraging travel by train (while discouraging flights within the UK which could be done by train. Mind you the volcanic ash is doing that anyway right now.)
• Increase green power from microgenerators and from wind, refurbishing shipyards to build turbines.
• Committing the government to the goals of the 10:10 campaign, as a way of leading by example
• Plant more woodlands in the UK, and protect forests elsewhere

We would also support 3rd world countries affected by drought and rising sea levels (which is only fair as this problem is basically our fault, not theirs) on top of our aid commitment of 0.7% of GDP.

Climate change is the greatest challenge facing us. Even bigger than the recession. It will take radical action to get something done - and the sooner we take that action, the less painful it will be in the long run.

Piece for the Macc Express

Where have we got to? What are the parties offering the ordinary Macclesfield citizen?

The Conservative manifesto talks loudly about 'people power'. Pull the other one. The Tory concept of government is that, once they're in power, they make the decisions, and everyone else does as they're told. That's what they did in Margaret Thatcher and John Major's time, and that's what they do where they have power today – we don't have to look any further than Cheshire East Council, where the select few in the 'Cabinet' call the shots, and no-one else, not even the Scrutiny Committees, has any say in the matter. When they extol 'individual freedom' they mean the freedom of the rich to make as much money as possible without being hampered by any concern for the less fortunate – which is why they get so many donations from big business and big businessmen .

And the Labour Party. Oh dear. In their 13 years in power the country has become still more unequal – now the poorest 20% pay a higher fraction of their income in tax than the richest 20% They bailed out the banks with our money, but they still can't (or won't) stop the bankers paying themselves obscene bonuses. They set excellent and ambitious targets, for example to reduce child poverty, and to cut carbon emissions, and then failed to meet them.

We offer a third way. Reduce tax for the least well off at the expense of those who can afford it. Tame the banks and the bankers. Restore the earnings link for pensions. Axe expensive prestige projects like ID cards, biometric passports, like-for-like Trident replacement and more Eurofighters, while making sure our troops have the equipment they really need. Clean up parliament and get rid of sleaze. Reduce central bureaucracy and control for schools and hospitals (saving money, too). Set unused shipyards to building wind turbines. Invest in rail. Phase out tuition fees as soon as possible. Put serious money into education, going directly to schools. Bring down the budget deficit without killing the recovery.

All the parties are promising change. But the Liberal Democrats promise real change, change in our rotten political system, change in our unfair tax regime, change in our wasteful energy use. Change to make a better Britain, not just for us but for our children and grandchildren.

Manifestos

I've been looking at the Labour and Conservative manfestos that have just come out...

Labour's manifesto is full of broken promises, scaled-back pledges, policies lifted from the Liberal Democrats and proposals that simply don't go far enough. The tax system is less fair than when they came to power in 1997. Inequality has increased. The House of Lords is still in its medieval unreformed state. We've got into messy wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reputation of politics and politicans is worse than ever. Labour have had 13 years to get it right - why should they expect us to believe them this time? They got us into this mess, so why should we trust them to get us out?

The Tories manifesto is the usual mixture of sound bites and meaningless promises. Their agenda is simply to take help away from those that need it and give it to those already at the top. They're not offering real change - just a return to the 1980s. Cameron is simply saying 'Labout have messed up - so now it's our turn'. They want to get their snouts back in the trough, as Vince Cable puts it.

Our manifesto is out shortly. I'm sure we can do better!

Leaflets in sunny Poynton

Spend a pleasant Sunday afternoon delivering FOCUS leaflets round Poynton and chatting to local residents working in their gardens. Everyone is very polite and friendly and although some just want to be left in peace, others are eager to talk.

Cameron's marriage tax plans

So the Tories have finally unveiled their much-trailed scheme to support marriage through tax incentives, and it wasn't worth the wait.

Even the fraction of married couples that could benefit would only get £150 a year - that's less than 50p a day. This is said to be 'sending a signal' that the government approves of marriage. Frankly, I don't think that couples contemplating matrimony take the views of the government into their considerations.

It looks like the Tories have dug themselves into a hole. They promised to restore the support for married couples through the tax system (reduced and abolished, incidentally, by John Major, Nigel Lawson, Kenneth Clarke and Norman Lamont.) Then they realised they couldn't afford it, so they've put up this minimal non-scheme.

You can't and shouldn't bribe people to get married. Marriage, in my 30+ years experience of it, is about love and companionship and mutual support, not about maximising disposable income. And I have my wife's permission to say so.

POWER2010

I've been getting many emails from local constituents urging me to sign the POWER2010 pledge - and I'm happy to do so and give them some publicity.

This is a widespread and well organised group (with a very smooth website ) campaigning to reform politics by 5 points

1. Introduce a proportional voting system

2. Scrap ID cards and roll back the database state

3. Replace the House of Lords with an elected chamber

4. Allow only English MPs to vote on English laws

5. Draw up a written constitution



I'm happy with 4 1/2 of these. We are, of course, very much in favour of a fair voting system and against ID cards, on grounds of principle as well as cost. The House of Lords is a historical anachronism and it's a crying indictment of reformist 'New Labour' that they have fudged its reform for their 13 years in power. A written constitution to safeguard our freedoms from the encroaching state is now a necessity.
There are other solutions to the "English" business in a UK parliament. I'd prefer to have regional assemblies in England, like those in Scotland and Wales - with a proper democratic mandate and commensurate powers. Though the Prescott-inspired referendum fiasco in the North East has set that back a few years.

So I've signed - and will encourage others to do so. It's a very positive indication that voters are focussing on real and sensible issues in this election.

Things are hotting up

The manifesto will take a few days, but our 4 key themes have already emerged

Fair taxes that put money back in your pocket

Making the first £10,000 tax-free would mean a tax cut of £700 for most people, but more imporrtantly it would make those at the bottom - 3.6 million low earners and pensioners - free from income tax completely. And it would all be paid for by closing loopholes that unfairly benefit the wealthy and polluters.

A fair future creating jobs by making Britain greener

Breaking up the banks and making them our servants not out masters. Investing in infrastructure - especially "green growth" technology.

A fair chance for every child

£2.5 billion for schools, targeted at those that need it most. This would ensure children get the individual attention they need by cutting class sizes. And giving schools the freedom to make the right choices for their pupils.

A fair deal by cleaning up politics

Overhauling Westminster completely: fair votes, an elected House of Lords, all politicians to pay full British taxes. The right to sack corrupt MPs. And protecting hard-won British civil liberties with a Freedom Bill.

I hope we can keep the focus on these for the next 4 weeks

May 6th

Now we know. It's May 6th.

At the last election, one in four voted for the Lib Dems.

If we can just make that one in three, we'd be pretty sure to form the next government.

It's also my wife's birthday. Probably an omen. Or something

Chancellors' tv face-off

Vince Cable won the debate - according to the viewers' poll and the press. Which is what we expected. Certainly he exposed Osborne's latest National Insurance ploy for the nonsense it is.

"The Tories presided over two big recessions in office, they wasted most of the North Sea oil revenue, they sold off the family silver on the cheap. Now they want to have another turn to get their noses in the trough and reward their rich backers." Vince said that - it's a message that needs to get through.

The Leaders' debates will be coming up soon - they should make even more exciting viewing.

The Woodland Trust

As a candidate, I get many requests from members of different interest groups to announce their support for a particular cause. So far the greatest number have come from members of the Woodland Trust.

This is an excellent cause (as well as, clearly, being very well organised). It campaigns for an increase in British woodlands, which is a splendid and obvious goal. Our countryside is bare of trees, compared not only to our European neighbours and to our own historical past.

This is an excellent time to advance the idea. Farming is moving away from the goal of extracting maximum food from every acre by application of expensive fertilisers and pesticides towards a model that gives more prominence to the stewardship of the countryside for all. We are looking for stimulus schemes to avoid recession. The time looks right for large scale tree planting - with native deciduous species, not just forestry commission style pinewoods. The Liberal Democrats already have a policy of doubling the UK woodland cover by 2050.

The hills above Macclesfield were covered with forests in the not too distant past. They could be again.

Macclesfield town centre

Walk round the town with Councillors Ainsley Arnold and Christine Tomlinson. There is an enterprising and very enthusiastic display on avoiding food waste going on outside the town hall - which shows - among other things - the great opportunity this open space at the heart of the town presents. It's a shame it's not used for more.

The Registry Office also has a lot of potential
and the Heritage Centre marks out the difference between Macclesfield and Anytown.
The proposed development is still on hold. While Cheshire East and the consultants dither, local businesses in the town centre are suffering from the uncertainty.

Fighting student fees

The NUS has asked me to help in their opposition to higher student fees, and that's certainly something I feel strongly about.

I benefited - like most of today's government - from free university tuition. Today the students I teach graduate with a pile of debt. It's so unfair of us in the older generation to make them start their working lives with such a handicap.

Abolishing student fees remains a central plank of our policy in the Liberal Democrats. The Government (and the Tories are no better) has to be given the message that any increase will cost them votes and seats.A recent YouGov poll commissioned by NUS revealed that 88% of the public does not think the review should even consider increasing fees, while a majority believes that it should look at alternatives. Last year, research by Opinionpanel showed that a political party’s position on tuition fees would affect how 79% of students would vote in a general election.

NUS President Wes Streeting said:

“The vast majority of the general public is against higher fees, and although this review has been set up to report after the general election, voters deserve to know where their MP stands on this highly emotive issue.

I am delighted that Roger is standing up for students and their families in Macclesfield by signing up to this pledge. He has demonstrated his determination to give every young person a fair chance to go to university.”

www.voteforstudents.co.uk

Supporting CAMRA

In response to requests from consituents I've signed up to the CAMRA 5 point campaign to:

• Promote the interests of Britain’s pub goers
• Champion well-run community pubs
• Support the rebalancing alcohol taxation to support beer and pubs
• Press for reform of beer tie to deliver a fair deal for consumers
• Support the role of well-run pubs as solutions to alcohol misuse


Mike Benner, CAMRA’s Chief Executive welcomed my support, saying:

“We are delighted that Roger Barlow has promised to work to promote the interests of beer drinkers and pub goers. Well-run pubs make a huge contribution to community life, each of which injects £80,000 into their local economy every year. Amid growing concern over the loss of more than 5 pubs a day, it is now more important than ever to support well-run community pubs, to promote local brewers and to protect the interests of consumers.”

I remember when CAMRA first started - I was a student in those days - and I am proud to be asked to speak up for community pubs, local brewers and consumers. Well-run pubs are the bedrock of community life, and we are lucky to have many of them in and around Macclesfield. They are part of the solution to the problem of alcohol misuse and not part of the problem, which is caused largely by cut price supermarket selling. They deserve our support.

Meet the local Liberal Democrats in Poynton at the weekend. They're a cheerful and enthusiastic group. Going round the town centre we stop to retrieve some rubbish discarded in the tubs outside the old cinema and drop them in the nearby bin. (The newspaper under my arm is the Macclesfield Express, which is not part of the rubbish. Definitely not!) Later I get shown the skateboard rink, where youngsters are performing quite amazing acrobatics on their BMX bikes, happily enjoying themselves out of earshot of the neighbouring houses. I've promised myself a trip to the Anson engine factory when it re-opens.

Winterton's views on rail travel

Sir Nick has shown yet again that he absolutely doesn't get it. MP's should travel first class? First class travel is an outrageously priced , for the pampered few who are travelling at someone else's expense - in his case that's us taxpayers.

If he really said that there are 'a totally different type of people' on standard class trains it goes to show he's completely out of touch with the real world and real people. MPs are supposed to represent their constituents, not to be separated from them in some elitist haven. An MP should be glad to take the chance to make contact with the people who voted them into office - or who might vote for them next time.

I travel on trains a lot. Standard class, of course: the university can't afford to squander its money. And do you know, standard class arrives just as punctually (or otherwise) as first class? I get a lot of work done on trains - and so do many of the people round me. That's not an argument. I'm sure his views are not shared by the people of Macclesfield.

Support for Carers

I've been asked to support the campaign run by Carer Watch for an immediate review of the present benefit system, and I'm delighted to do just that. The present allowance of £53.10 is miserly and insufficient, and it's all hung about with regulation and restriction. There are many in Macclesfield whose care for their elderly or infirm family members lifts a burden which would otherwise fall on society (and the taxpayer), and we should recognise the sacrifices they make.

More cash would close the rich/poor divide in education

I've just received the details of what the Liberal Democrat 'Pupil Premium' would mean here. It would allocate around £ 26 million of extra cash to Cheshire schools, which would the funding for disadvantaged pupils to private school levels.

And we can afford it. The whole policy costs £2.5 bn a year, and will be paid for from reforms to tax credits (which will save £1.5bn) and administrative savings in the Department for Education and quangos (which save an additional £1bn).

I'm so glad I'm not in the Labour party! 12 years in power and the inequality between rich and poor gets wider. And it starts in education:

• The poorest children are only half as likely as their better-off classmates to get 5 good GCSEs
• Last year one in three children left primary school without being able to read and write properly
• Nearly 10,000 5-7 year olds are taught in classes so big that they are illegal
• More than half of all applicants accepted to degree courses in 2008 were from the top two social classes

One would expect that from a Tory government which believes, at root, in the class system, But it must be hard for the ordinary Labour party members to see what's been commited in their name.

Poynton developments

I've been shown round Poynton town centre - it's certainly getting a makeover.

There is still a way to go - and there are still many aspects that have got to be got right. Parking in particular - people need to be able to pop in to a newsagent or chemist without messing around with parking fees.

But the signs are good. There's strong local involvement in the proposals and the developers re listening. The scheme will calm the traffic, and it will help keep the centre alive and welcoming for residents and visitors.

Such a contrast with the scheme for redevelopment in Macclesfield! Cheshire East planners and consultants have ignored the views of locals, and put forward a bland scheme that would turn a truly individual town into a collection of chain stores that could be anywhere. Still the good news is that the recession seems to have put that on hold - hopefully until wiser voices can be heard.

Saving the High Street

The numbers show that the recession continues to bite in the High Street. The 2009 survey from the Local Data Company has shown that the proportion of empty shops has risen, with 13% of the Macclesfield premises vacant. That's worse than the national average of 12% and much worse than comparable Wilmslow (5%) and Altrincham (6%).


The Government’s skewed planning system has seen supermarket giants squeeze the life out of towns and now almost every high street in Britain is an identical collection of chain stores and coffee shops. Macclesfield still has a centre with real character thanks to individual local businesses. It's vital that in any redevelopment these are enabled to survive and grow.

The Liberal Democrat vision is to stop this decline and rebuild vibrant local high streets. This requires a level playing field that allows small and large businesses to flourish alongside
each other. It won’t happen without government action. That’s why we have developed a
range of plans to ensure that high streets remain at the heart of our communities.
These include:

• Ensuring a long term future for the Post Office by developing new services
such as a PostBank
• Direct help for businesses by reforming business rates, reducing
employment taxes as soon as possible and cutting red tape
• Providing fair access to credit by getting the banks to lend again and
creating a more diverse financial infrastructure
• Creating a fairer marketplace by ensuring sustainable retail development
and taking a more localised approach to competition

As Nick Clegg says:
“Our high streets have borne the brunt of this recession, with boarded up shops scarring towns and villages across Britain."

What are the issues?

It’s been a pretty dull election so far, hasn’t it?

Macclesfield is hardly awash with election fever. When I meet people and introduce myself as the Liberal Democrat candidate their reaction is invariably polite, but you can tell that the election is not the most important thing on their minds.
Even the national media has failed to get the public to wake up and take an interest, despite doing its best to build big stories around Brown’s dithering (not much new there) or Cameron’s confusion as he tries to please everyone with pre-election promises (not much new there either).

So I can forgive electors for lack of enthusiasm for the platforms of the two main parties as I set out to convince them that what we offer from the Liberal Democrats truly is different. That we can fix the parliamentary system and not just fudge it. That we can lift the tax burden off the lower paid and make Britain a fairer place to live in. That we can simplify the benefits system, making it easier for those in real need and harder for frauds to cheat. That we can sort out the banks so they stop paying themselves gross bonuses with taxpayers’ money. That although the massive public sector deficit the Labour Government has gotten us into has got to be cut, this must be done carefully and sensibly, not with the draconian enthusiasm of the Conservatives which would stall the fragile recovery, or (to use a more seasonal metaphor) blast the green shoots with a hard frost.

Anyway, let’s hope that in Macclesfield, at least, voters overcome their apathy and turn out in force on May 6th – or whenever the date turns out to be.

Macclesfield Pensioners miss out in the cold

3,780 pensioners in Macclesfield could be losing £25 a week in the freezing weather.

Cold weather payments of £25 a week are issued automatically to help pensioners pay their fuel bills in severe weather – and in Macclesfield we have had 3 such weeks already so far this winter, making £75. But not all pensioners get them – only those claiming an extra benefit, like Pension Credit, which is used to top up those on small pension.

But many pensioners who could claim Pension Credit don’t do so. According to the Government’s own figures an estimated 3,780 of these 1.7M pensioners outside the system live in the Macclesfield constituency.

The good news is that it’s not too late, as claims can be backdated for 3 months. If you (or a friend or relative) might be missing out, call the Pension Service on 0800 99 1234, or go online.

Labour has failed pensioners by creating a complicated system that makes it difficult for them to get the help they desperately need. The Government should be making every effort to identify pensioners who are missing out and get them this extra cash.