My Name is Tony Johnson, I am 58 years old and I have enjoyed the privilege of living in the Ribble Valley for almost 40 years, I have no practical experience of local or central government apart from paying Council Tax, business rates and getting very little in return, I do however have a life times experience of business and man management, I have worked in the construction and floor covering industry and I have also spent many years as a consultant to the private nursing sector working with banks, financial institutions, law specialists in commerce and litigation, chartered accountants, insolvency practitioners, business consultants and latterly during the period 2007 to 2009 I spent two years in the tied tenancy trade, I am currently working part time at a local college and enjoying compiling and changing this web site as and when required , this wealth of experience continues to enhanced and complement my natural ability to assess problems, tackle them head on and achieve the best dynamic result out of every business and commercial based situation, I always employ a common sense approach, pay attention to detail and look forward mindful of how every action will inevitably bring about a reaction.
The general perception of politicians and how the political processes works under the rule of Gordon Brown and The Labour Government at both local and central government level is abysmal to say the least, we now know all MPs are in parliament for themselves, not for us, as the General Election draws near all we have to do is sit back, read between the lines, pay attention to the craft of avoidance, follow the thread of hollow promises and change that will, they hope, lead us to vote for their version of the promised land and stability, we all know any version of the promised land is usually littered with lies and more often than not unstable, once we have voted it will be too late, they will be elected, they won't need us any more and we the majority will undoubtedly be controlled and ignored again.
I want to inject some local Lancashire common sense based blood into the local and national political arena and encourage others across the land to do the same, many people like me pay poll tax and have paid business rates just to get the bins emptied, the hardest hit in our society are pensioners who rightly deserve council tax relief, in fact there is a general feeling that every ones council tax and business rates should be revised down, please read on, there are many subjects I feel strongly about, here are some I will forcefully campaign for.
COUNCIL TAX.
I will campaign for a 50% COUNCIL TAX REDUCTION for all OAPs and champion a structured way forward to reduce council tax and business rates across the board at both local and national level.
DISCOUNT SHOPPING.
It's very rare to see businesses offer special discounts to OAPs when shopping, I will start a pensioner discount scheme and encourage all Ribble Valley businesses to offer this service and help OAPs save a few quid.
RESIDENT PARKING
I live in the small village of Ribchester parking your car in the village is a lottery, we should have a resident only parking scheme through out the village and free parking for visitors.
UTILITY BILLS.
OAPs, disabled people and house holds on benefit should all have a lower rate tariff for gas and electricity that is easy to claim and access.
FLOOD DEFENCES.
I will also find out why nothing has been done regarding flood defences and flood prevention throughout the Ribble Valley, rain fall is set to increase in our part of the country, something has to be done to protect our low lying areas before we all end up being flooded.
CLEAN AFFORDABLE ENERGY.
I would also like to initiate an in depth study (not paid for by us the tax payer) into if strategically placed wind farms or water driven turbines could reduce the cost of electricity for us all, the energy crisis is NOT going to go away, I believe nuclear power is potentially dangerous and very expensive, the governments preferred nuclear power partner EDF do not have an unblemished record on safety, the capital and built in decommissioning cost of nuclear power will increase not decrease our electricity bills, the recent sale of our eight nuclear power plants to EDF has netted the government some 4.5 billon pounds, very soon we will have nothing of value left to sell, what will they do then? just keep borrowing more.
THE TOTAL SMOKING BAN
I will also campaign for licensed premises to be excluded from the total smoking ban, we should adopt the Spanish model, they display notices at the entrances to licensed premises warning people that certain bars permit smoking, if you don't smoke find a bar that does not permit smoking, freedom of choice caters for everyone, as far as binge drinking is concerned just deal with it, its crazy to punish the whole nation with higher and higher alcohol prices and restrictions, but hey why deal with it when you can tax it.
NATIONAL TEAM FOOTBALL
I will vigorously campaign for all England football matches to be shown on terrestrial TV, we pay a licence fee so why should we have to pay again to watch our national team play, it's disgraceful and just another sign of greedy rip off Britain.
SCHOOLS.
Children should leave school with the minimum of basic abilities, they should be able to read, write, spell, add, subtract and divide, they should also have basic IT and interactive communication skills, to prepare them for the work place, less tinkering from politicians give teachers their heads and let them get on with it.
I have long held the view that school children should go on prison visits, let them see how the law treats criminals, these visits will help children understand what freedom and respect for people and property really means.
TONY JOHNSON / MP TO BE OR NOT TO BE?
Some one said if the Conservative Party put a donkey up for election in the Ribble Valley people would elect it, I say we will see, none one voted yes to pay David Cameron's mortgage, Nick Clegg's mortgage or Gordon Brown's Sky TV or yes to the self serving endemic corruption that has destroyed our trust in all politicians.
I am one of the majority, as far as politics are concerned I am sure we all have to hold up both hands and say we are guilty of being apathetic when it comes to voting, WE SHOULDN'T BE, we the majority are the backbone of our country, the ones who have always worked hard and fuelled this country with the taxes that have been generated by our own efforts, we are all human, different, have all made mistakes and always endeavour to obey the law even if it seems as though the law is an ass at times.
As we get older we realise what our country and heritage should be about, along with many others, members of my family fought and died in both world wars for our freedom, YES OUR FREEDOM, they didn't die so that left wing Socialist Politicians and politically impotent so called opposition parties could place us in shackles and turn our country into a free for all open house, tax and squander nation.
(REMEMBER NO MORE BOOM AND BUST)
The Labour spin machine have spent loads of tax payers money on positive pro Government advertising and tried various ploys to make us believe that we need Gordon Brown and them, to be without him and them is what we really need, one of Labour's much hailed flag ship policies has been the minimum wage, everyone deserves to have a minimum wage and a minimum standard of living but in this upside down Labour run country they never tell it as it is, it's not good will and philanthropy that drove them to bring in the minimum wage, the more you earn, the more you pay in tax and national insurance, its called self serving two faced benevolent, greedy, legislation, they make employers give more to you to make sure they receive, more tax.
THE BROWN YEARS.
Old Labour disguised as New Labour have robbed pensioners, taken billions out of the real economy in tax and had to redistribute some of this excessive taxation through aptly named tax credits, some of these tax credits have been awarded to families with young children to lift them out of the very poverty Labour policies have put them in, instead of creating an environment in which a vibrant, innovative, inventive, service and manufacturing, profitable, broad based economy can thrive, create private sector jobs, encourage self employment, self esteem, improve social cohesion and family life in general, Labour have paid money and lip service to social injustice, set about a publically funded explosion in public sector jobs, created massive state dependency, cranked up the propaganda brain washing machine, ( with tax payers money ) bullied and sought to control the media, left open the flood gates on money supply, totally ignored the unregulated run away credit boom, sold off anything that's worth anything, blamed America for everything, actively sought to control the way we live our lives, placed us in legislative shackles, denied us our identity, sent our brave soldiers to war without sufficient kit and back up, allowed law and order to go to the dogs, ignored prolific drug use, lost highly sensitive personal information and state secrets wholesale, gone to war with smokers and drinkers, put honest hard working people out of work and publicans out of business, closed public houses all over the country, always turned left instead of straight on and much, much, more, the list of divisive upside down policies and actions by this socialist bully leadership and government is endless, is Brown a closet communist and have David Cameron and Nick Clegg converted to left wing Socialism ?
(Google, Communism) millions of people all over the world are controlled, starving, dying or simply living pitiful subsistence lives under money and power hungry dictatorial Communist regimes.
(Google, Capitalism) it isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it can, in the right hands, provide us with freedom, security, opportunity and a rich quality of life.
MY PROMISE.
I will fight to:-
Reinstate our way of life, expose this Governments Communist agenda for what it is, reduce the burden of excessive taxation and draconian legislation AND LOOK OUT FOR US, the window of opportunity to shake out politicians and the political structure of our country is shortly to be upon us, this is the most important General Election in living memory, now is the time for politics and policies to be about US THE MAJORITY, we should vote local people into parliament who will fight to maintain and improve our English / British way of life, smaller less costly local and central government can be achieved without sacrificing essential jobs and services like how many holes there should be in salt shakers, they think of themselves so lets for once THINK OF US, OUR CHILDREN, OUR GRANDCHILDREN AND OUR GREAT GRANDCHILDREN, If we don't act to break the mould of politics in this country at the next General Election we will get what we deserve and inevitably PAY FOR IT with our money and our freedom.
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