Business has faced some tremendous challenges over the past 18 months with the credit crunch followed by the deepest and longest lasting recession the country has experienced in post war times.

Added to this has been an increasing burden from legislation and an overly complex tax system. Not only should we be reducing this legislative burden and simplifying the tax system, we should be doing all we can to nurture business growth. Government can't create business but it can create the conditions through which new and existing businesses can thrive.

Our society is broken. It can be fixed, but it needs to start at home.

This problem will take some time to fix and it will not be an easy situation to reverse. During this change we need to feel safe, it is our most basic of human rights to be able to walk our streets without fear or even be in our own home without the fear of intrusion. This is why we need less police officers behind desks and more police officers on the beat. I will work hard locally to ensure that the brave, compassionate and talented police officers within our force are doing what they signed up to do - uphold the law and serve the public, rather than sift through endless piles of administrative work.

The recession has been painful, and despite a very slight positive growth, our economy remains fragile.

There is a very real threat to sustained economic growth however and that is our record budget deficit. We have borrowed so much as a nation, we are starting to look like a risky credit liability, and unless
some serious effort is shown to reduce this debt immediately, investment and confidence in our nation will decline as will the value of the pound, thrusting us into a longer, deeper recession. This will be painful over the short term, but beneficial over the long term

- and it is the long term that we should be thinking about, as leaving our children to pay our debt and the debt of an irresponsible government is simply not a viable option.

Poverty of any kind should be eradicated from our society given our status as one of the wealthiest developed nations on the planet.

Child poverty is simply unacceptable. Studies show the gap between rich and poor has widened considerably over the past decade. Wealth and background should not be the determining factor in a child’s life, their ambition, aspirations, dreams, and passion. This is why we should be working harder to support poorer families and helping them in supporting their children to achieve their potential, have a healthy, active and fulfilled lifestyle and make a positive

contribution to society. Every child should have the same opportunities in life, regardless of postcode.

Education has come under much scrutiny for many years and despite the claims that there have been greater achievements, it is debatable whether standards have actually increased.

This is particularly disappointing given the staggering levels of investment our education system has received over the past decade. This is not poor teaching but an education system that stifles innovation and learning, burdens talented teachers with unnecessary administration and expects our schools to solve every societal problem. We need to free teachers from their shackles, give back the power to control the classroom and inspire young people. We need to attract the best and brightest into the profession by rewarding good teachers.

Young people need skills and attributes to enter work. We should link our schools with our employers more effectively and empower head teachers to allocate budgets to meet the needs of students, ensuring every last penny available follows our children into

There is a real need for improved transport facilities in our region.

Public transport needs to improve to get motorists out of their cars by choice. Our local motorways are grinding to a halt and trucks from overseas that use them day after day pay nothing towards their upkeep. Why are there plans to build a third runway at Heathrow when we have airports on our doorstep that could take many more flights? What has happened to the promised rail link between our region and the channel tunnel? We need a strategy for our area.

Today people are living longer and, as a result, at some time in the next decade, the state pension age will change from 65 to 66.

At the same time it is important that the state pension provides enough for people to maintain their dignity and pride. The Conservatives plan to raise the basic state pension in line with earnings and, at the same time, encourage employers to offer high quality pension provision for all employees. We will also set up an independent review of public sector pensions to ensure they are fair and affordable .

Perhaps it is not quite true that “education begins when you leave school”.

Nevertheless, we plan to create 10,000 extra University places during our first year in office to give more people an opportunity to continue their education. For those who are less academically inclined we want to create 100,000 additional real apprenticeships and training places every year, and make it easier for companies to run apprenticeships. Perhaps most important of all, we will introduce more community learning to improve skills and employability – to turn that education into a resource employers want to hire.

For too many years, bureaucracy has been slowly killing the NHS.

Targets have become more important than patient care. The current Government insists it has increased budgets year after year but fails to understand that extra money is not always the solution to a problem. What is needed is decisive action and we saw examples of that when Gerry Robinson implemented changes at Rotherham hospital for his BBC programme. The question isn’t whether the NHS should change, it’s how the NHS should change. We have a reform plan to make the changes the NHS needs.

Conservatives believe that Britain benefits from talented people coming to our country, but not from uncontrolled immigration. Unlike Labour we will control immigration properly.

Immigration to the UK has gone up threefold under Labour, placing extra pressure on public services such as housing, health and schools. We can’t go on like this. In order to do this, a Conservative Government would:

• put an annual limit on non-EU immigration for work;
• promote integration through an English language test for marriage visas;

• prevent abuse of the student visa system with tough reforms;
• tackle illegal immigration with a national border police force.

We would also impose transitional controls to limit the numbers coming from any new countries joining the EU. These measures will ensure we have immigration properly under control.