The elections to come

Next weeks elections are incredibly important.

They are the first time that the people of the UK will have a chance to give a verdict on Gordon Brown, his Government and probably also the publics view about MPs expenses. All elections, other than the General Election, tend to be treated by the voter as a referendum on the issues of the day and the two main parties tend to bear the brunt of any discontent, especially the Government. I leave the Lib Dems out of this as regardless of their size (and they are small compared to the other two) they are still a party of protest, there success over the past few years being based on not being Conservative.

But times are changing and I know the Conservative Party, four weeks ago, had high hopes that we would win control of Somerset. We may well still do this because the over riding view we are receiving on the doorstep is that if the public make a protest it will do so through their votes cast in the European Election. I worry about this, because however much I believe a redistribution of power throughout our constitution is a very great necessity I still believe our country needs good people to represent us at the EU – the BNP are neither good nor worthy and UKIP have MEPs that have proved themselves more capable of fraud then any MP.

I hope next week will bring us good news of both major success and break-through in Somerset but also a good team coming from the South West into Brussells so that with a strong Conservative Government we can bring about European change.