Planting Trees

Since finishing for the Christmas break and with the help of lots of friends & family, I have been planting 600 trees and shrubs in a field close to home. Some of the trees have gone into an area containing an old hedgerow which needed thinning out and removing dead wood which was a bigger job than expected and then we placed a colour coded cane for each of the new trees. On the weekend before Christmas the gang joined us for the planting and the full 600 were in the ground by the end of Saturday. On Sunday we placed plastic mulch mats around the trees on the lower area which is susceptible to flooding and we have used wood chippings for those on higher ground. I'm looking forward to seeing the trees establish themselves and the planted areas develop over time and will include photos on the blog over the coming months.

Citizens Advice

I spent yesterday with volunteers at Rugby Citizens Advice Bureau. When I visited with Front Bencher, Chris Grayling I asked Manager David Gooding if I might learn more about the role of the CAB and see the work they do. So I sat in with a number of volunteer advisors and we met clients with a variety of problems including access to children; utility disconnection; relationships with former partners; housing; debt; faulty goods and preparation of a claim. Often the kind of issues that an MP comes across in his surgery and I know that the CAB here works closely with Jeremy Wright. In each case the advisors were able to quickly identify issues and through experience and a very helpful database provide clients with a useful way forward. I hadn’t realised how much training is required before being able to meet with people bringing in problems and I joined some trainees going through some written examples as we worked out together the advice that should be given. I found I was drawing mostly on my experiences as a Councillor, as a Business Owner and as a Dad!

Out with The Police

I spent Saturday evening out in Rugby Town Centre in order to better understand the issues the Police face at that time of day. I was met by an experienced Constable and accompanied him throughout his shift and saw many facets of policing. We made an early arrest which involved taking a young man into the Police Station where he was charged and this resulted in the need for completing the paperwork that goes with it; we sped off to one of the villages where there was a report of 20 people fighting in a pub car park; we visited the town's CCTV centre and saw the extensive coverage of the town centre; we joined other Officers at a disturbance outside a large town centre pub; and we toured around the town providing a visible presence and reporting several observations to the control centre as we did so. It was a bitterly cold evening and my impression was that this acted as a disincentive to people staying out and hanging around and perhaps led to a quieter night than might otherwise have been the case. The Officers dealt with flashpoints with discretion and no little humour, and it was pointed out to me how much people have to say when they are drunk. Generally the chat was good natured. Most people would expect me to comment that the form filling after the arrest was excessive, and I felt that was certainly the case. In my business, I tried to keep form filling and duplication to a minimum. I could see areas where this was happening with several pieces of information being recorded in many different places. There is clearly great scope for streamlining as more IT is introduced. I returned home freezing cold but with a good sense of the work our Police are doing to ensure the vast majority have a good time when they are out on a Saturday night.

Avon & Swift Result

The hard work paid off and Helen won the By-election convincingly with 57% of the votes cast and more than double the number of votes of the second placed candidate. Well done Helen!

Avon & Swift By election

Today is polling day and I have spent a fair amount of time our canvassing in the villages that make up Avon & swift ward with our candidate, Helen Walton. Helen has worked hard and been well received on the doorstep and I know she will make a very valuable contribution at Rugby Borough Council. But this has been one of the most unpleasant elections I have been involved in. There have been inaccuracies in the literature of one of our opponents and in addition false information has been given to local newspapers about Helen leading to The Warwickshire Telegraph printing an acceptance of an assurance by Helen yesterday and the Rugby Observer printing an apology to Helen today. Perhaps both have come too late to correct a wrong, being published on the day immediately prior to, and the day of the election, at a time of year when many will have voted by post. I do hope this won't set the tone for coming elections in Rugby. I wouldn't be in politics if I didn't enjoy a debate with people whose views are different from mine, and I will be very keen to put forward the Conservative case in public hustings when the time comes. At the same time I will call my opponents to task over their party's record or proposals. That is what an election campaign is for. What we have seen over the past few weeks in Avon & Swift has been a long way away from open and honest campaigning, and all decent people will hope that we don't see it's like again in Rugby.

Football Shirts update

More and more unwanted, grown out of & "old sponsor" football shirts are coming in to our office to be sent over to Rwanda. I now have a very generous offer to despatch the shirts over to people who will really appreciate them & expect to send the first consignment in the next couple of weeks. The project has caught the attention of the team running the blog page on the Conservative Party website and a report can be found here.

Back to the future

On Friday I attended a most untypical Conservative Association Branch event. More used to Cheese & Wine or Afternoon Tea, Hillmorton put on a superbly attended evening of 70's entertainment with a lively, fun band called The Grimleys who played tributes to the great names of the 70's - Marc Bolan, Ozzy Osbourne, Mott the Hoople et. al. It took me back! The 70's was a special decade for me as I sat my O and A levels, went to University, got my first job, bought my first car and met my wife then. It was also when I became first involved in politics in Rugby with the (then) Young Conservatives and at Reading University in the Student Union where I was elected as Building & Finance Officer (resigning before I took up my post). As I enjoyed the band, I thought of the many simiarities between then and now - unelected Labour Prime Minister; economic crisis; run on the pound; rising unemployment and need for the Conservatives to step in and clear up the mess!

Remember the date : 24 November 2008

This date will be of great significance in the years to come. It is the date on which commitments to repay massive sums of Government borrowing were made as Labour passes the bill for getting out of their current economic mess on to its successor. It will be, of course, a Conservative Government which will have to start balancing the books and will have to endure a period of unpoularity to do so. Conservatives have done it before and we will once again do the right thing. It looks as though the next Parliament will be pretty interesting. I hope to be there to play my part.

Avon & Swift By-election

We are in the middle of fighting a by-election for the Rugby Borough Council seat of Avon & Swift ward which takes in the villages of Clifton, Newton, Harborough Magna, Easenhall, Churchover, Cathiron and Cosford. The election arises as a result of the sad death of Councillor Hazel Bell, who was a formidable character in Council and highly respected both in the town and in her ward. Our candidate is Helen Walton who lives locally and has been working hard, getting involved in issues there. Helen and I spent yesterday visiting residents and were warmly received wherever we went. We saw the traffic conditions some Clifton drivers have to deal with!

Twickenham

We went to Twickenham on Saturday expecting England to beat Austalia but that didn't happen, Great day out, but I'm afraid the Rugby wasn't brilliant. England don't seem to do well when I am there so I won't be going to the South Africa and New Zealand matches on the coming two weekends.

Chris Grayling in Rugby

Chris Greyling visited us in Rugby this morning. Chris is Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary and so he and I went along to meet David Gooding and his team at the Rugby Office of the Citizens Advice Bureau. The CAB is often the first port of call for people facing hardship and benefit issues and we wanted to understand how their workload is changing as the recession starts to bite. I learnt a great deal including the disadvantage of home owners compared to those in rented accomodation when it comes to support for housing costs and how tough lenders are currently when people fall behind with mortgage payments. We also covered the complexity of the benefit system and the forms that go with it and were shown a new form of almost 40 pages! I wasn't previously aware that it someone comes off a benefit, for example if they move into work, but later return to it perhaps if a new job doesn't work out, then the whole process needs to be re-started with a fresh application in each case. I know that Chris appreciated the very practical examples that the Rugby CAB staff were able to give him. They were very forthcoming about the need for simplification of the process when I asked them what they would like Chris to impliment when he takes up his role in Government!

Remembrance Day

On Sunday I attended Rugby's remembrance day's service held at the memorial gates in Hillmorton Rd which appeared to me to be even better attended than previous years. The more I learn about the armed forces, from both the two world wars and the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the more I appreciate the importance of the ceremony in keeping alive memories of the fallen. I have just returned from the firing of maroons which are large rockets set off at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month another part of our remembrance.
On my way back to the office I saw what was obviously a primary school trip, walking though the town accompanied by teachers and some parents. Nothing unusual about that, but every child was wearing a dayglow vest in the style of those worn by workers on building site & in warehouses. I know about health & safety requirements, but isn't this a bit over the top?

Defending St Cross

I spent two days last week with Managers and Staff at our local Hospital. I have lived most of my life in Rugby and have attended the hospital both as a patient and a parent. Like the vast majority of people in Rugby I am a great supporter of St. Cross and I am keen to see as many services retained here as possible. I wanted to understand the full range of services that are offered, and so I asked whether I might spend some time on site. I visited every department and was able to see at first hand the services that are provided and meet the staff involved in their delivery. There is some fantastic work going on there and a real sense of teamwork and dedication by staff to provide the best to patients. I learnt, amongst other things about the expertise St. Cross has developed in Orthopaedics; about the specialist work being done in the Diabetes Centre and in Retinal Screening; about the work in the Regional Bowel Screening Hub. I was also shown how the various departments work together to provide the right level of care to meet the needs of patients. It is a fact of life that politicians will always be involved in the delivery of healthcare. I wanted to make sure that when I speak about care in Rugby, I appreciate how it is delivered and the part St. Cross has to play. When it comes to ensuring that St. Cross continues to serve the people here in the way it has done for years, there will be no greater advocate than myself.

Thanks to John Major

By way of a thank you to Sir John for his witty and instructive speech at our Dinner, we chose a gift appropriate for the Prime Minister most enthusiastic about sport. And one appropriate for the constituency he was visiting!

Keynes is not the solution

All of the talk about returning to Keynesian economics reminds me how I felt at University when I first learnt about his theory. I haven’t heard Keynes’ name for years which itself is perhaps an indication of just how serious the current economic situation is. His is the idea that the effects of recession can be reduced and the recession brought to a halt more quickly by the Government spending money on public works, even to the extent paying people to dig holes in the ground and fill them up again. Alastair Darling has been speaking about bringing forward capital projects and allowing spending to carry on unrestricted. The weaknesses of the theory include the time lag to get new projects under way; the fact that sucking in imported raw materials and labour for these projects can have an inflationary effect and ultimately that the extra expenditure has to be financed by either more borrowing or additional taxation. It’s my view that if the economy needs a boost it’s better to provide it through personal spending since individuals will make better decisions than the state by spending on what they need to maintain, or remain as close as possible, to their choice of lifestyle. This can be achieved through reducing personal taxes and such a change can be implemented quickly. With the decline in our manufacturing base the danger of imports being sucked in remains, although a significant proportion of household expenditure is on services, which are almost entirely provided locally. Nowhere is the need for reductions in tax more needed than for those on the lowest incomes who have seen the proportion of their income taken in tax increase massively over the past ten years. In many case low earners pay tax only to claim it back through tax credits. Change the system and not only will there be additional incentives to work, there will be a major simplification of a system that only qualified accountants and tax inspectors fully understand. Of course this won’t happen under Labour as the chief architect of tax credits was Gordon Brown and this Government are hell bent on a high tax, high spending strategy.

Half term break

This week has been half term and for something different we hired a VW campervan for a couple of nights on the Isle of Wight. Definitely life in the slow lane and great fun, even if not the best time of year for this type of accomodation!

Sir John Major in Rugby

Former Prime Minister Sir John Major was our speaker at Rugby Conservatives Annual Dinner on Friday evening. Sir John said that The Conservatives should look forward with confidence to the next General Election as the current Government had dashed the hopes of a generation through their mismanagement, false claims and their evasion of responsibility. He also spoke about broader issues including the effects of population growth in their future affecting the world's food supply, climate change and a shift in world power from west to east. He took a variety of questions including the current economic situation and (predictably) correctly answered a test question about the laws of cricket to enable a bet to be won between two guests. He was personable and mixed freelyamong those attending who enjoyed really good evening. Photos to follow!

Canvassing my first home

I was out on the doorstep with our survey on Saturday in Binley Woods. It was great to have my Mum out with us and to be in the street where I spent my first few years. We stopped outside the house my parents owned when they were first married, and I walked up the footpath to meet the current owner who has lived there since the 70's. It felt as though I was in a scene from the family history programme "Who do you think you are?" I was interested to look around the house and listen about how the village has changed over the years. One change every resident is delighted about is the decision by the main operator at nearby Coventry airport to cease operations which will return to Binley Woods the peace and quiet it deserves.

Back to school

As part of my appeal for soccer shirts for Rwanda, I have now visited several schools. On Friday, I went to my old school, Lawrence Sheriff, and spoke to full school assembly, around 600 students, in what is for me the new sports hall. This was probably my biggest local audience who listened attentively, no doubt due to the presence of school masters in the aisles. However, it was nice to discover that the place hasn't lost it's sense of irreverence. As I left, unaware that I was behind him, one of the older lads called across to his mate, "Hey, Noel, didn't you think that was a waste of time!" I thanked him for his support to which he replied, "Well you did take a while to get to your point!" Perhaps a fair observation & a general one that I should remember in preparing speeches. Anyway, I look forward to receiving his shirt to send over to Africa.

Questions & answers

pTotal Politics is a fairly new publication with a strong on-line presence which describes itself as "a lifestyle magazine for the political class" publishing items of cross party interest. I bought a copy before attending conference and found several articles worth reading, both light hearted and more serious. A week or so ago I was invited to respond to a Q&A they have given to various candidates, MP's, comentators and other politicos. The article is at: http://www.totalpolitics.com/politico.php They've secured at least one new regular reader!

Survey Question

Our survey this month is inevitably about the economy. One question concerns trust in Gordon Brown to deal with the current economic difficulty. Interestingly we only get as far as “Do you trust Gordon Brown……” before people instinctively say “no”.

House Sales or the lack of them

If I needed reminding about the fragile state of the economy, I saw it yesterday while out with our survey team in Brownsover. In one road there is Estate Agent’s board after Estate Agent’s board with the market jammed by a lack of mortgage finance. As a consequence, many people’s lives are on hold unable to move to the larger house a growing family needs or to take up a new job offer. Added to this, as I remember from the early 90’s, there is a growing anger about negative equity, the inevitable consequence of falling house prices. And things will get worse before they get better.

School visit

I spent this morning at Oakfield Primary School where I had been invited to address the entire School about what has become known as my "Football Shirts for Rwanda" appeal. The school already has an understanding of issues relating to overseas development, having a link with and having sent books to Ghana. I found the children receptive about what I am trying to achieve with an interest in how the facilities for youngsters to play football in Rwanda. I was asked whether they had nets on their goal posts and when I explained about a dirt pitch with wooden sticks for posts and a ball made from plastic bags tied up with string there was real concern & understanding. Less understanding, however, about my support for the local league side Coventry City! I enjoyed speaking with the Headteacher about the challenges facing the school and the excellent progress they have made in recent years.

Conference Wednesday - Leader's speech

I joined candidates on the stage for David Cameron's speech bringing conference to a close in the grand setting of Birmingham's Symphony Hall. Not his best speech as some suggest, as that was his claim to the leadership, but the statesmanlike presentation of why we are the party to deal with today's problems that the country wants (and needs) to hear. As someone whose first experience of the general election process was 1979 when the former Chancellor, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary & then Prime Minister Callaghan was replaced by a new Conservative leader, I enjoyed his rebuttal of Labour's claim of inexperience. It will be interesting to see how the polls react now that the conference season is over and all parties respond to the economic turmoil we now face.

Conference Tuesday

Conference isn't all listening to speeches, joining in with fringe debates &meeting up with old friends. For the past few years a social action project has taken place and this morning I joined a number of volunteers who are refurbishing and re-equiping a fomer Council property as a drop in centre on a nearby housing estate. With my DIY skills it's just as well they didn't give me anything too important to do.

Conference Monday

Today's big event was George Osbourne's speech which I watched on a screen as there is not enough room in the main hall for all who wanted to hear him. A tough, statesmanlike approach is needed and that's what we got with a firm policy on banks which take unnecessary risks. A fixing of Council Tax for 2 years will be appreciated by those on fixed incomes who have seen the proportion of their personal budget taken up by this tax increase massively. I've been looking at the press coverage of conference and it was always going to be restricted on a day when the Government nationalised another bank, Bradford & Bingley and the FTSE fell to 4,800.
Cllr Tom Day and I enjoyed a lighter moment in the main foyer of the Birmingham International Convention Centre.

Conservative Party Conference Sunday

Great line from Liam Fox winding up the discussion on the armed services where we heard an impassioned plea for more support for our servicemen serving in Afghanistan & Iraq from Falklands hero Simon Weston. Liam said "New Labour used to be called a charm offensive - but the charm resigned, and now they're just offensive."

Motorway madness

Sometimes Government moves much too slowly. One of Rugby's assets is it's location at the heart of the motorway network with the junction of the M1, M6 and the A14 just a couple of miles away at Catthorpe. However this junction was designed to accomodate much less traffic than currently passes through it, and there are often accidents in stationary traffic on the M1 on what has become known Rugby's Mad Mile, as vehicles queue up to change roads. This has caused 14 deaths in the past 5 years and regular closures of the motorway leading to gridlock in Rugby as traffic seeks another route and massive delays for many of our local businesses involved in logistics. It has been obvious for years that the junction needs re-designing. We are in the middle of yet another consultation on proposal to do that with work not due to start until 2011, and presumably a constuction period of 2 years. This all means that a solution won't be availalable for another 5 years. This is on top of a 10 year delay in getting Rugby's Western Relief Road under way. Why can't we sometimes just get on with things?

Football shirts response

When I was in Rwanda, I met several groups of people who asked me if I could help their oganisation or group. I also became aware of the enthusiasm for football and in particular the English Premier league. On one occasion, the way I was able to relate to someone I met was by pointing to the Liverpool shirt he was wearing and talking about the team; I also saw "Arsenal" & "Man Utd", signwritten on trucks (not graffitti!) and of course kids play the game everywhere. So I offered to send over some shirts my children used to wear and that thought developed into an appeal to send over a decent quantity. Following an article in a local paper, I have been overwhelmed by the number of offers I have receieved with many generous people keen to see shirts they no longer want being sent to those who will appreciate them. This is developing into something bigger than I had anticipated so I'm now working on a way to get them to Africa and distributed beyond the groups I met. I know just how much pleasure each of these shirts will give to people who currently have very little.

New Rugby Season

On Saturday afternoon I watched my son Tom's school play Rugby against Rugby in Rugby on Rugby School's Close, This is an honour for any player, as the game is still played on the very turf where William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran in 1823. My chance to play there was, like Tom, as a schoolboy and also like Tom, my team all those years ago was beaten by a well drilled side. Tom is also playing for a club side in Rugby and made up for yesterday's result with a win today.

Back to college

I enjoy putting new items on the blog but I don't enjoy the typing involved in doing so because I am no good at it. Computers were in their infancy when I was at School and University so they didn't feature in my education and I started my working career at a time when businesses employed secretaries to type letters. After a few years I had a PC on my desk in my own business and I started to input data & prepare documents but it's always been painfully slow and often inaccurate using one finger. Now I am writing more articles, letters & documents like this I thought it would be a good idea to learn to type properly. Accordingly I have enrolled at Warwickshire College, Rugby on an e-type course learning to touch type. The literature says I will "become a real whizz at using (my) computer keyboard" and I will be "able to save time and have faster results at my fingertips" Hope so! I did my first hour session yesterday and look forward to better blogging!

Government as Dad's Army?

Alistar Darling's interview earlier this week telling us that economic prospects are the worst for 60years put me in mind of Private Fraser, the Scot in Dad's Army who was forever rushing around warning his colleages "we're doomed, doomed I tell you". So does that make Gordon Brown to be Captain Mannering? .....and Ed Balls or should that be David Milliband as Private Pike?.... and who should be cast as Corporal Jones, "Don't panic"??

Update Sunday 14 September: It seems I'm not the only person to have noticed this connection. A correspondent has drawn my attention to this posting on the Labourhome website!

Back to the office

I have returned to find a massive response to the constituency wide survey we sent out last month. We are currently working our way through the information and I will be providing a summary as soon as I can. Lots of offers from people wanting to help our campaign and a lot of individual comments from people I am responding to individually with a variety of local & national issues. Something to keep me busy with over the next few weeks!

La Belle France

Now back from a holiday in France where we spent a few days with our children visiting the sights of Paris before meeting up with friends in Epernay and then travelling to the coast by TGV (High Speed Train). The decline in the value of sterling against the Euro, made even worse in the last few days as a result of Alastair Darling's helpful comments, means that Europe is an expensive place to visit right now with coffee & croissants in a cafe almost a luxury. We enjoyed the train journey which was efficient with the TGV running on a newly built track avoiding urban centres & the need to pass through existing stations, something that can be achieved with the space that France has. The food & wine remains as good as ever and I will need to visit the gym more often to get back to where I was before the holidays!

Family holiday becons

I'm afraid that I once again over the bext two weeks I wont be the most active blogger around. I have spent two weeks away in Rwanda and the last week in the office every day getting my mail up to date which, has been a substantial task as a consequence of many resplies to be made to residents who have responded to my constituency wide survey, more of which anon. Now it's time to spend some time with my family as we spend a couple of weeks in France, firstly in Paris and visiting a pen-friend in Epernay & later on at the coast. With batteries recharged, I will get back to a more regular update & comment early in September

Reflections on Rwanda

I'm now home and playing "catch-up"! I hope to set aside a page on the website for some of the many photos I took and shown is a group of villagers I met on my second full day in this fascinating country. Set out below is an article on the project I was involved in:

There are two economies in Rwanda. The first is Rwandese and largely subsistence farming or as we were memorably told “gardening,” where people, and particularly those outside the capital, Kigali, struggle to keep life going. The second is based around the ex-patriate community, aid, and the many NGOs who are there to administer it. While we enjoyed the later during the evenings eating in quality restaurants such as “Heaven” which would compete anywhere in the world, my day to day activity was concerned with the former, trying to pass on some of the experience I gained running a small business in the UK.

I spent varying amounts of time with seven enterprises ranging in size from a co-operative of largely subsistence farmers who have formed a co-operative to grow pineapples together to a Rwanda’s largest textile manufacturer looking to diversify into silk production and the manufacture of mosquito nets using a new technology. In between I met with business owners and managers to learn about the cultivation of roses almost entirely for export; the manufacture of toilet rolls and paper napkins; a project to install polythene lined ponds to enable some irrigation to be brought to areas of agriculture; the development of a new private school; and an engineering business focussed on making wheel barrows. There was also time to speak to students at the School of Business and Finance about running a business in the UK and the enjoyment of being a dragon in the “Dragons Den” modelled on the TV series with a separate group of students at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology. My pleasure at being able to ask the difficult questions was tempered by fellow dragon’s suggestion afterwards that we put our proposals for a business idea before the students we had just put through the mill and who were keen for revenge!

Common themes among all of the businesses were the impact of Government involvement in the business sector; the difficulty in recruiting effective middle managers; the very high cost of raw materials caused by little domestic availability and the high costs of transportation; the lack of a relationship between producers and their customers leading to little understanding of the market place in which they operate. I was shocked to learn that despite low labour rates, the high cost of materials causes products as basic as toilet roll and wheelbarrows to be double the price of similar products in the UK. Improvements can simply and easily be made within the production process in each case, but the greatest opportunity to improve efficiency can come from better purchasing and use of resources. However as a land locked country with poor road communications to the ports making big changes is always going to be difficult. For this reason the decision of the textile manufacturer to produce silk makes sense for products going to export since silk is four times as valuable as cotton for the same weight. If you’re looking for a new tie in a couple of years time see whether Rwandan silk is available!

The recent history of the country is never far from the surface and while some people shied away from discussing the genocide of 1994, others spoke of it in a matter of fact way. Some businesses lost many of their staff and have made an effort to recruit widows and heads of orphan households in order to provide an income. I was able to tell business people about the success of “Fair Trade” here, and how there is a sector of our market in supermarket commodities where people are willing to pay more for goods when they know that a larger proportion of the purchase price finds it’s way back to a producer in need of a boost to their income. I believe that if Rwandan manufacturers can similarly identify products made for export and for consumption by the ex-patriate community in Rwanda, consumers will be willing to pay a little more to support a country which is re-building after horrific times. Every large business started off as a small business and getting this message across will assist small businesses to grow. Trade will always have a better long term benefit than aid.

Those Conservatives who were building the community centre saw a marvellous facility come to fruition; our teachers were able to measure the improvements shown by their pupils over the two weeks and our doctors had a direct relationship with those they helped. In the private sector group our achievements were less tangible and at times difficult to appreciate. Our results will be more long term. I know that I will remain in contact with each of the businesses over coming months and I look forward to continuing to help them, often by putting them in contact with people more experienced in a particular field than myself. Whatever happens, I will follow the progress of Rwanda and the development of it’s economy with a special interest, hoping that the enthusiasm and desire to succeed of the people I encountered will be reflected in their future together.

Blogging will be light....

.....or even non existent over the next two weeks. Tomorrow I will be joining a group of volunteers from the Conservative party in Rwanda who are working on a five separate projects and I will be helping with Rwandan businesses. I have decided not to take my laptop and I am unsure when I will have access to a PC so I am reverting to pen & paper to keep a diary of my activity & observations while I am there & will post a full account when I get back.

Never having previously visited Africa, I was very interested to hear from last year's volunteers about their work and what they found and I am really pleased to have the time to go this year. I have been provided with some useful and interesting background about the genocide that took place in 1994 and expect to be moved by the memorials we will be visiting. I will be interested to see how much the people I meet are keen or willing to speak about that time. I have done some research on two of the businesses I will be visiting, one of which is a manufacturer of toilet tissue called Supa which is a product range I am very familiar with from my Central Catering Supplies days, and the second is a producer of pyrethrum, about which I knew nothing until a week or so ago. The company is Sopirwa and their website is here. I am looking forward to meeting the people in both firms and hopefully passing on some of the experience I gained in my business career.

I'm also getting lots of advice from Victoria who spent 6 moths in neighbouring Tanzania during her gap year. Something of a role reversal & she has given me lots of tips & ideas. I know I will miss my family while I'm away, but I'm looking forward to a whole set of exciting new experiences. Lots of details later.

Pledge to reduce knife crime

It seems that barely a day goes by without hearing about another victim of knife crime somewhere in the country. Something that we thought was a feature only of big cities affected our own community a couple of months ago when a young man lost his life after a fight involving knives in the centre of Rugby. For those who say something must be done a knife amnesty is taking place in Rugby now and people, particularly young people are signing a pledge on a wall outside the church where Kevin Wright died. I heard Mark Beech, Reverend of St Andrews speak about his plan for this at the Civic Service and told him how I supported his idea. I was pleased to add my pledge which is to do my best in whatever role I can to make a better future by supporting anything which will reduce this awful crime.

This is an issue we adressed in a survey of opinion we conducted in June, when we identified a great deal of support for Conservative proposals. These include increasing the dection of knives in peoples possession when they are out by increasing the numbers of police on the streets and a stronger deterrent by ensuring that those found in possesion are convicted. Firm law and order stuff, but the appoach which in the long run will make the difference we all want to see.

Pressures of being a candidate

I was saddened to learn that my colleague, Simon Rouse has decided to stand down from his role of Parliamentary candidate in Nuneaton. I understand that the pressure of work and family has meant that Simon has felt unable to keep working in the constituency as hard as he has done so far and he has chosen to allow someone else to take over. This is an enormously courageous decision on his part and I am pleased to see from the ConservativeHome article and comments, including from Chairman John Waine, here, that the sound people of Nuneaton both respect and understand this. From my own experience there in 2005 and now in Rugby, I know just how demanding this role is and I appreciate how lucky I am to be at a later stage in my career and able to concentrate on being a candidate.

Bulkington Carnival

I joined a full set of Bulkington Conservative Councillors at the Carnival on Sunday. This was the third time I attended having been first in 2005 when I was candidate for Nuneaton. With the village transferring to Rugby for the next election it was great to be there again and to see the tradition of the Carnival maintained. We each have buckets as they expect you to work in Bulkington and we each gathered coins which became heavier as the procession travelled further and funds were raised for valuable comunity projects.

Proud Dad

I spent yesterday in Newcastle at our daughter, Victoria's, graduation ceremony. She received her degree in English Literature from The Chancellor, Lord Patten, who was at one time MP for Bath and who spoke brilliantly, offering great encouragement to Victoria & her friends as they all move off in different directions.

Royal Show

I spent yesterday at the Royal Show where I was able to sympathise with those who believe that the show is becoming less of an agrigultural event than in previous years. Certainly there was less stock around than I have seen before with numbers of sheep dramatically reduced by movements restricted due to the outbreak of blue tounge disease. Most of the farmers I spoke to won't be impressed by today's announcement that there will be no cull of badgers to help deal with the transfer of bovine tb and will see this as just yet more lack of support for what is already a difficult industry to be in.

Binley Woods' Refurbished Pavilion

The village of Binley Woods occupies an important role in my life as that is where I spent the first 17 years of my life. My parents owned three houses there increasing in size with each move as our family grew. On Sunday I was pleased to be invited to the opening of their refurbished pavillion on the playing field where I spent much of my childhood playing football. The opening was conducted by Mayor Bill (as he was introduced by the Chairman of the Parish Council) and all three Councillors representing the village at both Borough and County were there. I met several people who told me they remembered me in short trousers & so had an enjoyable afternoon accompanied by a walk down memory lane.

Veterans Day

On Friday I attended the Veterans Day Celebrations organised by the Bulkington Branch of the Royal British Legion. Veterans Day is a nationwide celebration of the contribution made by all who have served in the Armed Forces as a way of raising public awareness. I know from my time as candidate in Nuneaton (when Bulkington was part of that constituency) just how hard working the British Legion is there and the event consisted of a service in St James Church where I enjoyed the address by the Venerable Ian Watson, Archdeacon of Coventry, himself a former military man, followed by the laying of wreaths and a march past by the Coventry Ex Servicemens Corps of Pipes & Drums, 30th Signal Regiment from Bramcote and many others. It was a formal event which caused me to consider the role of the military today and the tasks we ask them to perform and gave me the opportunity to meet up with many friends from the Nuneaton side of Rugby constituency.

Post Office Closures

News of planned Post Office closures in Rugby is predictable in the case of two of the sites selected (Clifton, where an earlier leak had provided an indication and Shilton which moved into the Village Hall several years ago) but less so in the case of Overslade Lane which is in an area of high usage of services and where the immediate environment has been substantially improved with a grant from Rugby Borough Council. I spent yesterday responding to the proposals, putting the case against closure and in favour of allowing Sub Postmasters to develop their businesses by allowing them greater freedom in the services they are able to offer. I ended the day at a public meeting in Clifton Church organised by local Councillor, Leigh Hunt attended by well over 100 people. I was reminded of the last campaign when we met in Churches which was to co-ordinate our campaign against the proposed massive international airport in Rugby 5 years ago. I seems that the Government has an agenda for a set number of closures and so this will be a tough campaign, but one which we owe to the elderly, the infirm and those without a computer who depend on their local Post Office.

Science Matters

Rugby is lucky to have had several national organisations to have made their headquarters here over the years, often infuenced by our location just an hour away from London by train and at the heart of the motorway network. One is IChemE, the Institution of Chemical Engineers which I visited today and where I learnt about their campaign to encourage more youngsters to become involved in their work and take up their subject at University. I well remember a few years ago reading in the national news about Universities withdrawing science courses simply because of insufficient numbers of school leavers applying. Things had got so bad that the only way employers could find the staff with the right qualifications was to recruit oversea. Engineers make things and in doing so provide the basis of our economic activity and wealth. The entire country will be affected if even more manufacturing is allowed to move overseas. IChemE have worked hard to redress this trend of insufficient science graduates with various techniques, one being to encourage volunteers among their members to go into schools to explain about a career in engineering. As a consequence numbers taking up science courses are increasing and the next stage of their campaign is due to start and can be found at http://www.whynotchemeng.com/. Its well worth a look for anyone with an interest in science looking at their career options.

Fund Raising Lunch

We held a superb fundraising lunch a couple of Sundays ago & I couldn't resist including this photo of our President, David Barby, TV personality of "Bargain Hunt" fame, with two of his greastest fans as we all cleared up afterwards.

Henley By-election

Down to Henley yesterday with 3 colleagues from Rugby to help out in the by-election. Not the same buzz as in Crewe & Nantwich as it's always more exciting trying to win a seat from opponents than defending one we hold. Nevertheless we had a good day canvassing in and around Thame, topped off with a walkabout with the retiring MP (not much retiring about Boris) and newly elected Mayor of London.

IT Problems Solved!

I have had a few IT issues over the past week or so as the combination of moving my contact details from my company and the age of my laptop (4 years ) with limited capacity strugged to do everything I want it to. So I decided to treat myself to some new kit, bought and installed with the advice of a friendly IT guru. I have a Dell XPS laptop with a small screen (which arrived within a couple of days) so that it is very mobile backed up with a larger screen to work from when I am at my main base which is now at home. Expect a number of new postings as I familarise myself with my new set up! People who know me well will be surprised that I am able to operate it at all.

New Livestock Market

Over the past few years Rugby livestock market has come to look in a pretty sorry state as a result of uncertainty about its location and tought times for farmers. The old site close to the station was convenient when stock arrive by train but close to the centre of town is inappropriate for today.
After a couple of false starts, a group of farmers, led by my old school friend Richard Heckford have brought together 250 of their colleagues, supported bt other agencies to invest in a brand new site at Stoneleigh. This shows great confidence in their future by those at the sharp end of a difficult business.
Yesterday was the official opening, performed by Lord Plumb, and I was pleased to be invited. As I wandered round and watched an aution of promises to raise money for farmers benenevolent funds, I realised how many farmers I have come to know and what a solid group of people they are. I hope the new market goes from success to success.

Back from holiday

I have just returned from a fabulous half term break in the Corfu sun. It's amazing what some sunshine and a rest can do for you!

Crewe & Nantwich Final Push

To Crewe & Nantwich yesterday to help with the Get Out The Vote part of the campaign where Mike & I joined Borough Councillor Eddie Ankers delivering key messages to voters. This time we were in Crewe outside the office where Labour played their prank with Toffs in top hats.
We saw once again a very slick and professional campaign with a very positive response. It's great to be walking down a street wearing a blue rosette and to have drivers tooting horns and waving at you! I didn't speak to as many people yesterday delivering as I did on my previous visit when I canvassed, and so was less able to gain an impression of what the result is likely to be, but if the amount of effort the party has put in and the general anti Labour sentiment mean anything, then there should be a Conservative victory.

Message

Sometimes support comes from the most surprising quaters and in the most unusual form. For a while now I have had a couple of printed panels on my car. On Friday I arrived at the car which I had left in a car park to find a message stuck to the window. It made me laugh and gives me great encouragement!

Mayor Making

I spent the morning at Rugby Borough Council's Annual Meeting and installation of the new Mayor. For 2008/9 the Mayor will be Councillor Bill Sewell, who was first elected in 2002, the same year as me and we were "new boys" together. Bill has been a fantastically hard working Councillor and will make a superb Mayor and ambassador for Rugby. He has chosen as his theme for his term of office "Civic Pride" which he has shown by example in his ward of Hillmorton and which he will lead on in other areas of the Borough. We have a team doing a great job in our town centre but we have other areas which would benefit from a demonstration of pride in our community and there is no better person to make this happen than Bill. I know he and Janet will have a really busy year and will enjoy every minute of it.
Today's meeting represented the very best of local government and there were some very fitting tributes to former councillors and others leaving office. Our outgoing Mayor, Sue Peach, who I worked with as a Councillor and have met at several events across the Borough has always been most courteous and again a terrific representative. Also standing down as a Councillor is former Mayor Bill Shields with whom I shared a ward and who has been an excellent source of advice to me, particularly during my time as a Councillor.

Crewe & Nantwich By-Election

I spent yesterday helping out in the by-election with my brother Mike who was a key member of my campaign team in Nuneaton and will be doing the same again whenever the general election is called. In addition to helping Edward Timpson win, we were keen to see new ideas that havebeen introduced into the party's campaigning. We saw a very slick operation with some superb literature prepared for different groups. We delivered a fair chunk of it in Nantwich, which we found to be a really pleasant market town, before joining Edward and his team for canvassing while accompanied by a couple of national newspaper reporters. There was an excellent response on the doorstep and despite a tough majority to overcome and a great deal of sympathy for the family of a well respected former MP whose daughter has been chosen as the Labour candidate, I am pretty certain Edward will be the first of a new batch of Conservative MPs over the next couple of years.

End of an era for me

Friday was my last full day worked at Central Catering Supplies, the business I founded with my brother Mike over 25 years ago (although I spent the first half of the day in the Benn Hall at the counting of votes in the local elections). It was a day of mixed emotions as I have loads to do within my political career and so I am leaving in the hands of others a company which was originally my baby and has been my life thoughout almost all of my working career. The staff at CCS were kind enough to present me with a superb bottle of wine, Chateau Branaire, St Julien from 1982, the significance of which is that this is the year in which we started the company & although you can't see it, I am pointing at the year on the label. I will enjoy drinking the bottle in celebration of a significant event in the next year or two!

Council Elections - reflections on the results

With Rugby not counting until Friday morning, I took to my bed on Friday evening rather than wait for results. One result I was delighted to hear about was from John Waine, Chairman of Nuneaton Conservatives, where I was Parliamentary Candidate in 2005. Nuneaton is part of Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council which was created in 1974 and has only ever had a Labour controlled administration. With 4 straight gains, including John himself ,this Council is now under Conservative control. With this last bastion of socialism in Warwickshire having finally been won, no wonder David Cameron chose to visit on Friday. His visit was enjoyed by all and topped a tremendous effort by Marcus Jones, now Council Leader, and his team.

In Rugby, our gains in terms of numbers of seats were less significant, partly as we were working from a higher base and labour were only defending seats in their strongest areas such as Newbold and New Bilton. This meant that our gains were likely to come from the Lib Dems and this duly happening in Hillmorton which Bill Sewell has turned into a Conservative stronghold. What was more significant within the Rugby results was the magnitude of the Conservative majorities. Take Earl Craven (Binley Woods, Brandon & Wolston). Five years ago the Conservative & Labour votes here were much the same. The Conservative majority has steadily increased over this period and this time Heather Timms majority was around 1000. The move from Labour to Conservative has been progressive and while there was a real mood of dissatisfaction with Labour generally and against Brown in particular at Thursday elections, there has slowly been more acceptance of what we're saying and offering with people seeing us as the party with the vision and ideas to make Britain better.

Council Elections - results awaited

The doors have been knocked on and the leaflets delivered and now we have to encourage our supporters to get out and vote; and then await tomorrow's results. Yesterday I was out with our candidate in Caldecott Ward, Emma Harrington and her County Councillor helpers delivering the last minute leaflet. Emma is standing in a ward where we hope to win a seat from the Lib Dems having been just 40 votes away last year. A great boost was the lady who saw our team and stopped her car to wish Emma well!

Thanks to Norman Tebbit

I enjoy canvassing. You get to hear ordinary people's views and it can throw up some real surprises. Yesterday I was in Bulkington with candidate for Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council, Julian Gutteridge. A man of retirement age with a north eastern accent called me over. "Do you know what the Tories did for me?" he asked. Fearing a tirade against Mrs Thatcher & how she single handedly destroyed British Industry and put millions on the dole, as I had heard many times while the Parliamentary candidate in Nuneaton, I replied "No" and prepared myself for the onslaught. But I was told a different story. The man said he had been working in the shipyards in Sunderland and had been intermittently out of work, with no job security when he heard Norman Tebbit speaking about has father getting on his bike and looking for work. The man said to me that after listening to that speech he decided to leave the north-east and move to the Midlands where he found a permanent position working in a local authority where he worked until retirement. His biggest complaint was the fact that he is being taxed on a modest income additional to his pension where the tax rate has just doubled from 10p to 20p and whatever fudge Brown & Darling are bringing in to compensate him doesn't impress him in the least. I left with a spring in my step!

Success of The Scouts

A year ago I wrote on the blog about Rugby Scout's St George's Day Service. On Sunday I was again a guest at the Parish Church and once again marvelled at the good work the Scouts do with young people. This year I also learnt that in the past 12 months numbers involved in Scouting in Rugby have increased by 10% and in The Time the other day, there was an article about an increase of about 3% over the country as a whole. This is a tremendous credit to all of the volunteers who give freely of their time to provide our youngsters with a range of new experiences and an organisation to belong to and provide a sense of purpose. The wider community owes them a debt of gratitude.

Polyclinics and Rugby

I have just returned from a meeting in Coventry where David Cameron spoke to General Practice Doctors and Patients including a number of people from Rugby about the Government's proposals to introduce Polyclinics . It's clear that many in the profession are totally opposed to this idea to introduce large practices of up to 25 GPs where the doctor/patient link will be broken, where many patients, particularly the elderly and the young, will have to travel longer distances, and where the management will be undertaken by business rather than the doctors themselves. I was impressed by one doctor who spoke of himself as a "patients advocate", a role he felt would be lost in a larger, more impersonal organisation and another who felt that the imposition of Polyclinics would lead to many GPs seeking work outside the UK.
In Rugby we have much to fear from these proposals. There is already a threat to our local hospital from the moving of more specialist services to larger regional hospitals; now this proposal seeks to move more low level and routine services from the local hospital to the clinic. Time after time Rugby people have shown that they want to retain as many services as are feasable at their local hospital. We will need to win this part of the argument as part of our campaign to defend St Cross.

Local elections

The local election campaign is well and truly under way with just two weeks to polling day. I have been out with candidates across the constituency canvassing and taking soundings of how people feel on the doorstep. There's a real sense that people are pleased with how our Councillors have managed the borough well and at the same time they will want to show their diappointment with Government. I've no wish to set our expectations too high, but am confident that we will have some good results on May 1st. Last night out in Wolston we had a large, entusiastic team out, and I really enjoyed the response from the people I met.

Unintended consequences of the new tax rates?

One of the churches in Bulkington has drawn my attention to a consequence of the changes in personal tax rates that came into effect at the beginning of this month and how it affects the income of a charity under the Gift Aid scheme. Quite simply the reduction in basic rate from 22% to 20% means that if a donor leaves their pre tax amount unchanged, the gift aid income to a charity will fall by 11%.
The sums are as follows:
2007/8 a gross donation of £100 means the taxpayer pays £78 and the taxman adds £22 where the gift aid element is 28.2% of the total.
2008/9 a gross donation of £100 means the taxpayer pays £80 and the taxman adds £20 where the gift aid element falls to 25% of the total.
If the taxpayer leaves their payment at £78, the taxman will only add £19.50 giving the charity an income of £97.50 instead of the £100 they will have budgeted for.
Was this consequence of a change anticipated? Was it thought through?
In addition, the effect of taking away the 10% band means that those on lower incomes who may be supporting a charity will have less income left from which to make the charitable payment. Lots of people will have seen the leaflet the Conservatives have produced showing how a nursery nurse is £154 worse off,; a catering assistant £161; a library clerk £203.
So what Gordon Brown trumpeted as a great benefit has turned out to be nothing of the sort. And those who need support most will end up suffering.

Old Laurentian Dinner 2008

Last year I attended the dinner to meet up with old friends and listen to a speaker; this year I was the speaker & this was the first time I have spoken in Big School. A broad range of ages of Old Laurentians attended and when I saw the younger guys hitting the Port with the first course I realised I would need to be on my toes; I reckoned that handling their interruptions would stand me in good stead for dealing with the Labour benches in the House of Commons. As it was, I think I got off lightly, enjoyed the evening and sitting next to the Headmaster learnt a great deal about the progress of and plans for the School. A great disapointment was that my son, Will, who left the 6th form last year wasn't able to join me at what would have been his first OL Dinner as he is on a visit to Egypt with a party from University.

A new era dawns

For the past few months I have been involved in negotiations for the sale of the business my brother, Mike, and I set up 25 years ago. The matter was finally concluded on Friday after an intense few days. In fact the only activity that I have ever been involved in with the same level of intensity has been fighting a General Election. The magnitude of the change that this will mean for me hasn’t yet sunk in, but it will mean that I will have more time to spend as a Parliamentary candidate over the next few months and possibly two years as we wait for the next Election.
It will also involve me no longer having an involvement in an industry which I have been involved in almost my entire working life, and a business which has been my life for 25 years. In the short term I will be involved in ensuring an effective handover with the new owners and so maybe now isn’t yet the time for reminiscing.
In the meantime there are always the Borough Council elections to keep me busy!

Considering Agriculture

Continuing the Shadow Ministerial visits to Rugby, Peter Ainsworth whose brief is Food and the Environment and I visited local famer Cecil Thomas. Cecil runs a mixed farm with a dairy herd, pedigree sheep and arable, and he is a former Chair of Warwickshire NFU. He is a very strong advocate of his industry and was forthright in his views concerning the difficulties facing farming. Having been shown around the farm we discussed the strategies to dealing with the TB problem and blue tongue; the continuing problems with single farm payments; the power of the supermarkets and the lack of understanding of many people, & in particluar the young, of how food gets to the table. I learnt that school vists used to take place to farms in the past but this is no longer possible because of health & safety and the need for risk assesments. We considered the work being done by people like Jamie Oliver and it is a shame that more is not being done to enable a greater appreciation of the contribution of our farmers.

Lawford & New Bilton County Council By Election

I suppose that any election where there is a tie between the top two candidates, two recounts leading to your candidate loosing by just one vote, is always going to be tough to come to terms with. That certainly the case for Claire Watson who fought a really strong campaign in Lawford & New Bilton and must be asking herself what if we had made just one more phone call, or visited just one more house. Claire shouldn't be too down hearted because to change a Labour majority of 500 three years ago to just one vote is a real achievement, and one that give me great heart for when the General Election eventually comes.

Decorating the new village hall

Church Lawford is getting a new village hall. The old one, The Reading Rooms, had come to the end of its life and wasn't DDA compliant. Unfortunately the funds available dont stretch to getting the new building decorated so on Saturday morning I joined a team of Conservative Councillors who offered to start painting the walls, and we got splattered. There was an opportunity to look around the new building which is well designed, flexible, and will be a great asset to the village.

Front Bench visitors to Rugby

We have had the pleasure of welcoming two more members of David Cameron's Shadow Cabinet to Rugby over the past couple of weeks. The first was Jeremy Hunt MP, Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport who, in the home of the game, visited players and officials from Rugby Lions Rugby Club. Jeremy heard about the challenges of encouraging youngsters who start off playing the game as Mini Rugby to keep on playing as they get older and the pressures on a club with aspirations in the professional era where it is increasingly hard for a club to find the money to meet the wages bill. With two sons having worked their way through the Minis and Juinor section, I know just what a good job the Lions do with young people, despite limited facilities caused by the restricted site. The press who joined us on the visit were keen to play up Jeremy's vote as most fanciable male MP, when he was keen to point out that the competition was pretty limited!

Our second visitor was Francis Maude MP, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who is no stranger to this area, having been MP for North Warwickshire between 1983 and 92. Francis and I visited the Benn Partnership in Railway Terrace where we saw the drop-in and training facilities they offer to many groups in the town.

Having been established with Lottery funding, the centre has recently recieved grant aid from the Borough Council which is enabling the good work to continue. Afterwards Francis joined Association members at the Romna Restaurant in Regent Street where the owner Mr Sidque and his staff provided an excellent lunch.

Sewers

I learnt a lot about sewers yesterday evening and how an effective campaign can bring about change when I attended the AGM of Woodlands Residents Association. Woodlands in Bilton has suffered for many years from the obligations of local residents to maintain their unadopted sewer system. Over eight years, with support from both MPs in that period, they have fought to ensure that maintenance of privately constructed sewer systems is taken over by the water authority. Severn Trent Water, whose representative attended the meeting have now agreed to take on the liability from 2010 which will provide great comfort to many residents. Despite this good news, I learnt, however, that there is no British standard for the construction of new sewers on new developments. It seems that the problem is being created elsewhere and it is likely that other groups will have to get together in future to ensure that the same happens in their area and keep lobbying. The Residents Association in Woodlandsnow are the experts, and no doubt others will beat a path to their door to seek their advice. Great management of a meeting by the Chairman, as well. Constuctive comment, well prepared election of officers and all over within an hour. One or two organisations in Rugby could take note!

Lawford & New Bilton County Council Campaign

Much of the past couple of weeks has been spent with our candidate Claire Watson delivering leaflets, canvassing on the doorstep and on the the phone. We both took time out on Friday evening to attend our Association AGM where I was able to reflect on some of the issues coming up from voters there. By far the most common issue is anti-social behaviour and teenage drinking, where our policies of cutting back on police form filling to enable them to be out on the streets and giving power back to local councillors as the licensing authority certainly find favour.

Making recycling work

Yesterday I visited a plastics recylcing plant where plastic is recyled into material that can be used again in a manufacturing process. It's all very well putting recylable logos on to products to try and establish green credentials but it is important to ensure the material is actually used again rather than just sent to landfill. The process of getting it right is complex with a need to segregate different plastics, to clean the material and then make it in a form that can be reused. The simplest material available is plastic drink bottles (as shown in the photo on the left) but only 23% of those used in the UK are recycled. At the plant I visited they produce a top quaility product (seen in the photo on the right) which is so good that it commands 80% of the price of virgin material, with much ending up in automotive components such as car bumpers. I was surprised to learn that one of the problems the plant faces is actually sourcing the right quantity of material since much is being shipped from Britain to China for two reasons. Firstly low labour rates in China enable hand sorting of material which means that this then doesn't need to be done here where the cost is much higher; and secondly because the hugh imbalance of trade between the UK and China means that many sea going containers return to China empty and so the cost of filling and sending the container is low. I concluded that there needs to be more joined up thinking, education and communication between original producers, users of plastic products, local authorities who collect the material once used and recycling companies such as the one I visited for the whole process to succeed.