Letters to the Editor
Pure gold
To the Richmond Informer, 27th August 2008
Dear Sir
I would like to express congratulations to British Olympic team for an outstanding performance in the Beijing games. In particular, I would like to applaud our local athletes, Tim Brabant and Rebecca Romero on their gold medals.
Their hard work, modesty and dedication to their sports has done Twickenham as well as Britain proud, and I hope the achievements of the whole team will inspire many other people in this borough to follow in their high standards.
Our athletes have literally set the gold standard in a whole range of sports and I wish them the very best of successes in the future.
Deborah Thomas
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Twickenham
Conservative support
To the Sunday Times, 23rd June 2008
Dear Sir,
I was dismayed to read Roland White's Atticus piece in this week's Sunday Times (22nd June 2008).
I am not sure who his alleged Conservative activist is, but the notion that we have abandoned hope of winning back Twickenham is unrecognisable to those scores of local members and volunteers who worked night and day over the recent Mayoral election campaign to return our Conservative GLA member with a sixfold increase in his majority at the expense of the Liberal Democrats. Indeed, the GLA result in Twickenham saw the sufficient 10% swing, if replicated in a General Election, to see me elected as the next MP for Twickenham.
Since I was selected as the Conservative Candidate here in March 2007, we have been more locally active than at any time in the previous 11 years, are fighting numerous positive campaigns and have seen our membership rise and the number of activists out increase steadily.
I would suggest that it is not us, but the opposition party who are hoisting the white flag, if their campaigning absence in the May 2008 elections is any judge of enthusiasm.
Deborah Thomas
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Twickenham
Heathrow
To the Richmond Informer, 12th June 2008
Dear Sir,
I was disappointed to read Cllr Lourie's letter in your 13th June issue regarding the Conservative presence during the recent Heathrow protests.
His partisan and party-political letter unfortunately does not bear up to the reality of the fact that many Conservative activists attended the protest March. In addition, Zac, myself, Tony Arbour and Mayor Boris Johnson have met with many individuals and groups over a long period of time including HACAN to discuss the problems associated with the third runway. Furthermore, Cllr Laurie misrepresents the Conservative Party position on Heathrow, stating that it is identical to Labour's, which it is most certainly not.
I suggest that rather than serve his constituents by managing the diaries of the Conservative opposition, he may want to explain why Liberal Democrat MPs bungled a motion they tabled in Parliament on April 2nd 2008 and voted for an END to runway alternation, an important source of relief for many local residents.
Perhaps it is time for the Liberal Democrats to get their own house in order before criticising their opponents.
Deborah Thomas
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Twickenham
The Cabinet
To the Evening Standard, 7th June 2008
Dear Ms Wadley,
I am writing in response to yesterday’s reports that Menzies Campbell and Gordon Brown have held private discussions about senior LibDems joining Gordon Brown’s Labour cabinet. This morning, we hear from the BBC that Lord Ashdown was offered the position of Northern Ireland Secretary by Gordon Brown this week.
One of the LibDem MPs currently in the frame for a cabinet position is my opponent at the next election Vince Cable, MP for Twickenham, Treasury spokesman for his party and friend of Brown from their days in the Scottish Labour party together.
Aside from the bizarre political dimension of these talks and questions on whether the Liberals are now any kind of opposition to Labour, this raises a number of questions about how constituents are being served, where they have Liberal MPs.
I am urging people from all political denominations to ask their Liberal MPs the following questions, which I will be asking Dr Cable:
- Are you going to be your constituency’s LibDem candidate at the next General Election?
- Will you accept a place, if asked, in Gordon Brown’s Cabinet? If so, what are your conditions for joining the cabinet?
- Does that mean that you support Gordon Brown’s record as Chancellor, including his 100 tax rises since 1997?
- Did you know about this plan when you stood as the Liberal Democrat Candidate in the 2005 General Election? If so, why did you not tell your constituents about this?
In order to restore some faith in the political process, our MPs must answer these questions – if they do not, they will be making a mockery of the democratic process and insulting the intelligence of the electorate.
Deborah Thomas
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Twickenham
Benefit disablement
To the Richmond Informer, 15th January 2008
Dear Sir,
I write in relation to Vince Cable's column in your recent edition of The Informer, which discusses benefits to disabled people.
Unfortunately, the thrust of his column misrepresents the Conservative Party position on this matter. Our policies, as written in our Responsibility Agenda, are designed specifically to get people back in to work within the critical 2-year time period, using the successful models found in other countries.
We have specifically talked to disabled groups in our policy work, who do not want to see our disabled communities being stuck in the benefits trap.
his is not just about money - it is about dignity, quality of life and integrating more within mainstream employment, rather than being left in poverty on the sidelines.
Employers should not discriminate against the disabled when recruiting. If they are doing so, the answer does not lie in handing yet more benefits, but in tackling that problem at its source.
Recent polls in the Sunday papers show that 80% of people agree with us - having 2.6 million people on incapacity benefit is an unsustainable figure in the long run, but compassionately, we can help everybody in the long term.
Deborah Thomas
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Twickenham
Parking Sting
To the Richmond Informer, 17th November 2007
Dear Sir,
Thank your for highlighting Richmond Council's obsession with fining motorists in this week's edition of the Informer. The obsessive way in which the council is employing parking wardens and mobile and fixed cameras is now getting out of hand.
As well as pushing shoppers away from local family-owned businesses to bigger supermarkets that have free parking, the environmental effects of this policy is actually more detrimental, as cars drive in circles trying to find a parking space from an ever-decreasing pool.
Passing trade is vital to the survival of our unique high streets and it is short-sighted for Cllr Lourie and his colleagues to make Richmond Borough a less competitive place to do business than our surrounding neighbours.
It is time for us to look more broadly at the use of bus lanes and yellow lines in the borough - if the aim is to penalise drivers, the real victims may be our small business owners, as motorists go elsewhere to do their shopping.
eborah Thomas
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Twickenham
Local flooding
To the Richmond & Twickenham Times, July 2007
Dear Sir,
The events of the last few days have been saddening for many local residents and small business owners, particularly in Teddington and Twickenham, where homes and shops have been damaged by the flood waters from the downpours last week; having spoken to local residents and workers in the borough, there is a real concern that this will happen again and that we are unprepared to deal with it if that is the case.
I hope that lessons can be learned both locally and nationally and that we can work in partnership to ensure that we are all as prepared as possible for any future flooding.
I would propose the following:
- Ensuring that drains are kept maintained and unclogged, to help slow flash flooding in built-up areas;
- An early warning system to alert homes and businesses at high risk in the event of an alert from the Met Office;
- A “Flood Guide” to be distributed to residents and made available online, containing advice for evacuation, tips on hygiene and safety (such as when to boil tap water) and useful phone numbers to call in the event of an emergency;
In addition I would urge Gordon Brown to apply to the European Union for a slice of the £670million Solidarity Fund, which was set up in 2002 specifically to aid areas hit by natural disasters, so that we can rebuild and strengthen our flood defences locally.
By working together with the Environment Agency, local Council and National Government, I hope we can help avoid this misery hurting so many people again.
Deborah Thomas
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Twickenham
MP’s allowances
To the Richmond & Twickenham Times, March 2007
Yesterday, a very sad thing happened to local democracy.
At the instigation of Labour, our two local Liberal MPs, Vince Cable and Susan Kramer, voted with the government to award themselves a £10,000 per year “Communications” allowance, in addition to all of the other postage, communications and office running costs they already receive.
Despite the Lib Dems officially opposing this allowance (as senior Liberal MPs Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg did), our local MPs decided to kick taxpayers in the teeth again by passing this funding through, which is said, coincidentally, to be of most use to MPs likely to lose their seats in the next election.
This allowance not only gives incumbent MPs a massive advantage over their oppositions candidates, who need to raise all of the costs of their campaigns themselves, it is a shameless waste of taxpayers’ money at a time when pensioners are struggling to pay ever-increasing council tax bills and seeing cuts in their local services.
Since I heard about this proposed allowance, I have said that I would not have voted for it, nor will I claim it.
If we are to have faith in our elected representatives, then we must lead by example, not abuse the power and trust which our constituents put in us.
Deborah Thomas
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Twickenham
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