QUESTION TO REG SHORE BY VOTER

I live in the constituency you wish to represent in Parliament.

As a candidate in the election you are asking me to vote for you.

But I would first like to know if you understand the need for real change in this election. According to recent polling, there’s a possibility that the party that comes third in terms of share of the vote will actually have the largest number of seats in Parliament.

Whatever your party, I hope you agree that this is grossly unfair to voters and a perversion of our democracy. Our “winner takes all” system of first-past-the-post is broken. We need and demand change.

As a voter in your constituency, I want you to know that I will only support a candidate who will commit to a referendum on the introduction of a proportional voting system during the next Parliament.

Will you make that commitment?

Thank you.

ANSWER FROM REG SHORE

This is something that we Liberal Democrats have been fighting for, for years, and despite promises, Labour and the Conservatives have consistently gone back on their word.

It is an irony that even as the system they represent wakes up to the fact that the public demand change, they are still up to their old tricks of smear and attack.

Their system is sorely wounded and they still do not get it!.

This is a very selfish form of Government that cares more about getting elected than the people or the principles that will put them there.

As a Liberal Democrat, you have my solemn word that I will work to make your request a reality.

Very best regards,

Reg Shore
Lib Dem PC Lincoln

Reg Shore

If you are reading this then you are either really interested in what Liberal Democrats have to say or you are from our opposition, wondering what’s going on and looking for tips; either way, I welcome you

Since last Thursday, this election has come alive.

But no one can predict what’s going to happen in the remaining 16 days until the election. But what I can confirm is that we are working as hard as possible to deliver a different kind of politics.

But it isn’t just the other parties we are fighting against. We’re taking on a political system that’s designed to prop up the two old parties. We’re fighting against big business, the unions, the media and the status quo and all these will fiercely resist the change that the electorate is daring to believe in.

Many of us feel that we have been let down by Labour for the last 13 years.  Others remember 18 years of the Conservatives and genuinely fear the prospect of returning to Tory rule.

In reality, we’ve had 65 years of both Governments taking it in turns to make the same old mistakes over and over again.

Voters have a dilemma – who to choose to keep the other one out!

But this election is different.

We no longer have to hold our nose and vote for a Party that we’ve clearly out grown. We no longer have to compromise and vote AGAINST something because the other one is worse.

No! This time we have an opportunity to vote positively for something.

It’s clear that we all want something different. But the problem is, what?

On offer is a false kind of change offered by Labour and the Conservatives or Real Change by voting for the Liberal Democrats.

THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS have 4 steps to create a fairer Britain:

Fair taxes that put money back in your pocket

A fair future creating jobs by making Britain greener

We’ll deliver a fair chance for every child

And there’ll be a fair deal to clean up politics.

Our policies are fully costed and have been in the public domain for nearly two years where they’ve been scrutinized in depth. These detailed plans support the vision that was so eloquently expressed by Nick Clegg recently.

I am extremely optimistic about the future. Yes, times will be tough but every day we’ll be getting stronger in the knowledge that we are building something better for tomorrow.

If we work together we can succeed and make Britain a fairer, stronger and a more sustainable place.

My hope is that you, like me, will never want to look back.

Are you voting LibDem on May 6th? Do you want a poster for your window?
Now you can download our PDFs and print them out yourself.

We recommend that you don’t print them using an Ink Jet as you won’t have much ink left.

REG SHORE AND JUST SOME OF THE LIB DEM TEAM IN LINCOLN – COME AND JOIN US – YOU WILL BE MADE MOST WELCOME

The Lib Dems are well aware of the stakes. For their moment in the spotlight, they chose a focused, costed and serious political message.
The Guardian – 15th April 2010

The Liberal Democrat manifesto contains more extensive and more detailed tax and spending proposals than those of the other main UK parties.
Institute for Fiscal Studies – 14th April 2010

The [Liberal Democrats] deserve credit for costing its promises… unlike the Tories who hid their sums because they know the figures don’t add up.
The Mirror – 15th April 2010

They’ve got by far the most ambitious tax and spending plans
BBC – 14th April 2010

Their manifesto launch today was refreshingly candid in its clear focus on the deficit and the recession, subjects largely fudged by Labour and the Tories in their manifestos this week.
Evening Standard – 14th April 2010

The Liberal Democrat manifesto is about facts and figures and pledges
Martin Kettle; The Guardian – 14th April 2010

It is a pitch to the electorate that includes the most generous tax giveaway and the most explicit public spending cuts offered by any of the main parties.
The Financial Times – 15th April 2010

The most impressive part of the Liberal Democrat manifesto is its final few pages…The Lib Dems set out, in detail, how they plan to start reducing the deficit.
The Telegraph – 14th April 2010

Its unique selling point is the tables of tax spending and saving proposals included at the back…they are the only main party to open themselves to direct scrutiny in this way.
Adam Boulton – Sky news – April 14th 2010

They have produced what should be hailed as a credible economic programme… The Lib Dems say with some justification that they are the only party to have fully costed their plans without any reference to “efficiency savings”. This is likely to enhance their growing popularity.
The New Statesman – 14th April 2010

The Lib Dems’ manifesto does indeed include more detail on tax and spending policies than either Labour or the Tories.
Channel 4 Fact Check – 14th April 2010

Change That Works For You

Reg Shore launching a manifesto we can trust

This is a manifesto you can trust. We have stripped our priorities back to the essential, fundamental changes that Britain needs to make it fair:

• Fair taxes that put money back in your pocket
• A fair chance for every child
• A fair future, creating jobs by making Britain greener
• And a fair deal by cleaning up politics

These are deliverable, practical plans to make your life better, and they are right there on the front cover of our manifesto. Instead of rhetoric and razzmatazz, we are saying what we will do and how we will pay for it. Elections should be a competition of ideas, not marketing budgets. They may have the bigger budgets but we have the bigger ideas.
And you can trust us to deliver because unlike the other parties, we have spelt out, line by line in the manifesto how every single policy is paid for, and how we will reduce the deficit. We have set out £15bn of details spending cuts and just £5bn a year of new spending, meaning £10bn for the deficit every year. We are the first party to put detailed spending plans into a manifesto.

Four key pledges
Fair taxes: We will ensure no-one pays income tax on the first £10,000 they earn. Most taxpayers will get a tax cut of £700 a year. We’ll pay for it by closing loopholes that unfairly benefit the rich, a new tax on mansions worth over £2m, a crack down on tax avoidance and higher aviation duty.
A fair start for all our children: We will get every child the individual attention they need by cutting class sizes. We will spend an extra £2.5bn on schools, targeted at children who need the most help. The average primary school could cut class sizes to 20. An average secondary school could see classes of just 16.
A fair future: a rebalanced, green economy: We will break up the banks and rebalance the economy away from unsustainable financial speculation. We will be honest about where savings must be made in government spending to balance the books and protect our children’s future. And we will create new jobs with a £3.1bn green stimulus and job creation plan in our first year in office, fully funded by cut backs elsewhere.
A fair deal from politicians: We will introduce a fair voting system. We will ensure corrupt MPs can be sacked by their constituents and stop non-doms from donating to parties or sitting in Parliament. We will take power from Westminster and give it to communities, with local power over police and the NHS, and introduce a freedom bill to protect and restore civil liberties.

We also have the following commitments:

• Protect front line NHS services. We will help the NHS work better with the money it has and protect front line services by re-investing the savings we find back into healthcare
• Recruit 3,000 more police officers to keep our streets safe and scrapping ID cards
• Scrap student tuition fees to reduce the burden of student debt immediately and eliminate fee debt altogether over 6 years
• A pay rise for our brave service men and women together with cut backs of bureaucrats and top brass officers in the Ministry of Defence
• Uprate the basic state pension in line with earnings immediately so that pensioners do not fall further behind when the economy starts to grow again

Lincoln City 2010

A message from Reg Shore, your Liberal Democrat candidate for M.P.

Every party has published its manifesto in the past few days.  Most are heavy and – let’s be honest – usually taken with a pinch of salt.  We’ve come not to trust them, partly because we no longer trust the MPs who wrote them.

For my part, as a first-time MP I will be part of the ‘fresh start’ we all want.  But I’m certainly not new to politics, as voters in West Lindsey know.  I’ve led their Council to great success.

Like you, I detest the goings-on in Westminster.  Although I would never claim the Lib Dems to be the only clean party, I’m convinced that our policies will produce a more honest and open Britain.

For a start, we will close tax loopholes for the very rich and phase out their pension subsidies.  This will allow extra help for pensioners, £700 into the pockets of low and middle earners and take 3.6 million of the very poorest out of taxation altogether.

You want the best for your children, so we have identified how to reduce class sizes, improve discipline and expand one-to-one tuition.  Our early intervention programme will give youngsters the chances they deserve.

We’re one of the few remaining countries where a party that gets less than half the votes can become the government.  The majority who voted differently are left with nothing!  If we have a hung parliament after May 6^th the Lib Dems will be in a position to push for change.  We are the only party that likes to share power with others.

Our catchwords are fair, clean and local.  We will reduce the number of MPs and in the case of serious misconduct allow local people to sack their own.  Just one of the many ways we will return power to you, the local community.

We will create a green economy, with tens of thousands of new jobs.  Our new Infrastructure Bank will be devoted to national projects like high-speed rail, cheaper first-time houses, new rental housing, renovation of old properties – and much more.

Don’t waste your vote – this is your best chance for real change with the Liberal Democrats.

Reg Shore

4 STEPS TO A FAIRER BRITAIN

Fair taxes that put money back in your pocket
The first £10,000 you earn tax-free: a tax cut of £700 for most people
3.6 million low earners and pensioners freed from income tax completely
Paid for in full by closing loopholes that unfairly benefit the wealthy and polluters

A fair future creating jobs by making Britain greener
Break up the banks and get them lending again to protect real businesses
Honesty about the tough choices needed to cut the deficit
Green growth and jobs that last by investing in infrastructure

A fair chance for every child
Ensure children get the individual attention they need by cutting class sizes
Made possible by investing £2.5 billion in schools targeted to help struggling pupils
Give schools the freedom to make the right choices for their pupils

A fair deal by cleaning up politics
Put trust back into politics by giving you the right to sack corrupt MPs
Restore and protect hard-won British civil liberties with a Freedom Bill
Overhaul Westminster completely: fair votes, an elected House of Lords, all politicians to pay full British taxes

IT’S GOOD TO TALK

Reg talking about homelessness with friends at the YMCA

In response to Mathew Holden’s perceptive letter in the Echo regarding the social taboo of politics, I agree that it’s great to discuss things that really affect us.

So let’s set about creating a system that encourages discussion …

For too long now politics have been dominated by the Duel of the Dinosaurs, designed to stifle engagement. Instead of, ‘What shall we do about the problem?’ we are forced to ask, ‘Whose side are you on?’

Confrontation like this only makes us reluctant to speak about the way we feel.

But now, politics is changing and the stranglehold of Labour versus Conservative is weakening. Residents tell me they’ve lost patience with the same old promises tossed out from the same old double-act each General Election. They are found to be hollow in the cold light of day.

There’s the joke about the spirit of a recently departed who arrives at the Pearly Gates and has to vote for an eternity in either heaven or hell. Touring both he discovers that although heaven is very nice it is also a little boring, whereas in hell he can meet old friends, play sport, eat, drink and be merry. So he votes accordingly.
Unfortunately, when he gets to hell he finds fire, brimstone and unimaginable torture. ‘What’s going on?’ he asks. ‘I was promised an eternity of happiness.’
‘Ah,’ says Satan, ‘that was during the run up to the election. Now you’ve voted …’

The system is just plain wrong.

It has put massive power into the hands of a few individuals instead of all of the people. It has a London-centric, narrow-mindedness that relies on financial smoke-and-mirrors over everything else. We have swapped making things for betting on the stock market, leaving Britain weak, isolated and exposed to global forces.

A general Election looms. We Liberal Democrats will be happy to see a Hung Parliament. Then politicians will be forced to vote for what is right and not what the whips tell them. They will have to talk, not shout.

It’s good to talk!

A hung parliament will help the Liberal Democrats begin the process that will make our country multi-party, decentralised, and long-termist. With a leadership that speaks for all, not just for a narrow doctrinal elite. People will find they can engage once again with what goes on around them – and what they say will count.
Together we will have the strength to tackle vested interests, promote enterprise and focus on what really matters – making our democracy strong again. We are the only party committed to devolving power back to the people, so let’s start talking about it.

Reg Shore
Parliamentary Candidate,
Liberal Democrat Party

Reg Shore

Dear Reg,

Today I launched my pamphlet, Lost labours, with Nick Clegg.

As somebody who has a long involvement with the Labour party, including editing the New Statesman magazine, I have been able to give a frank and honest appraisal of a decade and a half of New Labour. And in it I explain why I can no longer support them, and am instead turning to the Liberal Democrats.

Alongside one million other voters, I deserted Labour in 2005 in protest at Iraq in favour of the Liberal Democrats, the only party to oppose the war. My decision to back the Lib Dems in 2010 is based in a more fundamental appraisal of Labour’s record together with a positive assessment of the Liberal Democrats’ platform.

New Labour in office has had one all-consuming purpose: re-election.

Since 1997, their every working day was based around the task of prolonging their term of office. It filled in the ideological hollow and justified ever-encroaching authoritarianism and a pandering to the right on criminal justice and other areas of social policy.

In contrast, the Liberal Democrat analysis of the failures of the deregulated market has been consistently, and painfully, accurate. Nick Clegg’s tax reform plans, taking four million low paid workers out of tax altogether, are the most redistributive of any party. And the Liberal Democrat approach to criminal justice, human rights, foreign and social policy is close to mine.

People can only for so long be exhorted to hold their nose, to vote for a party they feel has let them down, simply because the alternative is worse. It is deeply damaging to politics to resort perpetually to the double negative. The Liberal Democrats offer a positive, radical and different vision. That is why they have my support.

Best wishes,

John Kampfner

John Kampfner

The New Statesman’s circulation reached 70,000 by 1945 and it became a key player in Labour politics

PPC profile questions
Constituency: Lincoln

REG SHORE

1. What was your first political experience?

My first political experience was more of a gradual awakening. When I was four, I discovered that not everyone lived in a Council house…nor did everyone live on a Council estate. When I was in my early teens I was disappointed by an education system that was geared to favour a different class from my own, that spoke a different language that I had to learn in order to compete in the world.

Joining the Lib Dem Family

2. Why did you join your party?

I joined the Liberal Democrats when Labour moved to the Right and began to emulate aspects of Conservatism; a creed, which I find utterly unpalatable. The Lib Dems were the only party who promised to seek the creation of a fair society and I have not been disappointed thus far!

3. What did you do before becoming a PPC?

I have been and continue to be a performing arts specialist and teacher. I have nurtured famous actors, artistically directed a theatre company, and attained three National Awards. As an Arts College leader, I led my school to Arts Specialist status on three occasions and gained Arts Mark Gold four times. I have been recognized by Ofsted as being an excellent teacher.
I was Leader of West Lindsey District Council during one of its most successful periods in which I steered it through unprecedented growth, reorganisation and economic regeneration; not to mention successfully dealing with a flooding crisis and an earthquake!

4. What are your biggest interests outside politics?

I create – theatre usually, but I am prepared to create almost anything such as art works, music, poetry – anything really.

5. What’s your favourite political song?

‘Yellow’ by Coldplay. Chris Martin says he wrote this with the ‘Yellow Pages’ in mind but as he’s a Lib Dem supporter, I suspect it’s really about the Party colours…sorry Chris! I enjoy performing and was part of a folk group for a time – most of our songs had a political edge and I relished the passion in this aspect of performance.

6. What’s your favourite political movie?

There are so many political stories that I would love to see as a movie – for example, Germinal by Emile Zola; a story about the ongoing class struggle in France, even after the Revolution. It’s a detailed and moving epic, which would make a great film and this genre really attracts me.

More up to date and closer to home, I love to see my British working class roots and the graphic problems of that era shown through film. To this end I adored, ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’, set against the backcloth of industrial Nottingham. Or ‘The full Monty’ – this hilarious film is set in the wastelands of the steel city, Sheffield. The scars on the landscape are there for all to see in this tragi-comedy, which tracks the consequences of Thatcher’s annihilation of our once mighty industrial base.

7. What makes you suited to representing your constituency?

I love Lincoln. I love its people. It’s a fantastic city.

I want to see it grow and thrive. I want it to become the tourist attraction that it deserves to be. I want to be a driver to find solutions to problems that are all too common across the Eastern and Northern tracts of Great Britain. I want to get to grips with the awful deprivation in some areas – some of the worst in Britain (on a scale of deprivation where the lower the figure the worse the deprivation, one Lincoln Ward is number 166 out of 32,000) And I want break the cycle of third generation unemployment that can be found in some areas, by developing jobs. I want to make a difference as I have done in Gainsborough, and as I have done in my school career.

8. Why do you think you would be a good MP?

I have the ability to think creatively and imaginatively, searching out radical solutions to problems that are hard to solve. I can think strategically to seek out the steps necessary for sustainable answers – not based on quick fixes, but answers that will develop ‘stamina’ and create stronger foundations that serve and benefit those that follow.

Locally, I believe this can be achieved by bringing key players together. I can also add to the debate on the national stage, as we work towards developing an economy to rival our most efficient competitors and partners – for example, Germany or the Nordic states. Lincoln has the talent and the skills, but needs direction and leadership. I believe that I have this to offer.

9. What are your main policy interests?

There are several areas of policy that I find interesting including Economics, Business and Enterprise, and Transport, all of which are particularly important to Lincoln.

Being resident in Lincolnshire, I also have a instinctive affinity to the Natural Environment and Rural Affairs, but my expertise sits with Education as I have been a teacher most of my life and have a depth of understanding which helps when I am getting to grips with issues like ‘Closing the Gap’ – an initiative which seeks to recover the attainment that a child from a poorer background will lose against someone with the same IQ but from a better-off background.

10. If you had the chance to pass one law, what would it be?

I believe that our democracy needs further refinement in many ways – most crucially through proportional representation. The present electoral system does not represent the views of the people. In 2005, Labour got 36% of the vote gaining them 57% of the seats. The Liberal Democrats on 23% of the vote gained only 10% of the seats in Parliament. Our voting system must reflect the will of the people so that our Parliament is truly representative of the national voice.

My Labour opponent was elected in 2005 when a mere 22% of the electors chose her. We must seek a better way than this!

11. Who is your favourite political figure and why?

As with many others I admire Winston Churchill – who was himself a Liberal at one stage. I admire his style and his perceptive intelligence, his creativity and his resilience. He was a true Brit, which is quite ironic as he was half American – I like this too!

12. Summarise your beliefs in one sentence.

By working together we can achieve things that we can only dream of as one.