Linda Jack is....

...the Youth Policy Adviser for the Financial Services Authority;

...not afraid of commuting to London every day; she does it for her job and knows all about First Capital Connect first hand;

...a resident of Bushmead, not far from her brother, the local postie:-)

...mid Beds born and raised;

...ex services; she started her career with Army Special Intelligence at Chicksands;

...a former teacher (Harlington Upper School) and youth worker in Bedfordshire, during which time she was Beds County Branch Secretary for Unison;

...a grandmother

...a nice person

...the Liberal Democrat candidate to fight mid-Bedfordshire at the general election on 6 May.

...the best candidate for the job of MP representing mid-Bedfordshire.

Back Jack!

Expenses, expenses, expenses - there, I've said it!

I just watched the party leaders' debate. Nick Clegg gave another great performance.

Interestingly, the need to clean up politics came up again and had all three leaders in agreement.

Clearly David Cameron's views haven't percolated down to former mid-Beds MP Nadine Dorries (Con.). I heard her tell the hustings in Streatley (which she quaintly pronounced as 'street-ly') Village Hall on the evening of Monday 12 April about how she had been advised "not to mention expenses" in the run-up to the election, that it had died down and was a non issue.

Nadine is wrong about MPs' expenses; they are important.

We the voters need to know that the people who want to be our MPs are honest. Our money is hard earned and MPs must be accountable for their expenses' claims.

Linda Jack, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate here in Mid-Beds, is a local woman who's had a career that spanned army intelligence at Chicksands through teaching at Harlington Upper School and now works at the Financial Services Authority in London. She is a woman of integrity. She's the right choice for mid Beds.

Back Jack!

Dare to agree with Nick

I'm not (yet?) a social media bunny, but I do love the way things go viral and want to share this little gem with you.
Enjoy!
Janet:-)

The Clegg effect

Nick Clegg's sterling performance in last Thursday night's live debate with the other two contenders for premiership had a tangible and positive effect on havering and disillusioned voters, as I found this morning while canvassing in Barton-le-Clay. They now know there is a viable alternative to the unappetising Brown or Cameron fare proffered unimaginatively by much of the media until now.

By sharing the stage and glare of questioning live on TV, Clegg stepped into the limelight and came to the proper attention of many for the first time. He seized the opportunity and did not disappoint.

Of course, Clegg also has a strong team around him and it helped that the Lib Dem manifesto is fully costed, which makes the competitors' unsubstantiated versions look shady by comparison.

It's a very good start, and so with two more such live debates to go, and our own policy leaflet poised for printing in support of Mid Beds prospective parliamentary candidate Linda Jack (a woman of pedigree and integrity, I'm proud to say), I'm feeling very chipper.

Lib Dem manifesto to build a fairer Britain

Today's unveiling of the Lib Dem manifesto 2010 was long awaited and most welcome.

Strap lined as 'change that works for you', I've enjoyed pulling out the things that get me really excited about what a Lib Dem government would do for us.

My top 10 are (cheating slightly by grouping same topic initiatives together):

1. First £10k earnings to be tax free: because it will cut most of our tax bills by £700 p.a. and increase pensioner revenue by £100 (and reduce the army of officials needed to manage income support monies as fewer people will need them); set the minimum wage for all people over 16 at the same level (except those on apprenticeships)

2. Break up monolithic banks and get them lending to business, which needs support to get the economy moving; cut red tape for putting on live music by allowing licensed venues for up to 200 people to host live music without the need for a licence and remove the requirement for hospitals and schools to have a licence

3. clean up politics and protect civil liberties with a Freedom Bill that would regulate CCTV; stop unfair extradition to USA; defend trial by jury; stop children being finger printed at school; scrap ID cards; scrap passports with additional biometric data; remove innocent people from the police's DNA database and stop them adding innocent and children in future; scrap the Contact Point database that intends to hold details of every child in Britain

4. Introduce a written constitution

5. Introduce the right to vote from 16 (why not, as one can join the forces and work and pay taxes then?)

6. Introduce the single transferable vote system, fixed term parliaments; reduce the number of MPs by 150; scrap the government offices for the regions unless there is strong local support for them and devolve power to local councils including making police authorities and health boards electable

7. A green economic stimulus plan in year one that will create 100k jobs

8. Scrap the government's plans to criminalise those who leave education between the ages of 16 and 18; scrap tuition fees for all students taking a first degree, including part time, saving them over £10k in fees each

9. require name blind job applications to reduce sex and race discrimination, initially for every company with 100+ employees; introduce pay audits for such companies to combat discrimination

10. support public investment in superfast broadband

View the full document on-line at:
http://issuu.com/libdems/docs/manifesto?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&proShowMenu=true

Enjoy!