ELECTION 2005: WORCESTER CANDIDATES

WITH only days to the election, the choice facing Worcester voters is clear. Re-elect a local Labour MP or a Conservative outsider. Re-elect someone with experience and a strong track record of delivery or an untried, inexperienced individual.

Nationally, the choice is stark. Re-elect a Labour Government that manages the economy well, or return to the Tory days of boom and bust, high interest rates and three million unemployed.

Re-elect a Labour Government that is transforming schools - more cash, extra staff, new buildings and improved results or return to the Tory days of budget cuts, low standards and crumbling buildings.

For the National Health Service, we want to bring down waiting times further and faster. But the Tories want NHS cash to be used to subsidise the private opt-out of a few wealthy individuals.

If you want to pay for a NHS operation, then by all means vote Tory, Liberal Democrat or Green and let Michael Howard loose.

But if you value the NHS, vote for it by voting Labour.

The contest here is a two-horse race between Labour and the Conservatives, the result is predicted to be neck-and-neck.

Use your vote on May 5 to ensure a Labour victory.

MARGARET HARPER, CONSERVATIVE

WILLIAM Hague joined us last week, meeting shoppers outside Tesco in Warndon. We were greeted by two first time voters, one undecided, and the other voting Conservative.

We were soon surrounded by people asking for William's autograph.

At a coffee morning in Claines, ladies voiced their concerns about pensions, crime, immigration and hospitals.

"I worked hard all my life and paid taxes," one lady said, "but now I don't have enough money to get by."

While maintaining all current payments including winter fuel allowance, Conservatives will link pensions to earnings and give those aged 65 and over 50 per cent off council tax.

At a YMCA meeting, one young resident said he was voting Conservative. Another said he wasn't interested in politics and tried to leave.

I explained that politics affects our lives more than we realise. I told him about my tough upbringing and my hardworking parents who, thanks to the Conservatives, had opportunities to help themselves.

The next Conservative government could do the same for him. He decided to stay and participate.

On May 5, it's time to take a stand on the issues that matter - more police, controlled immigration, school discipline, cleaner hospitals and lower taxes. Vote Conservative.

Monster man sets out poll platform

A MEMBER of the Monster Raving Loony Party who wants to represent part of Worcestershire in the next Parliament has explained his political motives.

Bert Priest is standing in the Wyre Forest constituency on the Thursday, May 5, vote and said he felt disillusioned with other political groups.

"When I discovered the Monster Raving Loony Party, I realised there is an alternative party which represents people who, like me, feel the elections are dominated either by three dinosaur parties, little known single-issue parties or independents," he said.

Mr Priest, from Wolverley, near Kidderminster, added that he wanted to encourage of sense of community in the Wyre Forest area.

Monster Raving Loony Party founder, Screaming Lord Sutch, died in 1999.

Stressed MPs

WESTMINSTER hopefuls have been warned that stress levels will increase if they become successful in their bids to be MPs.

A survey by mental health charity Maca found that nearly half of MPs found the role 'very stressful' while 62 per cent said it caused more tension than some of their previous jobs.

A big turn-off

VOTERS are set to shun election night television coverage, according to a survey.

Nine out of 10 people polled by a video rental company said they would not be tuning in to see the results come in on Thursday, May 5.

MARY DHONAU, LIBERAL DEMOCRAT

THE Liberal Democrats have been the real opposition against student top-up fees, against poverty pensions, against the unfair council tax and against Labour's authoritarian instincts, and we put the environment at the heart of our policies.

Labour is saying that if you vote for me you will let the Conservatives in by the back door. This is just what they said in the last four parliamentary by-elections. What happened?

The Liberal Democrats won two and came a close second in the other two. The Liberal Democrats are in their strongest position for generations. So don't let Labour frighten you into not voting for me.

Labour has lost trust with their broken promises such as on the Iraq war. And the Conservatives have always sided with them.

The Liberal Democrats voted against the war two years ago and have not wavered since.

Two remarks from this campaign will stay with me; a 76-year-old man who said he had been a socialist all his life but this time is voting Liberal Democrat and a women told me she had not voted for years but that I had motivated her into voting for me.

So vote Liberal Democrat. The real alternative in Worcester.

PRUDENCE DOWSON, INDEPENDENT

SIMILAR to Dr Taylor in Wyre Forest, as a nurse and just having finished a degree at Coventry University in science, I am standing as an Independent to take Worcester issues to Parliament. What issues? Those that the people have:

Health - the destination of funds to Castle Street and Ronkswood Hospital, the lack of specialists, nurses and beds and the threat of a flu pandemic.

Education -the £450 difference to the national average for school pupils in Worcestershire.

Parking - the possibility of a Heathrow-style electric bus pick-up serving Shrub Hill train station.

Commerce - freeing up day parking space and help increase commerce in the city centre.

Leisure - looking into the car boot closure at County Hall and removal of allotment debt.

Prisons - promoting the model of women not needing to be institutionalised in prisons.

Pensions - ending intrusion causing personal indignity.

Immigration - helping integration and explaining economic needs and history.

My solution for the issues is promoting a diverse speaker's corner in the centre of Worcester to flush out extreme views. My motto is to help the ill and infirm - stop inequality. I will stand for getting things sorted and no procrastination.

RICHARD CHAMINGS, UKIP

IT is odd that the other parties are reluctant to talk about Europe. Who governs us, Westminster or Brussels, should be the biggest issue of the day.

Are you concerned about immigration being out of control? The Labour government admits that they haven't got a clue who is entering the country.

Are you concerned about the amount of bureaucracy and regulation that is pervading our everyday lives? Let our teachers teach, our doctors treat, and our police fight crime instead of paperwork.

Are you concerned that 80 per cent of our laws are now made in Brussels? So our parliament is only responsible for 20 per cent of our legislation.

Are you concerned about paying £39m to Brussels every day for very little in return? Let's give the money to pensioners instead - £25 each a week. The only solution is to come out of the European Union. If you agree, please give me your vote.

MARTIN ROBERTS, BNP

THE British invented modern parliamentary democracy, however, recently our people have been denied democratic rights. On issue after issue, views of the majority are ignored and overridden by a politically correct elite, which thinks it knows best.

I am sad to say that this has reached the city of Worcester yet again, where I have been refused a voice by some of the other parliamentary candidates, in our so-called democratic society.

Nonetheless, I have been out and about meeting the public and it is clear that winds of change have begun to blow in Britain with more people - who once would have sat on the sidelines - coming to realise that something is fundamentally wrong with this country and are looking to the BNP to do something about it. People have stopped me to shake my hand and thank me for standing and have particularly commented how sad they are to see the other main parties jumping on the immigration bandwagon, after all these years of them calling us racists for broaching the subject.

I wish to thank the voters in advance for their support and for welcoming me into their homes.

CHRIS LENNARD, GREEN

OVER a million people in Britain voted for the Green Party in last June's European elections.

As well as our European MPs, the Greens now have seven Scottish MPs, and councillors on authorities right across the UK.

This General Election is likely to see the first Green MPs elected to Parliament. People are turning away from the 'business-as-usual' policies of the other main parties.

In Worcester High Street each week, I have talked to hundreds of people who feel the same way that we do.

Our commitment to keep public services free from privatisation, our sensible policies for combating climate change, and our consistent opposition to the Iraq war all strike a chord.

It has taken a long time for the Greens to break through, but at last we've arrived. People are tired of negative politics. Worcester voters now have a real choice for a positive change.