Peter McDonald is the Labour candidate for Bromsgrove.

He is married with two daughters and two grandchildren. He is a full-time lecturer in Wolverhampton and a district and county councillor.

Reducing crime and disorder is part and parcel of Labour's vision for the future of a Britain with safer and stronger communities.

We will continue the fight against crime, building on the foundations already laid and targeting investment into fighting crime in the highest risk areas. We've already put more money in for more police and set new targets for reducing car crimes, burglaries and robberies. We are also introducing new laws to enable the police to deal with unruly behaviour and tackle the yob culture.

The Tories £20bn public service cuts threaten one in four police and is uniform only to their record on crime.

Under the Tories the total number of recorded crimes in West Mercia soared from 154,094 in 1979 to 305,818 in 1987, a devastating rise of 98 per cent. With Labour, since 1997, total recorded crime in Worcestershire is down 12 per cent.

Education remains Labour's top priority and we are improving standards through our extra investment.

In real terms we are now spending an extra £540 per pupil compared to 1996/97.

Another school report I'm proud of is that 11-year-olds in Worcestershire Local Education Authority have achieved record primary school results thanks to our literacy and numeracy hours. Seventy four per cent are now reaching the required standard in reading and writing up from 66 per cent in 1998.

We will continue to raise standards by further increasing investment, with extra teachers and the biggest school building programme in a generation.

The Tories could not and do not want to sustain Labour's level of investment in education.

Their school report is noted for poor attainments, lack of effort and sums which don't add up. This would mean the end of literacy and numeracy strategies, rising class sizes and number of teachers cut.

A stable economy is the foundation for rising living standards and opportunity for all. The cost of boom and bust was paid for in the 1980s and 1990s by millions of hard-working families.

Labour will continue to safeguard the stability we have delivered together with an environment in which industry is able to improve their long term productivity and competitiveness.

We are already taking steps to provide short-term assistance to farmers and set a longer-term direction for an economically viable farming industry that supports rural communities as well as benefiting the environment.

Labour's policies of economic stability and making work pay are helping more people in Bromsgrove than ever before off benefit and into work.

The number of people on the dole in the Bromsgrove constituency has fallen from 1,597 in 1997 to 1,136 now.

So far, 374 young people in Bromsgrove have benefited from our New Deal for Young People and 182 have found work through the programme.