Celia Downie is the Liberal Democrat candidate. The former teacher is married with two children.

A. The countryside has faced one crisis after another against a background of neglect of rural areas by Westminster.

Shops, small schools and post offices are still closing down. Foot-and-mouth has made things worse, a cruel blow to those recovering from the long years of mishandling of BSE by the Conservative Government.

Eight hundred local abattoirs have closed down in 10 years mainly because of the harsh way UK governments have interpreted broadly European standards. Money should have been put in to support them, preventing distress to animals through excessive movements which spreads foot-and-mouth.

We support funding of consequential losses to farmers in affected areas, and tourism and businesses that have seen incomes halved.

We want to see greater emphasis on organic farming and reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, focussing on rural development rather than production subsidy.

Restoring local markets and fair labelling can help British farmers get the price they deserve for their quality products.

B. Fear of crime blights the lives of many people, particularly the most vulnerable in society including people in rural areas where there are no longer local police stations and often no street lighting.

Liberal Democrats will recruit an extra 6,000 police officer and fund 2,000 part-time community officers.

This new force of retained police officers, and suitable members of the public and police near retirement age, will be trained and recruited.

The scheme will build on the existing unpaid special constables and free existing police to use their time more effectively.

This scheme will help to meet our aim of creating a network of named local police officers for every village community.

C. I doubt the wisdom of spending so much Parliamentary time on the subject of fox hunting.

There are far more important things for government - like child poverty.

Personally, I am opposed to fox hunting and would not participate in it. However, the Burns Report did not recommend a total ban, and I think there are civil liabilities issues here if a total ban is imposed.

If a vote to ban fox hunting was raised again in Parliament, I would consult both my party members and the electorate of my consituency.