Pledges on environment

Prior to a General Election, many organisations approach the respective candidates to ask for theirs and their party's views and also to solicit help.

I would therefore have hoped that to have a major political party backing the aims of the Friends of the Earth, he would have been pleased.

Quite obviously, he has not read our manifesto or he would see that every one of our policies has attached to it a "Green Pledge," specifically aimed towards cleaning up the environment.

Also, he would see we have a comprehensive policy on reclaiming the empty houses that festoon our land.

There are still some 1.5 million houses classed as unfit for human habitation. May I also remind him it was under the previous Conservative Government that homelessness more than doubled. If he cares to reflect, he will also recall the number of house repossessions that took place.

Furthermore, I would remind him the Liberal Democrats only support the Government when we agree with its policy. We have voted against it on more than 50 per cent of all Bills put forward in Parliament.

We have not yet put a penny back onto income tax for education. Our concern is still that not enough funding is going into our schools. The Labour Government sticks to the spending plans of its predecessors.

It prefers to pay off £34 billion of Mr Portillo's £90 billion contribution to the national debt.

Just £4 billion of this would remove the need to add any extra to income tax.

We would also pay student teachers a full wage, to encourage more students to enter the profession. In Scotland we have been instrumental in getting tuition fees removed for university students, a feat made possible only thanks to the system of voting by proportional representation.

Finally, my family and I went shopping in Birmingham last weekend. We caught the bus there and the late train back. Then a taxi home, as it was raining when we got back to Redditch.

Mike Ashall

Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate

Redditch