Howson4WealdofKent

My thanks to everyone that voted for me, and for my small but dedicated team. With 7.8% of the vote, Weald of Kent was the 7th best Lib Dem result in Kent, on a night where our ruthless targeting strategy helped return 70 Lib Dem MPs to Westminster.

Sevenoaks must surely be the next challenge, followed by Maidstone & Malling.

This page will now close down, but my Cllr John Howson page will remain active.

Tactical voting matters in Weald of kent

It is tempting to look at the opinion polls and the shambles of a Conservative party election campaign and think that history is assured. But absolutely nothing has been decided yet. There are seats in former Conservative heartlands across the country – such as Bicester and Woodstock, Frome and East Somerset, and Mid Sussex – where seats are on a knife-edge between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. A handful of votes could be the difference between beating the Conservatives and them clinging on.

This historic chance for change is dependent on some people voting tactically for the party best placed to beat the Conservatives in their area. In many areas of the country, among them parts of the home counties and the West Country, Labour cannot and will not win. Only the Liberal Democrats are capable of bringing change. In many constituencies – such as Didcot and Wantage, St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire, and Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe – the only way to beat the Conservatives is to vote for the Liberal Democrats.

Ed Davey tells voters that this election is a chance to “build a caring nation”

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has urged voters that this election is a chance to “build a caring nation.” Drawing on his own experience as a carer, first as a child for his terminally ill mother and now for his disabled son John, Ed Davey will say he is so proud the Liberal Democrat campaign has “brought caring out of the shadows” and said every Liberal Democrat MP elected will fight for care and carers.

There are millions of people around the country making big sacrifices, from the teenager looking after their ill mother to the parents caring for their disabled child. This election is a chance to build a caring nation, where we fix the social care crisis and give family carers the support they need. In many areas across the country, only the Liberal Democrats can beat the Conservatives and deliver the change people are crying out for. Every Liberal Democrat MP elected will fight every day for care and carers, and to rescue their local health and care services.

Not fit for government and not fit for opposition.

I dropped in to help another constituency and they obliged with this photo

Even the Daily Mail has a guide to tactical voting. My advice to Conservatives, vote Liberal Democrat in Weald of Kent to avoid a Labour MP.

I have supported the work of the YMCA with young people.

YMCA England & Wales - We believe in young people YMCA is the largest and the oldest youth charity in the world. YMCA England & Wales we believe in young people & help them play a fulfilling role within their communities.

The Liberal Democrats are increasingly confident they can beat the Conservatives in large parts of southern England, including the two Oxfordshire seats formerly held by David Cameron and Boris Johnson.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, spent Sunday campaigning in Bicester, where the party believes it can defeat the Conservative candidate, Rupert Harrison, a highly regarded economist and one-time adviser to the former chancellor George Osborne.

Davey’s visit was part of a strategy that has seen the party roam further into safe Tory territory as the campaign has gone one, buoyed up by polls that show it picking up support across large parts of the south and south-east.

Lib Dems confident of taking Tory seats once held by Cameron and Johnson Exclusive: Party sources say Tory support ‘collapsing’ in the south as they target additional 25 seats

VOTE LIBERAL DEMOCRAT THIS THURSDAY
VOTE JOHN HOWSON

Last few days campaigning for the rural vote. Vote Liberal Democrat to avoid the risk of a Labour MP being first MP for Weald of Kent. conservative vote is disappearing list mist on a summer morning.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=919357040204444&set=pb.100063904698419.-2207520000

Can you help me to add Weald of Kent to this list by using your volte?

Lib Dems call for VAT on kids’ toothpaste and toothbrushes to be scrapped as 1,400 children go to A&E with tooth decay last year

The Liberal Democrats have announced plans to scrap VAT on children’s toothpaste and toothbrushes as the party reveals 1,400 children have been to A&E with tooth decay issues in the last year. The party said the change could be brought in immediately as part of an emergency Health and Care Budget within four weeks of the General Election, which would set out measures to rescue local health and social care services.

Freedom of Information requests by the Liberal Democrats have revealed that a staggering 1,400 children have been to A&E with tooth decay issues in the past year. For all patients, close to 8,000 went to A&E last year due to tooth decay. Recent data revealed that 4.5 million children in England didn’t see a NHS dentist last year. Leader Ed Davey criticised the Conservatives’ record on NHS dentistry, which has seen thousands of people unable to access dental services and showing up at A&E with issues relating to tooth decay. The Liberal Democrats have set out a package worth £30m a year by the end of the Parliament to scrap VAT on children’s toothpaste and toothbrushes, cutting costs for families.

This funding comes in addition to the £750m-a-year package already announced by the party to guarantee access to an NHS dentist for everyone needing urgent and emergency care, ending DIY dentistry and ‘dental deserts

The head of a sought-after grammar has called for a non-selective comprehensive to be re-opened nearby to ease pressures caused by rapid growth in the area.

Boss of Cranbrook School, David Clark, says a replacement to the failing High Weald Academy, which shut nearly two years ago, is necessary to service the house-building happening locally.

I support the campaign for a new secondary school in that part of the constituency.

‘We’re not asking for a new school, just reopen the one that’s already there’ A head of a sought-after grammar is calling for a secondary school to be opened in the area following a glut of house-building.

Liberal Democrats call for emergency Health and Care Budget after election to rescue NHS on the brink

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has called for an emergency Health and Care Budget within four weeks of the General Election, to rescue local health and social care services “on the brink”.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for urgent investment to hire more GPs, increase the number of staffed hospital beds and fix social care. Ed Davey said every Liberal Democrat MP elected will be another strong voice fighting to rescue their local health and care services. He added that whatever the outcome of the election, a package of support is urgently needed to tackle “long waiting times that are leaving people in pain and desperation”. The emergency Budget would be specifically focused on increasing investment in health and social care and the revenue measures needed to pay for it. It could be held on Wednesday July 31st, within four weeks of the election. The Liberal Democrats said that immediately after the election, the Government should ask the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to urgently draw up forecasts in time for the emergency Budget.

The Liberal Democrat manifesto has set out proposals for an extra £9 billion a year of spending on the NHS and care, paid for by taxing banks and billionaires. This would fund the party's plans to recruit 8,000 more GPs giving everyone the right to see a GP within a week, increase the number of staffed hospital beds and provide free personal care.

Do I have to spell it out how to vote on 4th July?

If we don't want this debt burden to grow, how do we improve services without tax rises? Can growth ride to the rescue or will another shock such as the pandemic or the Ukraine War blow the economy away from growth? We should be discussing this issue highlighted by the IFS as well as highlighting our priorities for serivce improvements that every Party wants.

Here is a headline I never though that I would see:
Lib Dems outraise Conservatives in second week of general election

Both an impressive performance by the Lib Dem fundraisers and also a sign of how poorly the Conservative campaign is doing: the declarable* Lib Dem donations added up to a greater sum that those for the Conservatives:

Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives struggled to raise money in the second week of the election campaign, bringing in just £290,000 from private donors...The Liberal Democrats received £335,000 in the second week of the campaign. [The Guardian]

Across England, the number of dentists leaving the NHS has risen by a third in the past four years. A further 3,532 dentists are nearing retirement age, over one in seven (14.6%) of the total dentists in the country.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for urgent reforms to the dental contract to deliver more NHS dentist appointments and free check-ups for children. The party’s plan, backed by funding of £750m a year by the end of the Parliament, would guarantee access to an NHS dentist for everyone needing urgent and emergency care by:

Bringing dentists back to the NHS from the private sector by fixing the broken NHS dental contract and using flexible commissioning to meet patient needs.

Introducing an emergency scheme to guarantee access to free NHS dental check-ups for those already eligible: children, new mothers, those who are pregnant and those on low incomes.

Liberal Democrat Candidate for Weald of Kent, John Howson said:

“People across the Weald of Kent are going without what should be the very basics dental care. with it now being seemingly impossible to get an appointment.

“It cannot be acceptable that people across our area are forced to wait unnecessarily in pain, not knowing if they will even be able to register with a dentist let alone get an appointment.

“The Conservative party has pushed local health services and dentistry to their knees and it is people in our community paying the price.

“The Liberal Democrats have an ambitious plan to fix the dental contract and tackle the crisis in dental care. Every vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote to get rid of this appalling Conservative government and fix the NHS and care.”

"Rishi Sunak has gone from ducking D-Day to blundering on betting". Responding to Rishi Sunak on BBC Question Time today, Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Munira Wilson said:

“Rishi Sunak has gone from ducking D-Day to blundering on betting. If he was truly angry about this scandal these Conservative candidates would have been suspended.

“He is more interested in taking away young people’s bank accounts if they don’t do National Service than investing in their education.

“From a flatlining economy to an NHS on its knees, his performance showed why we cannot let Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party gamble with our country’s future again.”

Last Night's TV debate press comments:

The Times: How, after all, can you not love Sir Ed Davey?

'How, after all, can you not love Sir Ed Davey? He was kind, he was articulate, he had patient explanations to all the questions put to him.'

The Guardian: BBC Question Time leaders' special - snap verdict.

'Who won? Arguably Ed Davey. It sounded as if the audience was more receptive to what he was actually saying than with Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak, and he was good at engaging with the questioners.'

Another example of our broken NHS?
More than four in five locum GPs in England are unable to find work with a third forced to leave the NHS because they cannot make ends meet, a survey has found.

A survey of 1,852 locums, conducted by the British Medical Association (BMA), found that 84% cannot find work despite patients across the country waiting weeks for GP appointments.

The study also found that more than half are considering a career change owing to a lack of work, while a third (33%) have made definite plans to work in a different career away from the NHS.

Just under a third (31%) of respondents said that the lack of suitable shifts was leading them to leave the NHS entirely, while 71% said the government funding model was to blame for the levels of unemployment.

Four in five locum GPs in England unable to find work, BMA study finds Government funding model blamed as more than half of GP locums surveyed said they were considering career change