Richard is Gloucester's Conservative Parliamentary Candidate
Richard lives with his wife Anthea and their three children in Westgate. Until the end of January, when he resigned to focus entirely on Gloucester, he was responsible for a business that looks after the investments of corporate and government pension funds and charities.
Richard has previous experience of the RAF, airline management and diplomacy, and has had board and trustee roles for charities, government trade bodies, Chambers of Commerce and local government.
Richard believes passionately that Gloucester needs an MP who can meet several tough
criteria:
Focused on Gloucester's needs, not his own career ambitions
"We need an MP who understands that Gloucester is not an island, but the centre of a county - providing its city and shire administration, cathedral, shopping, hospital and health services, colleges and museums and top class rugby. And from the countryside in turn comes our food, some of our holiday entertainment, our visitors, clients, students and rugby supporters. We need an MP who can work with our neighbours, not against them, in solutions for administration, transport, health and waste.
I believe that much of the Labour government agenda is damaging for Gloucester - over the last 13 years much has been promised and little achieved. Look too at recent budget cuts imposed on the Hospitals, the University and Glos Coll, the closure of Kingsholm Post Office, far away regional development plans threatening green fields beside Grange Road, an inadequate flood defence budget, the low level of education funding for the county, the regionalisation of our ambulance service and the attempt first to regionalise the Gloucestershire Constabulary and then to regionalise the role of the Fire and Rescue Control Room- costing many, many millions for an empty regional fire centre waiting now not due to open until 2013. Above all the massive increase in bureaucracy imposed on schools, police and other public sector services and all businesses has made improving productivity much harder, and cost business a fortune.
That's not counting the mindboggling economic mismanagement that has caused each of us to own about £20,000 of government debt, and is causing the fastest rise in unemployment in Gloucester for a generation, record youth unemployment and the sale of the C&G branch network because of the government's encouragement of Lloyds' purchase of HBOS.
I have no intention of trying to be Speaker - a job which would give Gloucester an absentee MP. There is masses to get on with here, and in representing Gloucester in Westminster".
Who can stand up for Gloucester, even when that means going against your own party's policies.
"We need an MP who understands Gloucester's traditions, the buildings that we have shaped and which in turn have shaped us; our ancient schools, churches and shire structure; who realises that it's business which creates jobs and pays the taxes that fund our public services: not someone for whom more public spending is the solution, history an obstacle to an expensive new initiative and an obsession with regionalisation and unitary authorities is the right way forward. and that means fighting our corner, sometimes against our own party's policies".
Who sees that the regeneration of Gloucester is much more than an inward investment statistic: that it's about motivating people to join in, volunteer, work and have ambitions for life - and to have pride in their city
"We need an MP who realises that a regeneration body which only targets inward investment figure could well be missing the human regeneration which can result from the best projects. I believe in tough love and that leadership, like parenthood, is at its best when it confronts what is wrong, rather than pretending that the problem doesn't exist; that when youth or community centres are burnt down, statues are damaged and teenage gangs dominate certain streets then society IS broken and needs fixing".
Someone who can face difficult issues without photocalls, like the number of our teenagers not in education, employment or training; the number of drug addicts in our prison; the negative impact of the extended licensing laws and a benefits system that gives no incentive for a young mother to go back to work.
"Above all we need an MP who recognises that the easy years are over; that the decade of throwing taxpayer money to paper over problems no longer works - 'a day without a new initiative is a day wasted for New Labour (David Blunkett)' - and that this government has run out of credibility as well as money".
And we need an MP who can respond to people who believe that it's time for a change - nationally and in Gloucester.
Contact Richard on 07881 831586 if you want to help.
Richard's philosophy:
Politics is not primarily about Brown, Blair and Bush, the House of Commons, Afghanistan or even Iraq, though these things grab the headlines.
It’s about every person’s daily experience of life – of lots of little and not so little things that make life better, or worse: the buses and bus shelters, the pension, housing and other support for the old, weak and vulnerable: the streets not filthy, the park not a hideout for drug distribution, and the rubbish collected. We hope for inspiration from the library and the local museum: and exercise and well being from our local leisure centre. We look to teachers to care about our children and the hospitals to care about our sick: to the police to protect us from crime; and to the armed forces and intelligence services to defend us from terrorism and other threats. and above all we need our businesses to be able to grow in a stable tax, regulatory and legislative environment - so that they can provide jobs for our young and tax for our public services.
Is there anyone who can read this and still say - these things don't matter, I'm not interested in politics?
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Council