Richard Benyon

“What election is that then?” said the lady on the doorstep. It was a salutary reminder for any politician that not everyone is as engaged in the current political scene as we are. This was an educated person, with a husband and teenage children. There was not a single flicker of recognition that a life and death struggle for the future of her country going on. Sure she may be an exception but frequent doorstep conversations remind me that in large parts of society there is not much thought given to politics or politicians. That said, I do detect a real sense that most people see this election as a new start for Britain. A chance to re-boot their country.

I spoke to a group of Business people in Reading last week. Businesses in the Thames Valley are the driving force in the UK economy. It will be this area that pulls the Britain out of recession. I always see these events as two-way conversations. They obviously, want to know what a Conservative Government would do for them but I also want to know what day-to-day stresses and strains their businesses face. The inability of many businesses to get credit remains a big one. There is an ongoing weakness in our banking system that is really hurting small businesses in particular. Over-regulation is another one. The increasing burden of employment law and Health and Safety regulation pulls them back and makes it impossible to compete. If I say so myself, I was able to assure them that my Party are on the case. Plans for a workable loan guarantee scheme and an aggressive deregulatory strategy went down well.

One of my big campaigns in the coming weeks will be to see high speed broadband rolled out to every home in my constituency. We still have “not spots” in certain rural areas which is a massive disadvantage for individuals, families and businesses. Most people work from home at some point in their week and many young people need broadband to study and to do home work. As a country we could really miss out unless the next Government really gets cracking with the development of so called super-fast broadband. We need to break BT’s monopoly on infrastructure so that other companies can compete to provide broadband using BT’s ducts, cabling and telegraph poles. We also have to find ways of funding roll-out to smaller remote communities for whom the market just cannot be a viable option. This has to be a real priority for any future Government.