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The General Election is just weeks away now. This is a big moment for Britain. It comes at a time when our economy is in deep trouble, we need to mend our broken society and rebuild trust in our political system. We can’t go on like this. Britain needs change to get the country back on its feet—to heal the mistakes of the past and bring new ideas and energy for our future. This can be the year for change—and the Conservatives have the plans to make that a reality:

• We will cut the deficit. As every family knows, the longer you leave a debt problem, the worse it gets.

I invited the Conservative Party’s top team to see the issues that affect us first hand. I have ensured the needs of this Constituency have been at the centre of what the Conservative Party would do in Government.

George Osborne MP, Shadow Chancellor, visited Liskeard to meet with local business people. Thanks to Labour, we face the largest budget deficit of any major economy and national debt soaring to £1.5 trillion. We will get back on the path to prosperity with an economic model based on saving and investment, not consumer borrowing and government debt.

Andrew Lansley MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, visited Ginsters in Callington. Unlike Labour, we will increase spending on the NHS every year to meet rising demand and achieve results which are among the best in the world. We will cut the deficit, not the NHS. The NHS is our number one priority. By cutting waste and bureaucracy and protecting the NHS budget, we will deliver an NHS which puts patients at the centre and gives them the top-quality care they need.

James Paice MP, Shadow Minister for Rural Affairs, visited the Liskeard Fatstock Show and Trewithen Dairy near Lostwithiel. A Conservative Government will respect rural communities, back Britain's farming industry and protect the countryside. Labour just don't care about the countryside. We believe in governing for the whole nation: treating city, town and country with equal respect.

Mark Prisk MP, Shadow Minister for Small Business and Enterprise, has visited a number of businesses in South East Cornwall to hear first hand local concerns. Our goal is simple: to make Britain the easiest and best place in the world to set up and grow a business. Labour do not understand business, under their watch Britain has become less competitive and our firms have become strangled by red tape.

I met with Liam Fox MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, on the banks of the Tamar to emphasise the importance of the docks to our economy. More than a decade of neglect by Labour has left our Armed Forces overstretched, undermanned with key equipment arriving late. We will ensure that our servicemen and women, their families, and veterans are properly looked after.

When you're standing in that polling booth, pencil in hand, remember this: your vote will help decide the kind of country Britain can be in future decades. Vote Conservative for a positive future. Voting for anyone else will help Gordon Brown cling on to power. Please - for the sake of our great country - don’t miss your chance to vote for change.

I would like to wish all in South East Cornwall the very best for the New Year. I started the year by helping to judge the participants in Fancy Dress before they braved the icy waters in the annual New Year’s Day dip at Cawsand. This was a very difficult task due to the high standard of costumes. This is the first of so many charity events organised by the local Lions Club and I pay tribute to the men and women who give up so much of their time to help others. So many local charities benefit from the sponsorship raised and I can empathise with the competitors as I took the plunge a few years ago to raise money for equipment for the Cawsand Surgery.

In the first half of this year we will have a General Election. On January 4th I joined Oliver Letwin and many other South West MPs and Candidates for the launch of a Conservative poster campaign entitled “Year for Change”. People I have met during the past couple of weeks in South East Cornwall agree that “we can’t go on like this”. They realise the choice they make in the General Election this year goes beyond choosing their local MP. They know it is important to vote Conservative in seats like South East Cornwall to have David Cameron as Prime Minister; a vote for any other party will not deliver the change in Government they want.

I was also invited to attend the meeting of the Saltash Chamber of Commerce. The members told me about issues faced by small business in and around the town as well as their desire to rejuvenate the town centre. I know Saltash is a shadow of the vibrant town centre I remember as a teenager. Small business is important to our local economy. We must remove bureaucracy, create jobs and support our town centres.

A Conservative government would:
• Reverse Labour’s planned increase in small company corporation tax, from 22p in the coming year back to 20p and simplify the tax system, to reduce complexity for small businesses.
• Create a one in-one out requirement where any new regulation must include cuts in old laws which, together, produce a net 5% reduction in the total regulatory burden.
• Apply a ‘sunset clause’ to all regulators. During the first term of a Conservative Government all regulators will be re-assessed and their duties, size and functions reviewed. Our aim is fewer, smaller and cheaper regulators.
• The powers of government inspectors will be curbed, by letting businesses arrange their own, externally audited inspections and, providing they pass, to refuse entry to official inspectors thereafter.
• Abolish tax on jobs created by new businesses in the first two years of a Conservative Government. Any new business started in the first two years of a Conservative Government will pay no employer national insurance on the first ten employees it hires during its first year.
• Improve the planning system to support town centres and small shops, by strengthening the ‘needs test’.
• Make small business rate relief automatic for small businesses in England, saving firms up to £1,100 per annum. This will be especially helpful to small shops.

Having been born into a family generations Cornish I will always put South East Cornwall first and fight for the issues that matter to local people.

The past couple of weeks have once again been a very busy mix of engagements that have provided me with a wide variety of insight into many subjects encountered by our Members of Parliament.
I am grateful that the Chief Executive of Guinness Care Ltd made the journey from Bristol to Torpoint to discuss issues involving the closure of the Day Care Facilities in Torpoint. Both Cllr Mike Pearn and I were able to brief Mr Paul Watson about the initial community involvement and contribution of £250,000 towards the building cost of the facility. He promised to make some investigations and we are awaiting his report. I was delighted to be able to work with our local Conservative Councillor on this matter.
As has been an annual December occurrence for me for so many years now, I sent off a brief to the Shadow Fisheries Minister outlining how decisions taken in the December Council of Fisheries Ministers could impact on our fishing fleet in Looe, Polperro, Rame and other coastal villages throughout South East Cornwall. It is heartening that the European Commissioner has at last agreed that the Common Fisheries Policy cannot continue in its present form and I am also delighted that our Shadow Minister Richard Benyon MP mentioned in the recent debate the he intended to use the next CFP review in 2012 to negotiate more local management of fisheries if he is the next Fisheries Minister.
I was also pleased to be able to return to Ginsters at the invitation of Managing Director Mark Dudbridge who took time out of his busy schedule to brief me about their plans for a waste to energy project. This visit was timely as the Copenhagen summit is underway to discuss Climate change. The Ginsters project will certainly reduce the carbon footprint of the Company and it is anticipated that no waste will leave the site once the facility is up and running. I hope other companies will be able to follow this example and applaud Ginsters for once again taking the lead. The Company is already leading with its healthy workplace initiative and I was able to visit the Gum earlier this year with Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley MP.

On Friday I attended the Rural Housing event in St Minver where Shadow Housing Minister, Grant Shapps delivered his fifth keynote public address outlining the Conservatives’ plans to tackle the lack of affordability in rural housing, the creation of affordable local homes and empowering communities to drive forward development in their areas. It is a sad situation when in the South West the average house price is 8.1 times the average salary. The South West is the second least affordable region in the country and the Social Housing Waiting List in the South West has risen from 84,000 to 158,000 since 1997, an 88% increase.

On Saturday I was guest speaker at a dinner in St Annes Chapel and was able to exchange experiences with Sir Robert Hicks. Sir Robert is South East Cornwall’s longest serving MP and I am delighted to have the opportunity to discuss issues with him and pass on good wishes from so many people I meet as I journey through the towns and villages of South East Cornwall.
Finally, I would like to convey Seasons Greetings to everybody in South East Cornwall. I am lucky to be spending time with my family but I will be thinking of our armed forces based in Afghanistan as well as our doctors and nurses and other workers who give up family time to help others over the holiday period.

On Saturday morning I will once again be collecting for the Poppy Appeal in Millbrook. For over a decade I have shown my support for the superb and work carried out by the Royal British Legion in this way.

On Sunday I will again be laying a wreath in Torpoint alongside the numerous other Organisations to show respect to those who have laid down their lives for our Country.

It is a privilege to parade alongside our hardworking Councillors and Representatives from Community Organisations and the young Ratings from nearby HMS Raleigh who have chosen to pursue a career serving in the Royal Navy. I wonder how many of them are aware of the story of a past Royal Navy Boatswain who was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery shown in the Crimean War.

On 3 June 1855 at Taganrog , Sea of Azov, Crimea Boatswain Cooper of HMS Miranda together with a lieutenant (Cecil William Buckley) landed while the town was actually under bombardment by the Allied Squadron. It was garrisoned by 3,000 Russian troops, but the two men landed at several places and set fire to government buildings and destroyed enemy equipment and arms. They were under fire themselves for most of the time.

He married a Wilcove girl and had several daughters, one of whom is buried next to him in Antony Churchyard along with his Mother in Law. Cooper was one of the first recipients from the Crimean War and was amongst the first batch to receive his award direct from Queen Victoria herself in a ceremony in Hyde Park.

Conservatives have never failed to be impressed by our armed forces professionalism, courage, and dedication. I see it as a priority to mend the military covenant that has been broken by this current government, to ensure they are fully equipped for the tasks we ask them to undertake.

We must do all we can to improve the welfare of their families and the service veterans and deal with the invisible wounds of war as well has the visible ones. In the Falklands War 255 service personal were killed in action. But an even great number, 264, have committed suicide. This is an inexcusable loss. We cannot allow the same tragedy to be repeated for those who have served in the Gulf, in Iraq, or in Afghanistan. Our duty of care must extend beyond the point at which our personnel leave the Armed Forces. That is why the Conservatives are committed to developing a through life mental healthcare system which tries to identify those at risk before tragedy strikes.

This Government has brought us to the brink of a defence crisis of unprecedented scale in modern history and make no mistake where the blame lies. You can delegate authority, but not responsibility. Labour Ministers are to blame for the failings at the Ministry of Defence - not the Civil Service or the Armed Forces.

For too long defence has been at the bottom of this Government’s priorities. We have had four defence secretaries in four years, one of whom was part-time. We now have a defence secretary ranked 21 out of 23 in the cabinet and a part-time procurement minister during a time of war.

Our Armed Forces deserve so much better. They need a new vision, fresh thinking, and new leadership that only a new Government has the energy and confidence to provide. I do not underestimate the difficulty of the tasks ahead but the Conservatives will take up the challenge with the humility, commitment, and resolve that our country deserves.

As always I have received a full postbag over the past weeks but the dominant topic has been the provision of health services in the constituency.
NHS Dentistry is a major concern for people in Saltash following the recent announcement that some services are to be withdrawn. People will not be able to register with the new NHS Dentist until spring 2010. It is hard to understand why Liskeard and Torpoint have benefited from new NHS dental facilities, yet services are being withdrawn from Saltash albeit for a temporary period. People should be entitled to continuity of care and this is why I launched my petition a few weeks ago calling on the Primary Care Trust to maintain services until the new facility opens.
I was delighted to hear Andrew Lansley MP, the Shadow Health Secretary, speaking at the recent Conservative Party Conference about a new start for NHS dentistry. He spoke of bringing dentists back to the NHS and helping people to look after their teeth by promising in the next Parliament to register a million more people with a NHS dentist. I hope this will be good news for the people of Saltash, as well as the wider population of South East Cornwall.

The health quangos and the Department of Health spend a total of £4.5 billion in administration every year and yet the people of Torpoint are still waiting for their new health centre despite an assurance from the PCT in January 2008 that building would start very soon.

A future Conservative Government will cut the administration bill by £1.5 billion in four years moving the savings to the front line.

A future Conservative Government will also abolish Labour’s political targets.

It is a gross insult to doctors and nurses to say that without the targets, they would let patients wait and suffer. It is increasing capacity which delivered reduced waiting times. If we build capacity and patients use their choice to drive the access they want, we will see waiting times fall and standards rise.

We will focus on results.
One year and five year cancer survival rates at least as good as any in Europe. Not just a two-week referral to a cancer specialist.
In A&E, reduced mortality after emergency admissions to hospital. Not just an arbitrary 4 hour target.
Zero tolerance of hospital infections, not just cutting them by a third.
A positive birth experience for all mothers.
Building self-esteem for those with mental health problems, by helping them back to work.
These changes will only come if we push power out from the centre, into the hands of health professionals and patients.
Patients with more control and choice.
Giving you the choice of GP.
Giving you the choice of hospital.
Not just which hospital, but allowing you to choose which consultant is to be responsible for your hospital treatment.
Control over your health records.
Control through a powerful patient voice.
And control through personal budgets for those with chronic illnesses.
A transformation of the service from you get what you're given to how can we help you? Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
As much emphasis on Service as there is on National and Health