Nick Bourne AM

 When I commandeered Brynle to do the  Northop-Broughton run to meet up with David Cameron, his first reaction was ’Mary( his wife) will have our guts for garters as I haven’t cleaned the car because you didn’t warn me’. A white knuckle ride through the Flintshire countryside followed.

 After picking up David and Cheryl we then started the return leg to Northop, a journey punctuated by Glyn’s practice session for both his Pathfinder and Language badges, alas only passing one of them.Brynle in response to Glyn’s polite enquiries was trying to map-read and drive while I reassured David of our readiness to take office and how these phone calls  just underlined our team working and ability to come through any sort of crisis.

We all made it, Glyn included — only goes to vindicate my claim!

Plaid Cymru have accused us of being all substance and no spin. Well I have to thank them very much for such an unreserved compliment.
I look forward if we fail to get 31 members on May 3rd to inviting them to join up to our programme for Government, which is clearly set out in our “all substance and no spin” manifesto. A rainbow alliance on the basis of their unqualified support is very much on the cards!

I am however afraid I cannot return compliment in its totality because as with many things we and Plaid are on opposite ends of the spectrum:
They are socialist - we aren’t
They are republican – we aren’t
They are Nationalist and want the union of the United Kingdom to be broken up we don’t
Their manifesto is “all spin and no substance” and by their own admission ours isn’t!

We launched our Manifesto yesterday; we have spent near two years consulting on this document with organisations and people from up and down Wales and it really has paid off. David Melding, in particular, has worked incredibly hard on this project., 

We have promised better hospitals and schools and more affordable homes in a manifesto which is fully costed and completely deliverable.  

I thoroughly enjoyed the day and our policies seem to have hit home with people  throughout Wales. I started at Save the Family, a charity which works with homeless people, at Northop near Mold, Flintshire & was joined by David Cameron and Cheryl Gillan. 

We moved on to Llanidloes Hospital, were we again outlined our commitment to our local hospitals across the country and ended up at the Millennium Stadium, where we were joined by Francis Maude for our final Rally in our capital city. It could not be clearer that the NHS is the party’s priority, and that professionals, not politicians, should be “in the driving seat” for patients. 

As well as this  our other commitments include: 

• a National Health Service free for all, delivering safe, effective and timely care  
  

• reform of NHS structures to improve the delivery of local healthcare  
  

• support for parents, carers and disabled people  
  

• the development of specialist and faith schools 
  

• continued opposition to university top-up fees  
  

• promoting enterprise and cutting red tape for businesses  
  

• a renewable energy target of 15% by 2015  
  

• recycling at least 40% of domestic waste by 2011  
  

• reform of the Welsh Language Act and official language status for both Welsh and English  
  

• creating an Assembly Cabinet Minister for Children  
  

• spending the same  amount as Labour overall on public services  but more on education and especially health 
  

• 1% efficiency savings across the Assembly’s £14bn budget to fund additional spending commitments  
  

• working to make devolution a success and a commitment  to devolving power to local communities  
  

• greater accountability for politicians  
  

Vote Welsh Conservative on May 3^rd for a change. 

 On Saturday I have two AGMs in my area to attend; at Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire and in Haverfordwest for Preseli Pembrokeshire.

 OJ Williams as President chairs the first and his lightness of touch is a joy to behold. One day somebody will wake up and realise that OJ would be a terrific asset to national life on an elected body and when that happens we will all be beneficiaries.The meeting is a good one and Angela Burns speaks effectively on the issues that matter to her electors; the threat to Withybush from Labour’s proposed re-organisation of healthcare, Labour’s reduction of business rate relief and the danger of meltdown of community because of Post Office closures, lack of affordable housing and the general neglect of rural Wales that has been a feature of Labour’s tenure.

I have lunch with Jill Chambers as we travel from one AGM to the next. It is always useful to speak with Jill as she is a very useful weather vane of opinion in the party and she is very positive about how things are going.

 I then have a meeting with some local residents about their campaign to acheive designated common land status for Fleming Crescent  in Haverfordwest which I strongly support and then to the Preseli AGM. This is also well attended and upbeat and both Stephen Crabb on the Westminster scene and Paul Davies on the Assembly speak well. Indeed Paul speaks with real passion about the damage Labour is doing to rural Wales.

 All set fair– which in barometer and political terms is good news.

 Thursday evening and to the stately pleasure dome of Mid Wales that is the Metropole Hotel in Llandrindod Wells expertly run by Justin Baird Murray for a dinner to be attended by three Shadow Cabinet ministers: David Lidington, Oliver Heald and Hugo Swire. I have known Oliver for a long time  and David Lidington well from when he was PPS to William Hague. Hugo is important to us in Wales not least because broadcasting and the S4C budget are determined at Westminster. All three are clearly going to have leading roles in a Cameron government.It is a very pleasant evening and some interesting policy discussion goes on.

On the Friday morning there is a Shadow Cabinet meeting held in the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff West. It has unsettled Labour enough for them to send a pamphleteer to give out  literature!

Plaid ’s response from their conference is to attack us for paying too much attention to Wales by having senior Westminster politicians in Wales when they used to complain of too little attention! I am relieved that while Dafydd Iwan was talking of Welsh isolation my party is talking of a strong Wales in a strong Britain.

The Shadow Cabinet meeting focuses on Welsh issues and it is clear that members have a real grasp of Welsh issues.After the meeting members of the Shadow Cabinet again fan out to different parts of Wales to visit schools, businesses, social enterprises, charitable organisations and to meet with nurses, medics,teachers,representatives of refugees and farmers.It has been a very worthwhile and productive exercise.

  A Labour insider tells me that John Cruddas is the likely winner of Labour’s deputy leadership contest and Brown a shoo in for leader.So much for my hopes of the Meacher-Hain dream ticket!

 On Monday I attended my researcher, Nick Ramsay’s campaign launch dinner at The Three Salmons hotel in Usk. The Shadow  Schools Minister, Nick Gibb was Guest of Honour and marking the hotel three out of ten for grammar announced that the plural of salmon was salmon. Still the meal scored 9 out of 10 especially compared to the boiled boot leather we had had in Cardiff at the party conference — and yes I do refer to the food.

 Nick Gibb gave an excellent speech on how the party was right to embark on a journey of change.It was a courageous speech and when I told him this he experienced a Yes Minister type frisson. The speech was well received- eighteen months ago it would not have been as warmly applauded. 

One of the benefits of the European Union is the ability to protect regional foods from unfair competition from other member states.  Welsh lamb, for example, is protected, so are Cornish clotted cream and Stilton cheese.  The country with the most protections is France with 161, with Italy just behind on 155.  In the UK there are only 35 foods that are actually protected. 

Some brands are currently seeking protection and these include Yorkshire rhubarb. 

It is one of those trivial pursuit type questions – where is most of the rhubarb in the United Kingdom  grown?  Answer – the so called ‘Rhubarb Triangle’  centred on Batley.  I remembered this had come up in conversation some how with Lisa Francis just before we both arrived at a drinks party in Mid Wales some time ago and there were some house guests there from Batley. Lisa spoke to them at one end of the room and bored on about rhubarb and by the time they had got to the other end of the room I did the same.  They must have thought that there was some obsession about Yorkshire rhubarb on the part of people in Wales, and specifically Welsh Assembly Members!  

Clearly there are many Welsh foods that should apply to get protected status, some of our cheeses and dairy products for example.  

Achieving protected status doesn’t just mean that imitative products are prohibited, but it also means that funds are available to help promote the delicacy concerned.  

This Wednesday what will surely be Gordon Brown’s last budget is to be presented to Parliament. Interestingly in the run up to the budget Sir Ronald Cohen, one of Gordon  Brown’s closest allies in the city, is warning of the growing gap between rich and poor in Britain.  

Meanwhile Anthony Giddens, one of the architects of the new Labour philosophy on the economy, has warned Gordon Brown that to increase the tax burden will result in Labour not being re-elected at the next general election.  I agree with that though I happen to believe that Labour will lose the next general election in any event, but raising the tax burden further, I think, would certainly guarantee that.  

Gordon Brown will surely signal a shift from direct taxation to green taxation.  This is something that the Conservatives have been urging and it would seem extraordinary if there is not a shift in this direction.  

There are also reports that the government’s review of local government funding, long awaited (the Lyons review), will be published on the same day as the budget is announced.  If that is the case it will truly be extraordinary as it will be seen as what it is, an attempt to detract attention from the budget. 

The Sunday newspapers are also full of talk of Gordon Brown trying to lighten his image.  Once memorably put by Paddy Ashdown in a description of the sort of Britain that Gordon Brown may lead “A control freak’s Gormenghast where no light would shine, owls will hoot and happy hour would be abolished”.   There is more than a hint of this in the Chancellor that we have all got to know and no doubt desperate efforts are being made now to alter and lighten that image. 

We have completed our line-up of first past the post candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections. 

A third of our candidates are in their 20s, with another third in their 30s. The line-up includes more than a dozen contesting an election for the first time, and also includes more women candidates than at the 1999 and 2003 elections! 

This is the strongest line-up of candidates we have ever fielded for the Assembly elections and I am confident that we will be at our strongest ever position in the Assembly after May. 

Our team of FPTP candidates includes more women than ever before, more young people, and more Welsh speakers. It’s a team that will go to every part of Wales over the coming months, there are no no-go areas and I look forward to fighting this election on our strengths, our record, our policies and our vision of change for Wales.

Click here for a full list of our FPTP candidates

While David Cameron launched a consultation on how to use environmental taxes to reduce the rapid growth in carbon emissions from aviation, and highlighting the idea of a new green air miles allowance for every passenger, the British Mediterranean Airways (BMed) seems to be taking the whole prospect of Global Warming with a pinch of salt. They are running a plane back and forth to London, six times a week, from Cardiff with no passengers!!! 

That means that more than five tonnes of C02 has been pumped into the atmosphere on each 140-mile journey, it really is shameful but under the current laws makes economic sense. Carbon emissions from aircraft are taxed less than virtually any other form of carbon, yet because they are released high into the atmosphere, they can do most damage. 

But why would an airline be prepared to run hundreds of flights at a loss? 

Industry experts said the incident was rare but illustrative of an airline protecting its highly sought-after landing slots at Heathrow, which have been known to fetch up to £10m each. It disputes reports that the empty flights have cost it £2m, but acknowledges a business motive lay behind the decision. 

The Conservative Party “Greener Skies” consultation sets out credible proposals for curbing the future growth of emissions from air transport. Our consultation shows how this can be done in a way that does not tax people out of one foreign holiday a year but instead focuses on dirtier aircraft and more frequent fliers. It is important that people understand that for each additional pound raised in aviation tax, there will be a matched reduction in family taxes so the overall tax burden will not rise. With our principle of pay as you burn, not pay as you earn, we are proving we are prepared to take tough and long term decisions for a strong stable economy and a cleaner environment. It would ruin the “economic argument” for running empty flights!!! Whatever happens in the medium term the running of the empty flights to safeguard landing and take-off rights is crazy through and through and should be stopped forthwith.