Article For Folkestone Herald and Kentish Express

24 February 2005

Last Friday I was unable to get home to the constituency as I normally would because I had to stay in London to support Britain’s bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. At lunchtime there was a meeting at No.10 Downing Street attended by Mr Blair, myself and Charles Kennedy. I pointed out that at this stage in the electoral campaign it was extremely unusual for us to agree on anything and the fact that we were all there to support the bid spoke volumes for the consistency of support which existed throughout the country.

In the evening, there was a splendid dinner at Buckingham Palace at which our Olympic visitors were splendidly entertained. The contest to host the games is a very tough one but I very much hope that London succeeds.

On Saturday, after a couple of hours canvassing in Hawkinge with a very enthusiastic team, I went to see Cinderella 2, the pantomime at Lydd’s Community Centre. This was a terrific performance greatly enjoyed by the large audience and superbly played by its very talented cast.

Sunday saw me back in London to announce our policy on council tax. This tax which worked well until 1997 has become one of Labour’s worst stealth taxes. It has nearly doubled in Shepway since Labour came to office and bears particularly hard on those with fixed incomes, especially pensioners.

I think you can tell a lot about a country by the way it treats its older generation. And in this country we owe a particular debt to the older generation, many of whom fought for our freedom. So we propose to help pensioners cope with their council tax burden, by reducing their council tax bill by 50% if every adult in the home is over 65 years old.

There would be an upper limit of £500 to the discount, but in Shepway for a Band D home where every adult is over 65, the discount would be approximately £500.

I think this would go a long way towards helping those who most need help and I have been delighted with the welcome this policy announcement has achieved.