It is really exciting to see the Portsmouth University Students Union trying to motivate students to vote in what is going to be a very exciting general election. Today, I gave an interview to the students’ union and they will be filming all the candidates and will put them on the union website. As I have two children who are at present at university and another two who are applying at the moment I feel I know the issues very well!

The university is no longer registering students in a block so every individual has to register. I am meeting a lot of students as I go round canvassing and many of them are voting at home which is great. However, there are around 16,000 students eligible to vote at the university and they could make a huge difference to the result in Portsmouth if they decide to vote here and if it is on May 6 they will all be in Portsmouth. If you are a student and want to vote here you need to register at the city council (you can do it online). If you want to vote at home, you need to apply for a postal vote or get your parents to be a proxy for you and fill out a form.

We have recently reactivated Conservative Future at the university, Matt Payne is the chairman and came with me to the interview. He is very keen to get everyone involved to come and help delivering and canvassing as well as meeting visiting MP’s. It is particularly useful for anyone studying politics as all that theory becomes real.

There are a lot of issues about the funding of universities and what they will have to offer if tuition fees go up. Students have now become consumers of education and will be expecting a high standard of teaching and more contact time with lecturers and tutors. One of my children has 4 hours of contact time a week, the other 25 hours, both pay the same tuition fees. This is going to be a big dilemma for universities and how we fund them. You can find out about Conservative policy on universities on our party website.

If you want to contact Portsmouth Conservative Future you can visit the website http://portsmouth.cfbranch.com

The case of the two Doncaster boys with their terrible crime shows how important it is to get the right support for families and how important a good social services system is. I am really pleased that we are concentrating on helping families in our draft manifesto which has come from the work that Ian Duncan Smith MP and his team have been working on for many years at the Centre for Social Justice (www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk). The Centre for Social Justice has been talking to many groups and families looking at what is going wrong in our communities and finding examples of organisations who are helping to get it right and learning why.

Toxic family upbringing can create havoc, not only on the children bought up in the dysfunctional family but the knock on effect they have on others in society. I frequently hear about how badly behaved children and parents are affecting the neighbourhood and anti-social behaviour is one of the biggest concerns from people returning my surveys.

All this type of behaviour stems from their background and it is important that we start making sure that as a government we focus on strengthening families, giving them the support when they need it and ensuring that there are good school and opportunities for those that have missed out on education the first time to rediscover a love of learning and skills. Many people who have been out of the workplace for some time feel demoralised and lack confidence which often has a negative effect on the rest of the family, and it is important that there is easy access to training which has a positive impact on finding jobs and building confidence.

Our policies include recruiting 4200 more health visitors, having continuity with one health visitor is crucial especially in giving confidence to new parents. They know how to recognise any problems and will continue a good level of support until the child reaches school. I know how important my health visitor was to me in giving me confidence with my first child.

Early intervention is important and I am really pleased that we will be creating Early Years Support Teams with all the funding and bureaucracy bought into one team so there is no duplication and missed families in the process. Sure Start, which has been criticised by professionals that it is not helping the families it was set up to work with, will be focussed on the neediest families. This make good sense as every family will have a health visitor but not every one needs extra support all the time.

Lastly, I am a supporter of recognising marriage and civil partnerships in the tax system. If it helps a parent to stay at home longer to look after young children because it alleviates financial pressures, then that is a benefit to society as a whole. Parenting is not recognised enough in this country as the most important job that any one can do, and this is one way of recognising that. We need to make Britain more family friendly with flexible working and affordable child care along with help to those who give up their careers to look after children, and I am really pleased that we will continue to support the provision of free nursery care for pre-school children through a variety of providers, including child minders and private, voluntary and independent nurseries.

You can read our draft manifesto on the website www.conservatives.com

Press Release Tuesday 19 January 2010 from Flick Drummond

Education, education, education

Parliamentary candidate for Portsmouth South, Flick Drummond, welcomes the Conservative draft manifesto on education. Launched yesterday by David Cameron the main area of focus is on the quality of teaching. Flick commented ‘as a former school inspector, it was always obvious that quality of teaching is paramount in the classroom. Everyone can remember the individual teacher that inspired them or put them off a subject and I fear that many teachers today are so burdened by endless form filling and a restrictive curriculum that it is easy to forget how important they are in a child’s life. A good or bad experience at school can affect our whole lives and we must get it right for everyone.’

The draft manifesto makes it clear that flexibility will be given to headteachers to reward good teaching and also to remove teachers who are not performing to high standards. Discipline is to be returned to schools with headteachers being given the power to expel pupils who are troublesome. ‘Disruptive pupils make it very difficult for the rest of the class to concentrate but we must make sure that they are provided with alternative schooling and help so they don’t miss out on education and become isolated from society. I would like to see education becoming a lifelong goal for everyone so that people can continue to learn and develop throughout their lives’, said Flick, ‘we should all be given the chance to correct our mistakes but not at the expense at ruining other people’s learning experience. Our draft manifesto will be good for education in Portsmouth where we have some incredibly hard working inspirational teachers but they need to be given the power and freedom to make learning exciting’.

You can find out more detail about the draft manifesto at the Conservative website www.conservatives.com and can also ask David Cameron questions on the policy.

Ends.

www.portsmouthnews.tv have interviewed me on this subject.

Press Release  7 January 2010

Flick Drummond reports that Cold Weather payments will be made to qualifying people in Portsmouth

“We have had one or two people calling our office concerned that they have been told that our area does not yet qualify for cold weather payments despite the fact that for the last two weeks we’ve had frost on the ground.

“I contacted the Department of Work and Pensions who have informed me that they have  triggered 1 cold weather payments for the Portsmouth postcode areas. This year you will get £25 when the average temperature where you live is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or below, over seven consecutive days during the period from 1 November to 31 March. Specified Meteorological Office weather stations are used to obtain this information.

“It would be hugely concerning if, after two weeks of freezing weather, the cold weather payments to pensioners were not being made. There are very many people in this area for whom this severe weather is a cause of huge worry over heating bills. I am pleased, however, that the Department of Work and Pensions have confirmed that cold weather payments will be made in Portsmouth.” Payments will be made directly to those who qualify.

Extra information from the Department of Works and Pensions.

You do not need to claim. We automatically pay anyone who can get a Cold Weather Payment. Tell your pension centre or contact Jobcentre Plus if you think you should have received a Cold Weather Payment but you have not had one.

Who is eligible?

You may be eligible for a Cold Weather Payment for each week of very cold weather in your area if you get Pension Credit or income-related Employment and Support Allowance with a support or work related activity component in the main phase.

• Employment and Support Allowance – introduction

• Pension Credit

You may also be eligible for a Cold Weather Payment for each qualifying week if you are getting Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or income-related Employment and Support Allowance in the assessment phase and have one of the following:

• a pensioner premium, higher pensioner premium or enhanced pensioner premium

• a disability premium, enhanced disability premium or severe disability premium

• a disabled child premium

• Child Tax Credit that includes a disability or severe disability element

• a child who is under five in the family