You can find out all our policies on www.conservatives.com but here are some of my views on a few of them.

Education

As a former OFSTED Lay Inspector, education is one of my primary interests. I believe that a good education is absolutely fundamental to the well-being of our country, whether it is for the economy or for social cohesion. We must ensure that every child is engaged at school whether it is through academic or vocational training. Not everyone is good at taking exams and there must be good alternatives – we will fund 400,000 new apprenticeships, pre apprenticeships, college and other training places over two years.

We must return autonomy to our schools so they can decide on how to run their school rather than giving them almost daily instructions from Central Government. We will give power back to headteachers to discipline children and strengthen home school behaviour contracts, at the same time we must help parents who are struggling with the behaviour of their children.

We have some good schools in Portsmouth and they have improved dramatically over the last few years. This is largely due to the dedication of our impressive head teachers and classroom teachers and we will work to support them with professional development. Like many other cities we have a problem with truancy in Portsmouth and we need to find ways of ensuring that pupils are engaged with education and excited about going to school.

Universities – We will put in place 10,000 new places by 2010 for young people wanting to go to university. Tuition fees which were introduced by the Labour Government have changed the nature of the relationship between students and the university which now has to provide value for money.

There are insufficient halls of residence in Portsmouth for first year students and many of them are in privately rented houses around the city. There needs to be better quality rented housing for students and poor landlords need to be bought to account as some students are living in inadequate houses. I am also conscious of residents’ complaints about noisy students at night and we must work together to integrate both communities.

You can read our draft manifesto on education at http://www.conservatives.com/Policy/Where_we_stand/~/media/Files/Draft%20Manifesto/DraftEducationManifesto.ashx

You can read more about universities and skills at http://www.conservatives.com/Policy/Where_we_stand/Universities_and_Skills.aspx

Health  

The National Health Service is at the top of our political agenda and we will ring-fence the budget of the NHS. Everyone uses the NHS at some point in their lives and we are incredibly lucky to have an easily accessible service and one that is free at the point of use. I have lived in several different countries and this is not the case in many of them. In the United States, just visiting a GP can cost $100 unless you have some private medical cover and over 40 million people do not, I was very pleased that President Obama got his health bill through Congress.

We need to give control to our doctors and nurses who are under government restrictions and targets. They know how to keep the NHS running effectively and keep our hospitals clean. I am pleased that cases of hospital acquired infections are falling to a minimal amount at QA and that the layout of the beds in the new wing are designed to prevent such infections.

The new birthing centre at St Mary’s is now open and according to some of the mothers-to-be that I have talked to, it is a good facility. The building work at St Mary’s is underway and I hope that the community facilities will help us in the south of the city. I used the outpatients clinic for an X-ray and was in and out within 10 minutes.

I am concerned that there are not enough NHS dentists although the PCT assure me that there are NHS dentists available. If you are finding it difficult to find a dentist you can ring 0845 0508345.

I will continue to monitor local NHS provision and will keep you updated. Please keep me informed if you have any concerns so I can look into it.

Environment

Climate change and our local environment affect our daily lives. Balancing the needs of our modern lives and preserving the future environment is a huge challenge for us all and particularly for politicians who are going to have to make difficult decisions.

The car has been a huge contribution to the quality of our lives but I would like to see more money spent on cleaner technology and alternative fuel. Our global economy means that air transport and flights are crucial, aviation only contributes a small percentage to greenhouse gases but this will increase with more flights and we must put in more investment into alternative and cleaner modes of transport.

Climate change will affect Portsmouth which is in danger of flooding and I recently visited the Southern Water’s new pumping station in Eastney which will help alleviate flooding in our streets. We need to ensure that our flood defences are improved and it was interesting to see the new report from the Institute of Civil Engineers at http://www.ice.org.uk/downloads/Facing%20Up%20to%20Rising%20Sea%20Levels%20Document%20Final.pdf Nick Herbert MP, the shadow secretary of state for the environment has been down to look at the sea defences and we will be working closely with his team to make sure that our flood defences are adequate.

There are plenty of ways to help our environment and I have been really pleased to be helping the Greening Southsea movement which encourages every one to contribute. The launch is on Sunday 18th April at Castle Fields so I hope you will be able to come and see what you can do to make our city greener. You can find out more about the Greening Campaign at http://www.greening-campaign.co.uk/About.html

We can all help climate change by using our bicycles. Portsmouth is flat so there shouldn’t be an excuse not to get out on your bike. I will be encouraging more bike lanes so that we can all cycle safely and am pleased that there is now a cycle route along the sea front although I appreciate that some people have concerns about the parking, I think we will have to wait to see how it works over the summer.

We can all recycle more too and use fewer plastic bags. Buy your environmentally friendly ‘I love Albert Road’ bag from most shops in Albert Road. I would like to see doorstep collection of glass which is done in many other cities.

Transport

Public transport can be very expensive and we need to have a debate on how to encourage more people to use public transport. It is all very well investing in public transport but it has to be affordable to everyone. I am pleased that the City Council is still providing tokens as well as bus passes.

I welcome talk of a park and ride facility but it needs to be bigger than 500 spaces and must have an excellent bus or light railway service into the City to make it effective. We need to have a park and ride facility during the week, at present it is just at weekends. It would be great to have a good cycle route from the park and ride so that people can cycle around the island.

I will also be campaigning for more comfortable and faster trains to London, it is ridiculous that it still takes the same time to London as it did in Victorian times and when the Hindhead tunnel has been completed it could be quicker to go by car. It takes 1 hour 30 minutes to go 69 miles on the train, it takes just over an hour to get to Southampton from London. It would bring more business and investment in our city if the time is reduced. My husband recently helped with a survey of commuters about the uncomfortable ‘blue trains’ and was stunned at the vehemence of the commuters against these suburban trains which should not be on this long commute.

Crime and Drugs

We are committed to putting more police on the beat and reducing their paperwork. There is no reason that they have to spend time filling out unnecessary forms when they should be out solving crimes. Recently we were burgled and it is a terrifying experience to find that someone has been in your house while sleeping. We should be able to leave all our windows and doors open in the knowledge that this is our property. According to statistics on the Hampshire Constabulary website the crime detection rate for house burglary is only 27% so we must work with the police force to make sure they have the tools to improve this. Burglary in Portsmouth is nearly double the English average.

According to other statistics, public order and assaults in Portsmouth are slightly up and we must make sure that there are more police on the streets as many people are frightened to go out at night. I have been very encouraged by the reactions of the police and they are concentrating on the problem areas. Respect seems to be missing from some people and we need to work on making sure that it starts at an early age.

Many of our prisoners are there for drug-related crimes and we need to spend more on drug rehabilitation and prevention. There must be a more effective drug awareness programme in our schools and we need more research into why our young people are taking drugs and how to prevent them from doing so.

National Security

As a former Territorial Army soldier in the Intelligence Corps I am really disappointed that our armed forces are not being properly equipped. If the Government is going to send our troops into battle, we must ensure that they have the latest equipment and support. We also need to make sure that forces families have decent accommodation.

I am looking forward to the Strategic Defence Review which we will combine with a foreign policy review. This has been long overdue as the last Review was in 1998 and our defence needs have changed since then. However, the last SDR made a powerful case for naval aviation and maritime power projection and it is difficult to see what changes in the strategic environment have occurred that would change this particular element of our defence capabilities. We have repeatedly made our own position clear on the value of aircraft carriers which are crucial to our defence needs and commitments. There are 35,000 jobs connected with the Royal Navy in Portsmouth and I will work closely with our defence team to make sure that our navy is well equipped and retains those jobs in Portsmouth.

We will not be progressing with ID cards and they won’t prevent any terrorist attacks. Spain has ID cards and still suffered from bombing by terrorists. The scheme could cost up to £20 billion and will cost us all money to apply for them.

Pensions

Gordon Brown’s £100 billion stealth tax has left Britain with one of the worst pension systems in Europe, and it used to be the envy of the world. I have copy and pasted our policy on pensions here as there have been many lies from other parties about what we will do with our pension policy and benefits for older people and it is important to know what we really stand for, you can find out more at www.conservatives.com.

We need to reinvigorate a culture of savings in Britain. We will take the tough decisions needed to ensure all pensioners receive a decent state pension.

We will raise the basic state pension in line with earnings to help stop the spread of the means test. At the same time, we will look at how we can simplify the rules and regulations around pensions to encourage companies to offer high quality pension provision to all employees.

We will give people more control over their retirement income by ending the effective obligation to buy an annuity at 75.

We want to make sure public sector pensions are fair and affordable. An incoming Conservative government would set up an independent Office for Budget Responsibility which would conduct a full review of Public Sector Pensions. A Conservative government would place a cap on the biggest government pensions, including those for senior civil servants, local council executives and quango managers.

As well as recognising the contributions older people make to society, we also need to help those elderly people who are amongst the most vulnerable in our society.

So a Conservative government will look at ways of creating more personalisation in health and social care, and more patient power.

We will introduce a new ‘home protection scheme’ that will end the desperate situation whereby tens of thousands of older people are being forced to sell their homes each year to pay for residential care at the end of their lives.

In addition, we want to see much greater use of direct payments and individual budgets, which give people real control over their care.

We want to ensure a fairer deal for grandparents, and are looking at ways in which a Conservative government could make it easier for grandparents to receive tax credits and allowances when looking after their grandchildren.

Tackling the Cost of Living. Under Labour, the cost of living for pensioners has soared. We will help to tackle this by working with local councils to introduce a two year Council Tax freeze.

We will also do more to help pensioners with their fuel bills. We will protect the Winter Fuel Payment, and we will introduce a new entitlement for every household to be fitted with up to £6,500 of approved energy efficiency improvements. A Conservative government would expand the role of the Post Office Card Account so it could be used to make direct debit payments on utility bills. This could cut the energy bills of up to 4 million POCA holders by up to £100 a year.

We will also keep free bus passes for pensioners and TV licences.

One of the biggest burdens on pensioners is the doubling of council tax since Labour came into power in 1997. It has gone up far more than inflation and we must look at ways of reducing this for people on fixed and low incomes. It has become a stealth tax and I hope that we will have a discussion on this in the future. If elected, we will be working with local councils to freeze council tax for 2 years.

Building Communities

I believe in equality and equality of opportunity. No one must be discriminated against on grounds of race, belief or sexual orientation. We can only build communities on a mutual feeling of respect. Many families struggle through poverty and social deprivation and I believe a government‘s responsibility is to help vulnerable people get the support they need.

We must look at ways of supporting parents and making sure that they have the capability to bring up children to respect others and contribute to their community. Parenting is one of the hardest jobs in the world (I know I have four children) and I think that some of the supermen and superwomen of our communities are those that stay at home, often making big sacrifices, to bring up the next generation. Society and government do not seem to recognise the contribution that parents make and I will be campaigning to make sure that this is recognised and support any policies that I believe will help families of all types. I have signed the campaign by the Gingerbread charity which fights to recognise single parents who are often stigmatised but who often struggle with bringing up their children.