With just hours before the polls open, I’d urge anyone unsure about what I/Reform stand for to take 5 minutes and read a little bit about me. If my words resonate with you, lend me your support. And share this post with others.

Regardless, whoever you vote for, do vote. Get engaged, be part of the process.

With my best wishes extended to all candidates, I thank you for your consideration.

About Me
I live on an old farm in the area. I run a small business and carry out consultancy work for the pharmaceutical industry, an industry I’ve worked in for over 20 years. My kids attend local schools. I feel as you do about our local area, our democracy and our national trajectory.

By chance, I attended a public meeting before Christmas and met with Richard Tice. We talked, he asked me to stand, I agreed.

An abridged version of events, sure, but I’m one of millions who’ve similarly had enough of our politics, the quality of our politicians, the manufactured sterile debates, the cosmetic arguments around problems they’ve created.

My great-great-grandfather was honoured by the people of Scarborough for services to the town in 1918. He helped oversee the construction of Peasholm Park. He saw the Grand Hotel in its heyday. What would he think of Scarborough today? What would my grandfather think, a bobby on the beat in the 1950s?
They’d be horrified and upset, in equal measure.

Our nation is at the mercy of entropic decisions that benefit multinationals or satisfy ideology, decisions that leave ordinary folk behind. We’ve been on the same political trajectory for decades. It’s brought us unfettered immigration, record tax, debt, crumbling public services, a two-party state holding a straight-jacket to democracy itself.

So what of our area?

The regeneration of West Pier, welcome investment, but why no commitment to a boat hoist to assist repair, building in sustainability for our fishing industry? A memorial for those lost at sea?

Where’s the exploration of opportunities around the harbour linking into offshore developments at Dogger Bank to our east?
Regenerative thinking around the Argos building? Where’s the vision for a mixed, layered economy with strategic resilience beyond gentrification & tourism? I don’t see it.

What of the Woodsmith site? Accountability? Or social housing in Whitby? Are local residents being prioritised, put to the front of the queue?…Once again, I just don’t see it.

I’ve spent a lot of time abroad, professionally. The Nordics, Eastern Europe, Germany. In all these areas civic engagement is high, people are invested in their communities. Traditions are celebrated, flags fly, streets are clean, it ‘feels safe’. You can see where the money goes.

In direct contrast, we see alcohol walking through our town centres and too often in family public places, an example being Peasholm Park. This is mirrored at and around the area of the railway station in Scarborough. There’s intimidation, fly tipping and much more. My inbox is full!

The rich history built and enjoyed by our forebears is still here, our geographical position favourable, opportunities there to be taken. What’s gone wrong?
The fact is our democracy is too distant, accountability vague. The link between local people and political representatives broken. Fix that and we begin to rebuild.

Reform UK represent genuine change.

The economic reality of our area is low skilled and seasonal work, our traditional industries having declined over decades.
Demographically, we have a comparatively high proportion of older folk. Reform UK intends to lift the threshold at which we pay tax to £20,000. This policy puts money into the pockets of those low skilled workers and pensioners. It makes work pay, and that, has a positive cascade effect into wider society.

Law and order

Reform UK will adopt zero tolerance policing and increase stop and search. We will clampdown on anti-social behaviour, knife crime, shop lifting, fly tipping, all low-level crime that blights our communities. This means 40,000 front line officers over 5 years. A de-politicised force. Peelian principles, reduced bureaucracy and freedom from DEI allowing officers to do their job.

Economic reform

Why is the Bank of England paying £billions in interest on loans to commercial banks? Why are we pursuing a policy of Net-Zero to prop up inefficient energy companies with public money? This is your money.
We should re-purpose this back into the NHS and beyond. Social care staff should be paid a decent wage. Caring for our own people and valuing those who do this is not radical. It’s what we used to do. It’s what most countries do. It’s civic sustainability.

Immigration & Asylum

Last year 685,000 people (ONS) arrived into the UK legally. The pressure on housing, public services, education, every aspect of our society is obvious. Since 2000, our population has grown by 8 million, government figures expect 14 million more to arrive up to 2036.
It’s completely unsustainable. It has to stop.

Reform UK will freeze non-essential migration.

Illegal migration, overwhelmingly ‘small boats’, will be recognised as a national security threat. Quite simply, boats will be taken back to France. Zero illegal immigrants will be resettled in the UK. To ensure this legally, we will leave the ECHR.

Our democracy
Civic engagement with politics is the founding principle of a healthy democracy. Access to and ‘feeling’ part of decision making helps societal cohesion. Transparency is vital so people feel listened to and feel part of the environment around them.

In short, our democracy doesn’t do that. Our legislature is adversarial, distant, disengaged from those who put them there. Similarly, our electoral system has us holding our noses to ‘keep the other lot out’. It’s outdated and unrepresentative. The local link broken, candidates ‘parachuted’ in, your vote taken for granted. The main two parties will never change this system. It maintains their hegemony.

This has to change.

Reform UK support proportional representation and will commit to a referendum on our electoral system. We will enact a British bill of rights, codifying and guaranteeing our freedoms. Reform UK will ensure primacy of our legal system is in the UK, not a foreign court.

We will reform the House of Lords and radically reduce its size. We will replace civil service leaders with private sector experts to stop the blocking of our reforms, including reform of the BBC and licence fee.

Our contract/policy list continues and can be found online here https://www.reformparty.uk/policies
In short, I’m a local businessman invested in our area personally. I will fight for clean beaches, a balanced layered economy, litter free safer streets and represent your interests, because they’re mine too.

I have no particular political ambition, but feel I owe it to those who’ve gone before and those who come after to try and put our area and nation back on track.
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