Dear Editor,
With the upcoming General Election on 4 July 2024, Bedford is given a fresh choice to vote for a candidate that will put Bedford first.
With scheduled General Elections (traditional date being held on the first Thursday in May), many parties and candidates will have around one or two years to campaign. This will often be followed by door-to-door canvassing, leafleting and meeting the general public. With snap General Elections, this shortens the timescale somewhat. Nearly three weeks into the General Election campaign, I only had one leaflet. Which party, I hear you ask? the Labour Party.
However, I can not help but feel that the Labour Party have already taken the voters for granted in Bedford. With the current poll forecasting the Labour Party to win a landslide of 400+ seats in Westminster, I feel they think it is a foregone conclusion that they will be given the keys to Number 10.
From experience and history, polls are not always correct. For instance, if we look at the 1992 General Election, the Tories and John Major were forecast to lose, and (if we believed the polls) Labour should have narrowly gained power.
However, the 1992 result shocked the nation. In recent history, with the Brexit Referendum, the Remain campaign group thought they would comfortably win. How wrong they were!
I, like so many in Britain, want real change.
The Conservatives as a party have become stagnant. They no longer stand for anything. They have disappointed voters, and we urgently need new radical policies, leadership and direction.
However, in my view Labour are not the party to achieve this. Their track record in the past shows poor economic decision-making, ultimately bankrupting the country. They are the party of big state, giving away personal freedoms and spending your hard-earned money.
In 2019, Sir Keir Starmer praised Jeremy Corbyn and three years later threw him out of the party. This shows Starmer’s true colours. He will support something if it suits him and his agenda.
After watching the first couple of leadership debates, Labour has, in my view, failed to put forward any policies that would benefit Britain in the long run. Starmer has failed to show any authentic leadership and was unable to answer questions put to him.
One person who I believe has shown authentic leadership and vision is Nigel Farage and Reform UK.
They are forecast to win around three+ seats. I think this could be 10+ seats with the proper campaigning and strategy. Love or loathe him, you can not deny that he understands the nation’s current mood. We can not continue the way we are going.
Looking at the current candidate list in the Bedford constituency, I am calling on Conservative voters, traditional Labour voters and independent thinkers to lend their vote to Reform UK.
It is time we address the issues that are affecting our nation. Let’s address the immigration crisis, let’s fix our NHS and let’s put the ‘Great’ back into ‘Great Britain’.
J Whiten
Dennis Court, Kempston
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