I AM the UKIP candidate for North Swindon and have fought previous General Elections for UKIP in both 2005 and 2010.

I am a retired civil servant and have lived in Swindon for over fifty years.

I first became involved in politics while studying economics at Swindon College and have maintained a keen interest in the subject ever since.

I believe that as a country we will only prosper if our children and young families are helped to make a good start in life.

The young generation are the flower of the nation. House prices have gone crazy in Swindon and the young generation cannot afford to rent or buy.

The crisis started when Margaret Thatcher began selling off millions of council houses in the 1980’s. While this was a great vote winner at the time we now find it has created a housing crisis.

The Conservative Party must take full responsibility for the terrible housing disaster that they have created.

UKIP say start building new council houses, and stop selling off the small existing stock of council houses that we have left.

A salubrious environment is a basic requirement. Every British family deserves a decent home to live in and raise their children.

Many people in Britain are wondering why after seven years of Conservative government we are still in a state of permanent austerity.

The Conservative government has to borrow one billion pounds every week.

The Tories’ disastrous anti industry philosophy means we have the worst trade deficit in the developed world.

Margaret Thatcher in the 1980’s led the attack on British industry by first shutting down the coal mines and then seeing a rapid decline in every aspect of the manufacturing sector. Britain has never recovered.

Then there were also the disastrous privatisations of MG Rover, railways, gas, water, electricity and the Royal Mail.

MG Rover shut down completely. All the other privatisations have seen outrageous price rises and a much worse service to the consumer.

These policies mean that we are now in and era of permanent austerity.

Net immigration has been four million people since 2004 and this had put a strain on all the public services.

GDP per person is only slightly above what it was ten years ago.

Our trade deficit with the EU is over a billion pounds a week. Membership of the EU means all government aid to industry is illegal. The EU is bad for trade.

The totality of our economic problems can best be seen in our national debt. Britain’s national debt is rapidly approaching a breathtaking two trillion pounds.

UKIP is the only party that supports the British manufacturing industry as the way out of this economic quagmire.

  • Also standing in North Swindon are Justin Tomlinson (Conservative), Mark Dempsey (Labour), Andy Bentley (Green) and Liz Webster (Lib Dem).