A: Yes I believe this needs urgent action.

I need to become more informed before signing anything but I promise to try and get all MPs to work to together and make a plan to get out of the mess we are now in.

There are so many things to sort out now but until we work together and put plans in for the long term, nothing will ever succeed.

I am not giving up five years of my life without giving it my best shot at making that change happen.

A: I am 100% in favour of going green and mitigating potential climate disaster.

Unfortunately we can’t just stop using fossil fuels. I am not an expert in the plans for Rosebank. There may be an argument in favour if we use that fuel income to fund our move to green energy? Logic says, if we can source cheaper fuel locally than from abroad, we should then use that margin to invest in replacement energy options?

I can’t sign the pledge without properly looking into the matter but I do commit to moving heaven and earth to get a sensible and holistic long term plan to tackle the total  environment problem.

A: I love the countryside, especially where we live. In lockdown we discovered footpaths we never knew existed.

Maybe we should encourage people to get together and clear the paths that have become neglected.

Might be an excellent council initiative when money is so short?

Is that a workable idea to get things moving quickly?

It would be great to get people taking ownership and working as a community together.

A:  I believe we still have an enormous number of teachers who are doing a wonderful job despite the limitations they are constantly being put under by those running our education system.

We need to give more freedom to teachers to teach and to do so without the fear of constant “woke” restrictions, remove the onerous burden of unproductive bureaucracy that they endure, support them and give them the respect they deserve and address the balance of influence so that they can stand up to parents when they feel they have to.

Maybe we do not need to be more modern; maybe go back to the past and allow teachers to be teachers.

Universities need to start teaching again and give their students a proper level of interactive face-to-face time, some real value for the money spent or we might as well do our degrees via AI.

A: Yes.

We are deeply involved with a charity in Sierra Leone run by an amazing lady, Melanie Evans and her family.

It is amazing how one can change lives when the support goes directly to where it is most needed.

A: I am sacrificing 5 years of my life, without pay, because it means so much to me. Things are in such a mess and have to change now.

I will make them listen!

I have grandchildren on the way and I want to leave them with something better!

A: I am not an expert on human rights and do not have the knowledge to comment with expertise on whether we should stay in or out.

About Rwanda, I am highly uncomfortable about it as a solution.

The first task is to stop the people profiting from illegal immigration and at the same protect the lives of people trying to immigrate through these dangerous channels.  

I am no expert but my instinct says more patrols closer to France would potentially deter people trying to cross. The challenge would be obtaining cooperation with France as a joint initiative that would be in both country’s interests. I am sure this is possible.

We must also be honest and take responsibility for the problem of why a number of these people have fled from their countries.

The clumsy attempts made by the Western world have made many of these countries, where we have interfered, far worse than they were before we got involved.

We need to be proactive in helping these people settle in peace somewhere somehow.

A: I am not an expert and not party to all the facts as yet.

This war has to stop immediately.

The Palestinian people need to support a government that advocates peace and the world needs to find a way that they can have a homeland of their own and live in that peace.

The actions of the Israel’s government have been brutal and need to be fully investigated. The same with the Palestinian leaders who supported the original attack on Israel.

The majority of Israelis and Palestinians are good people who don’t want war. They need to change their governments and find peace together, and the world needs to help achieve that outcome.

A: I fully support the principle of the NHS and UK citizen’s right to access health services offered by doctors, nurses, midwives, and dentists without having to pay directly. 

However, I cannot support what we have allowed it to become. We have lost control of it and it needs to be taken away from politics to get it properly resolved for the long-term.

Just throwing money at it is not the answer. Even in my business, I have come across huge amounts of wastage. We have had instances where a health authority has underspent by £1m and have rung around to find somewhere where they could quickly spend the money before year-end which was the following day. 

If they did not spend the £1m then they lost the budget from the next year. That is madness!

I have Doctor friends who say please NHS stop changing your plans every two minutes; please make them long-term and better thought out. 

We need an NHS that we all buy into. That means politicians from all parties cooperating and agreeing on a logical way forward for the NHS that we all support and for the long term!

A:  Hello, thanks for your question.

Yes, I totally agree. We have an absolute climate disaster which we need to face up to now! However, the problem we face is that people will not accept not flying, not driving and not having heat and lights in their homes. It cannot be a quick fix and it needs everyone from all parties and backgrounds to buy into a sustainable long term plan very quickly. It does mean that flying will be more expensive; more investment and support for innovation and invention in green energy; and fundamentally we need to find a way to encourage people to drive less. We need to make public transport cheaper than driving your own car as a simple starting point. Our goal must be an achievable ten year plan that migrates us from where we are to where we need to be, but will need everyone from all parties to stick to it long term. The plan needs to start right now! It will mean we will have to modify the way we live but if we all support it, it can be done.

 I am a genuine floating voter this time, resident in Blackboys. I am asking all Sussex Weald candidates for their position on the monarchy. For ease of comparison I’m asking two specific questions – 

– would you support the abolition of the monarchy in favour of an elected head of state?

– if you don’t consider this as a priority, would you, in office, raise, support or sponsor questions about royal funding and royal exemptions to freedom of information legislation, for instance – in the interests of an open debate?

A: I think the monarchy is more than a question about the head of state. I think it could be a valuable export for the UK that we might be foolish to lose. It helps keep us in the world’s eye. 

Most of the world knows of our monarchy. Even visiting heads of state consider it an honour to be hosted by our King or Queen. Hence should the discussion be more about the financial benefits rather than a republic over monarchy debate? 

Again, I am no expert and can only comment with commonsense at this stage, However, I would support that the financial case must stack up. 

The PR of our monarchy needs to have a positive return on investment and we should only invest in those “working” monarchs with public financial support.

A: This is something I care deeply about. 

I set up https://social-ability.co.uk which supports people living with dementia and learning difficulties.

Yes, we need a long-term plan for care that needs all MP collaboration if it has any chance of success. I’ll spend a lot of time “banging heads “ together.

Kind regards,

Shaun

– The best way to save lives and put smugglers out of business is for the next Government to urgently open safe routes for refugees. The success of the UK’s response to the Ukraine crisis shows that safe routes work, and can drastically reduce the need for dangerous journeys.

-Ahead of the election, will you show your support for safe routes for refugees by signing this pledge?

A: I cannot sign pledges until I have time to properly research into the topics raised.

That being said, migration needs to be removed from political points scoring.

To come up with a fair and proper solution we all need to cooperate as MPs and together, come up with a non-politically driven long-term plan to tackle the reasons for migration, to stop people smuggling and provide a fair and speedy legal route for people to apply to come to this country.

– How did you vote last time? I’m just trying to gain information as I am highly political and am seeking to vote for the candidate whose views most align with my own.

A: No, I am not aligned to any parties. I sat here last September and realised that I could no longer respect any political party and would probably not vote.

I then thought “no” I have to try and do something otherwise my soon to be born grandchildren will inherit a total mess. I am totally unpolitical.

I am standing for a new way of doing politics as we need collaboration to make long term plans for the good of everybody.

The old political system needs updating as it is making our society more and more polarised and divisive. I will work with any MP who is prepared to listen and collaborate.

We will all have our own views but usually everyone’s’ views are fundamentally aimed at making the whole UK work better. There will have to compromise. There will have to be some sacrifices but if we all buy into them there is nothing to stop this change actually happening.

There are now 461 independent candidates. The majority of these people are standing for similar principles as my own. Would you agree it is now the time to trust people over political parties?

– Being an Independent Wealden District Councillor, I would like to know what are your views on the situation on housing development within Wealden and the proposed Local Plan that has just completed public consultation.

A: Coincidentally I was asked a question a few years back and this was my maverick response below. It proposes that  councils could take more control on where, how and at what cost affordable housing is made available.

Good question

Found this response in the week.com which seems a good summary.

Pros

• Better reflects all votes cast
• An end to wasted protest votes
• May be more representative of the local vote

Con

• Allows extremists into government
• Weakens MPs commitment to local issues
• Possible weak coalitions

Overall, at the moment, I think proportional representation should be reviewed again as it seems the fairer way to represent the nation’s wishes; however, I am no yet fully aware of all the views for and against. Maybe it is also the time for positive long term planning coalitions.

Yes we might get a few extremists but at least they would be seen and voters could then decide if they are good MPs or not.

A:  I am involved in a business that is trying to export to Europe and the rest of the world and it is an absolute lottery figuring out what taxes are due by whom and by when.

It appears to be an absolute mess and even government officials seem unsure what is the correct process. This is a real barrier to export and our country desperately need to improve our balance of payments.

I pledge to work with whoever is governing this country to constructively find a solution that we can all buy into (whether Brexit or non-Brexit) to the improve/remove the stalling impasse we have at the moment.

A: We have to own the problem now and start treating it more like our household finances or how we run businesses.

How?

Bang people’s heads together in government and get all MPs them to sit down together and start coming up with long term plans for all of the UK’s “head in the sand” problems.

I do not doubt that balancing the books is not about cutting services but more about using our collective brains to make us more efficient and smart in how we work.

There are a large number of independents standing with a similar goal. Sadly the media will not engage with us as they have prejudged what we are trying to achieve and decided we don’t count.

I have a feeling that the polls are going to be caught out as people have had enough of unconstructive political parties and there may well be a large number of independents who will make it into parliament.

We promise to push things to be done differently. We have to start being constructive to sort out the mess and independents might be the catalyst we needs.

A: Yes it was a national emergency and whatever you decided to do was a gamble and could be judged badly in retrospect but I think we should have done better.

Firstly, a coalition should have been immediately formed so that a single and consistent message was issued to the nation.

I think the concept of keeping business going with support was good in principle but extremely poorly thought out. I think the support was open to abuse from the word go and there were so few checks put in place.

Penalties and post-COVID audit threats should have been advised to deter such abuse.

I think the wasted money on emergency supplies was unforgivable, especially as contracts seemed often go to those connected to government.

On the vaccine, I just don’t know. I was not particularly happy taking a vaccine but I felt I should do if it would help everyone else and cut short the pandemic.

A: If you look at these potholes, you will often see that next to a pothole somebody has dug a hole to access something under the road and then repaired the road surface.

These repairs do not last long enough and are breaking up at the edges to create potholes.

I would encourage the highways to change how they give permissions to those who want to dig up roads and make the diggers liable for set term or the projected life of the road surface for their repairs.

They would have to complete repairs more thoroughly and make good any repairs that are breaking up early before they become potholes.

This would mean we may reduce future pothole problems and better keep on top of repairs.

A:  How can we make rail travel viable cost-wise against driving our personal cars? Has the option ever been studied and costed? We need to reduce car driving emissions and it seems an obvious place to start.