Enjoyed Michael Gove’s dissection of Gordon Brown’s government yesterday, very thoughtful - always felt Brown was a bit of a Wizard of Oz character pretending he was much better at his job than he is. You only need to look at the billions he has swiped from people’s pensions to know Gordon Brown can’t be trusted.

Had a meeting about the Lewes parking scheme with Matthew Lock, the county councillor in charge of transport policy, and Kevin Scott of Lewes Chambers of Commerce. I’ve had several discussions with both of them on the subject before so it’s good to keep the dialogue open.

The parking system in Lewes needs improvement and I think until we’ve got the Lewes scheme right it is best to put the plans for parking restrictions in Seaford on hold. The meeting also gave me another chance to press the county council to think again on the Newhaven Incinerator. Find out more about my campaign on parking.

After several weeks of heavy campaigning my daughters were rightly demanding some time from me. So I took them out to their favourite restaurant in Lewes - Ask Pizza, next to the Crown Court.

We also visited my brother-in-law and went up to the Paddock in Lewes where they got to go on the swings. His children and mine loved feeding Alfie the horse with apples. Amazing keeping a horse in the centre of Lewes.

Made up for the rugby at the weekend, which was very disappointing. At least we beat the French!

Also pleased the news that East Sussex County Council is going to look again at the planning permission for the Newhaven Incinerator, which I’ve opposed since it was first proposed when I was a district councillor.

As you can see, I’ve now got a blog to keep you up to date on what I’m doing in the area. I hope you like it and the new website.

Jason

Spent most of the day at the rally in support of the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, which is under threat from Labour’s NHS cuts. It was a good natured event but I felt the people on the march are angrier and more frustrated than ever. It’s not surprising given how Labour promised to improve the NHS, upped their taxes to do it and now wants to shut down local health services.

This is the sharp end of Labour’s failure to manage the NHS properly. They’ve wasted billions on broken IT systems, undermined dedicated doctors and nurses, and now want to put lives in danger by shutting local hospitals.

The NHS is a great organisation but Labour are running it into the ground. I wish Gordon Brown called that election, so we could have a chance to get into government and stop his assault on our health services.

As if we needed any more proof of how empty and visionless Gordon Brown’s government is, Chancellor Alistair Darling used his pre-budget speech today to steal a bunch of our policies.

That said their inheritance tax cut is much smaller than what my party has promised to do and the £600,000 threshold is something many couples have been able to get already, so yet again Labour are announcing policies that fall apart as soon as you look at the detail.

And things don’t get any better when you look at the comprehensive spending review, Labour’s spending plans for the next three years. Its almost entirely reheated promises and reannouncements. Labour’s clearly out of ideas, it’s time they called an election and allowed voters to put their broken government out of its misery.

Just back from the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool and what a conference! It’s great to be able to show the public a few finalised policies, it’s taken time but if you’re a party that is serious about becoming the next government it’s vital you take the time to really study and work out what action is needed. Our party has been working on that since David Cameron become our leader and the results – especially Iain Duncan Smith’s report on social justice – are first rate.

The conference also gave me a chance to meet David Cameron and other shadow cabinet ministers, which I used to highlight how Lewes still lacks full flood defences and how poor transport links are holding back Newhaven.