Teeming Tesco at Milton - very different from Kirtling

My day's canvassing and visiting started at Tesco at Milton and my immediate thought was how different it all was from Kirtling yesterday. Many complain of the power of Tesco and the other supermarket giants but the company must be doing something right, for the store was teeming with people and I met one of Sue's relatives and some other friends, both in the store (where I got my newspapers, so I was in there legitimately) and in the car park (pictured above).

I am receiving lots of messages of help and support and, much encouraged with support, the campaign then went delivering leaflets and talking to people in the village. My message of independence from party politics is going down well. People are evidently very fed up with MPs who make big expenses claims and have second homes and just toe the party line.

Among other issues raised with me were: Afghanistan - most folk are worried to death about what is going on 'over there' and many, like me, want our boys brought home, and not in coffins; pensions - the link with earnings was broken some years ago, but the Government is intent on restoring it 'by 2012 or by the end of the next parliament at the latest.'; pike fishing - I met a buddy of my pike-fishing friend, Denis 'Digger' Moules, and we gossiped; and the present state of the roads - potholes are now a big worry and Cambridgeshire County Council has major work to do in the coming weeks. My grandson and his car had an argument with a pothole recently: needless to say, the pothole won.

Oh, yes, and immigration - I have said many times (and I said it again and again today) that, whilst I want our local economy to thrive and that I will do all that I can to promote our County's interests, I also want a slowing down of inward migration to Cambridgeshire and a slowing down of immigration nationally. I am not a supporter of multi-culturalism and I have severe reservations about Great Britain becoming more multi-racial.

Immigration and race relations are rarely mentioned by the major parties, but they rightly worry many of our own British people here in South East Cambridgeshire. They worry me, too, and I am not happy with all of the changes that have occurred in our country over the past several decades. None of us voted to make those changes.