On Saturday afternoon, I spent time on the square in Harmans Water. The local Conservative councillors took the opportunity to outline the impressive plans for the development of the square and nearby St Paul’s Church. Councillors Turrell, Pile and Kensall have fully supported the church’s plans for the area since the outset. They initially secured £18,000 of council funds to ‘get the ball rolling’ on plans to build a new church, a library, a community centre, additional housing and a police point. I was very impressed by the scale of the project and the undoubted benefits it will bring to the neighbourhood.

Today, I’ve been out campaigning in Harmans Water and Martins Heron. For lunch, we took sustenance at the Fish and Chip shop on the square near St Paul’s Church. A very good meal was had by us all. By chance, today was also my father’s sixty-fourth birthday and so we celebrated with a cake (kindly supplied by my outstanding agent, Mary Ballin). Not only was my father ‘chuffed to bits’ with his cake, my whole team went home very happy with the positive response we had received on the steps. People are clearly fed up with Mr Brown. Bring on May 6th!

Yesterday, I was invited by John McCormack, founder of “skip2bfit”, to join him at Sandy Lane Primary school in Bracknell. John’s great idea is that by introducing skipping events to schools, fitness levels amongst children can be raised and thereby improve their general health. As you can see in the photograph above, I did my best to join in with John and all of the children. It’s fair to say that the children’s performances with the ropes were easily much better than mine!

Last night, I was invited to attend a meeting held by the local branch of the Federation of Small Businesses. At a time when the local economy is struggling to survive through the recession, it was heartening to meet over 30 local businessmen and women who were still working hard to generate new business in Bracknell and the surrounding area. Being from a family of small business, I fully understand the present difficulties of maintaining cash flows and finding new customers. I spoke about the Conservative Party’s pledges to reduce corporation tax to 25% (and 20% for small business), remove NI contributions on the first 10 employees for new business start-ups and the goal to place 25% of government contracts with SMEs (small medium enterprises). It was a pleasure to meet everyone and I left The Bull Pub in Bracknell Town with a positive belief that, despite the present government’s economic ignorance, local business owners have the drive and wherewithal to survive this tough recession.