What future for the young Conservatives in Harlow?
News / Tue 24th Apr 2018 am30 07:47am
IT seems to us that you can’t turn a corner in Harlow without a young Labour Party campaigner flying the flag but what of the young Conservatives?
YH went to the Arkwrights area in the ward of Netteswell to speak to the nineteen-year-old candidate, Jake Brackstone and ask him if there was a new breed of Conservative in Harlow?
JerryFromQueens
2018-04-24 09:43:08
Perhaps the Harlow Young Labour group are more motivated to help others in their community, and have the support of the local party in doing so. They're more inventive, and in a word, more fun than the Tories who are pretty uptight at the best of times. Also it helps that there is a stronger, more passionate message behind it all. It's often said that Labour have taken to social media and the internet in a better more natural way than the Tories, who have always bet on their collaboration from the stone age print media to get their message across, and I think this is true. Time only goes one way and it ain't backwards.
Brett Hawksbee
2018-04-24 11:05:55
Jake believes in 'lower taxes', and this is one of the reasons he cannot support the Labour Party. The irony! The Tories never allow the truth to get in the way of a groundless assertion. He throws his young, inexperienced hat into the ring, supporting the party who have borrowed more and paid back less for at least the last 70 years. The low taxes which obsess the Tories are low corporate tax rates ... personal taxation under Labour's last manifesto plans, and doubtless future proposals, mean no increases for 95% of taxpayers. Let's look at Harlow, and our Labour Council. Even in the face of massive funding reductions, no council tax increase this year, due to skillful budgeting and fiscal management. The Tory controlled Essex County Council are the sole reason for an overall increase in the council tax rates set for Harlow. The same Tory County Council managing the atrophy of our police and emergency services; behind the woeful lack of investment in our falling apart road infrastructure. And Jake's big issue, whilst homeless people die on the streets of Church Langley, or sleep in church doorway opposite the closed Occasio House, is 'PARKING'. Boo hoo, we have 3/4 cars in our family ... someone sort out out 'first world problems'. It is an obscene priority, but given the prevailing ideology, Jake, sadly, will probably do very well in the Tory Party.
Brett Hawksbee
2018-04-24 11:12:22
Jake might also consider that the parking problem he seeks to champion is due to homes with two working parents, and car owning grown-up children,unable to move out due to lack of council house building and obscene private rents. Labour want to control rents, to build 500,000 council houses during their next term. He would do well to look not at the problem, but the reason it exists.
JerryFromQueens
2018-04-24 11:27:45
Brett is right. If Jake wants to really help his generation, I don't think he's in the correct party to effect change. The Conservative Party's voter base consists msotl of the older generation, and some, not all, suffer from "I'm all right, Jackism" where they've made their money and done all right out of the state and don't want to help anyone else, the irony being that their families are often the ones in need. But there is a dawning age of new voters coming who are not buying into that ideal, who are in fact the very people that they want to help. You can see this with the Harlow Young Labour group and their many campaigns and activities.
Jake Shepherd
2018-04-24 14:20:27
Unfortunately, there are no two ways about it, Jake's argument about taxation is flawed. Having written to Essex's PFCC about the rise in the policing precept and to Harlow's County Councillors about exempting care leavers from council tax until they're 25, Labour is absolutely committed to proportionate and fair taxation policies. It is abundantly clear that Conservative-run administrations, either at Essex CC or the office of the PFCC do not have the moral authority to talk about low taxation when they have increased taxes for Harlow residents for a number of consecutive years. Whereas Harlow Council has maintained a freeze on its element of council tax, let our record in office speak for itself. That said, it is a positive that Jake and young people who are inclined towards the Conservatives are getting involved in local politics. The left does not have a moral monopoly on youth engagement, although I believe it is the only genuine avenue of hope and aspiration for young people who want to see a fairer and more equal society. I hope Jake might be persuaded to support the Labour Party, although at the same time I don't think anyone who knows me would expect me to ever be persuaded to support the Conservatives, so in that sense, I respect his enthusiasm and commitment to his party. Jake Shepherd Labour Candidate in Church Langley
MickyB77
2018-04-24 14:51:06
Oh Dear. This young man appears to have set off an avalanche of why he shouldn't stand for the Tories. JS telling him to go RED. jfq on about the new Aquarius,and as for BH, he appears close to apoplexy. One thing in common.................. I note, that Jake S still hasn't answered any questions that I've asked of him previously. jfq is operating with his crystal ball as usual, and still getting it wrong. BH, well what can one say, fanaticism and bullishness. If that's not an aggressive crew, what is ? And they're all REDS. VOTE LABOUR at your PERIL.
boberthalfoff
2018-04-24 15:41:39
I hope that Jake B can afford his privitised healthcare once he’s realised he’s shot himself in the foot. Young Tories.. Almost an oxymoron. If he’s really interested in helping his community he can always come along to a Harlow Young Labour event :)
JerryFromQueens
2018-04-24 17:12:58
I think we broke Micky's brain.
mehardware
2018-04-24 21:52:26
I think it is Brett who is making the groundless assertions here. The Conservatives believe in lower taxation, and it is a policy they are implementing. It is well known that Labour believes the answer to just about every problem is to throw money at it. And yes, often that can be a solution, but it is only a short term one. The last Labour government spent all the money, as Liam Byrne's letter said, not only that but they had amassed such a huge deficit they were having to borrow billions to service it. This has meant successive governments have had to deal with the deficit by borrowing more, and we will all have to service that debt for 25 years! Our grandchildren will be paying for Labour's legacy!
AndrewJ
2018-04-25 09:13:09
What a shame - a young person on the right stocks their head above the parapet and look at the response he gets. Multiple comments from the same person having a go at him. Yes debate is healthy but please take a look in the mirror and remember that this guy is just 19 and wants to help his community. Keep up the good work Jake and for those putting him down - instead of being a keyboard warrior why not have the guts to put your name on a ballot paper? Cllr Andrew Johnson Leader Harlow Conservatives
JerryFromQueens
2018-04-25 20:58:13
I'm not sure that being in the Conservative Party is helping anyone's community apart from the 1%. They've always been the party of the rich and to hell with everyone else. I'm sorry but I'm not going to forget the over 100,000 deaths linked to the grinding austerity of this discredited Tory government. I'm not going to forget the rise in food bank use, homelessness and hate crime. I'm not going to forget the cutting of police numbers which is causing the recent spate of young lives being cut short. I'm not going to forget children being taught in substandard classrooms and parents not being able to feed their kids. And I'm not going to forget that this is all the responsibility of a Conservative Party government whose blast furnace of cuts have left this country a darker, more hateful place to live in with their cuts to the poor to pay the rich.
JerryFromQueens
2018-04-25 21:14:59
Labour offer a real alternative to the grey dystopian misery of cut after cut to our health service, where people die on trollies in corridors, to our fire brigade, running into burning buildings to save lives, and police, clearing up things that nobody wants to really think about and working hard to get justice day in day out. Remember when S(ain't) Theresa said there was "no magic money tree" to the distraught nurse on Question Time last year? That's where Tory heads are at, in their own words, by their own leader. If you care about public services, if you don't want kids stuffing their pockets with food at school because there is little at home, and if you want a fairer, safer community where all are benefitting, not just a narrow few at the top, I think you know where to put your X on polling day.
MickyB77
2018-04-26 10:52:39
Remember when the REDS told us that they'd, "spent all the money". It's all gone. That's what's in store, yet again, if you let the REDS in. They spend other peoples money like it's going out of fashion. Labour, WALES, is broke, totally skint. Would you guess who spent all the money ? Don't trust the lefties. VOTE LABOUR of MOMENTUM at your PERIL.
JerryFromQueens
2018-04-26 11:21:55
Micky, I've told you before, I'm not going out with you! Move on!
MickyB77
2018-04-26 14:09:15
Keep putting out tainted rubbish and I'll make comment. Truth is what matters not your self admitted, "vanity". Vote LABOUR at your PERIL.
ChrisVince
2018-04-29 19:08:53
I am going to break ranks here and congratulate Jake for his keen interest in politics. I have seen him out and about in Harlow today leafleting and although I disagree with pretty much all of the content in the Harlow Conservative Party leaflet he’s delivering, as a teacher I cannot help but be pleased a young person is getting involved in politics. Despite comments to the contrary I have never told my students how to vote but have always encouraged them to vote and to take an interest in politics. I hope that the next generation of politicians on both sides of the divide can avoid the bickering, that I myself am occasionally guilty of, and have decent political debate about the future of our country, after all its their future. Chris Vince (Cllr - Little Parndon & Hare Street)
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