What I stand for
In December, I was elected as the Liberal Democrat's candidate for the Witney parliamentary constituency. I’m standing to be your next MP because I believe that our country is headed down the wrong path and I want to do all I can to help correct that.
I have two goals: an economy that can deliver strong, clean growth and a society that is less unequal.
If the Conservatives remain in power our economy will continue to stagnate. This is because the government has enacted policies that have weakened our labour force and made it harder to trade. Our economy matters because it funds our public services such as our schools, NHS, police, firefighters and law courts. These are in disarray and that is creating huge social pain, both for the users and providers of these services. We are now trapped in this vicious cycle and every day each of us see the impacts of bad government decisions.
I believe that we must move much faster to address our environmental problems – accelerating our transition to clean energy, fixing our sewage problems and providing fast, clean mass transport. The government's weakness and flip-flopping makes a bad situation worse. The governments sees this as another opportunity to divide us. Instead we should be concentrating on solutions which help people make the transition through generous financing packages, grants and scrappage schemes. Similarly, Thames Water's shareholders and creditors should fund the work that should have been done over the last three decades, rather than making customers pay.
I believe that wealth is too concentrated into the hands of too few and that the burden of the Cost of Living crisis should be more fairly shared.
I believe that actions speak louder than words. It’s why I stood to be a district councillor last May. It’s why I’m leading the project to rebuild the rail line linking Oxford, Eynsham, Witney and Carterton. It’s why I’ve just launched UpperThamesHydro.com. It’s why I’m working so hard with other councillors to go after Thames Water for dumping sewage in our rivers. It’s why I was first a volunteer and now a trustee for Citizens Advice and why our family hosted Syrian and Ukrainian refugees in our home.
In the Witney constituency, the Liberal Democrats are the challengers to the Conservatives. Our vote was more than double Labour’s in the last general election and since then we have won control of both the county and district councils, leading an alliance with both Labour and the Greens to enact community centred policies.
We have the power to free ourselves from Tory mismanagement at the next general election. That decision lies with each of us and we will need to work together to succeed. If you believe in what I believe, please get in touch (charlieammaynard@gmail.com) and let’s deliver practical solutions to West Oxfordshire.
