Martin Tod's Comments

Martin Tod : About Martin

Wed, 5 May 2010 14:26:55 +0000

I realise there's a longer list for Winchester than Chandler's Ford - although some of the campaigns - such as the campaign for more ambulances - benefit Chandler's Ford as well. I'm just as committed to making sure people in Chandler's Ford have a strong representative as well the people in Winchester. I intend to hold at least one surgery a month in Chandler's Ford and to turn up to as many events as I can. In terms of previous activity, aside from reporting endless potholes, I actively campaigned to save the bus services through to Hiltingbury and Chandler's Ford back in 2008, and campaigned hard to save the Post Office in Bournemouth Road (although not successfully unfortunately) and to try and stop the phone mast in Leigh Road (also not successful). In addition to my campaigning activity, I've also helped out with Hocombe Mead as a conservation volunteer and with the launch of Transition Chandler's Ford. I realise that this is not as much as I've got up to in Winchester, but I hope to redress this in the coming period of time.

Martin Tod : About Martin

Wed, 5 May 2010 09:41:22 +0000

I strongly oppose the current plans. In terms of the specifics, there are all kinds of traffic problems associated with the plan, and the response of the Highways Agency to the proposal suggests these may be insurmountable. On a wider scale, I oppose the top-down planning targets that are driving the current decision to build on Barton Farm - and our manifesto would see them scrapped. I also don't support building on green fields while there is underused brownfield - and especially - car-parking space - in the city itself.

Martin Tod : About Martin

Wed, 5 May 2010 09:28:47 +0000

Clive, Several people have written to me about Conscience Manifesto and much of what is written in the wider manifesto I have no problem with or find admirable. For example, I share the concern about assisted suicide and euthanasia. However, candidates are not being asked to sign up to the wider manifesto - we're asked to sign up to a shorter and broader statement that I have more of a problem with. I do of course, I support the right of Christians to hold and express Christian beliefs - and - within legal limits - to act according to Christian conscience. The question that comes (as it always does) is where those rights conflict with the rights of others - or with the law - and how those conflicting rights are reconciled. At this point, I don't support elevating religious rights above all other rights. Specifically, allowing people to 'act according to Christian conscience' without recognising that this may sometimes conflict with other rights is too much of a blank cheque. Am I allowed to add 'within the law' to that? Or are there laws (or human rights) that it is intended to exclude? Does this include racial discrimination? Or gender discrimination? Or discrimination based on sexuality? Or restrictions on the use of violence for example? For example, there were those within the Christian Church who supported slavery - although of course, it was also Christians who led the campaign for the abolition of the slave trade. Would I have been required to protect the slave-owners right to act according to their conscience? There are those (not Christian). who believe - for religious reasons - in the death sentence for blasphemy - and we've seen examples of where that belief has posed a severe threat to another competing right (free expression) within the UK. In short, I certainly do not want to exclude religion from public life. Freedom to practice religion is an essential human right. But I believe religious rights should not be elevated above all our other rights. We need to continue to balance those rights and this makes it hard for me to sign up without adding some extra conditions or clarification to the manifesto.

Martin Tod : About Martin

Wed, 5 May 2010 09:17:08 +0000

Andy. Really nice to hear from you again - and thank you very much for your good wishes.

Martin Tod : About Martin

Wed, 5 May 2010 09:16:24 +0000

Hi Kevin. I've emailed you a copy of our manifesto. It's also available online for free athttp://www.libdems.org.uk/our_manifesto.aspx.

Martin Tod : About Martin

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 08:27:00 +0000

Hi Phil. Many thanks for this. I greatly appreciated working with you too - and it's very nice to hear from you again. Martin

Martin Tod : About Martin

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 08:24:31 +0000

Hi Felicity, I will be more than happy to do what I can to help. Best wishes, Martin

Martin Tod : About Martin

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 08:23:50 +0000

I'm pretty certain the costs of the Sinn Fein MPs will be more than covered by the taxpayers of the constituencies they represent. If they choose to elect MPs who don't sit in Parliament, that is a matter for them. I would not want to refuse the people of those constituencies the right to vote for the candidates they wish.

Martin Tod : About Martin

Mon, 5 Apr 2010 00:38:07 +0000

Hi Naomi. Thank you for your support. I'm only running to be a Member of Parliament though. (It's like being the House of Representatives). We don't have a President in England. We have a Queen instead!

Martin Tod : About Martin

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:18:09 +0000

I don't have that information so can't really comment. I'm sure if there were any obvious non-doms on the published lists of donations, the other parties would have pointed it out by now. Feel free to take a look yourself. The Electoral Commission has ruled on the Michael Brown case as follows:

Having considered all the evidence in this case, we have concluded that 5th Avenue Partners Limited met the requirements to be a permissible donor. The Electoral Commission will be taking no further action in this case.

Martin Tod : Martin Tod puts fairness at the heart of the Liberal Democrat campaign

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 20:52:56 +0000

No ghost writer: the blog will remain in the first person. I - together with some of the volunteers in my team - have added some press releases (which, although often written by me, are not always in the first person), and am working on my Wordpress template to display them separately. So you should soon be seeing a first person blog once again...

Martin Tod : About Martin

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 07:28:42 +0000

There was no reference to scrapping EMA in our last manifesto. We have however expressed repeated opposition to the £100 million spent on EMA bonuses and would redirect that money to close the funding gap between 6th forms and colleges. Our latest policy statement says:

The Education Maintenance Allowance is having some impact on the staying on rates in the lowest income households, but we are not convinced of the effectiveness of the EMA bonuses for attendance and work completion and we would abolish such bonuses. We would re-direct the saving of £100m per year into the colleges sector to deliver fair funding.

Martin Tod : About Martin

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:34:37 +0000

The Liberal Democrats are not signed up to the introduction of a European Public Prosecution until quite a few issues are sorted out - as witness this set of comments by Andrew Duff MEP, Leader of our group in the European Parliament. This article by Hugo Brady for the Centre of European Reform makes a good case that we should proceed very cautiously before any such role was introduced. I share this view. I will take a lot of persuading that we need a European Public Prosecutor, with the dramatic legal and constitutional implications that follow, even if the role is restricted only to tackling EU budget fraud - as has currently been suggested.

Martin Tod : About Martin

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:18:03 +0000

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Great news that so much money was raised as well.

Martin Tod : About Martin

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 11:59:43 +0000

Yes. I've been opposed to MPs employing family members since well before the Kelly report was published and even wrote a blog post about this in February 2008.

Martin Tod : Gas prices: BBC Radio 4's FileOn4 reports

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 11:06:27 +0000

Good point - thank you. The podcast appears to be gone now, so I've replaced it with a link to the transcript.