A tale of two Gary Walkers

One Gary Walker is standing in Lincoln as a independent, after being sacked from his NHS job. Now I find another Gary Walker who lives in Lincoln Nebraska decided in 2005 to make a stand about people smoking in his diner. Maybe there's another Gary Walker somewhere in yet another Lincoln who is making a stand?

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David Cameron in a pickle with the voters

Telephoning voters will be a "thing" many of us will get used to over the next few weeks. These two are real pros. David Cameron has a top-notch telephone manner and Eric Pickles gets straight to the point. I'd love to be a fly on the wall here. "You do the colonel chappie David and I'll do the butcher bloke!"

Just imagine you're settling down to an evening's brainless box-watching and the phone rings. You hear Eric Pickles and his dulcet Yorkshire tones tempting you to vote Conservative. Are you in a mood to hear the message? I don't know, but apparently many people are, as otherwise Pickles and Dave wouldn't be doing it. But I'm not one for this American style coaxing. I prefer to watch the TV and see Eric sound off to the ones who need to give the answers. Or better still, see the action in person.

Basically they just want to hear the word "YES". I tend to waffle on a bit, so I think I'm down as a Miss, if you know what I mean.

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Gordon Brown's take on Employment Tax take!

Gordon Brown, looking tired and troubled, has begun a fightback on the National Insurance contributions issue. Figures are being bandied about but the real heart of the matter is that this is a tax on jobs for the sole purpose of raising money for the health service and pensions. Or at least it was. Nye Bevan came up with the scammy idea of calling an employment tax "National Insurance". This is no more insurance than a protection racket is security. Ever since the notion of pretending the money raised went into a health fund was first mooted, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has enjoyed a king in a counting house approach to public revenues.

Let's get real. This is an Employment Tax and NOT a so-called "National Insurance".

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William Ross - TUV - East Londonderry

William Ross, formerly an Ulster Unionist MP, is standing for the Traditional Ulster Voice in East Londonderry. Currently chairman of the TUV, he is coming back into frontline politics, or hoping to, as the heart and soul of unionism gets a tugging and a tussling as the various unionist parties vie for pole position. Most unionists these days appear to have had previous unionist incarnations, and Willie Ross is no exception!

Ross says, “Many people will ask the question why I have put my name forward again for front line politics. Quite simply, like many thousands of decent Ulster men and women I have been outraged by the general behaviour of many Members of Parliament, including some from Northern Ireland. They have fallen short of the high ideals they professed and which people expected of them." So the political sleaze of recent years will be, partly at least, an election issue in this part of Northern Ireland.

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