Nick Clegg Joins Saddleworth Campaign

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg speaks to Saddleworth News editor Richard Jones and his daughter at the Saddleworth Hotel today.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has urged Saddleworth people to back the Liberal Democrats in the forthcoming by-election, and described his party’s candidate Elwyn Watkins as a “strong and authentic” spokesman for our area. He also used an interview with Saddleworth News to defend the coalition’s record in government so far, including the decision to scrap the planned new Saddleworth School building.

The by-election is being held after Labour’s Phil Woolas was stripped of his victory in May’s general election for telling lies about Mr Watkins in campaign leaflets. Mr Clegg described the leaflets as an “absolute scandal.”

He added: “I’m full of admiration for the way Elwyn Watkins, totally off his own bat, in a very determined and plain spoken way, took action to make sure Phil Woolas was held to account in court. He was shown to be a liar, and we haven’t had any apology from the Labour Party to the people of Oldham East and Saddleworth, so I think it’s right they’ve got the chance to choose someone who really will stand up for them.”

Saddleworth School's current location in Uppermill.

One of the first decisions taken by the new government was to dramatically scale back the Building Schools for the Future programme, which meant the end for the planned new Saddleworth School at Diggle. That led to great disappointment among pupils, teachers and parents alike.

But Mr Clegg defended the position today, and said the scheme had “badly spent” money in the past. He added that too much money had been going on bricks and mortar, and not enough on what takes place “inside the classroom.”

He commented: “When we restore sense to the public finances then we can start doing good things again in the future. But I don’t think anyone should think we’re doing this out of any relish. We’re doing it because we have to. If you don’t have a good sound economy, you don’t generate the money in the first place which you can spend on our schools and our hospitals, teachers and nurses. That’s what we’re trying to sort out.”

The issue of the newly-opened Tesco at Greenfield has divided opinion throughout Saddleworth in recent times, with some folk pleased at the convenience and jobs it provides, and others worried about the future of our village centres.

Mr Clegg said: “There is a fair question that we need to ask about how we keep our high streets diverse, and make sure that we support small shops as well as big ones… We’re looking at that actively now, and we’ll make some announcements over the coming months about how we can make sure that our high streets are not homogenised, and they don’t look all the same. So that local shops, local retailers and local shopkeepers have a fair chance too.”

Earlier this year, Network Rail revealed a list of potential transport developments worth £530m, including the re-opening of the disused Standege tunnels and a possible new station at Diggle. Those are currently being consulted on, but without commenting on specifics, Mr Clegg re-stated the government’s commitment to transport infrastruture in our area.

A train heading away from Diggle, where it's hoped a new station might one day be built.

He pointed to recent announcements about improved links between major northern cities, and added: “We’ve actually gone ahead with a whole raft of new transport projects, because I strongly believe that even in these straitened circumstances we have to continue to invest in not only the transport but also the energy infrastructure of the future. It creates jobs, but also creates the kind of balanced, sustainable economy we need in the future.”

Mr Clegg continued: “For instance, in the coming months we’ll be making an announcement which is very, very new about the creation of a new green investment bank. It’ll use some money from the public purse to make sure that we then get a lot of other money in to invest in renewable energy, the kind of thing that we need if we’re going to be the decarbonised, green, sustainable economy of the future that I believe we must become.”

I interviewed Mr Clegg at the Saddleworth Hotel today, after he’d earlier made a campaign visit to Lees. You can listen to our conversation in full here.

You can read an interview from last week with Labour leader Ed Miliband here, and check Saddleworth News tomorrow for an interview with Conservative Chairman Baroness Warsi, who was also campaigning in our area today.

Polling day in the by-election is 13 January. An interview with English Democrats candidate Stephen Morris is here.

Nominations close tomorrow, so we won’t know the full list of candidates until after that. But aside from Mr Watkins and Mr Morris, the ones we know about so far are, in alphabetical order, Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, Kashif Ali for the Conservatives, Peter Allen of the Greens, Nick “The Flying Brick” Delves from the Monster Raving Loony Party, the Pirate Party UK’s Loz Kaye, and UKIP’s Paul Nuttall. The BNP are also likely to stand, although it’s not clear who their candidate will be. Saddleworth News intends to interview each candidate during the campaign.

For full coverage of the by-election so far from Saddleworth News, click here.

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

If you would like to share an interesting story, achievement, photo or something you just want to happily shout about please send it in an email to hello@saddleworthlife.com We'd ❤ to hear from you!!