Candidate Interview: Elwyn Watkins (Liberal Democrat)
Elwyn Watkins, pictured in Uppermill recently.
Elwyn Watkins has promised to “stand up for what’s right” and fight Saddleworth’s corner in parliament, if he wins the by-election. The Liberal Democrat candidate also used an interview with Saddleworth News to call on Labour to take action against some of the figures involved in the Phil Woolas campaign scandal.
Mr Watkins stressed his own background in manufacturing would be an asset if he became an MP: “Lots of people have talked about creating jobs, but if you’ve actually never done it yourself in your own professional life, how can you be an expert and know how to do it?”
Promising to work hard for this area, he said: “I think I’ve established a reputation as somebody that you don’t mess about with.”
He added he wouldn’t be joining any “cosy club” at Westminster, saying: “If I have to stand up for what’s right down there and have a few arguments, I will do.”
The by-election is being held after Mr Woolas was stripped of his general election victory by the courts for telling lies about Mr Watkins in campaign leaflets.
Mr Watkins today re-iterated his call for an apology from Labour, adding: “No action’s been taken against Phil Woolas, he’s only been suspended. No action’s been taken against (Woolas campaign helpers) John Battye and Joe Fitzpatrick, and these are people that said we deliberately have to stir up hatred in one section of the community with false allegations against another section of the community, and this is just simply wrong.”
Elwyn Watkins (centre) with his party's Deputy Leader and Leader, Simon Hughes (left) and Nick Clegg, during a recent campaign visit to Lees. (picture: Stuart Coleman Photography)
One of the early decisions taken by the new coalition government at Westminster was to scale back the Building Schools for the Future programme, which meant the hoped-for new Saddleworth School at Diggle was shelved. Mr Watkins said Labour had gone on a “trolley dash” in its last months in office, making spending pledges without having the money to pay for them.
He added: “We all know that Saddleworth is one of the best-performing schools across the borough, in fact it’s one of the best performing schools across the country. We’ve met the minister, we’re looking at ways to try to help them. This is something which we’re going to look sympathetically at, but I’m certainly not going to make false promises.”
Also on education, Mr Watkins said he would have voted for the rise in tuition fees had he been an MP at the time of vote earlier this month. He explained: “I’m not an abstainer. I think that’s a cop out. I’m either going to be going yes or no. For the sake of the government and the sake of the coalition I would have voted in favour.”
He added: “That’s not because I agree with it, my position’s not changed since last April. I still think that students get a raw deal, and if I’m an MP I’m still going to fight for that. But if you’re in a coalition government there’s no point in having anarchy, you have to have a certain agreed programme.” He went on to criticise Labour for “carping from the sidelines” on the issue, and not offering a credible alternative policy.
Elwyn Watkins speaks to the media after November's verdict in the Phil Woolas case.
On the issue of the new Tesco at Greenfield, Mr Watkins said he supported the new government’s policy of having planning decisions taken more locally: “If we were able to go back, we’d have had that decided by Saddleworth councillors based on what local Saddleworth people think… but it’s here now, and it’s providing jobs, and it’s not going to change, and it’s something we have to live with.”
He continued: “What’s more important is for us to try to make sure we don’t lose our high street shops. I personally have made a commitment that I will do my shopping in Saddleworth shops at least once a week. We have some excellent butchers and greengrocers and all the rest, and if people don’t use it, they’ll lose it.”
A son of Rochdale who now lives in Delph, Mr Watkins described it as his “fantasy village,” adding: “I like it because there’s a decent mix of people, everyone’s friendly, and I think I’ve become part of the community there. It really is where people clear their neighbour’s snow from the pavements, people do their neighbour’s shopping… I’m very happy there and I shall continue to live there.”
I interviewed Mr Watkins at the Lib Dem campaign office in Greenfield this morning. We also talked about the austerity measures being taken by the Westminster government, as well as Oldham Council’s approach to the cuts that it is currently making, and the issue of investment in our railways.
You can listen to our conversation in full here.
Polling day is 13 January. Plenty of well-known political figures have already been campaigning in our area. An interview with the Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is here, one with Labour leader Ed Miliband is here, and you can hear from Conservative Chairman Baroness Warsi here.
There are ten candidates in all. An interview with Pirate Party UK candidate Loz Kaye is here, you can hear from Stephen Morris of the English Democrats here, and UKIP candidate Paul Nuttall’s interview is here.
Saddleworth News will be interviewing the other candidates soon. They are, in alphabetical order, Debbie Abrahams of Labour, the BNP’s Derek Adams, Kashif Ali of the Conservatives, Green candidate Peter Allen, David Bishop of the Bus Pass Elvis Party and Nick “The Flying Brick” Delves from the Monster Raving Loony Party.
To read full coverage of the by-election so far from Saddleworth News, click here.
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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Just to point out that Mr Watkins also “Promised” (in writing) to come back to me about the parking issue in Uppermill, although the TRO panel already met and made a decision – and he simply failed to come back to me – despite numerous reminders.
Even Liberal Democratic Parish Councillors quoted him as looking into the issue.
Whether he was for or against the restrictions, he clearly broke his promise to look into the matter and come back to us
– when he knew affected over 750 members of the local community, if not more.
Promises are one thing Mr Watkins, but your actions (or lack thereof) speak so much louder than any of your words.
Going by the posters on Oldham Road, one would think it was a straight fight between Lib Dems and UKIP. Makes driving without shades a bit painful, all that bright orange, yellow and purple…
Mr Watts did you really expect a reply from Mr Watkins, he is too busy sending thousands of flyers out.
Mr Wood,
Whilst there’s no denying Mr Watkin’s party has been doing their bit for the rainforests, working hard sending out thousands of flyers,
Yes I think it’s quite reasonable to expect a reply when he had already written to me and promised to get back in touch about the matter.
I’m *hugely* surprised that a Liberal Democrat has made a promise – and then not kept it!!
Surely doing what he said he would, should come under the category of “promising to actually work hard for this area” rather than working hard to fill up our letterboxes with paraphernalia with more promises.
I’m afraid Elwyn is building up a reputation as someone who doesn’t bother to answer letters or Emails – or do much else apart from from producing huge amounts of expensive leaflets telling us how great he is.
We’ve seen little evidence in Delph – or anywhere else in Saddleworth – of Elwyn actually doing anything and he comes with a pretty poor record as a Rochdale local councillor.
Bit of a windbag is old Watkins I fear.
Mr Watts they have left half the comment out so it is a bit misleading, what I was saying that he is to busy with flyers, and not replying to peoples questions and letters. But it seems a waste of time writing to him as he will not be the MP.
So Elwyn would have voted in favour of the rise in tuition fees even though he doesn’t agree with it. How many other policies will he be voting for which are different from what he said in his election manifesto? And all for the sake of the coalition? At what point do the Lib Dems start to show some integrity and stop sacrificing all for the sake of the coalition?
I will be voting for a party which sticks to its policies and is focussed on the future for our children – the Greens. For the first time we have a Green candidate in this ward and there is a Green MP – Caroline Lucas. I will be talking to the candidate Peter Allan in Uppermill this Sunday at 11 am at the Farmers Market.
Having spoken to Peter – but only by phone – I agree with Julia – the Greens have a strong message and deserve to be heard.
That’s one reason why I don’t like the rush by the Lib Dems to hold the election on January 13th – it gives no time to the Greens (and others )to really get their message across to the voters and give us the opportunity for an informed decision.
I hope people will drop in to the Farmers Market on Sunday – I will certainly try to. Peter will also be at on the panel at the Delph Village Candidates Question Time on Sunday afternoon.
The Greens should bring up their MP Caroline Lucas up to Saddleworth -now there’s a seriously impressive politician who should dispel the myth that the Greens are just ‘tree huggers’
I personally think Green politics is old news!
The current bigger parties are already too green for me. The money being wasted on wind turbines which contribute nothing seems to be a sad mix of stupidity and vandalism. I believe over the winter period these stupid windmills were not contributing to the grid at all as they were a) not rotating and b) being heated to stop them freezing!
However £ billions more seems destined to be injected into construction as more and more and bigger and bigger wind turbines spring up.
The comments coming from all the local candidates are the usual boring drivel passed onto them from central HQ. Not a backbone between them!
If only we had someone with the bottle and character of Geoffrey Dickens on the ballot paper!
There is nothing I have seen from this man that makes me think he will ever go out of his way to stand up for the people of Saddleworth and Oldham East.
He’s going to be in for a huge shock come election time. I have no doubt that this will be a 2 horse race between Labour and the Tories.
Can Abrahams win? Will I suppose that depends on whether she’s worked out how to read an AtoZ.
Follow Liberals if you like Uturns