Big three speak out on Election

On eve of the General Election, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Conservative leader Michael Howard and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy write exclusively in the Evening Press today in a bid to secure your vote.

We posed each political leader ten questions on issues such as MRSA, the NHS dental crisis, flooding, 24-hour drinking, alcohol-fuelled violence, rising house prices, council tax and university fees.

Tony Blair, Labour

1) In the wake of recent cases of the MRSA at Yorkshire hospitals, how would your party tackle the superbug problem?

This is a serious problem - and we are working hard, with NHS staff, to tackle it. We've insisted, for the first time, that hospitals and the NHS record all hospital infections so we know the scale of the problem. We have recruited 3,000 matrons and put them in charge of keeping wards clean and reducing infections. Every hospital trust now has an infection prevention and control team. We are meeting with the best scientists from across the world to see how we can step up infection control. We are looking at the cleaning contracts to ensure they put hygiene before profits which was not always the case when they were first granted under the last Tory Government. And, of course, we are investing record amounts of money in new hospitals and extra staff.

But there are no easy answers, I'm afraid, and no one should pretend there is. It's a problem not just here but around the world. The most virulent strains of MRSA were first found in our hospitals in the early nineties and took a hold very rapidly. The evidence now is that rise has stabilised and begun to fall but there is no room at all for complacency. We will put in the investment and effort to tackle it.

2) Access to NHS dentists has reached crisis point in York and North Yorkshire with our readers regularly told to travel out of the area for treatment. How would you create more places?

Hugh Bayley and John Grogan have both told me that this is a real problem in York - as it is in other parts of the country. It was certainly not helped by the Tories shutting two dental schools. The new contract for dentists will make working in the NHS more attractive. We are training more dentists and recruiting more. From October, training places will have increased by 25% and we will have recruited 1,000 extra dentists. We have already opened 51 new NHS dental access centres across the country including one at Monkgate Health Centre. Hugh, I know, has been working closely with the Primary Care Trust to provide more dental care for the city.

3) Violent crime is on the rise in York. What would you do to tackle alcohol-related violence in our city?

There is no doubt that excessive alcohol consumption does fuel violence and anti-social behaviour. So the new Licensing Act gives new powers to the police to shut down pubs and clubs which are at the centre of anti-social behaviour. We have given police, courts and councils new powers to tackle drunkenness and anti-social behaviour including fixed penalty fines and bans from city centres. And, of course, we have invested in record number of police - over 230 more for the North Yorkshire force since the last election. They are backed by nearly 50 community support officers and we want 20,000 more nationally. This all compares with the record of the Conservatives who cut the number of police officers in the local force last time they were in power.

4) Relaxation of the licensing laws has triggered fears about 24-hour drinking. York is a city with a pub for every day of the year, so what do you say to residents worried about the issue?

What the new licensing act does is to give control over licences and drinking hours directly to the local community. It is no longer magistrates who will decide this but the elected council who have to consult local people. That's got to be an improvement. I suspect the number of pubs across the country who ask for 24 hour drinking will be in the low single figures. And they will only get permission if their local council and community agrees. The Act was never about 24 hour drinking but about providing flexibility in the present licensing laws. It means that if you want, for example, to have a quick drink on the way home, from the cinema or buy some wine when you do your weekly supermarket shop on Sunday morning, you can.

5) Flooding is a major concern in York, a city taken to the brink of catastrophe in the November 2000 deluge. What is your party doing to help protect the city and what is planned for future years, when climate change is predicted to create even more problems?

This is something on which John Grogan and Hugh Bayley has been working very hard with the Government. Since the big flood, the Environment Agency have invested in further flood defences in York and Barlby and is working on how to hold back flood water further upstream to reduce the risk of future flooding.

The long-term answer for York and huge parts of our country and world, of course, is urgent action here and internationally to tackle climate change. It's why I have promised, if re-elected, that I will make this - with Africa - the top priority for Britain's Presidency of the G8.

6) House prices have stayed high in York and North Yorkshire for several years, pricing many residents and young people out of the market? How would you get them on the property ladder?

The best thing we can do for new and existing homeowners, of course, is to keep mortgage rates as low as possible. Mortgages are now half the level they were under the Tories, saving homeowners something like £300 a month. But I also recognise how difficult it is for people to get a foot on the property ladder. So we are working on tackling this through shared ownership schemes, homes for key workers and by releasing public land for low-cost housing. We have also greatly increased investment for social housing - something, of course, which the Tories have said they will slash just as they did last time there were in power.

7) University tuition and top-up fees are a massive worry for many families in our area. Are students being priced out of getting degrees because they fear being saddled with thousands of pounds of debts?

There is no evidence of this. In fact, the number of students starting university this year rose around seven per cent. And because we are abolishing up-front fees so nothing has to be paid until students graduate and get a job, because we re-introducing student grants for students from poorer backgrounds, and encouraging universities to offer more bursaries and other help, I don't believe students will be put off going into higher education.

And they are right. It's a very good investment. Graduates on average earn 50% more than non-graduates. Which is why, as we dramatically increase the investment from the tax-payer into universities to maintain standards at our world-class universities like York and expand student places, we thought it was right that graduates make a bigger contribution towards that extra funding as well - provided it is done in a fair way.

I know other parties will be saying they can do things differently but their economic policies simply don't add up. You can't possibly fund all the Lib-Dem promises by a 50% tax rate on a few wealthy people. And Tory plans to charge commercial rates of interest on student loans would mean not just new students but existing graduates paying far more in interest payments. One of things you learn in Government is that it is about difficult decisions and that there is a limit to how much money you have. And neither the Tories or Lib-Dems seem yet to understand this.

8) It goes up and causes outcry every year? How would you make the council tax system fairer?

The average council tax increases this year have actually been the lowest for a decade. And to help pensioners, we have brought in a £200 refund for households with someone 65 or over. But we recognise there is concern about council tax. So we have set up the Lyons Review which is studying the whose issue of local government funding. It will report in the summer.

9) Will you be going to Royal Ascot when it comes to York this summer? Any hot tips?

I am sure it will be a fantastic occasion. But I don't know yet what I'll be doing next Friday yet, let alone in June. The way Evening Press readers vote tomorrow will help decide whether Labour or the Conservatives form the next Government and whether this country goes forward or back.

10) Do you think York City will be promoted next season?

The club have been having a tough time on the pitch. But the fantastic efforts of the supporters means that if any club deserves success, York City do. If the side can tap into some of this energy, promotion would be a certainty.

Michael Howard, Conservative

1) In the wake of recent cases of the MRSA at Yorkshire hospitals, how would your party tackle the superbug problem?

Like 5000 other families each year, I know from my own family's sadness the lethal effect MRSA can have. We have to defeat it and we can. If we had not made an issue of MRSA, do you imagine you would have heard about it from this government? What they care about are targets to make Ministers look good. As Tony Blair admitted to millions on television, he hadn't a clue his targets were making it hard for thousands of patients to get to see their GP. Who does he think has been running the country for the last 8 years?

My approach is clear. I believe passionately in the NHS, free at the point of use. We will put £34 billion more into health and cut waste. Mr Blair has recruited managers and administrators almost three times as fast as doctors and nurses. We will let NHS professionals, not politicians, run our hospitals. Matron must take charge once again. Matrons will have power to close wards and operating theatres they know to be infected with the superbug. It is a scandal that this has been prevented because of orders to meet Labour's targets. We will pay for a swab for every patient who goes into hospital and publish hospital infection rates so patients know where they stand.

Extra money, freeing hospitals from bureaucratic control, and letting patients choose where and when they want to be treated - that's the way to make waiting lists become a thing of the past.

2) Access to NHS dentists has reached crisis point in York and North Yorkshire with our readers regularly told to travel out of the area for treatment. How would you create more places?

The decline in NHS dentistry under Mr Blair is, as you say, now reaching crisis point. In the short-term, we will change the way dentists are remunerated for treating patients. Rather than paying them per treatment, the NHS will pay them per patient, so there is more of an incentive for private dentists to return to the NHS.

In the long-term, we will increase the number of places in medical schools so that more dentists, doctors and nurses can be trained - by inviting bids from universities, medical schools and the Royal Colleges, which want to expand their numbers.

3) Violent crime is on the rise in York. What would you do to tackle alcohol-related violence in our city?

I am amazed at Tony Blair's complacency. He tells us crime is falling. What planet is he on? Latest figures confirm what hundreds of people have said to me up and down the country these last few weeks. Violence is on the increase - and we need action after 8 years of talk. We are determined to restore discipline, decent values and respect. Only decisive action, led by a government ready to be honest about the problem, can achieve that. We must root out the yob culture that makes the lives of so many people a misery, particularly the vulnerable and the elderly. Police won't be very encouraged to do that if when they want to stop a group of rowdy yobs they know they have to go back to the police station and fill in a crazy 40-question form for each one they stop. If I am Prime Minister, then on 9th May we will set out our plans to prevent police having to fill in Tony Blair's form every time they stop a yob in the street.

The single most effective step to reduce all crime is to recruit more police. We will recruit 3,625 more police officers in Yorkshire and Humber Constabularies. We will also make sure criminals are taken off the streets. When someone is convicted, if they are sentenced to three years, they will serve three years. I don't believe in half-time sentences for full-time crimes. So we will abolish Labour's Early Release Scheme that has let many criminals out before their sentences are up. Does Mr Blair know 500 violent crimes have been committed by criminals released under his Early Release Scheme? How dispiriting that is for the police who caught them in the first place.

We need a good framework to discourage bad behaviour. That must start in school by backing teachers who take a stand against drink and drugs and the shocking behaviour of a minority. It is disgraceful that under Labour teachers can find the thugs that disrupt other children's education sent straight back into the classrooms from which they have been excluded. We need to back those who try to do the right thing. If I am Prime Minister, then head teachers will this year be given full control over expulsions from school.

We will introduce directly elected police commissioners so that the priorities of people in Yorkshire are reflected in local policing, not politically correct orders handed down from Whitehall. This will make all police forces work in partnership with their local communities and tackle the crime that blights local neighbourhoods. It is only by working together, and taking a zero tolerance approach, that we will get a grip on law and order again and win back the streets for the law-abiding majority.

4) Relaxation of the licensing laws has triggered fears about 24-hour drinking. York is a city with a pub for every day of the year, so what do you say to residents worried about the issue?

It is a worry - and not just for people in York. The actions I have proposed above will help. But given the problem of binge drinking, only someone who had so completely lost the plot as Mr Blair could think the answer was 24-hour booze-on-demand for yobs. We warned about the Licensing Act in Parliament, but Labour's massive majority meant they could get whatever they wanted and they didn't need to listen. We have to return to this question with a new government after 5th May - and hopefully without Mr Blair. I believe far more power needs to be given to local people and local councils to decide these matters. There is too much central control in today's Britain.

5) Flooding is a major concern in York, a city taken to the brink of catastrophe in the November 2000 deluge. What is your party doing to help protect the city and what is planned for future years, when climate change is predicted to create even more problems?

Flooding is a terrible thing - and the effects last for years. The events in York in 2000 touched the hearts of everyone. But the Government has still failed to devise a coherent and co-ordinated flood management and coastal defence strategy of its own - or to update fully the Conservative strategy of 1993. There are approximately two million homes at risk from coastal or inland flooding (10 per cent of the total housing stock), with some 200,000 homes at very high risk.

Conservatives will ensure new developments take into account the increasing risks from flooding and climate change. We will review planning guidance with a view to minimising development on flood plains and ensure developments located in vulnerable areas contain flood-resilient measures, without undermining the opportunity to develop brownfield sites. We will streamline the flood management system and devolve more power to local level. We will work with the construction and insurance industries to devise objective criteria for building standards in high risk areas.

6) House prices have stayed high in York and North Yorkshire for several years, pricing many residents and young people out of the market? How would you get them on the property ladder?

We will increase funding and support for shared ownership schemes that allow people on modest incomes, but not eligible for social housing, to get onto the housing ladder. We will also extend the Right to Buy to over a million housing association tenants, and introduce transferable discounts to help people in social housing buy a home of their own choosing, not just the one they live in.

One of the biggest problems for first-time buyers and others has been Gordon Brown's massive increases in stamp duty. So we will scrap Stamp Duty on all house purchases of £250,000 or less. This will mean this tax is no longer payable on the average home - indeed 80% of all house purchases across the country will be free of duty. If I am Prime Minister then by 6th April next year the first young families will have benefited from our abolition of Stamp Duty on the average home.

We can cut tax because we will be cutting government waste. Incredibly, even Gordon Brown now admits he has been wasting £21.5 billion a year - enough to pay for the whole NHS in England for 4 months. To waste a few pence is one thing - to waste the equivalent of 4 month health care for all is truly criminal level. For that, if nothing else, Labour deserve to be slung out on their ears.

The Conservative Party, unlike the other parties, wants to reduce tax. Under Labour or the Liberal Democrats taxes would rise. Conservatives would cut taxes, with Stamp Duty a prime example.

7) University tuition and top-up fees are a massive worry for many families in our area. Are students being priced out of getting degrees because they fear being saddled with thousands of pounds of debts?

We will abolish top-up and tuition fees. If I am Prime Minister, then by 1st September 2006 Yorkshire students going to university will be freed from these fees.

We believe every student who could benefit from going to university should be able to go, and that money shouldn't be a disincentive. Students are also less likely to be able to go to elite universities under a fees regime, as they will charge more. This is wrong. Tony Blair deceived young people over top-up fees, promising one thing and doing the opposite. No student, would-be student or parent of a student should reward him for such deceit with the 13 years in power he now craves.

8) It goes up and causes outcry every year? How would you make the council tax system fairer?

Council tax worked perfectly well until Mr Blair started using it as one of his 66 stealth taxes. There were no marches, and people didn't go to jail for non-payment. But under Mr Blair, council tax has risen by more than 70% - that's over double the rate of inflation. For pensioners more than a third of the increase in the basic pension has been swallowed up by these huge council tax rises.

Our first priority is to give pensioner households, where every adult is 65 or over, a 50 per cent annual discount on their council tax, up to a maximum of £500. Pensioners suffered most from the abuse of council tax by Mr Brown. So our help for them will come every year, not just as a pre-election bribe. We will pay the other help promised to pensioners by Labour and we will also restore the link between pensions and earnings, adding up to £11 a week to the basic pension for all for a pensioner couple and £7 a week for a single pensioner, by the end of a parliament.

We will scrap Labour's planned council tax "revaluation" and "rebanding". This is Labour's next stealth tax. If what happened in Wales were to happen in England, then, whatever Labour may say now, 7 million homes in England would face big one-off jumps in council tax.

We will not introduce so-called local income tax. The Liberal Income Tax, which even LibDems admit would mean millions of homes paying more, is targeted on working women who are married or have partners. They would be the big losers. I find it astonishing that LibDems would penalise these hard-working women. The answer to the council tax problem is not further upheaval, but targeted help for pensioners as we propose and fair funding in place of stealth tax.

We will avoid Labour's third term tax rises. Mr Blair's Government has taxed too much, wasted too much and has not given taxpayers value for money. Our James Review has identified £35 billion of savings that can be made in the total government budget. We will use £23 billion of that waste we save to boost spending on front-line services such as schools, hospitals, the police, defence and pensions. £8 billion will be used to plug Labour's black hole in borrowing, to avoid Mr Blair's next round of tax rises.

9) Will you be going to Royal Ascot when it comes to York this summer? Any hot tips?

I think it is a great thing that Ascot is coming to the ancient capital of the North, but I am afraid I am hoping to be too busy working on lower taxes, school discipline, more police, cleaner hospitals and controlled immigration to be able to come.

I'm not a racing tipster. But if you want a hot tip, try this. Don't believe the opinion polls. Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell may think it is all in the bag. But they shouldn't take the British people for granted. There are good odds on the Conservatives on Thursday - and judging by the response to our programme for action I find round the country they are well worth taking up.

10) Do you think York City will be promoted next season?

With the fantastic backing that so many fans still give them it would be great to see - and a great reward for the supporters who fought so hard to save the Club and Bootham Crescent. Football is only as strong as its roots are healthy. After 75 years in the top flight I can't think of York City as anything but a League Club and I would love to see them back where they belong.

Charles Kennedy, Liberal Democrats

1) In the wake of recent cases of the MRSA at Yorkshire hospitals, how would your party tackle the superbug problem?

One in eight infection control teams find their work hindered by hospital managers trying to meet Government targets. Almost half of managers say that Government targets conflict with their efforts to control infections. We think that our doctors and nurses, as highly trained health professionals, should have more power to take decisions quickly and effectively. We would give them the power to close wards and tackle infections and require all NHS staff to have training in infection control. We would scrap many targets, requiring every hospital to set up a way of keeping a check on where infections arise and which areas are most vulnerable to infection, and ask the Healthcare Commission to produce a timetable for providing appropriate isolation facilities in every NHS hospital. We also need to ensure there are enough facilities for washing and sterilising hands.

2) Access to NHS dentists has reached crisis point in York and North Yorkshire with our readers regularly told to travel out of the area for treatment. How would you create more places?

The appalling access to NHS dentistry across the country has terrible implications for dental health and the early detection of more serious complications. More than three in five adults and more than two in five children are not registered with an NHS dentist. To make it easier to find an NHS dentist we need to encourage dentists to increase the amount of NHS work they do. We will develop new contracts for dentists, that offers an attractive package of recruitment and retention measures, to encourage them back into the public sector. To encourage more people to have regular check-ups, we will also abolish the charges for dental check-ups.

3) Violent crime is on the rise in York. What would you do to tackle alcohol-related violence in our city?

Dealing with crime is about what works and what is effective: that means more police and wardens out and about in the communities they look after, their visible presence acting as a deterrent people committing offences. This is why we want to put the money that the Government want to spend on an expensive and ineffective ID card scheme towards putting another 10,000 more police on the streets. We also want to give police more time to be out on the streets by using technology to cut the time they spend form filling at the station. On the particular issue alcohol-related violence, we will crack down on licensees who serve people who are clearly drunk or under-age. Big, late-night venues will be asked to contribute to the cost of extra late-night policing.

4) Relaxation of the licensing laws has triggered fears about 24-hour drinking. York is a city with a pub for every day of the year, so what do you say to residents worried about the issue?

Many people and organisations raised concerns over binge-drinking during the course of the passage of the Licensing Act, not least of all because of the anti-social behaviour associated with it. In response to those concerns we have led calls for the Government to delay the implementation of the Licensing Act, as we think that change in the law is simply inappropriate at the moment. In terms of the anti-social behaviour which can follow, there is no doubt that a greater presence on the streets by police and community wardens would help, which is why we have plans for 10,000 extra police, and 20,000 extra community support officers. In terms of tackling specific incidents, Liberal Democrats are already at the forefront, pioneering the use of anti-social behaviour contracts, where acceptable behaviour standards are agreed between the individual, their family, the local authority and the police.

5) Flooding is a major concern in York, a city taken to the brink of catastrophe in the November 2000 deluge. What is your party doing to help protect the city and what is planned for future years, when climate change is predicted to create even more problems?

Much more needs to be done to improve local flood prevention measures. In the end, though, politicians have to face up to the challenge of tackling global warming and the effect that climate change is having on our weather. Even the Government's own adviser says that this is the biggest threat Britain faces. Energy use is the main cause of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. We have a number of carefully costed policies designed to ensure we reach the agreed targets for reduced levels of such gases early. These include promoting better home insulation - which will also have the effect of reducing fuel bills - and reducing wasteful congestion on our roads. We will also ensure that by 2020, 20% of our energy is produced from renewable sources.

6) House prices have stayed high in York and North Yorkshire for several years, pricing many residents and young people out of the market? How would you get them on the property ladder?

Getting onto the property ladder has become a real problem for so many people across the country. In terms of the cost of housing, the Liberal Democrats will raise the threshold for paying stamp duty to £150,000. That will mean around 150,000 homebuyers each year will pay no stamp duty. Various government departments and bodies own large areas of land and we would make enough available to build 100,000 houses, some for renting and some for people to buy at an affordable price. There are also a lot of homes which are left empty as prices rocket and we will reform VAT to encourage developers to bring those back into the market and use "brownfield" land instead of green fields fore new developments.

7) University tuition and top-up fees are a massive worry for many families in our area. Are students being priced out of getting degrees because they fear being saddled with thousands of pounds of debts?

With the Government's new top-up fees, students may now leave university with debts of up to £30,000. The prospect of such huge debts will definitely discourage young people from choosing university, especially those from poorer backgrounds. We think that a university education should be based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay, and so we would scrap top-up fees and tuition fees. On a personal note, I was fortunate. I came from a modest background and had the opportunity of a full student grant. I left university with a degree and without any debt to worry me. That university opportunity led to every other opportunity that has come my way. I am so opposed to tuition fees because I think there is no more nauseating sight in politics than that of politicians pulling up the ladder of opportunity behind them.

8) It goes up and causes outcry every year? How would you make the council tax system fairer?

The Liberal Democrats believe that the Council Tax should be scrapped. We think it is wrong that so many people are impoverished by local taxes. Taxes should be fair and straightforward and under our alternative of a Local Income Tax, how much you pay is related directly to how much you earn. For instance, we have calculated that over six million pensioners on low incomes would pay no local taxes at all. An independent study of our plans by the independent Institute of Fiscal Studies showed that about half of all local tax payers would end up paying less, a quarter would be unaffected and a quarter would pay more. A typical family would actually be around £450 a year better off under our plans.

And finally...

9) Will you be going to Royal Ascot when it comes to York this summer? Any hot tips?

I think I had better wait until after the election before making my summer plans. Apart from saying the Liberal Democrats will do very well at this election, the only tip I'll offer is that it is very hard for even the best commentators to make predictions ahead of the finishing line!

10) Do you think York City will be promoted next season?

In football as in politics: there is everything to play for...

Updated: 10:13 Wednesday, May 04, 2005