Meeting with Nick Clegg

After a meeting with Mark in his Westminster office to discuss our campaign plans, I went on to meet Nick Clegg MP to discuss the crime survey that we are launching in Winchester. We want to hear local people’s experiences with crime and their ideas on how to make our community safer.

The important thing is that we are focusing on sensible, pragmatic and liberal policies that will reduce crime and the fear of crime.

One obvious step would be to reverse Labour’s planned cuts in the number of Police Community Support Officers in Hampshire. We shouldn’t be spending billions of pounds on compulsory ID cards for innocent law abiding citizens when that money could be better spent on front line policing.

The local community should also have more power to close pubs and clubs that cause trouble. People of all ages should feel safe going out after dark in town or city centres.

We’ll have a chance to discuss all this with Nick in more detail later in the year when he speaks at our annual dinner.