Welcome

Hello, and thanks for stopping by my new blog.

My name is Matthew Adams and I'm the Conservative candidate for Kings Hedges in the upcoming county council elections.

I've lived and worked in Kings Hedges for the last 11 years, and, together with my partner Una, we've been in Cambridge for nearly 18 years now. I've founded a couple of local technology businesses, and for my day job I create software that helps doctors to manage the care they give to patients with long term chronic illnesses like cancer and heart disease. If a problem looks really, really difficult, but solving it could have enormous impact on the health and quality of life of millions of people, that's the kind of thing I like to get stuck in to!

Over the past few years, I've become increasingly concerned about the way things are going in our country, and their impact on our City in particular. What brought me back to the Conservatives, though, was not so much a negative response to Gordon Brown, and Labour's terrible incompetence, but David Cameron's energetic leadership of a reinvigorated Conservative Party.

I've been especially impressed by the way in which he has faced up to the consequences of Labour's economic mismanagement. He's taken some difficult decisions in the face of strong criticism from the press, and been proven right more often than not. Not every time, of course; it would be a rare person indeed who was right all of the time; but on those occasions when he has made a mistake, he's seemed to me to have been willing to face up to it, listen to criticism, and to steer the right course in the face of fast-moving global events. That seems to be an all-too-rare quality in politics today.

That said, politicians of all parties often seem to me to forget that those global events that make the headlines every day have real local significance. In Kings Hedges, we're one of the most diverse communities in the whole of our region; people with good jobs in a vibrant local business community live and work side-by-side with others who need real help to overcome hardship and inequity.

As Gordon Brown's recession bites deeper, Cambridge is fighting hard to buck the trend; but everyone is feeling the pinch, and we need to do all we can to help each other through the difficult times, and to prepare for the future.

There's a lot for us to do in Kings Hedges: from making sure our public transport is available and affordable to everyone (you'll see me on the Citi4 most days!), to road traffic safety, especially around our schools. For those who do drive, or work in city-centre businesses, the congestion charge being foisted on us by the Labour government is something else I know people feel strongly about, and we're campaigning hard on that; and, of course, the problems with the A14 affect many of us every day.

I want to do my bit to make sure that the people in government - City, County and Westminster - are doing all they can to help protect our jobs, spend our taxes wisely and help the businesses and entrepreneurs in our region to create more, new and better jobs even in the present circumstances. I know what it feels like to lose your job, and how difficult and embarassing it can be to have to ask for the help to which you're entitled - even if you know where to go; so I want to do everything I can to make sure that everyone has access to the help they need.

Cambridgeshire County Council is actually doing a pretty good job already - as you'd expect from a Tory council. I hope! The Audit Commission, which is the Government's watchdog for these things, recently recognized it as the most improved in the country, but that doesn't mean to say that there isn't more we can do to help the vulnerable, provide for our children's education and protect the environment - and to do as much as we can without spending more than we can afford.

Now, I'm only just getting started with this whole business, and I'll need your help too. If there's anything that's worrying you, or that you think I should be doing something about - or if you've just got a good idea for how we can improve our community, feel free to leave a comment, or email me on matthew.adams.kingshedges@googlemail.com.