Interview with Lisa Smart Liberal Democrat Candidate for Hazel Grove. #Election2024 #General Election.
Filmed at Kiki’s Retro Bar in Marple 18th of June 2024. Crowd Sourced Questions.
01:19 Your Questions
01:26 Christine’s Question About NHS Psychiatric Specialists
04:19 Hannah’s Question about getting on the property ladder and renters being seen as credit worthy by Mortgage Companies
06:36 What plans have you got in terms of housebuilding?
08:31 David’s question about the scooter gangs and unlicensed motorbikes causing mayhem and posing a risk to young families in the constituency
12:01 Zeki’s question (from Facebook) regarding donations or gifts from foreign parties
13:20 Alex’s question about pressuring Mayor Andy Burnham about Grooming and County Lines Gangs
15:53 J. Charman’s Question about Climate Change
17:23 N. Charman’s Question about reviving British Industry
20:10 J. Davis’s Question about minimum serving period of NHS Medical Professionals after qualifying before they can work abroad
21:42 Oscar’s Question about Palestine and Israel
24:28 Quickfire Questions:
– Have you got a plan for improving local healthcare services?
24:35 – Do you agree the old swimming baths should have been demolished before the new one started being built?
– Have you got a plan for securing more funding for local schools?
25:02 – Have you got a plan for enhancing public transport in our area?
– Have you got a plan for increasing the availability of affordable housing?
– Have you got a plan for reducing crime and improving community safety?
25:37 – Do you support a road charging scheme like CAZ for Greater Manchester or the UK?
– Have you got a plan for tackling the rising cost of living?
– Do you support a Trident Replacement?
– Our last MP resigned in a scandal but didn’t resign as our MP, if you get caught up in a scandal will – you resign and allow the people of Hazel Grove constituency and Marple to elect a new MP
27:10 – Where in Marple is the donkey tunnel
– If you answered yes to questions 1 – 10, will you release your plans before the election?
28:06 How many times have you voted to increase council tax and how much does that work out to be in real terms over 10 years?
29:46 Will the Liberal Democrats Put Up Taxes?
31:28 What do you know about the Marple Neighbourhood Plan?
32:47 Your manifesto will allow trans self ID. What safeguards would be in place for women and girls. Would this allow a biological male teacher who identifies as a woman to enter girls bathrooms and changing rooms?
34:47 You want to rejoin the EU in your manifesto, if that happened would there be another vote 5 years later to leave again?
36:26 The manifesto mentions plans to manage public finances responsibly, including cutting energy bills through an emergency Home Energy Upgrade programme and investing in green infrastructure. How does the party plan to balance these significant investments with the need to reduce the national debt?
37:41 The Liberal Democrats propose to give everyone the right to see a GP within seven days and within 24 hours for urgent needs, supported by 8,000 more GPs. How will the party ensure the recruitment and retention of these additional GPs, given the current staffing challenges in the NHS?
39:57 The manifesto includes a promise to introduce free personal care, create a social care workforce plan, and establish a higher Carer’s Minimum Wage. How will the party ensure sustainable funding for these social care initiatives, and what measures will be in place to monitor their effectiveness?
41:32 Lisa’s Summary
What do you think?
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Read the Liberal Democrats Election Manifesto 2024
https://www.libdems.org.uk/fileadmin/groups/2_Federal_Party/Documents/PolicyPapers/Manifesto_2024/For_a_Fair_Deal_-_Liberal_Democrat_Manifesto_2024.pdf
Other videos in this series to look for:
John Kelly Reform UK Candidate https://youtu.be/2Kq0_xtoSx0
Paul Athans Conservative Candidate
Please ensure you fact check and any claims made in this video. They have not been independently fact checked and anything quoted by the candidate have not been verified. Our research team compared all manifestos to produce the questions and ensure that constituent questions were relevant.
Invitations were sent to all standing for election at Hazel Grove.
[Music] so hi I’m Lisa SM I’m the liberal Democrat candidate for Hazel Grove constituency in this general election I live in romley with my partner Ed and our rescue dog Bonnie who is a mischievous but delightful person to share the house with um I am a counselor for romley and I really love getting things done I’m stand for election cuz I worry that we’re not doing as much as we can for certain members of our society I really worry that the Health Service isn’t getting what it needs and by health I mean Health and Social care I worry about our environment so all the big climate change issues but also things like sewage raw sewage being pumped into our rivers and I worry that people are really struggling with the cost of living crisis and so I’m really proud that Liv de Manifesto has got real action to tackle those big problems in it and so it’ be wonderful to have your support on the 4th of July so Christine’s absolutely right that the waiting list for for so many uh treatments assessments appointments is far too long and it feels like and it is getting worse for lots of people I was at a college today talking to to six forers one of the issues that they talked to me about was about mental health and the amount of time they and their friends are spending waiting for assessments waiting for a diagnosis um for all sorts of mental health conditions some of which the longer you wait for a diagnosis the more um challenging that condition can become um we as the lib Dems have got fixing the NHS and social care as our top priority in this general election and we do that yes by funding it properly um we can look at stepping Hill hospital and see that outpatients beers had to be knocked down because it was no longer safe we know that there’s a Bucket Brigade that every time it rains staff members have to go out with buckets to collect the rain water and in 2024 that is not a condition our health services should be in the people of of our area the people of Stockport deserve much better than that so we as lib Dems would inject some Capital spending to to fix some of the buildings and we’d also we’d invest in bringing those waiting lists down because often the shorter the waiting list actually the easier the treatment is in in some cases the other thing that we do is really look at Social care because you you can’t fix the Health Service unless you properly look at Social care so by social care I mean things like people getting domicillary care in their own home we’re all living longer as a species this is a really good thing but we’re living longer with dementia and diabetes and more of us want to live independently in our own home but maybe just need a little bit of extra help so it’s that social care or it might be somebody’s living with a disability and they could do with a bit of help getting around town doing some of their um some of their tasks around the house some of their errands around the house um we are much better served investing in Social care whether it’s for adults or for children um and that would save us money from the Health Service so to answer Christine’s question we would yes inject money as liberal Democrats and we could talk in later questions about how we’d raise that money but also we’ve got to fix social care if we want to fix the NHS yeah I think that’s a really fair point Point um absolutely fair and I think um we have a society where the people who own their own homes are really really Keen for property prices to keep going up and up and up and the people who are not yet on the property ladder would quite like to see them come down a bit um or quite a lot in lots of cases we’re lucky to live in a really nice part of the world I live in romley um and house prices fit how nice it is around here and that’s really really hard if you’re younger or if you weren’t born into a family where they can loan you several tens of thousands of pounds to get you on the property ladder you didn’t inherit something uh from somebody what I think we need to do is of course build more homes because there’s a supply and demand thing here that’s the simple that’s the one simplest thing in in principle not necessarily in practice but in principle we need to build more homes and in Stockport I’m really pleased that we are building more homes including 4,000 homes in Stockport Town Center I don’t think that we should just build absolutely everywhere all over the green spaces all over the green belt that’s not what I think is right for our area I do think though that we need to build the right homes in the right places as live Dems we want to build 380,000 new homes a year but they should all be in the right places and we of those 380,000 a year 150,000 of those should be social homes because there’s so many people on the waiting list to get uh some social housing and it means people are bidding and bidding and bidding multiple times for for a very long time um and there just isn’t the supply there so build more homes um and keep incentivizing people to save but the key thing to do is build more homes to make more homes available so it’s 380,000 homes often when people are coming into this country they’re not coming in as single people they’re coming in as families so net migration will be a smaller number there’ll be a number of people but a smaller number of homes will be needed um I think we’re really lucky in this country to attract people who’ve got skills and talents and abilities to want to come and join us so my dad um received a kidney transplant in the last year and a half and the person the surgeon the senior surgeon who did that was not born in this country I could not be more grateful that he brought his skills his talents his abilities to come and help my dad carry on with a quality of life that he otherwise wouldn’t have had so I think there are huge positives about immigration to this country I also think that the way it’s currently managed is not working for lots of people and we’ve seen some people feeling that it’s safer to try and get to this country um via a small boat and that’s because there aren’t safe and legal routes for people to come to this country from some of our neighbors and some of our close allies so I think the UK should take its fair share of refugees and Asylum Seekers I also think that we should take a really sensible balanced approach to economic migration because sometimes those people have the skills the talents the abilities the cultural richness that really adds to our community yeah David’s asked a question there that comes up so often on the doorstep so often in my inbox it is a real problem for for marpel for Stockport for for the whole of the country actually which is often younger people on mopeds in balac clavas um behaving in an antisocial way and sometimes in a criminal way um I know that it’s an issue across our area and I also know that the police the schools housing associations the council were all doing their bit but not maybe coordinating as much as they could have on this issue so back in the spring I called together a multi- agency Summit where we have senior police officers senior Council officers public protection uh schools Effectiveness housing associations uh counselors to talk about the issue what’s everybody doing what are they doing to tackle the issue how can we work better together to tackle this and importantly how do we communicate with the public because one of the issues with this with this problem is that people think well should I report it is this at a reportable level and if so who do I report it to and really importantly what should I expect if I report it does it just go into some black hole somewhere or should I expect uh call backs the police are really really clear every time I’ve talked to any police officer at any any seniority level they want as much intelligence from people as they can get so even if it’s black bike uh black balac clava black tracksuit um no determining features on the bike they still want to know where it was where you saw it and what the behavior was CU this is often quite unsafe Behavior it’s wheelies or it’s weaving in and out of traffic um and we should all work together to try and stop it I understand the police’s frustration that it’s hard for them to chase if they’re in a car and somebody’s a more vulnerable Road user if you think about the highway Cod because they’re on a moped it’s really hard to Chase and what we don’t want is some of the trouble we saw outside Cardiff when I think some LS were chased by the police and it it ended up in civil unrest what I’m really Keen to see is the police use pinch the best ideas from elsewhere so I know in bedfordshire the police use drones to get some photographic evidence so they hover up high they wait until the Little Darlings take off their Bal clavers they come straight down take a photo and then they’re back up again and that is the evidence that the police need and really pleased that Grace Manchester police have reinstalled the off-road bikes unit I think that’s good we need to make sure that Stockport gets its fair share of that because that unit covers the whole of Greater Manchester it it really is a problem and I’m glad the question was asked I think we all need to work together on it because it isn’t just an issue for the police some of it is an issue uh for people who buy their children off-road bikes oh goodness um I think the law is reasonably clear on this at the moment in terms of donations to political parties you anybody from anywhere can give up to £500 you’re testing me on my electoral law now um but you can’t receive something um from somebody who isn’t on the from an individual who isn’t on the UK electoral rle you’ve got to be registered to vote in the UK or a company that’s registered in some way in in the UK um I have a couple of friends who live abroad who may want to give me 100 quid or something towards the campaign I would like to think that that shouldn’t trouble too many people about um undue influence or anything like that um but I can’t imagine why I wouldn’t comply with electoral law I can’t imag or donations financing of Elections law um and I can’t imagine why anybody would think it was a good investment from their point of view to donate to my campaign so I think Andy Burnham as the mayor of great Manchester is also the police and crime commissioner so I know he delegates some of those responsibilities to Kate green who is his Deputy but they are ultimately his responsibility and I think there are all sorts of issues that it is only right and proper for any MP to have uh to hold to account the mayor of Greater Manchester the police and crime commissioner um I have some experience of that because I have been chair of scrutiny at um great Manchester combined Authority which has meant that I have had Andy Burnham in front of me and I’ve asked him so Mr Mayor you have pledged to end rough sleeping in your election campaign I noted on my way to the meeting this morning there were still some people rough sleeping help me understand where that’s up to and hold him and others to account and I think that’s part of the job of an MP and it’s part of the the powers that have been discussed thinking about well how can you hold Metro mares to account how can you push for what your community needs um elected representatives have some hard power they also have loads of soft power actually so by making a menace of yourself by making a pest of yourself you can get stuff done so I’m currently a counselor and my powers are you know reasonably Limited in terms of bins um potholes voting on the budget making planning application decisions but actually if I write to the chief exective voone which I’ve done or the chief executive open reach as counselor Lisa smart um I get a slightly different response than if I just wrote as Lisa smart so it’s using some of that soft power so I’ve got results for example somebody was getting was having a really hard time getting the right billing from vone and uh a small number of homes had just been missed out by open reach in terms of allowing them to get uh decent broadband and so by being a pest um but using some of that soft power you can get results for people and I would um embrace the opportunity if lucky enough to be elected as MP climate change is real and it is caused by human beings and I think that even if it wasn’t even if it wasn’t real even if it wasn’t caused by human beings was taking some of the steps to insulate homes to make it cheaper uh to get access to uh renewable energy um for us to make better decisions about how we move around and so on would be good decisions anyway um and so even if you think it’s a hoax even if you think it’s just made up by a cabal of whoever um getting good insulation in your home so that you spend less money on your energy bills is a good thing and we should probably do it in terms of what the Liv Dems have got in our Manifesto we are nerds essentially the liberal Democrats are happy to embrace our nerdity and in there we’ve got a lot of really thorough thought through plans about how we get the country to the right place on climate change because it is real it is having an impact now it’s going to have more of an impact and we need to take much more action than I think the country is currently taking than the government is taking um and bring people bring our community bring business bring Charities with us on this journey and that’s how you bring about the change that we need so in our Manifesto we have uh pledged to create an ambitious industrial strategy and that’s one of the things I think that has been missing uh post 2015 um one of the problems I think is that there has been a lot of change a lot of instability and this isn’t a particularly political Point um one of the things that businesses as I understand it I used to work in business um like is stability so to be able to plan so you want to know today what your tax rat is going to be next year you want to know today what the arrangements for tax going to be how can I get funding you know is the British Business Bank A Accessible to small and mediumsized businesses I would argue not really at the moment we need to do much more and expand that so I think have stable economic management which therefore leads to a much more stable economy and I think that would be much better for businesses um the some of the changes in the way UK businesses can deal with European businesses has made have made things harder for some businesses so if you’re trading goods and services between the UK and the EU there are now different processes we as the liberal Democrats would um we have a four step program to improve our relationship with the EU um some of that is about just talking working together much more um collegiately than I think perhaps the last government did some of it is about rejoining things like those schemes that weren’t really EU schemes but made loads of sense for the UK and the EU to work together on but we left everything when the UK left the EU we left everything so I’m thinking about um Horizon which was the scientific cooperation thankfully the government rejoined that I’m thinking about arasmus plus which is for young people to be able to study and work abroad Broad and I think just those relationships just make lots of sense so we should bring those together I think then when we’ve done some of that rebuilding of that relationship looking at the single Market because I think that people voted to leave the EU for all sorts of different reasons all sorts of different reasons I think to make it harder for businesses here was not for most people one of those reasons and so I think looking at the single Market looking at the way the UK enables or prohibits trade I think will a really big help to lots of British businesses that’s what businesses business people have told me I think that’s really hard when we don’t know the circumstances of the individuals that we’re talking about so I think putting an obligation so I had it when I was um working in a business and they supported me to do my masters so they paid the fees for my masters and it was part of it that I would pay back those fees if I left within a a certain period of time so I think there’s something around that I and thinking about where the funding comes from the fees you pay towards it the living costs and the amount you’ve contributed throughout that training throughout that course course I think 3 years is a long period of time to put that kind of obligation on people cuz people’s lives all sorts of things can happen in people’s lives you know it might be that you were training here and then your spouse dies or a a parent who lives overseas becomes really ill and you need to go back and care for them I think it’s really hard to be too prescripted and so I wouldn’t support that I think it’s much more sensible for us to make it really appealing for people to stay so if you’re training here let’s make it so that the Health and Social care sectors are brilliant welcoming warm uh encouraging places to stay and you don’t feel that you want to leave so um this is a question that came up as you would expect at the six form hustings earlier today and the whole situation is utterly horrific I think nobody can look at some of the pictures that are coming out both of hostages being taken and of the situation in Gaza at the moment with the Palestinian people and not feel a sense of just it’s completely horrific completely horrific um what we as liberal Democrats have been saying throughout so since the hostages were taken on the 7th of October and since the Israeli government has been taking military action in Gaza since that stage we’ve been calling for an immediate bilateral ceasefire because the only way this stops the only way is if there’s peace and the only way there’s peace is if there’s a two-state solution on 67 borders I’m really proud of my colleague Lila Moran Lea is the first MP of Palestinian Heritage um and Lela is the member of Parliament for was because nobody’s A Member of Parliament at the moment so was elected as the Member of Parliament for Oxford West and Abington she’s a liberal Democrat and every year since her election Lela has placed a motion calling for the recognition of the State of Palestine and the government has not yet done that and she’ll keep placing that motion until it happens and I strongly support her on that what Lea’s managed to do as the first MP of Palestinian Heritage who has had relatives who were trapped in Gaza for a period of time is conduct herself with Grace and class and from a really informed position because I think as ever with um large world events lots of people have strong opinions without necessarily um always having thought them through Laya is an extremely thoughtful colleague who has led within our party on our party’s response we as the UK should use our soft power and our hard power to do absolutely everything we can to bring together the the various parties to look for peace there is um at the UN a proposal for a ceasefire I think it would be a really good thing if all the parties involved could get around the table and and look at that give it serious consideration because the only way to peace is through a ceasefire and a two-state solution yes yes oh yes it was owned by the Council on behalf of the people of the area yes yes build more yes more investment in neighborhood policing so that isn’t the current plan I can be really nerdy and talk about it because I sit on the scrutiny committee but the current plan is not for charging yes like for like replacement I think there uh libm policy talks about a sensible approach to defense um which is slightly different from where things currently are yes I would say that some people call various things scandals so I saw that somebody a local uh a candidate in a neighboring seat was reported to the police they were a Conservative candidate and they used red background in one of their um posts and they were reported to the police the police looked at it and did not investigate any more thoroughly I don’t think that’s a scandal um so I think yes an actual Scandal absolutely people mocking about let’s look at the detail maybe by the canal sure so there’s a Manifesto looking at what we do um as a national political party I’ve got a website which I’m really happy for people to root around on I’m spending quite a lot of time answering people’s emails asking what you going to do about this what you think about that and we are putting out a number of leaflets throughout the course of the campaign telling people what our priorities are and what we do quite often though people have um questions about an issue we just don’t have space to put on the leaflets and so if people want me to answer something by all means send us an email and I’ll do my best to get to answer them so I will have I’ve been a counselor for eight years so I’ve done eight budgets and I honestly don’t know the exact answer um but it’s not eight and it’s certainly not zero so I have sometimes voted to increase council tax council taxx is a rubbish tax and it’s one that liberal Democrats would get rid of because it’s it’s unfair because it doesn’t pay any account of how much income you’ve got how much money you’ve got it just looks solely at the property that that you’re in um I could talk for a very long time about local government Finance which I’m not going to do but one of the reasons Council taxes had to go up is because there’s only really three places four places that councils get money from council tax business rates government grants and things like fees and charges so if you use the Town Hall Ballroom the council gets some money for that the demand for Council Services has gone up and up and up so three in every four pound Stockport Council spends goes on social care so adult social care children social care so whether it’s older people disabled people or kids in care that’s where 75% of what the council spend spends that’s 75% of it demand for that has gone up and up and up the amount from government has gone down and down and down so Council taxes a rubbish tax absolutely rubbish but yes it’s gone up and I have voted for it several times and I would do so looking back at all of those they were the right thing to do cuz it’s either increase the tax or reduce the services and I didn’t feel that that was an option at the time if you are somebody who takes advantage of the loopholes in capital gains tax if you are a big bank that has benefited from some of the tax cuts from the conservative government over recent years um or if you are an oil and gas company that’s made abnormal profits over recent years then yes we will if you’re an ordinary working person no we won’t so that’s not what we’re talking about at the moment we are some considerable distance away um from thinking about anything like that what we as liberal Democrats are talking about is the practicalities of where we are today we’ve left the EU the UK has left the EU and we also left a number of other organizations and a number of other arrangements that actually made quite a lot of sense for us to stay in so what we’re talking about at this election and in the runup to this ction is a four-stage plan to improve our relationship with the EU in ways that just make sense so whether it’s young people being allowed to study or work abroad whether it’s uh businesses not having those barriers put up for them to trade with our uh our nearest neighbors whether it’s the government being able to make more sensible decisions about migration about Asylum which has just made it that things much more difficult that’s what we would do so I know that it was possible to have one because of the localism act of 2011 and Andrew stunnel who was our wonderful former MP was the minister who put together the localism act and neighborhood plans are I think a really good way a healthy way a sensible Democratic way for communities to think about what do we want for our area what do we want for our future where do we think houses might be appropriate or retail best to go here and we need some industrial there but actually this piece of land is really important to us we want to protect it forever and ever and ever um so I’m really in favor of neighborhood plans as a really good thing and really important to feed into local plans National plans um and I know that the marle one was I think the fourth neighborhood plan that was approved in I think there was Woodford the triple MC High lane and then marpel so I think marel was the fourth and I think it got voted and approved voted on and approved in the spring so this the discussion about trans people and trans rights I think would be much better better if everybody talked with more kindness more consideration and thought about the individuals that we’re talking about um I think there have always been trans people in our society um and I think they are worthy of our respect our love or consideration and the LI I’m really proud that the livb demems have a really strong track record of standing up for Trans rights I’m also really proud that we’ve spoken out against things like conversion therapy so where by um somebody might talk to a young gay person a young trans person and try and convince them that they’ve got it all wrong and they need to change we don’t think that’s right in 2024 and we would uh ban all forms of conversion therapy because we just think it’s really unhealthy for the the people who are subjected to it we think in some cases it can be abuse um the equality act already has carve acts of Single Sex bases for things like prisons for um uh shelters uh for domestic abuse um survivors and we don’t propose any changes to the equality act I think at the moment the way people are asked to go through some sort of gender recognition is too cumbersome it’s too onerous um and it doesn’t really work for anybody involved and actually the conservative government agreed with us back in 2018 when they proposed making some changes to where things currently are so we would agree with a change from where things currently are um and I think we don’t propose any changes to the equality act so I hope that answers the question so I don’t think any discussion about rejoining the EU is is is going to happen in the next Parliament and that’s I voted to remain in the EU I know lots of people did and I know also know some people who can see some of the changes that have happened since the UK’s left the EU and and they don’t think much of the changes um and they might if they knew then what they know now they might have voted differently however we are where we are the UK’s left the EU I think we need to be pragmatic about um where we go from here and where we go from here as I think I’ve mentioned in answer to another question or a couple of question questions is we just need to improve our relationship with Europe because I think the period where the UK was leaving there were not there were really really big damages to the relationship between the EU and the UK and that was the that was often the politics that was feeding into that rather than anything else so I think the EU would rightly be a bit suspicious if we all of a sudden said right we’re ready to come back in but then how can you say like a a partner who’s going through a midlife crisis I want to leave no I want to come back no I want to leave no I want to come back so I understand why the EU might be a bit nervous about that I think there are really pragmatic sensible steps we could take to improve our relationship with the EU including ultimately rejoining the single Market but I just can’t see um in the next Parliament that that is going to be an issue so I love that people have read the manifesto I think that’s really encouraging for the people who take take the time um to write it yes so it’s a good question because the those things do cost money so in the longterm obviously they save money so if you’ve got better insulation if you’ve got solar panels if you’ve got heat to air pumps that’s going to lower your energy bills and so what that does mean is in places like Stockport where Stockport Council the last time it was run by the lib demms invested in a load of solar panels on a lot of the social housing the residents who live in those now have lower bills so it’s a really good and sensible thing to do the way we pay for that in the short term though the way we would pay for that as libm I’ve mentioned making some changes to the way capital gains tax Works reversing some of the cuts reversing some of the tax cuts that have been given to the big Banks and a real and meaningful windfall tax on the oil and gas companies who’ve been um making some fairly abnormal profits of recent years is how we’d fund it and it’s just a sensible way of reducing energy use for everybody that is exactly the right question to ask because it’s about Recruitment and Retention and there was a question earlier about um people going through medical training and then wanting to encourage people to stay here that is whenever I talk to GPS or practice managers the question is around Recruitment and Retention one of the great things about general practice is that uh you get some flexibility over working hours and working times and that can mean it’s the ideal medical role for parents who are not necessarily looking to do 60 hour weeks or travel extensively and it can be the absolutely perfect role um for some people what I think the government needs to do whoever’s in government is to have a proper contract with GPS is to make sure um that the funding of GP practices in the same way as the funding of Dentistry the dentist contract is worked through and that will make it much more appealing for GPS to stay to recruit for medical students to go into general practice and for qualified GPS to stay in general practice one of the things that I’ve seen work really well with Viaduct care here in Stockport um which is groups of GPS working together is looking at how patients can get the right care for them so quite often people think we all think those of us who don’t have medical training I need to see the doctor actually you might not you might need to see the practice nurse you might need to see a physio you might need to see a social prescriber because what you’ve got going on isn’t maybe the GP might not be the right person and so where we’ve seen I think think of Alvin Ley Medical Practice in Woodley um and the medical center there there’s four GP practices and they’ve got um social prescribing there on site and they’ve got um a physio there on site and so that has reduced the number of people thinking I need to see a doctor it’s I need to see some sort of medical practitioner this is such an important area and I’m really glad this question has been asked our top priority is liberal Democrats at this election is Health and Social care and we can’t fix the Health Service until we invest properly and sort out social care social care funding is one of those issues that’s been talked about for years and years and years but has not been resolved and I think lots of political parties have thought it’s just too difficult Let’s Kick the Can down the road it’s just too difficult and it is big and it is difficult and that’s why we as Liv Dems have said there should be cross party talks about how we fix this problem because until we fix the funding of social Care at the moment it’s partly funded by councils that model is not sustainable at all because demand is going up and up and up and the amount of money that’s going into councils from government is going down and down and so we think there should be cross party talks we also think that in the short term we should raise some money from uh changing the way capital gains tax is levied on people who have the most on scrapping some of the tax cuts that were given to the big banks by the last conservative government um and that is how in the short term you give that funding for social care but in the long term it’s one of those problems we need to fix because it’s just having a ripple effect and a knock on on so much of our society and so very many families who can’t get the support that they need um I want to say thank you very much I thought they were great questions I’m particularly delighted that people have taken the time to read the manifesto and look at what we as liberal Democrats stand for we are in this election making a decision about who’s going to be our next MP um and I live locally have done for years got stuff done and for our community and that’s what I really enjoy about this role I think we’ve got plenty of talk in politics and I think we could do with rather more action and we decided on who the best person is to be our MP but also on a national basis what do we want for our country I think we need some change I think our community needs a fair deal I think lots of people locally need a fair deal and hopefully um people know that they can get that if they vote for me if they vote for the lib Dems and if they’re not sure about how to bring about the change that they want there’s lots of independent tactical voting sites out there that will give them some pretty clear advice whether it’s best for Britain um tactical do vote Whatever It Is by all means look at um and advice that’s out there but it’d be great to have as much support it would be a huge honor to represent this community I love it around here I think it’s great but I think it could also be better I want to be part of that positive change thanks for having me