Hi, I am Dave Poole, your Staffordshire Moorlands Reform UK candidate.

Full statement

My early years were difficult, having left school in the mid 1980's as local industry was in decline after years of strikes and mismanagement through the 1970's, despite Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government trying to piece the country back together, this had not made it to the outreaches of rural Cheshire.

I was employed on various youth training schemes (remember them?) as a welder and vehicle technician, but eventually settled on the up-and-coming mobile phone repair industry. Predominantly self-taught, as there was no training available in such a young industry, I spent many years working for The Caudwell Group at their technical facility, "The Mobile Phone Repair Company", before progressing to D2D, latterly Celestica UK, and working on mobile phone repairs for leading manufacturers, such as NEC, Motorola, Orbitel etc, at their Chemical Lane site in Stoke. Having decided that the industry was becoming too corporate I decided, "out of the blue", to venture into the vehicle breakdown and recovery industry, previously our family trade.

In 2008 I bought my first truck, and over the years steadily grew my business up to the 15 vehicles that I operate today, in and around the Cheshire/Staffordshire areas. This was achieved through pure hard work and dedication, having never asked a bank for a penny, even during the pandemic. during this period, I kept all of my staff in full time employment, taking no wages myself, and without reducing staff wages, or placing any of them on furlough.

In 1998 I married, after being several years in a relationship, my wife Julie, and we have a son together. Julie is my rock and keeps me grounded, supporting me in everything I do. We have a deal, every time I get another classic car, Julie gets a new cat!

I was first awakened to the chaos of politics a number of years ago, during a drive to Africa. My long-standing friend passed me a copy of Private Eye magazine, and after reading about my local council, featuring regularly in the "Rotten Boroughs" section, I was enraged, and as a consequence, spent many of the following years studying the workings of local and national government. The conclusion of these years of study? I felt I simply had to get involved.

I soon discovered that all was not as it seemed, especially during my first attempt at standing in my local town council elections. "If they don't want you in, they will do everything in their power to stop you, fair or foul". Social Media campaigns were blatantly manipulated, with myself and my supporters blocked from making comments, unable to defend against false accusations, with anyone not placed on the "blocked list" swiftly denied access to comments. Derogatory remarks about me consequently filled local Social Media pages, but I still came second!

Several weeks then passed, and a By-Election was called, so I brushed himself down and thought " what the Hell, people want a fighter, not a "yes man".......here we go again".

And with this time a clean fair fight, I won, beating the Labour candidate by 17 votes. A classic case of David and Goliath. with this David's team consisting of only four people, battling against a massive, well-oiled Labour machine. More recently, I stood in what are termed "all out elections", and thanks to my small team's hard work and dedication, came within 57 votes of beating the leader of Cheshire East Council. Quite an achievement, in just three short years of being involved in politics.

Following on from various my successes in town council elections, I feel this is the time to play my part in stopping the "free fall" that this country has been in for far too long now, with nearly all areas of central government being very obviously in need of massive reforms, and both Labour and Conservative parties having no will to carry them out.

Industries such as agriculture, engineering, manufacturing to name but a few, are all over regulated, and our economy is paying a heavy price, making us all poorer as a result.

Our law and justice institutions are not fit for purpose, educational standards are "far from the mark", with our young generations being taught nonsense, and with no focus on our cherished history, which I consider to be the building blocks of our national identity.

Thank you for reading, and please feel free to get in touch with me, I would very much welcome your thoughts and comments, together with your experiences/frustrations, regarding the current shambolic political scene, both on a local and national level, a shambles which is affecting all of our lives, and creating unnecessary suffering for many of us.

Quite simply, voting for me on July 4th, will be a vote for a return to Common Sense.