Why Should You Vote? If you are undecided about who to vote for in this general election or have decided not to vote or you think voting for someone that does not represent one of the main parties is a wasted vote, then think again.

Full statement

It is time to send a clear message to those that take your vote for granted that they must earn your vote. If you do not vote then they will assume that you are happy with the way things are. We have just seen the VE day commemorative events to remember the boys and girls that made so many sacrifices for this country, including sacrificing their lives and are we going to thank them for fighting for this country by just giving up now? We need to make a stand to protect our rights, our freedom of speech, our culture and our country.

This country is slowly sinking or some might say stinking because of years of mismanagement of our resources and our weak laws, always at the hands of the elected Labour and Conservative representatives. The only thing they represent is their own interests. It is time to elect real people that have lived in the real world, that have the heart and passion to fight to the death to save our country. I would like you to vote for me but even if you decide to vote for someone else, do not give the two main parties more time to destroy you and our country.

My Background Has Given Me Strong Views on Particular Issues

I was born in a modest house in London, that my family worked hard to pay for. The law of compulsory purchase was introduced by the Labour government at that time and our home was seized and our family evicted, that was my first experience of homelessness: I was just under five years old. Even now I can remember us being dragged out of the house by police and being on the street for hours in the cold and walking around in the night trying to find somewhere to sleep. When I was older and was homeless again it was easier to cope with but no human or even an animal should ever experience homelessness. This is why I have big ideas of how we can address this.

To start with, we need all councils to adopt the scheme to act as guarantors for renters. There must be an immediate ban on anyone getting social housing that has lived in the UK for less than 20 years. Priority must be given to British born nationals, followed by long-term residents. We should have a scheme of cash incentives for people that take in homeless people that are British or long-term residents, as applied to people that took in refugees from Ukraine. As a mature woman, last year I had to take a second job. The price of food and utility bills leaves me ducking and diving every month from companies chasing me for one payment or another.

My first job is in a shop but now I also work as an advisor for young people. I wish I had enough space to tell you what our young people are going through, especially those with special needs, due to a lack of funding. It has not escaped my attention that both parties are doing nothing to help small business owners, looking at business rates would be a good start. Small business is the backbone of all local communities so we urgently need to stop them from being forced to shut down. My last issue, is we must stop stereotyping people on benefits, there are many people desperate to find jobs but just keep getting rejected and they get no help. In fact, the most venerable are often left without any help. In my area there are pensioners and disabled people that need so many things but they have become invisible because the government are too busy helping new arrivals.

Protecting Our People, Our Borders & Country

On an international level, we need to stop funding the weapons for wars in foreign countries, we can help on a humanitarian level but only after we look after our own first. We should be calling for cease fires and not providing weapons to make the world more unsafe than it already is. We need to get tough on illegal migrants. Instead of spending millions on hotels, we should spend the money on prisons where we lock up anyone that arrives here undocumented for an indefinite period, with the possibility of life in the interest of national security. If someone arrives in a boat without any identification, they could be terrorists or serious criminals so they need to be kept locked up until we know who they are and their background. We can then remove any fake refugees immediately when we find out who they are. We need to keep or children, families and country safe at any cost.

Make It Happen

Sometimes the unthinkable can happen, voting for a smaller party or the unknown can make a difference. The unknown or the unexpected can get elected or if not, at least a smaller party doing well at a general election will send a clear message, that you are not happy with those that have represented you so far. Many thought a positive Brexit vote would not happen and it did, so anything is possible.

Thank you for your time in reading this, and thank you in advance if you decide to vote for me.

Maxine Spencer

Prepared by the Candidate for and on behalf of herself of Quires Green CM5 0QP