VOTE 2015: West Dorset Ukip parliamentary candidate David Glossop: ‘We have unique tourism because our landscape is unique. I will help the industries of West Dorset be promoted within Parliament.’

We will be asking all the candidates in South and West Dorset about the issues that matter to voters in the county and trying to give the electorate an insight into their priorities before they go to the ballot box on Thursday, May 7.

Today we hear from West Dorset Ukip parliamentary candidate David Glossop.

How do you propose to make the voice of Dorset people heard in Parliament?

I think I can have rather a loud voice. There are certain issues that are particular to West Dorset. We have a fishing industry that has been terribly treated since 1975 when the Common Fisheries Policy was brought in, without vote, to the decimation of our fish stocks and our fishing industry.

We have unique tourism because our landscape is unique. I will help the industries of West Dorset be promoted within Parliament. We’re looking for national tourism and international tourism, therefore we have to protect those parts of West Dorset that are so endearing to the tourists, such as our landscape.

People don’t come here to see our beautiful landscape covered in wind turbines and lovely arable farmland covered in solar panels. I would do my upmost to return West Dorset to the appearance that we want to make tourists welcome.

Is enough being done at a national government level to support rural economies like Dorset?

No. Communication is vital and yet an insufficient amount is being done for transportation and an insufficient amount is being done for telephones. Many people utilise satellite television as a means of their leisure. So we can get Sky television but we can’t get a mobile telephone signal.

The signal is dangerously ineffectual and it is no point in saying that ‘x’ per cent of population are within the signal range when so many vital things to our economy can be without communication at a vital moment.

How will you protect frontline services such as the NHS and policing in the county?

Ukip are going to provide an extra £3bn immediately and this is to go to frontline services for nurses, midwives and surgeons. This is merely how we’re going to start.

I know the medical staff of Dorset County Hospital and the Bridport Community Hospital are first-class but it is the whole system of management, top down, that is the weakness of the NHS.

How can we have chief executives and senior administrators paid so much more than the people they administer? [And] of all the West Country police forces, Dorset has lost the greatest percentage of uniformed policemen. Virtually 90 per cent over the past government have gone. We now have fewer policemen per head of population than any time in the past 100 years.

Recent years have seen cuts to many services in Dorset, would you expect to see more cuts or less during the next Parliament if your party is successful in the elections?

It is incredibly unlikely we will be forming the next Government. However, we may well be in a position to influence the next Government.

The nation has had five years of austerity and that in itself has not obviously succeeded because year after year we’ve had more financial cuts and there hasn’t been one aspect of public life that has not been very badly hit.

Why is it [...]that seven months ago we were still living in the land of austerity and since then the Government has been finding all sorts of financial give-away bribes?

The public are not stupid. The public know that the last Government took office with an incredibly bad financial situation left by Labour. Difficult decisions were made. I’m not convinced they were the right decisions.

We would want to see cost-saving measures through things like amalgamation of the fire services, as Dorset is doing. I’d like to see simplification in our NHS. We have to [look at] just what our money is being spent on.

Dorset, like much of the country, has an ageing population, what problems does this pose for Government and what do you propose to do to reflect the changing demographic?

Ageism has two effects on the Government. We have an increasingly politically-aware younger generation which demands services and assistance in its own right. However we look at it, they are in the minority compared with the ageing population.

One of the problems of ageism is the increase in dementia and Alzheimer’s. Ukip wants to give at least £1.5m a year directly towards Alzheimer’s research [...] I am personally aware of the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s on ageing people. I have a mother-in- law who spends half the year living with us with advanced Alzheimer’s. It is the cruellest disease for which we must strive to find an answer. I would like to see social care and health care combined and that will be a Ukip policy. You combine them to make sure aged people, who have completed hospital care, aren’t bed-blocking because there’s no social care to look after them. If an elderly person has to leave their home or family home then it means we must make sure there is plenty of affordable alternative accommodation.

What would you do to improve the life chances and career opportunities of young people in Dorset?

University is not the golden solution for everyone. Industry is saying it doesn’t matter what level of degree you have, if the degree isn’t industry-related they’re not interested. We have to get all secondary and tertiary education geared to what industry and future employers require.

We should consider reinstating technical colleges to facilitate apprenticeships.

n When you have been out on the doorstep talking to voters, what has been the main issue raised by the electorate?

One issue is animal welfare in a whole range of qualifications. One is specifically about pets. The other aspect is about farms. The issue of badgers has occurred. Pretty much equal in numbers to that is the concern people have on tax-dodging. They have increasingly asked would I support a tax dodging bill, to which I will always argue yes.

If you felt strongly about a local issue, would you be prepared to vote against your party line?

I would. Ukip maintains that we are a common sense party. If a solution is common sense, then I can’t see anyone not wanting to vote accordingly. If there was a subject raised which I felt strongly should not be supported, I would not support it.

Readers’ questions

What will your party do to make sure young people are engaged in politics? (Sarah Trott, aged 13) Stop the quality of debate that has brought politics into discredit. There is too much ranting, shouting and raving in Westminster. That undoubtedly turns people off.

Experience brings a better understanding of what the issues are. When you are at school, your experience of life tends to be that displayed by your parents and teachers.

It is important for all politicians, be they district or parliamentary, that they meet face-to-face with youngsters who want to discuss any aspect of politics.

If you had to make a choice between what’s right for our country’s economy, defence, the NHS, education or the unemployment rate. What would you prioritise first and why? (Nick Mason) To me, it doesn’t matter how important health, education, law and order are, it all equates to nothing if you don’t have a defence force capable of guaranteeing our freedoms. I believe that defence does remain the first priority of any government.