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The following letter was published in the Darlington and Stockton Times on 1st November 2024
Aspirations
I grew up like many in our constituency – in council housing, with Christmas stockings mostly filed with tangerines and only recall one childhood family holiday, to Wales.
However, my parents installed in me the values of hard work and responsibility.
I studied hard, earned top grades, and built a successful career in international business.
Today, I run my own management consultancy.
Starting with nothing I chose to save and invest rather than spend frivolously, hoping to give my children a better start.
Yet recent statements from the Prime Minister suggest he opposes people like me – those who’ve worked hard to build assets.
Claiming that asset owners aren’t “real” workers undermines the incentive of hard work.
I now feel targeted by Sir Keir Starmer, yet my working-class background is a testament toto what hard work can achieve. If Labour no longer represents people like me and the Conservatives cater only to their own, then voices like mine are silenced in today’s political landscape.
Fortunately, I’ve found a new political home in Reform UK, the fastest-growing party in British history, with over 92.000 members.
In a village hall in Appleton Wiske on October 21, a group of 62 local members, including business owners, farmers, veterans, engineers, doctors and carers, elected our first Richmond and Northallerton committee members, launching our pilot branch for the constituency.
As Interim Chairman, I would like your readers to know that Reform UK is very much here and not going away and is the only party that will rigorously defend the aspirations of both workers and entrepreneurs.
Matthew Cooke
Interim Chairman, Reform UK Pilot Branch
Richmond and Northallerton
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Matthew,
I empathise fully with you, your history and your achievements.
I, too, was born in relatively humble surroundings, the back-to-back streets of Darlington. I went to University and then pushed hard in Sales and Marketing roles until I became the Sales and Marketing Director of a small, technology company in Teesside. I then progressed to marketing significant leading-edge engineering management systems before entering the Management Consulting field. My focus was on processes and people in change programmes, working for many major corporations. I finished working life as an Associate Director at Arup in London.
I am now retired, probably with too much time to think, and despairing of the last Government (I voted Tory all my life) and positively worried about the damage occurring with the present shower of incompetents.
I did write a comment to Reform centrally regarding the Labour abuse of the concept of “Change”. They refer to it in terms that indicate that it is a destination in itself. The BBC lead with titles, such as “Six takeaways from Keir Starmer’s ‘plan for change'”. Most all of the stuff spewed out gives very general descriptors for what any change is doing and often seems to promote “Change” as the goal itself. Change is a process of moving from one state to another. It does require a plan but it is a plan for a journey, and as I know only too well from my mountaineering days, a journey needs a clear destination and a clear understanding of our present location (position). The steps for this journey can then be plotted. I don’t see any clarity of definition of destination from Labour and I don’t think that a £20 billion black hole is a useful description for a starting point. I learned that defining a destination should describe the state one wishes to reach. It paints a picture of “what good looks like”. This description should not contain verbs. Verbs imply actions. Actions are used in the journey.
It’s all dead simple stuff and I like simple. Our Politicians to date always seem to want to complicate and obfuscate.
I’m sure I’ve bored you enough as you probably know all this. It’s probably my frustration at seeing the country’s decline that drives me to write and Oh!, how I could go on. Anyway, you’re certainly not alone around here and I wish you well with Reform in the area.
Many regards
Ron Barker