Put your questions to Eric Pickles

dennis

Does the Conservative Party need a well-upholstered new chairman, untainted by nanny-scandal, and equipped to carry the fight into the Pennine towns and Northern cities?

Victoria Street

Interesting how Tory ShadCabbers are happy to put themselves up for Qs&As on here and elsewhere, yet there are never any Labour CabMinisters out there answering questions. The government only ever puts up second rankers like McNulty and Lewis.
Poor dears, anyone would think they were scared of the public.

Victoria Street

Question for Eric:
Devolving power downwards from Westminster doesn't mean that the blame can always be devolved downwards. Are you prepared for the inevitable slew of critical media that is an inevitable result of letting go the reins? Can you resist the temptation to intervene? Can you take the pressure of Labour and LibDem authorities demanding central government action to pay for their local mistakes?

David H

Given the state of the nation's perception towards Labour and the current government, how much of this, in your view, was a factor in deciding a Conservative victory?

Richard Holloway

What would your advice be to those attempting to reinvigorate an old accociation and put it onto a more campaigning foothold?

Richard Nabavi

Do you think that the introduction of the Cabinet system into local government (Local Government Act 2000) has worked out well? If not, what improvements should be made?

Wily Trout

Question for Eric:
How do you propose to cope with the embedded idiocy of the 'Local Authorities' who have been recruiting selectively from the die-hard politically correct left wing for over a decade now?

Tiberius

Do you have a formula which you feel will lead to successful integration of minorities into mainsteam, host communities, simultaneously leading them away from destructive influences?

Roger Storer

Why is it that you spend your time kicking local councils that are under your control. As a conservative councillor myself I find it very demoralising and depressing when hard work we are trying to use is getting kicked around as a political football. Rather than cause our residents to hate us - you should be helping us! Our tory members in our area are starting to feel that they dont want to campaign for the party anymore because of your attacks on us!

Elizabeth Elliot-Pyle

Is there anything that any of us can do to make any sort of difference?
We are in despair.

Nicholas

No question, but just a comment observing that Wily Trout's question is a good one.

Have some experience of this myself and the recruitment practices need a thorough overhaul to put a stop to the current negative discrimination against anyone without the correct political credentials and the institutional prejudice against public sector expertise being brought in.

Ray

Eric - Will a future Conservative Government have go at one-and-for-all sorting out the powers, responsibilities and funding of local authorities in such a way that councils once again raise the bulk of the money they spend themselves (and hence councillors can be held more fully accountable for the way it is spent)?

Michael Sweeney

What evidence do you have to support your clsim that the voluntary sector is more succesful at tackling worklessness? Do you agree that welfare problems are structural (in terms of lack of conditionality for claimants), rather than based on playing off the state/private/voluntary sectors against each other?

Teledu

Most voters are, despite what our politicians seem to think, grown up, and can handle bad news. Will the Conservatives be grown up enough to tell us that taxes will have to rise whoever wins the next election. No spin, no sheen, no equivication. Will you give it to us straight?

Silent Hunter

How are you going to deal with all the New Labour 'embedded' senior civil servants in all departments of government?

Won't they be a drag anchor in your efforts to get this country back on its feet after 11 years of Labour misrule?

Verity

No, Silent Hunter, not if you reevaluate every government job created over the past decade with the intention of slashing the number by around 98%.

Tiberius, there is only one minority that has a large chunk that hasn't integrated and my solution to people who have failed to integrate is to agree with them that they would be happier elsewhere and pay their passage out. Even the a small emolument. All they would have to do in return is provide a sample of their DNA and a retinal photo.

Phil

What was the name of the dog that found the stolen World Cup in 1966?

Silent Hunter

Bloody hell! Mr Pickles....that was a fast response to my question! :O)

But why are you calling yourself...Verity?

I didn't figure you for some one with 'gender issues' LOL ;O)

Silent Hunter

Phil:

Wasn't it Rover of the Rovers?

David Parker

Are Regional Assemblies cost effective, worthwhile or compatible with Tory local government policy?

David H

Would a future Conservative government put in place measures to prevent such deceptive, off-balance sheet borrowing as has been executed by the worst chancellor in our history.

nicodemus31

Hello Eric, my question is, will the next Conservative governmant abolish the appalling "Communities Minister" & replace it with the perfectly workaday "Local Government Minister"?

By, the way Phil, I believe the canine to which you refer was named "Pickles"... Why didn't you test Mr Pickles's general knowledge further & ask him where the dog found the trophy? :)

Commondog

It wasn't a dog it was a eagle what found it called Goldie.

BorisforPM

Eric, the Crewe and Nantwich result was an astounding one which attracted masses of support from activists and officers of the Conservative party. All their hard work, no doubt, contributed to the result. But that was a by-election. In the coming general election, each constituency won't have that sort of manpower. What is the single most important strategic change that can be made to the campaigns for the general election?

TGF UKIP

Q1) Mr Pickles, for you to have achieved such a swing in Crewe & Nantwich must have meant in such a constituency that a great many C2s and DEs who were previous Labour supporters changed sides and voted Tory. Did you do any research on what their expectations of the Tories was that, in addition to wanting to give Labour and Gordon a kicking, motivated them to vote Tory.

In short, did they believe they were voting for a Tory Party that was tough on immigration and crime and believed in slashing government spending and taxes or for a Tory Party that was extremely concerned with the "broken society" was ultra green and politically correct and believed in high levels of government services and spending with taxes to match.

TGF UKIP

Q2) Having lived in Yorksire for the past 23 years, my time here encompasses the period of Eric Pickles' reign as Conservative Leader of Bradford City Council and according to all the reports in the Yorkshire Post a splendidly robust, conservative and combative Tory Leader he was too!

My question, therefore, Mr Pickles, is what on earth is a sound, no-nonsense, provincial, conservative Tory like you doing with a bunch of liberal, politically correct, metropolitan social democrats like that?

Daniel Corbett

Hundreds of councils have now moved to a system where recylable waste gets collected one week, and landfill rubbish the other. It's been a great success - recycling rates have soared in the areas that have done it and most of the councils involved are Tory. So why are you persistently hell bent on undermining the good work of your own councillors by slagging this off in the press at every opportunity? You say it's the Government that has forced these policies on councils, but Conservatives on the LGA don't agree with you. Care to explain?