08:22 Thursday 28th April 2011
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
PAUL STAINTON: Now UKIP could pick up their first ever Council seat in Peterborough in the coming local elections. They’ve got the third highest number of candidates in the city with ten. One of them is Robin Talbot, UKIP candidate for the Orton Longueville ward. Good morning Robin.
ROBIN TALBOT: Good morning to you.
PAUL STAINTON: Confident?
ROBIN TALBOT: Very confident. Very very confident indeed. Yes.
PAUL STAINTON: Why is that?
ROBIN TALBOT: We’re getting a lot of good feedback when we’re out on the streets, so more members are joining up as we’re out campaigning. We’re on a real roll.
PAUL STAINTON: Can you remind everybody what you’re standing for, and what you don’t stand for.
ROBIN TALBOT: This is all about local politics. So what we’re standing up for is democracy for the local people, on the ground. It’s nothing to do with European issues. It’s nothing to do with national issues. This is all about the local environment. We want to cut down on anti-social behaviour. We want a zero tolerance. We want more police on the streets. And you’ll always see a UKIP councillor, where we have them at the moment, out on the streets, with the people, talking to the people. And that is the way we see going forward, which is why our membership is growing quite rapidly, and why we’ve been able to put so many candidates forward this summer.
PAUL STAINTON: You’ve got a high-profile incumbent in Graham Murphy of course, a former Cabinet member on Peterborough City Council, who left the Conservatives for the English Democrats. Are you confident you can overturn him?
ROBIN TALBOT: Absolutely. The English Democrats at the Oldham and Saddleworth by-election were beaten by the Monster Raving Loony Party, so we’re not really too worried about the English Democrats. We’re not particularly worried about any of the other parties either. We have our own policies. We’ve brought out a manifesto for this local election, which has been taken very well by the people who’ve received them. Anybody that hasn’t can always go to the UKIP dot org website and download it from there.
PAUL STAINTON: You mention you’re not standing on any of the main UKIP fundamentals, if you like. Why stand for UKIP at all then?
ROBIN TALBOT: Because UKIP has a totally radical view of the local councils. They believe power comes from down to up, not as the other parties, who have established over the decades and the years that it’s a top-down from Westminster, feeding to the local people, usually quite removed from the environment that they’re talking about. Whereas we are very much driven at a local base. So we do have our key issue that there is an awful lot of money available down there to fund things by withdrawing from Europe, but that is not what we’re standing for in the local elections. We are local people, on the ground, doing local good works. And most of them are out there now. And they see the opportunity here where we’re making common-sense things, and our policies, and saving money and cutting down on crime make sense.
PAUL STAINTON: Yes. Any why more candidates? How come you’ve got ten candidates in Peterborough? That’s a lot, isn’t it?
ROBIN TALBOT: It’s very good. Yes. It’s more than the Liberal Democrats, the Liberals, the Independents. More than them combined. So yes, it’s just happened that we’re on a roll. We came second in Barnsley by-election, beating the main parties except for the Labour candidate, and it was a strong Labour area. As we’ve been out on the streets canvassing, and keeping people informed of where your money’s going, people have said I like the sound of that. And I’ve been stopping, talking on lawns, people have been joining up the Party, asking how they can stand, how they can help. We are on a real roll.
PAUL STAINTON: Just quickly Robin, if you get a seat, or maybe two, who will you work with in Peterborough City Council? The Conservatives?
ROBIN TALBOT: No. What we’ll do is if there’s a common-sense approach coming from any Party, we’ll support that. There’s also the Independent Forum, where we’re more than willing to work with them. But as for getting a couple of seats, I’d like to think we might get four or five, which will put us as the main opposition political party in Peterborough, and we will be working independently, but supporting any good decisions, and giving the local people the choice on what happens in our local community. So we will be working for them.
PAUL STAINTON: Yes, OK. We got that message Robin. Thank you for that. We’ve got it three or four times. Robin Talbot, UKIP candidate for the Orton Longueville ward. The other candidates standing there, Graham Murphy for the English Democrats, Graham Casey for the Conservatives, and Lisa Forbes for the Labour Party.
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