What would win your vote?

The pensioner

The idea of a national care service, as suggested by Labour, has grabbed John Hilton’s attention.

But the chair of the York Older People’s Assembly fears it might become little more than a political football.

“It will be knocked around in the context of the election then end up in the long grass afterwards,” he said.

He is also concerned about pensioner poverty. “There are an awful lot of older people living in poverty even in an apparently affluent city like York. I’d like to see positive action there.

“All the parties have the mechanism to make a real difference to pensioners’ lives.

“We are growing in numbers and are all eligible to vote. Through The Press and other media, older people are increasingly aware and concerned about what’s going on in the world around them.

“I am really keen in the assembly to get past this popular view of older people as victims who are often a financial burden to the state.

“Older people actually have an awful lot to contribute.”

• York Older People’s Assembly will be hosting a Q&A with the four main candidates for the York Central parliamentary seat on Monday, April 19, at 2pm at the Friends Meeting House, York.

The street cleaner

Paul Willey, a supervisor with the city council’s street cleaning team, has voted Labour all his life.

But he is so furious about the whole MPs expenses scandal that he isn’t going to vote at all this time. It’s a plague on all their houses, he says.

“It will be the first time I’ve not voted.

“But I just don’t see the point. They talk the talk, but they don’t follow it through.

“They are all in it for themselves.”

He is incensed at the way well-paid MPs ripped ordinary taxpayers off. “If I was to rip the council off, I would lose my job. They ripped us all off, and they’re still there.”

Paul thinks it is time for a root and branch reform of our political system, and a complete change in the people who run the country.

“There needs to be a total rethink,” he said.

“Get some ordinary people off the street to run the country. They would do a better job!”

He thinks there are a lot of people who are as disillusioned as him about politics. “Who is there to vote for?” he said. “

The mum

Mum-of-two Kildip James, from Clifton, York, says education is her main priority.

“I have two young children at school. I want more money to be spent on education and better facilities.

“Healthcare is very important to me too. When I had my children, I just didn’t want to stay in hospital.

“I can’t blame the doctors or nurses, but there are not enough facilities and too many independent people from agencies doing cleaning. It’s just wrong.

“I’d also like more investment on trains and public transport. I want people to use public transport more as it is so much better for the environment.

“I’m also concerned about the war: I want our troops out now.

“I will probably vote Labour again as I have always voted Labour and don’t want the Conservatives to get in.

“I don’t think they really care and I don’t think Cameron comes across as very genuine. I’m not totally enamoured with Brown, he’s the best of a bad bunch.

“If David Miliband came forward, I wouldn’t hesitate to vote for him.”

The businesswoman

The economy, stupid, is the issue that is going to dominate the election as far as York businesswoman Denise Howard is concerned.

Denise, a partner in Smiles Property and director of Holgate Property, says politicians have to demonstrate real leadership and bring confidence back into the business world as we struggle to recover from the recession.

“And it has to be more than spin,” she said. “We’re not just looking for a figurehead. We’re looking for a government that can take control.”

This election will be all about the economy, about recovery, about keeping jobs, and about allowing small businesses to flourish, she said.

What is crippling small businesses at the moment is the lack of access to funds at competitive interest rates.

“It is all very well the banks saying the money is there, but at what cost?” How to get banks lending again, and how to balance the need to reduce debt with the need to maintain the recovery, protect jobs, and preserve the skills of workers like those at Jarvis, is a hugely tough question, she admitted. “But that’s why I’m not the prime minister.”

None of the speakers in the ‘chancellors debate’ really shone for her.

But she admitted that she wasn’t impressed by Labour plans to raise National Insurance contributions. “It’s a tax by any other name: a tax on jobs. Avoiding that would be preferable.”

The veteran

The burning issue for retired army major Ted Walker is better treatment for soldiers who have returned from active duty.

Mr Walker is still waiting for an inquest into the death of his son, Terry, a veteran of the First Gulf War, who developed post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and gulf war syndrome.

Terry died aged 48 in 2007 shortly after a failed heart transplant. His parents firmly believe he only needed the operation because of his years of ill health.

Mr Walker still loves the army. But the way ill and injured soldiers are treated when they return from duty is unacceptable, he says. The MoD simply has not been “holding up its side of the bargain with soldiers after they have come back from war zones.

“Once somebody has come out of the army they are just left alone. The NHS is not equipped to understand the problems that soldiers have with PTSD.”

Mr Walker does not believe British soldiers should be pulled out of Afghanistan, however. “We are out there for a very good reason: the security of this country,” he said.

Unless the Taliban are tackled they will continue to export terrorism across the world, he said – including to the UK.

The financial adviser

Stuart Matheson, a financial adviser with York consultancy Grosvenor, has drawn up his own election ‘wish list’.

Top of the list is for politicians to rein in the banks. “The current bail-out has privatised the profits that they make while nationalising the losses. They now have no moral hazard.” Irrespective of who wins, it is also vital for the level of national debt to be addressed. “If we don’t then this will ultimately have a greater negative effect on the economy,” Mr Matheson said.

“Who would you prefer to lend your money to – someone who you know looks after their money well or to someone who has borrowed more and more, and even created money from thin air by way of quantitative easing?”

Public sector waste also needs to be tackled, he says. “While 1,440 private-sector workers lost their jobs every day last year, the number of state employees rose by 126 a day. A record 6.09 million now work for the public sector – equal to more than one-in-five of the entire workforce. This has continued to rise over the years and is at an unsustainable and unhealthy level.”

Apart from that, what he hopes for from the election is a new intake of politicians who tell the truth and have our best interests at heart. “I know that some probably do exist already but there are too many that don’t,” he said.

He would also like to see voters registering their distrust of the main two political parties in particular by voting for good independent candidates where they have them locally.

The political commentator

What politicians have to realise is that not everyone is as interested in politics as they are, says former political sketchwriter Edward Pearce, who lives near Easingwold.

Mr Pearce, who spent 30 years as a columnist and House of Commons sketchwriter for some national newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, said politicians were too ready to get caught up in political sniping and infighting.

“They forget that we’re not as interested in the quarrels between parties as they are.”

If they are to engage with voters, they also need to learn not just to trot out the party line all the time, Mr Pearce said.

Michael Gove, the Tory shadow schools secretary and a man Mr Pearce generally admires, was at it the other day.

“He was saying the Conservatives stood for change, and Labour for continuation, just reciting the party line. I turned the TV off.”

Above all, what politicians must not do over the next few weeks is underestimate the voters, Mr Pearce said.

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats’ shadow chancellor, demonstrated in the ‘chancellors debate’ that being honest and not speaking down to the electorate can work.

He won the debate, and he did it by presenting rational, sensible arguments, Mr Pearce said. “People respect that, even if not everybody agrees with what is being said.”

• Mr Pearce will be writing a weekly column for The Press as part of our election coverage from next week.