LETTERS
From Mark Chiverton (prospective parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party), Ryde:
I AM sure everyone on the Island will welcome the news the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) has allocated a further £7.4 million to GKN to assist in creating its new research and development centre at East Cowes.
This significant investment by the government, through SEEDA, is clearly extremely important in ensuring the IW can retain its reputation as a key centre for technological development and is particularly essential in retaining a highly skilled workforce on the Island. The retention of these skills is plainly vital to the future wellbeing of the Island economy, as well as being good news for the UK aerospace sector as a whole.
Given the way in which SEEDA has invested heavily in Island industry in recent years, it is particularly worrying the Conservative Party now appears intent on abolishing regional development agencies in favour of a reversion to an ideologically driven free market philosophy.
Such an approach would plainly be disastrous to the future of relatively disadvantaged economic areas, such as the Island, and hopefully the electorate will decisively reject the Tories and this latest example of their economically muddled and socially divisive agenda.
From Ray Ealey, Ryde:
The future: A great number of people know Mark Chiverton would make a fine MP for the Island — hard working, fair, dedicated to make things better on the Island.
Not tarnished like many Tory councillors with the "What’s in it for me" syndrome.
The Tories are saying "Time for change". Yes, it is time for the Island to have a new, hard-working MP. Mark Chiverton is the man for that.