MANDY JONES AM: My Priorities As YOUR New AM.

Firstly, I would like to thank UKIP voters for their votes, as they have put me in this position. It is an honour to be in a position to work for the people of my constituency, in the Assembly, whichever way they voted and get their voices heard.  I spoke to many people during my campaign that felt the Assembly is all for South Wales and the rest of Wales doesn’t get much compared to the South, so I can now be the voice of North Wales and seek to ensure that the Assembly works as it should for all of Wales. 

My priorities are:

1) Super Fast Broadband. 

Wales needs to be digital here and now, poor phone lines and poor broadband in this day and age is appalling and massively detrimental to economic growth. I have some personal experience of this, fibre optic cables were fitted outside my home, over 7 years ago, yet the broadband remains very poor quality as the lines haven’t been switched over yet.  I’m still on an old exchange, in the middle of a field and broadband stops regularly. My daughter’s boyfriend can’t get signal at home or work yet has to pay £21 per month for a nonexistent service with EE, yet O2 and Orange cancelled my son’s contract, when he couldn’t get a signal, no questions asked!!!

2) Championing Brexit In The Assembly

Wales voted Leave by a clear majority. It is time for the Welsh Assembly to stop obstructing the will of the people it was elected to represent as it is clearly trying to do under the sway of Labour and Plaid Cymru.  Brexit is a huge opportunity for Wales and the UK to grow more of our own food, control our fishing waters and make our own laws, deregulate and govern ourselves,  make laws to support business and entrepreneurs to return to top table for trade, environment and business regulations to increase local economic growth with competitive tax rates to grow jobs and prosperity.

3) Growing A Pro-Business, Low Tax Economy.

Small businesses in Wales need the help of the Assembly. Lower rents and rates will create more local jobs, especially in town centres, with free parking to encourage more footfall, away from out of town superstores and online shopping, which is killing our town centres.

4) Funding STEM subjects. 

We need to stand on our own two feet as a nation and to do this we need to train up our own scientists, technicians, engineers, mathematicians and medical staff for our health service. In the long term, we need to decrease the need for expensive agency staff, which is a massive drain on our NHS which is being badly mismanaged by the Labour administration. So much for being the Party of the NHS. Anyone who believes that oft-repeated lie by Mr Corbyn is welcome to come to Wales to see the truth. It will also create meaningful jobs for our young people.

5) Housing. 

The housing sector needs massive improvement, for example, bringing buildings back into a good state of repair to use as local, affordable housing. It would be good to tidy up empty buildings and would be cheaper to turn these into housing, rather than see them empty, local councils could relax planning laws to bring some commercial properties, back into use.