Cameron Direct in Ballymena

Conservative Party leader David Cameron visited Ballymena today as part of his Cameron Direct series of engagements. He also came to help campaign for Jim Nicholson in the Euro eletions.

From the minute he walked in the pace was fast, energetic and his delivery was to the point and did not duck any issues that were brought up. It was refreshing to see a political leader stand before the people and take questions without any fore warning. The questions ranged from European elections, Lady Sylvia Hermon, Health, Education, expenses, victims and the passing of his son Ivan.

On Sinn Fein he stated that MPs should not receive exspenses unless they took their seats at Westminster. He stated that he was happy that Sinn Fein had changed and become part of the government in Nrthern Ireland. Cameron said that he sometimes found this hard to take as the IRA had murdered his friend Ian Gow MP when he was a researcher in Westminster.

Alot of his talk focused on bringing Northern Ireland into mainstream UK politics. In his remarks on victims he recgnised the pain that they had gone through but felt encouraged by those who could see a better future for Northern Ireland beyond their pain.

Health and education were he stated devolved issues in Northern Ireland and he was happy that they were. On education he stated that he could not see why changes to the system (11+) were needed and he supported grammar schools stating that pupils here were 10% more succesful than in his own constituency. On health he said that there should be a national debate on the issue to focus spending priorities.

On the economy he said that the last budget was wrong from start to finish and that the Prime Minister was tired and out of touch.

Cameron said that the recent expenses scandal would have come to public attention in July when the figures were supposed to be published. He has instigated a root and branch examination of his party colleagues expenses through a new scrutiny panel. Anyone who did not co-operate with the panel would have the Whip removed and no longer be a Conservative MP.

Then he was off to further engagements. Overall the 60minutes were an interesting insight into the mind of the man most likely to be the next Prime Minister. It would be interesting to see if Prime Minister Brown would engage in similar activity in Northern Ireland.