Melksham and Devizes

Malcolm Cupis

Parliamentary spokesman
melkshamanddevizes@reformuk.com

Malcolm grew up in Melksham and went to Aloeric Primary School and George Ward Comprehensive before his family emigrated to South Africa in 1983. 

Malcolm returned in 1989 and became Editor of Melksham News before establishing himself as a Public Relations consultant and moving to London. 

In his career Malcolm became a Senior Consultant with both of the world's two largest PR companies and spent several years working in the Middle East. 

He moved back to the area in 2019 and he lives in Keevil with his wife, Caroline. In his spare time Malcolm restores classic motorcycles and cars, is a passionate supporter of Bath Rugby and Somerset County Cricket and enjoys long country walks with his dogs.

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Melksham and Devizes

Melksham and Devizes is geographically a very large constituency, created ahead of the next general election by the Boundaries Commission review. The constituency includes the villages of Box and Colerne in the North West, the market towns of Bradford-on-Avon in the West, Melksham in the Centre and Devizes in the East, parts of Calne in the North East and Market Lavington in the South East. In total, at the last census, there were 71,823 voters in the constituency, covering 19 electoral wards.

Devizes has pretty much adopted a blanket 20mph speed limit on its roads this week. There will be consequences...

As reported in the Gazette and Herald today, Devizes has pretty much adopted a blanket 20mph speed limit on its roads this week.

https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/24324118.20mph-speed-limits-implemented-key-wiltshire-roads/

Up until now Devizes has resisted following the example of other towns in the area, notably Melksham and Trowbridge in particular. It has maintained 30mph speed limits and kept decent amounts of time limited free on street parking.

The effect of this is that Devizes has been able to comparatively maintain much of its identity, it has kept independent shops and remained an attractive shopping destination as a result. People who come in to shop also use leisure facilities and spend money in pubs and restaurants.

Sadly now it seems as if all this has started to change and Devizes is destined to go the same way as other places around. It is likely that footfall will reduce, shops will close and Devizes will end up being yet another place where cyclists can pedal merrily up and down deserted streets past boarded up shopfronts.

To clearly make the point...

Our party policy is to end the war on motorists.

We will remove all 20mph limits, other than temporary ones outside schools at arrival and departure times.

We will ban all ULEZ and RPZ schemes.

We will take out bus lanes and cycle lanes.

We will restore all the car parking spaces that have been removed and urge towns to go back to free car parking to encourage people back into town centres.

We will slash fuel taxes and we will dump net zero, removing the ban on the sale of petrol cars.

We will make road maintenance a priority. Potholes kill people, especially cyclists and motorcyclists.

The trade off for this is that we would also invest in policing and increase the penalties on irresponsible people who break laws, cause accidents and kill.

Motorists are not a cash cow to be endlessly milked for money. Cars and motorcycles are vital tools, especially in a largely rural constituency like ours.

Politicians need to remember they are elected to serve, not elected to inflict their dogma on constituents.

We are supposed to help people live their lives, not block them, frustrate them, criminalise them and find ever more ways of taking money from them.

The left will, of course, claim all of this is necessary to combat “climate change”.

We have to keep reminding people that this is simply a lie. The truth is this country produces less than one per cent of all global harmful emissions.

Do you know how much CO2 is in the atmosphere?

About 0.04 per cent. Scientists estimate it has increased from around 0.03 per cent in the last 200 years and that manmade activity accounts for about 12 per cent of the increase.

Private transport emissions account for a tiny percentage of 12 per cent of 0.04 per cent of one per cent.

China alone increases its emissions by more than the entire output of the UK every 12 months.

It makes absolutely no difference to the climate what vehicle you drive.

The Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems all have identical policies on all this and many other things.

Their policies INCREASE congestion and pollution and contribute greatly to turning High Streets into ghost towns.

Studies show no benefits in safety.

We are the only party that tells the truth and stands up for motorists and small businesses.

Gazette and Herald article underlines the need for our own hospital

The desperate need for our own hospital has been underlined by a story that has appeared in the Gazette and Herald today.

https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/24307261.great-western-hospital-traffic-blamed-anpr-car-park/?cmpid=cmt 

People in the West and South of our constituency have the Royal United Hospital in Bath as their designated General Hospital.

People in the North and East have the Great Western in Swindon.

The need for a General Hospital of our own isn't just driven by the dire state of affairs relating to the Royal United, it is a similar story with the Great Western.

It is massively over-subscribed, waiting lists are awful and the local Council has deliberately engineered it to be difficult and expensive to access for people who cannot get there by public transport or on a bicycle.

We must have our own hospital. Constituents need and deserve rapid and convenient access to top class healthcare facilities. The system is overloaded by demand and failing - there has not been anything like enough investment in essential infrastructure to support the increase in population and housebuilding continues unabated.

If you haven't already, please sign this petition and circulate it to friends and family on your social media.

And if you can please register on the Gazette and Herald website and add a comment supporting my call for our own hospital to be built. It will be of equal benefit to all the people in the Bath and Swindon catchment areas because it will add capacity and reduce waiting lists.

https://www.change.org/p/central-wiltshire-needs-its-own-general-hospital/ 

Image courtesy of Newsquest 

Labour defecting "Conservatives" underline the need for Reform

Having been out delivering leaflets all morning I've just come home to the news that another Conservative MP has defected to Labour.

Being (small c) conservative means something. You cannot be a conservative and not hold core conservative values. The Conservative Party historically understood this very clearly. It started to lose sight of them under John Major and completed that under David Cameron and Theresa May.

Politics is not like football. You don't put on a different coloured shirt and change your tactics just to win at all costs. In politics you fight for what you believe.

Conservatives at core are classical liberals and believe in small state, person freedom, low taxation, law and order, free market economics, sovereignty and patriotism. They abhor statism and collectivism in all its shades, clunking fist legislation, high taxation, limitations on freedom, government interventionism and bureaucracy.

That's why EU membership was always incompatible with core conservative values. It's another layer of self serving, self perpetuating bureaucracy designed to impose conformity on an entire continent. You can't be a conservative and support the EU and you can't be a conservative and feel that you have anything in common at all with the Labour Party.

By crossing the floor this MP shows she never held conservative values. She is a charlatan. She believes in nothing but herself and her own career.

This is everything that is wrong with the Conservative Party and wider politics now. Self obsessed careerist MPs who believe in nothing and have forgotten they are elected to serve, not elected to rule.

The Parliamentary Conservative Party is now stuffed full of these people.

The message you all need to take out to your friends and contacts is simple. There is nothing conservative about the modern Conservative Party. Just as there is nothing Liberal or Democratic about the Liberal Democrats and just as the Labour Party holds the working classes in contempt.

If you want a political party that you can trust to hold core conservative values you have to vote for Reform UK.

This has been quite a week in politics - and it's not over yet!

This has been quite a week in politics.

First we had the ECHR showing its true colours by ruling that the Swiss government is guilty of failing to protect its citizens by not adopting its preferred radical policies on "climate change".

Then we had a salutary reminder of exactly why we were right to vote to leave the EU with the Belgian Police breaking up a meeting of elected Conservative politicians in Brussels, just as Nigel Farage was addressing them.

We have had the latest illegal immigration figures showing that Channel crossings are already 20 per cent up on last year.

We have discovered that the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party is being investigated for several different alleged offences by a Police Force that is commanded by a Labour PCC and a Labour Mayor.

Another Conservative MP has lost the whip after being accused of behaviour that is frankly beyond belief and finally the husband of former Scottish Nationalist leader Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested and charged with embezzling £600,000 in donations.

At the end of all this we learn from polls that the Conservative vote may be down to its lowest level in 60 years, Rishi Sunak is personally polling at the same level that Jeremy Corbyn reached before the last general election and our polling remains steadily on the increase. We are the only major party in the country that can boast this.

So, time to put our feet up, crack open a beer and enjoy some welcome sunshine? Not a bit of it. We're meeting at The Pilot, Bowerhill (https://thepilotbowerhill.com/) at 11.30am on Saturday 20th April. Come along and hear what we are up to locally, ask me whatever questions you would like answers to and then, if you fancy a bit of a sunny Saturday afternoon stroll, join us to deliver leaflets to the good citizens of that fine part of Melksham.

Lee Anderson announcement
- my reaction

I am delighted to hear that Lee Anderson has this morning become the first Reform UK MP.

Throughout his career Lee has shown himself to be a free-thinking person with real convictions who is not afraid to voice his opinion.

Being a Conservative means something. There are core values attached to Conservatism.

Politics is not football. You don't change tactics just to try to win votes. You hold core values and convictions and you fight for them.

The Conservative Party hasn't just eschewed many core values, it actively shows contempt for them and for supporters and members who maintain them.

The Conservative Party has manoeuvred itself into a political void by desperately trying to win votes at any cost.

Voters should ask themselves if they are happy with what the Conservative Party stands for now and the way it has run the country for the last few years.

If they are, of course they should go ahead and vote for them. I guarantee that people who feel that way are now in a tiny minority.

If not then why vote for more of the same?

Clearly Lee Anderson has thought about this and has realised that he can no longer support the Conservative Party. He has concluded what I have concluded – that Reform UK has taken on the core conservative values that have been abandoned by the Conservative Party.

Don’t let anybody try to persuade you that you should vote for a political party that you are unhappy with on the basis that it might be the least worst option out of the two largest.

Use your vote positively, otherwise you have no right to complain about what you are left with.

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got. If you want something different you have to vote for it.

Lee has blazed the trail, now we must ensure that he is simply the first of many.

Time to turn the spotlight on politicised pseudo charities and civil servants

Of all the many ways that the Conservative in Name Only government has failed the nation since 2010 is in its complete failure to address the left wing politicisation of charities and the civil service which was a legacy of the Blair and Brown years.

This has raised its head again in the last few days, on a national level with an organisation called Wildlife and Countryside Link, whose members, among others, include the National Trust, The RSPCA and the Council for the Protection of Rural England, stating to an all-party Parliamentary group that the countryside is a "racist colonial white space".

It goes without saying that the WCL and all its members are funded directly by your taxes, are all completely democratically unaccountable and all take homogenous left wing political viewpoints that they perpetually shove down the throats of all those forced to pay their salaries.

I can't, for the life of me, understand why a "Conservative" government would fail to recognise and tackle this clear iniquity. I can only conclude that they are either too cowardly, in which case they are complacent, or that they simply don't want to, in which case they are complicit.

Failure to tackle the issue of politicisation of the civil service and publicly funded bodies means that we live under a de facto left wing government, regardless of the composition of Westminster.

We see the effects of this on everything from immigration to policing, to the judiciary. We see it in net zero, war on motorists, culture wars, the BBC and the NHS. Every public body has been politically captured and works to its own agenda, regardless of the views of the people who pay for it and regardless of what the Government says.

And the worst thing about it is that all of these people are apparently self selecting and beyond any true scrutiny or accountability.

We urgently need to address this, to depoliticise the whole system. It could not be more clear though that the Conservative Party has neither the will or the spine to do this.

And so it must fall on us as Reformers to put all this under the spotlight, for the sake of democracy.

What to expect on Monday

I wanted to drop you a little teaser ahead of the meeting on Monday evening.

The main purpose of this meeting is to present to you my five point plan for the constituency.

I think it’s important to have policies specific to the constituency, over and above the national policies which Reform UK stands for.

The local policies are all related to the national policies and I have put these together partly through my own knowledge of the constituency but also through talking to local people over the last few months.

So, if you vote for me in the next general election I promise to: 

1. Campaign for no more housebuilding without investment in infrastructure 

Melksham and Devizes in particular, but also other town and villages throughout the constituency, have seen largescale housebuilding in the last few years with little or no commensurate investment in associated infrastructure.

By this I mean roads, schools, healthcare facilities, retail leisure facilities and dedicated commercial areas. The result of this has been that living standards have dropped markedly as pressure has increased on all these things.

I will campaign vigorously to not just bring the infrastructure up to an appropriate level for the housebuilding that has taken place, but also to insist that it must be further appropriately developed before future housebuilding takes place. No infrastructure – no more housebuilding.

2. We need our own hospital

This follows on closely from the first point. With the great increase in the number of people living in the area it is iniquitous that people in the West of the constituency are dependent on the Royal United Hospital in Bath and people in the East have to travel to either Swindon, Salisbury or Bath.

Bath in particular is now very difficult to get to quickly and cost effectively due to the transport policies of the Council there. All three hospitals have terrible backlogs for appointments and operate way beyond demand levels that they were designed for.

I will campaign that we should have our own hospital in the constituency, with increased capacity for General Practitioners and dentists operating alongside it.

3. Support our farmers

This remains very much a rural constituency with very many people employed directly or indirectly in agribusiness and food production. Our farmers are under terrible pressure with supermarkets forcing prices down to maximise their profits and buying food in from other countries where farmers are more heavily subsidised. As a result many farmers are going out of business or giving up fields for subsidised solar farms or housebuilding. We cannot be reliant on importing our food from other countries. We must ensure that we grow our own food. We must support our farmers.

4. Prioritise the needs of local people

All across the country migrants are being prioritised for housing and healthcare, even if they have travelled here illegally. This must stop. I want to make sure that local people have priority for housing and healthcare, especially homeless ex service men and women and I will fight to make this happen.

5. Combat rural crime

Police numbers have been greatly reduced and what officers we have are hampered by endless bureaucracy. As a result the majority of their focus is on urban centres, where the majority of crime takes place and it increasingly feels as if rural areas are overlooked and forgotten. Criminals are aware of this and can see rural areas as soft targets. Rural people deserve equal law enforcement and I am committed to campaigning for more visibility and better service from the Police throughout the constituency, not just in urban and suburban areas.

There policies have been put together with you in mind and for that reason I would very much appreciate it if you could come along on Monday, if you are able to, to debate them with me, let me know what you think or let me know if there are other local policies which you think are more important.

To recap the meeting will take place at The Green Dragon, 26-28 High St, Market Lavington, Devizes SN10 4AG on Monday 29th January, from 7pm.

I hope to see you there.

Meeting at the Green Dragon, Market Lavington, Monday 29th January

You are cordially invited to our next meeting which is taking place at the Green Dragon, 26-28 High St, Market Lavington, Devizes SN10 4AG on Monday 29th January, from 7pm.

Please do come along and participate in discussions about the current state of politics locally and nationally and how we are going to make a difference.

This is going to be a fundraising event. We need to raise funds for printing so that we can create leaflets and get canvassing. I would also like to have a branded gazebo made so that we can set up in town and village centres and engage with people. As such I propose to hold a raffle and ask you all to bring something to donate. Raffle tickets will be £5 each and prizes...will depend on you!

The Green Dragon is a regular haunt of mine. As a result they are making no charge for the venue hire. They do absolutely superb food and have offered to provide a buffet for us if we have sufficient numbers. This would be £20 a head. Please let me know if you can attend and if you would like to sign up for the buffet so that I can go back to them with numbers.

I look forward to seeing you on the 29th!

Time to end two party politics

A few people have approached me over the festive period and have said that they feel strongly attracted to Reform UK policies and would like to vote Reform UK in the next general election but are scared that this would let the Labour Party into Downing Street.

Conservative Party MP Lee Anderson yesterday made this point in a media interview. On very many issues Lee Anderson and I have pretty much identical views and ambitions. He is flat wrong about this though.

If the Conservative Party was still a bastion of conservatism I would be celebrating my 26th year as an active member, rather than my first with Reform UK. It may sound like a trite cliche, but the Conservative Party left me, I did not leave it.

We have to end the de facto two party political landscape that the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and Lee Anderson are desperately trying to perpetuate. What it guarantees is a fight for centre ground and disenfranchisement for the overwhelming majority of people who sit outside this narrow trough. That is why there is so much common ground between the Conservative and Labour Party policies, with high taxation, high public spending, a cost of living crisis, massive and ever increasing public debt, open border immigration and overwhelmed public services that are completely swamped by demand.

If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got. It’s time to do something different.

We can't continue to have negative voting where people try to choose the least worst option out of fear because they are too scared to vote for something that more accurately represents their views and ambitions.

Vote for what you want, not against what you fear. It is the only way to effect change. If you are happy with what the Conservative Party has done since 2019 then crack on and vote for more of the same. I really don't know many people who will admit to that. If you want even higher levels of the economic and social damage wrought on the nation by the Conservative Party then crack on and vote for Labour. I really don’t know many people who will admit to that either.

Happy New Year!

Malcolm Cupis

Happy Christmas!

Just to wish you, your family and friends a very happy and joyful Christmas and a prosperous and successful New Year.

2024 is going to be a momentous year. We are going to have a general election and it is vital that we make our voices heard. This will be the last chance we get to vote for something different for a very long time. We must make it count.

To start that process, over the holiday period I ask you, if you have half an hour spare, to send me an email and tell me what you are concerned about, locally and nationally, and what you would like me to raise in the campaign ahead.

What can I do that would have a significant beneficial effect on you, your family and friends?

If I am elected to Parliament this is how I will prioritise my time. I will be using my ears for you and using my mouth to represent your needs and aspirations in Parliament.

I won't do what careerist politicians now default to, which is the opposite. Using their ears to listen to what their party wants and then their mouths to tell their constituents what they are allowed to have.

Politicians are elected to serve, not elected to rule. I'm here to serve you.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy plenty of servings of turkey, Christmas pudding, mince pies, chocolate and the odd glass of something appropriate to wash it down, in the loving company of those closest to you.

Merry Christmas!


Malcolm Cupis

MALCOLM CUPIS CONFIRMED FOR MELKSHAM AND DEVIZES

Reform UK has confirmed Malcolm Cupis as its official spokesman for the newly formed Melksham and Devizes constituency.

Malcolm is a genuinely local man. He grew up in Melksham and went to school at Aloeric Primary School and George Ward Comprehensive.

Malcolm has spent his entire career working in the media as a journalist, Editor, advertising copywriter and Public Relations Consultant. He has travelled very widely with his career, spending extended periods of time in various parts of Africa, the Middle East and the Far East.

Malcolm moved back to this area in 2019 and lives in Keevil with his wife Caroline. He has strong views on the need for true local representation in national politics.  "Parliament is stuffed full of careerist politicians who use their ears in parliament and their mouths in their constituencies, when they can be bothered to appear. I'm a local man, I care. I promise to do the opposite. Use my ears to listen to constituents and then my mouth in Parliament to fight for what they need and aspire to."

Outside politics Malcolm enjoys walking in the countryside with his dogs, restoring and showing classic cars and motorcycles. He is an avid supporter of Bath Rugby and Somerset cricket and has a deep interest in British history.

" Parliament is stuffed full of careerist politicians who use their ears in parliament and their mouths in their constituencies, when they can be bothered to appear. I'm a local man, I care. I promise to do the opposite. Use my ears to listen to constituents and then my mouth in Parliament to fight for what they need and aspire to."

Malcolm Cupis