Local, National and International Tonbridge Castle
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Wednesday June 7 | 2017
Choir prepare to sing their heart out for Britain INSIDE CURRYING FAVOUR
Chef Atul Kochhar offers quick curry recipes Page 54
BRIGHT FUTURES
Work is set to begin on school’s £20m science centre Page 3
LET THE GAMES BEGIN: A choir from Tonbridge Grammar School is heading to Riga in Latvia this summer to compete against another 100 other choral groups from other countries in the third European Choir Games. Full story see page 2
Final push for General Election votes Parties reveal stark differences as the nation goes to the polls By Murray Jones
murray@timesoftonbridge.co.uk WITH voters heading to the ballot box tomorrow [June 8], Tonbridge’s five Parliamentary candidates threw their efforts into the last leg of the General Election campaign. On Sunday [June 4], around 200 constituents got to quiz Conservative Tom Tugendhat, the Green Party’s April Clark, Dylan Jones of Labour, Liberal Democrat Keith Miller and UKIP’s Colin Bullen at Tonbridge Baptist Church in Darenth Avenue. From the housing crisis and elderly care to Brexit payments and waste in the NHS, the disparate answers from the panel meant no one could make the common complaint that ‘they are all the same’. Incumbent Tom Tugendhat was forced to defend the less popular aspects of the Conservative manifesto as
his party was attacked by all the other candidates on plans to scrap free school lunches as well as previous cuts to child tax credit. Mr Tugendhat also argued that the proposed reform to funding adult social care was just. “[The current system] effectively uses the poorest to subsidise the inheritance of others…The reality is that it is fair to pay for your own care.” The Green Party’s April Clark drew the most positive
‘No one could make the common complaint that ‘they are all the same’ reaction from the audience, receiving applause on three separate occasions, although she was jeered after calling for a second EU referendum on the final Brexit deal. There was broad agreement that elderly care needed reform, with Labour’s Dylan Jones talking of the ‘obscene’
costs of private care homes and pledging to retain the winter fuel allowance and triple lock on pensions. A question on the impact of austerity on the poor quickly turned into a debate on taxation, with Liberal Democrat Keith Miller criticising Labour’s tax and spend policies. “There is a problem with taxing the rich to such an extent that they will pay accountants to do tax dodging,” he said, adding that if corporation tax was raised many large companies would jump ship and the UK would lose tax revenue. But on Brexit UKIP’s Colin Bullen, called the vote ‘a liberation from an anti-democratic institution’ and affirmed his party’s role was to make sure the result was ‘honoured’. Prior to the debate a minute’s silence was held for the victims of the London Bridge terrorist attack.
For candidate details see page 2
THE GOLDEN CHILD
Ebbage takes four golds at regional competition Page 70
TEMPTING FÊTE
Penshurst Place is a top pick this week See What’s On