The three main candidates standing in the General Election in Highgate and Hampstead are Glenda Jackson for Labour, Ed Fordham for the Lib Dems and Piers Wauchope for the Conservatives. Here are their responses to a question we asked each of them

Don’t reject Labour because of Tony Blair

We asked Highgate and Hampstead MP Glenda Jackson how people who don’t like Tony Blair or New Labour can still vote for Glenda Jackson?

“We won’t help the children of Iraq if we forget the children of Gospel Oak and Kilburn and Swiss Cottage by leaving them to the tender mercies of Mr Howard.
AIDS in Africa won’t be tackled by ignoring our dedicated doctors and nurses and handing them over to the Shadow Chancellor who wanted to ‘privatise the world’.
Climate change won’t be reduced if we return pensioners to the days of ‘eating or heating’. They had 20 years of that under the Tories.
Human rights won’t be protected if we throw the next generation out of the New Deal and on to the scrap heap as the Conservatives are committed to doing.
Gone are the letters in my postbag from constituents telling tales of unemployment and debt.
Our schools, health service, pensioners, low income families have all benefited from Labour’s commitment to social justice and equality of opportunity. None of this would have been possible without a stable economy and a Chancellor who held true to his principles of investment in our greatest national and natural resources, the talent, energy and ability of the British people.
Unemployment, never lower. Education standards, never higher. The NHS, constantly improving. Crime, being effectively tackled by new innovative policing. Still much to do but only a Labour government will achieve it.
Please don’t reject the Labour Party because of its current leader. The Party is more than an individual.
It’s the courage of Neil Kinnock, the integrity of John Smith, the intellect of Robin Cook, the strength of John Prescott and the social passion of Gordon Brown. Ours is a party of enduring values and these are why a vote for Labour won’t be wasted.
The country needs Labour to defeat the alternative – intolerance, division, ‘them and us’.
And the name of Labour’s candidate in Hampstead and Highgate is Jackson.”

Decriminalising cannabis will free police resources to fight real crime

We asked Ed Fordham how the Lib Dems can reassure voters in Camden that they will deal with drug abuse in the borough when the party’s policy states it will essentially decriminalise cannabis for personal use?

The issue of drugs is one of the most difficult issues facing our society. It has led to violent and organised crime and carries on ruining many shockingly young lives. The issue can’t be swept aside. The simple fact is that the current drug laws aren’t working.
However, cannabis isn’t as dangerous as alcohol and there are far fewer crimes associated with smoking cannabis than there are with drinking too much. But, as too many Camden people know through their own experiences, hard drugs like heroin and crack are truly pernicious.
Crime associated with them costs the UK £16bn a year. There effects on the user is also far more vicious.
The Liberal Democrat approach is about being effective. Our policy moves police resources away from targeting users of cannabis and frees up resources so police can tackle the dealers of harder drugs.
In short we would seek to dismantle the market in illegal drugs – breaking the crack houses, less street dealing, fewer robberies and less gun crime – by spending less time chasing cannabis.
Just as important, but often overlooked is treatment. Every pound spent on drug treatment saves three pounds in the criminal justice system. The worst place for drug addicts is drug-infested prisons – they need to be treated not locked up.
If the supply of cannabis can be put on a legal and regulated basis, we can separate it out from the real causes of society’s drug problem.
Drug use is rife. If we want to focus on the problem we need to recognise the fact that the way we tackle the drug problem needs to change. The other parties are ignoring the issue.
I believe by shifting more resources into tackling harder drugs we can improve lives for addicts and the communities they ruin”

We should be able to choose who enters the country – the asylum system is a mess

We asked Councillor Piers Wauchope how he will represent a multi-cultural community considering the Conservatives views on immigration?

“Under Labour, immigration has tripled. Over 150,000 new people now settle annually, most of those in London. Whitehall’s own predictions show that the population will grow by six million over the next thirty years and that five million of that will be due to immigration.
We don’t know who comes into the country, and we don’t know who leaves. Our asylum system is being abused. There are over a quarter of a million failed asylum seekers living in Britain today.
It is a problem that affects us all. Camden spends on average £8m a year housing asylum seekers. The pressures on our services are great. Camden’s housing list is now stretched to more than 15,000. Mr Blair has had eight years to sort out these problems, but has failed us.
The Conservatives have pledged to bring in an annual limit on immigration set by Parliament. To pose 24-hour security at ports to prevent illegal immigration; set up a dedicated border police; introduce an Australian-style points system for work permits giving priority to people with the skills we need; and to take in genuine refugees from the United Nations rather than simply accepting those who are smuggled in.
Many hard working immigrants are welcome. The difference between the parties is that we believe that we should have the right to choose who to let in.
It is desperately important for good community relations in this country that the problem is tackled. It is a pity that only one party has any interest in doing just that.