Allow me to introduce myself: I am Paul Godfrey, the Reform UK Candidate for Brentwood and Ongar.
I’ve lived in Brentwood since I was 3, and grew up here in the 70’s and 80’s. I went to school here and although school wasn’t my favourite place to be, my childhood was a good one.
I left school at 18 and went to work in the City, working in international banking. I left the City after 14 years to pursue other interests, and spent the best part of 5 years retraining in Traditional East Asian Medicine, subsequently returning to lecture in the subject at undergraduate level. Alongside academia, I worked in private practice, addiction centres and palliative care. I have also owned, run, and worked for various other businesses in finance, education and care.
I always voted Tory, partly because my parents did, but mainly as a result of working in the City of London financial markets, where the intersection of economics and politics helped to shape my political views. I believed in capitalism. I was a typical Tory voter.
This blind loyalty continued once I had left the City, and although I was unhappy with the state of the Tory party, I voted for them again in 2019, and would have happily crawled over broken glass to vote for the party that could should and would put Boris Johnson into Number 10, knowing that he would be the person to restore conservative values to the Conservative Party.
I was wrong.
The events of 2020 showed me the true colour of our government. When faced with a crisis, all semblance of conservatism disappeared. Democracy became dictatorship, freedoms were replaced with restrictions, businesses became bankrupt, media was censored, the vulnerable were abandoned and the needs of children were ignored.
The rule of law was blown apart, and our leaders became liars.
Disillusioned by our unrepresentative, immoral, and elitist political class I felt politically homeless. With barely any difference between the two main parties, the incompetence, lies and broken promises of the prevailing government pass like a baton in a relay race to the incoming administration with no real change and no tangible benefit to the people of the United Kingdom.
"Britain deserves better"
I joined Reform in 2020 and was no longer politically homeless. Reform UK offer a proper genuine alternative to the current two party system.
I believe that Britain cannot sustain the massive immigration numbers that we have seen over the last few years. I believe that the race towards net zero is hitting the poorest in society first and ultimately will lead to us all being colder and poorer. I believe in a low regulation low taxation economy that encourages free market economics, in a society where the rights of criminals do not trump the rights of victims, and where children should be protected and the elderly respected.
We managed to find £37 billion to pay for a failed test track and trace system during Covid, yet fail to adequately fund our NHS, Social Care, Education or Criminal Justice system. Taxation is the highest it has been in over 70 years, and government overreach is out of control. This is all wrong. Westminster seem to have forgotten that the government exists because of the people; the people do not exist because of the government.
When I discovered Reform UK I found a party that shared many of my views. Standing as a political candidate was never on my “to do” list, but circumstances change.
The United Kingdom is facing huge challenges over the next decade, challenges mainly caused by the lack of previous governments to make difficult decisions and act upon them. Career politicians seem to care more about their career than the needs of their constituents.
Reform are different.
We are not career politicians; we are business men and women, ex-military, teachers, IT consultants, taxi drivers etc – I could go on. The one thing that unites us all is the common desire to make our nation a better, safer, more prosperous place to live.
Reform have the right principles, the right people and the right policies. The rest is up to you….
Once we are able to care for our elderly, protect our children, support our veterans and house our homeless; when we have zero NHS waiting lists, when knife crime is rare and shootings are rarer, when your car is still there the next morning, and when potholes don’t become landmarks, then and only then should we attempt to ‘fix’ the rest of the world.
The UK is facing tough times. Tough times need brave choices. With so little difference between the two main parties, choosing either of them is voting for failure, and if you choose not to vote at all, you have still made a choice – you will get more of the same.
