New candidate to join Harrogate battle in General Election

A fourth candidate has joined the battle to be Harrogate and Knaresborough's next MP.
Standing for the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency in the General Election - Kieron George, a member of the Yorkshire Party.Standing for the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency in the General Election - Kieron George, a member of the Yorkshire Party.
Standing for the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency in the General Election - Kieron George, a member of the Yorkshire Party.

The Harrogate man who will take on the big three - Tory, Lib Dems, Labour - for the town's parliamentary seat in next month's General Election is Kieron George, a member of the Yorkshire Party which was founded in 2014 to campaign for the establishment of a devolved Yorkshire Assembly within the UK, with powers over education, environment, transport and housing.

As today's closing date to enter neared, the new candidate joined Andrew Jones (Conservative), Judith Rogerson (Lib Dem) and Mark Sewards (Labour) in the ballot race.

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Mr George said: "The Yorkshire Party and I care about speaking up for Yorkshire and our area for the better without hesitation.

"As a party, in 2016, we pledged to respect whatever decision the electorate made.

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"And so we will stand resolute with Yorkshire in securing a good deal with the EU, just as many other nations have, no matter how long it takes."

"British politics have been in a fragile state since David Cameron called the 2016 referendum hoping for a bargaining chip against the EU, and a hammer to beat down Euroscepticism on the right.

"He was entirely unprepared for the result when the electorate spoke up in favour of Brexit, nor everything he hoped for being torn away in the chaos.

Mr George continued: "Our Government has been shaken by the nation speaking up for what it believes in. As a party, in 2016, we pledged to respect whatever decision the electorate made.

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"And so we will stand resolute with Yorkshire in securing a good deal with the EU, just as many other nations have, no matter how long it takes.

The Yorkshire Party and I care about speaking up for Yorkshire and our area for the better without hesitation.

"And I care about better because four generations of my family live in Harrogate. Were I elected MP; I'd be the first MP for our area to be raised, schooled, and employed in the constituency. I've seen our constituency through my family and friends, I've explored its traditions as a child, and considered career options therein as an adult.

"I don't just speak for a faceless electorate. I speak for my grandmother, my aunts, and my late mother laid to rest in Harrogate soil.

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"I speak for my siblings, my cousins, and their children too. And I speak for all the people I've spent a lifetime befriending all here in Harrogate, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge and the surrounding villages.

"At the end of my term, my proudest achievements;

-Won't be sugarcoating the second-highest regional unemployment rate in the country as a record low

+Will be addressing Yorkshire's long overdue full recovery from the Great Recession.

-Won't be stopping an unjustifiable relief road my own party proposed.

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+Will be fighting against congested roads, overcrowded trains, and missing infrastructure.

-Won't be an electric bus scheme that the previous Government implemented.

+Will be advocating for a mass-transit system in the biggest city in Europe without one.

-Won't be reframing our bottom ranking national cancer survival rates as local accomplishments.

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+Will be pushing control of the NHS to Yorkshire so we can address these issues by ourselves.

"The problems Yorkshire faces are solvable and the Yorkshire party has the solutions. With your vote, we can speak up for Yorkshire and solve them.

"To revitalise our area, I would deliver on the Labour party's and Liberal party's century-long broken promise of implementing "The Single Tax".

The Labour Party got its start with its founding member Kier Hardie and his lot in the Single Taxxer party, the Land Restoration League. The Liberal Democrats have sung the Single Taxxer anthem, "The Land" as their party anthem since the early 20th century. Both parties have failed to deliver on a promise at their foundations with over a century to do so.

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"The Single Taxxer's system is called the Land Value Tax, and the LABs & the LIBs failed to do anything with it.

"British Hong Kong utilised the system to its fullest potential and have never feared the notion of ghost towns since.

"Land Value Tax strongly incentivise efficient land use and ensure ownership of land ends up in the hands of the people who can use it best.

"If elected MP, I would endeavour to remove all taxation from Harrogate Town Centre par a single tax, the Land Value Tax.

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"The Government would be directly and properly incentivise to address issues hurting Harrogate Town Centre's Land Value, with its only revenue source from Harrogate Town Centre being a Land Value Tax.

"No longer could they take risks that would muddy the beauty around Harrogate Town Centre, for that would hurt their only revenue source.

"No longer could they fail to address the homeless with promised houses left unbuilt, for that would hurt their only revenue source.

"No longer could they ignore Harrogate's infrastructure and transportation in favour of ensuring a personal express commuter train between Westminster and an MP's family home in Harrogate, for that would hurt their only revenue source.

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"In the end, a Government always caters to its bottom line, so the issues the electorate care about need binding to that bottom line.

"And this would only be the start.

"As a member of the Yorkshire Party, my end goal is first and foremost the implementation of a regional Yorkshire government with the power, pounds, and purpose bound to serve its responsibility to the people of Yorkshire.

" Far too long, Yorkshire has been downtrodden, not given its rightful share.

"Vote for the Yorkshire Party because Yorkshire deserves better."