The man invited anyone on his email list to turn-up to the Bear Kick this morning, listen to an explanation of why he's resigned and re-stood (which everyone knows) and answer questions.
What a lot of words all in a row! Issues and details have this effect on people.
I won't vote for Goldsmith because if his line on welfare benefits - on the state as a kind of national insurance company. He doesn't seem to vote for that, so I suppose he only suits voters who want to pay for services privately and some of them donate to charities for those who don't have medicare. Somewhere more like India or parts of the USA.
Face-to-face you get an impression of a highly rational man, rather than a slogan-driven one or a point-scoring one. For example he talked about work to reassure EU passport-holders working in the UK (I forget the exact point but it was a rational reasonable one).
I got the same impression as a constituent: he forwarded a few emails for me a year or two ago, understood my unclear language, found exactly the right people to contact, and got a very clear reply.
The same impression comes from the leaflets his supporters put through letter boxes (the other party's ones loose them votes I think, by assuming the voters are mentally deficient).
Speech and answers: Heathrow.
Any of the other options would be better than Heathrow; Gatwick is the main one at the moment. (I think the Gatwick Obviously ads in papers make the point)
Well-informed, obviously. Willing to work cross-party which some colleagues don't do.
Notices the blurred devision between Heathrow and HM Government in peoples' career-paths, which would be illegal a lot of European countries. Hence the default position which has always been Government = Heathrow.
A colleague noticed 20% Chinese ownership of Heathrow which is part of the strange George Osborne pattern that's emerged these past few years; we have to wait another 20 years till papers are released to find out.
Gatwick can build another runway but can't use it at the moment (someone asked about this). Heathrow might soon be allowed to build another runway but can't pay for it: loads of issues in recent estimates aren't costed and aren't going to be paid-for by Heathrow. The airport is already one of the most expensive in the world; if it wants free money it has to put-up prices even more or pay to borrow it. I didn't follow this closely because the argument seems to be won; it's just the habitual default position of government that has to change.
"Open for business" as a slogan is now the deciding issue for the cabinet, one questioner said, but, if it's good for business for people to fly more openly, then Gatwick surely answers that need.
Speech and answers: Non-Heathrow.
Nothing to add to what he says in his leaflets. No great "difference between Hard Brexit and Soft Brexit" as he sees things. A couple of people asked what other issues the independent MP might persue. He referred them to his record. His opinions are conservative with a small c, he has a track record of working on environmental issues. "The whips will tell you that I regard every vote as a free vote", he said.
"Zac Goldsmith is a Conservative MP, and on the vast majority of issues votes the same way as other Conservative MPs" - The rest of this page is pinched from the url below where it might be easier to read than here. The red ones put me off. Skip the T-shirt point to see his voting record below.
"I want a national social care budget" - T shirt statement
I printed that on a sheet of A4 and paperclipped it to my T shirt at the meeting. It seemed efficient and polite. Nobody complained, but I wore draft 1 instead of draft 2 by mistake. Draft one has the words "national social" on one line, which looks a bit alarming
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24911/zac_goldsmith/richmond_park
How Zac Goldsmith voted on Social Issues #
- Consistently voted for equal gay rights Show votes
- Generally voted against smoking bans Show votes
- Consistently voted for allowing marriage between two people of same sex Show votes
- Generally voted against laws to promote equality and human rights Show votes
- Consistently voted for allowing terminally ill people to be given assistance to end their life Show votes
How Zac Goldsmith voted on Foreign Policy and Defence #
- Almost always voted for use of UK military forces in combat operations overseas Show votes
- Almost always voted for replacing Trident with a new nuclear weapons system Show votes
- Generally voted against more EU integration Show votes
- Almost always voted for a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU Show votes
- Consistently voted against strengthening the Military Covenant Show votes
- Generally voted for a right to remain for EU nationals already in living in the UK Show votes
- Generally voted against UK membership of the EU Show votes
- Consistently voted for military action against ISIL (Daesh) Show votes
How Zac Goldsmith voted on Welfare and Benefits #
- Generally voted for reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the "bedroom tax") Show votes
- Consistently voted against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices Show votes
- Consistently voted against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability Show votes
- Almost always voted for making local councils responsible for helping those in financial need afford their council tax and reducing the amount spent on such support Show votes
- Almost always voted for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits Show votes
- Consistently voted against spending public money to create guaranteed jobs for young people who have spent a long time unemployed Show votes
This list ends "miscellanious"
Goldsmith's work is great. I subscribe to something or other - probably theyworkforyou - and get the odd update when he is recorded in parliament which I usually delete without glancing. Even I noticed that antibiotic resistance is an important subject which I doubt other MPs are interested in, and that he asked what a waste Hinckley Point is in a rather informed kind of way. Anyway, the automated result for "misc." is at the bottom of the page.
How Zac Goldsmith voted on Taxation and Employment #
- Generally voted for raising the threshold at which people start to pay income tax Show votes
- Almost always voted for increasing the rate of VAT Show votes
- Generally voted for higher taxes on alcoholic drinks Show votes
- Almost always voted for higher taxes on plane tickets Show votes
- Voted a mixture of for and against lower taxes on fuel for motor vehicles Show votes
- Generally voted against increasing the tax rate applied to income over £150,000 Show votes
- Consistently voted for encouraging occupational pensions Show votes
- We don’t have enough information to calculate Zac Goldsmith’s position on automatic enrolment in occupational pensions. Show votes
- Almost always voted against a banker’s bonus tax Show votes
- Voted a mixture of for and against higher taxes on banks Show votes
- Consistently voted against an annual tax on the value of expensive homes (popularly known as a mansion tax) Show votes
- Almost always voted for allowing employees to exchange some employment rights for shares in the company they work for Show votes
- Almost always voted for more restrictive regulation of trade union activity Show votes
- Has never voted on reducing capital gains tax
How Zac Goldsmith voted on Business and the Economy #
- Generally voted for reducing the rate of corporation tax Show votes
- Generally voted for measures to reduce tax avoidance Show votes
- Voted a mixture of for and against stronger tax incentives for companies to invest in assets Show votes
- Almost always voted for new high speed rail infrastructure Show votes
How Zac Goldsmith voted on Health #
- Almost always voted against restricting the provision of services to private patients by the NHS Show votes
- Almost always voted for reforming the NHS so GPs buy services on behalf of their patients Show votes
- Generally voted against smoking bans Show votes
- Consistently voted for allowing terminally ill people to be given assistance to end their life Show votes
How Zac Goldsmith voted on Education #
- Consistently voted for greater autonomy for schools Show votes
- Consistently voted for raising England’s undergraduate tuition fee cap to £9,000 per year Show votes
- Almost always voted for academy schools Show votes
- Consistently voted for ending financial support for some 16-19 year olds in training and further education Show votes
- Consistently voted for university tuition fees Show votes
How Zac Goldsmith voted on Constitutional Reform #
- Generally voted for reducing central government funding of local government Show votes
- Consistently voted for an equal number of electors per parliamentary constituency Show votes
- Generally voted for fewer MPs in the House of Commons Show votes
- Generally voted against a more proportional system for electing MPs Show votes
- Generally voted against a wholly elected House of Lords Show votes
- Generally voted for local councils keeping money raised from taxes on business premises in their areas Show votes
- Generally voted against greater restrictions on campaigning by third parties, such as charities, during elections Show votes
- Almost always voted for fixed periods between parliamentary elections Show votes
- Generally voted against removing hereditary peers from the House of Lords Show votes
- Generally voted against transferring more powers to the Welsh Assembly Show votes
- Generally voted against transferring more powers to the Scottish Parliament Show votes
- Voted a mixture of for and against more powers for local councils Show votes
- Consistently voted for a veto for MPs from England, Wales and Northern Ireland over laws specifically impacting their part of the UK Show votes
- Voted a mixture of for and against a lower voting age Show votes
How Zac Goldsmith voted on Home Affairs #
- Generally voted for a stricter asylum system Show votes
- Almost always voted for the introduction of elected Police and Crime Commissioners Show votes
- Generally voted for requiring the mass retention of information about communications Show votes
- Almost always voted for stronger enforcement of immigration rules Show votes
- Generally voted for mass surveillance of people’s communications and activities Show votes
- Has never voted on merging police and fire services under Police and Crime Commissioners
How Zac Goldsmith voted on Environmental Issues #
- Voted a mixture of for and against measures to prevent climate change Show votes
- Voted a mixture of for and against lower taxes on fuel for motor vehicles Show votes
- Consistently voted against selling England’s state owned forests Show votes
- Almost always voted for higher taxes on plane tickets Show votes
- Generally voted for financial incentives for low carbon emission electricity generation methods Show votes
- Almost always voted against culling badgers to tackle bovine tuberculosis Show votes
- Voted a mixture of for and against greater regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract shale gas Show votes
- Almost always voted for new high speed rail infrastructure Show votes
How Zac Goldsmith voted on Transport #
- Generally voted against greater public control of bus services Show votes
- Consistently voted against slowing the rise in rail fares Show votes
- Voted a mixture of for and against lower taxes on fuel for motor vehicles Show votes
- Almost always voted for higher taxes on plane tickets Show votes
- Voted a mixture of for and against a publicly owned railway system Show votes
How Zac Goldsmith voted on Housing #
- Almost always voted for phasing out secure tenancies for life Show votes
- Generally voted for charging a market rent to high earners renting a council home Show votes
How Zac Goldsmith voted on Miscellaneous Topics #
- Generally voted for greater regulation of gambling Show votes
- Consistently voted for capping civil service redundancy payments Show votes
- We don’t have enough information to calculate Zac Goldsmith’s position on Labour's anti-terrorism laws. Show votes
- Consistently voted for the privatisation of Royal Mail Show votes
- Generally voted against requiring pub companies to offer pub landlords rent-only leases Show votes
- Almost always voted for restricting the scope of legal aid Show votes
- Generally voted for allowing national security sensitive evidence to be put before courts in secret sessions Show votes
- Generally voted against a statutory register of lobbyists Show votes
- Almost always voted for limits on success fees paid to lawyers in no-win no fee cases Show votes
- Generally voted against restrictions on fees charged to tenants by letting agents Show votes
- Generally voted for the policies included in the 2010 Conservative - Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement Show votes
Note for journalists and researchers: The data on this page may be used freely,
on condition that TheyWorkForYou.com is cited as the source.
For an explanation of the vote descriptions please see the FAQ entries on vote descriptions and how the voting record is decided
For an explanation of the vote descriptions please see the FAQ entries on vote descriptions and how the voting record is decided
