I sent this statement to be published on Barkingside 21's blog.

In Britain, this wonderful country, are millions of good, kind, hard working, generous, empathetic and considerate people who love and are loved by their families and friends.  Many of those same people are cheats, tax dodgers, liars, criminals, lazy, indolent, selfish and self serving.  Company directors who accept huge salaries and bonuses but pay their workers a pittance, the benefit scroungers, tax evaders and avoiders both rich and poor, bankers who charge enormous interest rates on loans but pay miniscule amounts to investors, and particularly politicians who benefit from private medical care and private education themselves but accept a failing NHS and inadequate state schools for the less fortunate.   I am not knocking the wealthy, the entrepreneurs,  the innovators.  We need them provided they are  honest , fair, and treat  people justly.     I have little sympathy with anyone who is profligate or lazy and expects society to support them .

Why am I so concerned about the people who, often through no fault of their own, are homeless, lonely, living in poverty, drowning in debt, struggling to make ends meet, cannot afford a proper home, have to live with parents, and worse, are dying unnecessarily in hospitals, or committing suicide because they cannot cope? 

Looking at the bigger picture,  the whole system in this country is flawed and it is only the Government who can change it.    I want the chance to change people's lives for the better.   If enough people voted for me, I could be elected for Ilford North.  Honest, dedicated and determined.  I think outside the box and have original ideas. 

Who else has suggested that prisoners should either pay for their keep or work for  it … or that every school should have workshops nearby so that non-academic 15 and 16 year olds can learn technical skills … or that  Backbenchers in Parliament, without specific jobs, should each be given the responsibility to cover a specified area investigating, say, tax evasion, tax avoidance, zero hour contracts,  benefit fraud, undeserved bonuses etc? 

So how will you vote?   Stick to your principles and don't vote for parties you don't really want, candidates you don't really like, leaders you don't really trust?

GIVE ME A CHANCE.   TRUST ME.

WITH YOUR VOTE I CAN WIN

 DORIS OSEN   INDEPENDENT

LEAVING THE EUROPEAN UNION

I hate the term BREXIT.        I VOTED TO LEAVE

When Edward Heath took us into the so called Common Market, I am sure he had no idea

• that we would stop being called Great Britain and be designated 'the UK'
• that there would eventually be 28 countries,
• that millions of Directives and Regulations would have to be incorporated into our laws
• that we would be the second largest financial contributor (after Germany) to the Union
• that the EU would spend money like water and never be accountable or have accounts audited 
• that the name would be changed to the EEC and subsequently to the EU
• that our farmers would be required to set-aside fields and stop producing food 
• that our fishermen would be stopped from fishing in our own waters
• that we would be required to take people from 28 European countries

The European Union has instituted the Human Rights Act.

The European Union has interfered and controlled so  much of our lives, why have they not done anything about the human rights of the disabled, the homeless, the poor, the poorly paid, the hungry, the illiterate and innumerate?  Why have there been no Directives or Regulations to protect the people?

The truth is, they don't care for Britain or for the British people.  They care for their exports to us.   They care for our money and what they can get out of us.  We will be better off OUT

DEBT

More people than ever have debts of one sort or another.  Credit cards have encouraged people to spend money they haven't got.  I had a credit card but made a vow that I would cut it up the day I forgot to pay it off promptly  I did just that.  The banks don't want customers like me.  They prefer to have people who pay the minimum each month.  They can charge the businesses who accept the card and charge interest on the loan.

Even worse than credit cards are the payday loans etc.  The interest rates are eye-watering.  I asked a young woman of 20 if she understood what 10% was.  She shook her head.  She had no idea.  It is unforgivable that the government tolerates these usurers.  Interest rates on loans must be capped, and loan companies must be required to investigate thoroughly a borrowers ability to pay before they lend.

I have just learned that 141 flats are being built in Ilford town centre.  It is being hailed as an achievement but is it?  Only 36 of them are to be 'affordable to rent'.  What of the other 105? Presumably they are either excessively high rents or are to be sold.  We need more homes, a lot more homes to rent, and the rents should be really affordable.  It isn't happening.
I live near a huge plot of land.  I would be quite happy for an estate of council houses to be built there, provided they also increased the infrastructure... school, doctors' surgery, transport etc.
They have built these flats in Ilford and there is still talk of closing the A&E at King George's.
Crazy!

PRISONS AND PRISONERS

Our prisons cost too much.  The many people in prison are being fed, housed, and free from the responsibilities of daily living experienced by those outside.  Many could easily afford to pay for their keep.  Prisoners should either pay for their keep if they can, or work for their keep.  This would help to finance the prison service.

EDUCATION

Every child in the country should be receiving the kind of education being provided by the Independent schools .....but it isn't happening.
Why?  The Members of the government know that children, especially  the younger children benefit from smaller classes.  Most of them send their children to Independent and Public schools where they will be in classes certainly with no more than twenty pupils.  It seems they don't think this is necessary  for state school children.  Their class numbers are increasing sometimes to over 40 pupils.
More state school children are leaving school illiterate and/or innumerate.

They say they cannot afford it.  YES THEY CAN!!.  They say there aren't enough schools and not enough classrooms.  Well whose fault is that?  I taught in primary schools.  The classrooms are large. Partitions can easily be installed to divide the space to accommodate fewer children.   They say that there are not enough teachers.  Teachers are leaving state schools.  They are constantly being told what to teach, how to teach and there are far too many tests imposed.  Discipline is more difficult than ever I remember and often there is less support from the parents.  - I could go on.

What is the government doing about it?  They keep imposing new rules, new subjects - "teach children about homosexuality or transexuality.  NO! teach them the three Rs.   Let the parents deal with the other issues.  Head teachers should run their schools not Ministers who know nothing about the profession.
I would approach the six Ministers in the Department of Education and 'advise' them.  Just give me a chance to do so.

I AM YOUR INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE.

That phrase is so important that I will repeat it.

I AM YOUR INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE.

I am not tied to a party which thinks it is O.K. for 20% of children from state schools to leave school illiterate or innumerate, or both. 

That party accepts that young people should start their adult lives with huge and rising debts,  

that couples should pay more in rents than for a mortgage,

and be unable to buy even a small property,

that people should be sleeping on streets,

that sick elderly people cannot leave hospitals.

The leader of that party knows that the way out of Europe is going to be extremely  tough and that the austerity her party will inflict will hurt like blazes  but she is not warning you of that.

That is not my party thank heavens.

Nor am I tied to a party where about half of them cannot support their own leader.

I am not tied to a party and there are two of them, who vow to oppose the will of the electorate and remain in the EU.

We have a party which does not care?

A  party which is in disarray?

A democratic party which is undemocratic?

AND I DON'T BELONG TO ANY OF THEM BECAUSE

I AM AN INDEPENDENT 

I am principled and honest and I care about people and I am pleased that I am not tied to a party which carries out policies I cannot tolerate, or a party whose members cannot agree amongst themselves, or a party who cannot accept that we are leaving the European Union.

I am the candidate who will stand up for every person in this country  for our entrepreneurs for our businessmen, for our young people our middle aged and our elderly and for a more equable society.  I want people to know that it is wrong to cheat. We have corruption from top to bottom of our society and it has to stop.

That is why you will vote for me, The candidate who is honest, principled and caring.