Ed Davey Visits Alpaca Farm near Wem in Shropshire
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00:00I think people are saying that the Conservatives who held the seat for 200 years,
00:05their MPs really never turned up and did their work, and Helen has.
00:09And I think people are saying we deserve to get behind her.
00:12And she's been getting behind farmers and people in this wonderful rural part of our country.
00:18And it may be unusual to be in an alpaca farm,
00:21but it's part of how our rural countryside is changing and diversifying.
00:27This is great for tourism. Lots of children and families come here.
00:31It's great for mental health and well-being. It's great for the economy.
00:34And Helen and the Liberal Democrats are supporting it.
00:37Well, I've said that I don't think politicians should take themselves too seriously.
00:41A little bit of self-deprecation doesn't go amiss.
00:46But we should take the voters' concerns really seriously.
00:50And actually, this is a serious message here about our rural economy
00:55and making sure we're getting behind our farmers who've had such a tough time,
00:59and also remembering our rural communities.
01:03Their health service has been particularly badly hit under the Conservatives.
01:08And people used to think that rural Britain used to vote Conservative.
01:12I don't think we're going to this election,
01:14whether it's rural communities in mid Wales, here in North Shropshire,
01:17down in the West Country, up in Cumbria.
01:21We're finding that people are really quite let down by the Conservatives.
01:27And I think they like what they're hearing from us,
01:30on health and care and the economy and the environment.
01:33So, we'll see. Obviously, it's up to voters.
01:36Hello, Pelly. It's up to voters.
01:38But I'm increasingly excited by what people are saying.
01:42They seem to really want to get behind the Liberal Democrats this time.
01:45I look at polls. I only care about elections results.
01:49There are great results in this Parliament, actually.
01:52I mean, Helen Morgan winning here in North Shropshire,
01:55and three other by-elections in areas that were previously considered safe Conservatives.
02:01And in the council elections across the country, just last month in May,
02:06we pushed the Conservatives to third place in the English local elections.
02:11So, we've shown it can be done in places that were true blue before.
02:16We've shown that we can overtake the Conservatives in local election results.
02:20So, we're not going to take anything for granted.
02:22We're going to be working really hard every minute, hour and day till the 4th of July.
02:27I've said to our teams, you know, the problem with the Conservatives,
02:30they have taken too many people, too many communities for granted for so long.
02:35People who've been previously loyal to them.
02:37And I think we're finding people are saying,
02:39you've tried us too much, you've let us down, you're out of touch.
02:45And I'd like to think those people are looking at us
02:48and are feeling very comfortable with our positioning and our ideas,
02:52our policies, our priorities, and are coming our way.
02:55Well, there's lots of things that need to be done.
02:57First of all, I'm talking about more GPs and NHS dentists,
03:02more independent community pharmacists.
03:04In other words, the healthcare that's nearest to people.
03:06And if you really invest in that, not only will people be able to see their GPs more quickly,
03:11but it'll mean that many people won't end up going to hospital.
03:15Some people, when they can't get a GP appointment, go to a hospital.
03:17They put more strain on hospitals.
03:19Some people, because they can't get a GP appointment, get less well, get more ill,
03:23and they end up going to hospital.
03:24So you've really got to invest in that community healthcare
03:28to help our hospitals as well as make sure people can get a GP when they want to.
03:32So that's a big part of our plans.
03:35We also are talking a lot about social care and family carers.
03:40So if the care is there, people can come out of hospital more quickly.
03:46Only one day there are thousands of people in hospital who don't need to be.
03:50It's not good for them. They want to be at home with their families.
03:54It's terrible for them to be in hospital when they don't need to be.
03:56If we can get the care packages by investing in care workers,
04:00supporting families who are doing the caring, we can get people out of hospital.
04:03That's good for them, but also it frees up the beds.
04:05So again, the hospitals can tackle the waiting lists.
04:08So you've got this dual approach in family care, outside hospital, but also GP care,
04:15and it all takes the pressure off hospitals.
04:17It could be dramatically transformative, I think.
04:21We're going to have to invest in capital investments in our hospitals.
04:24Some of them are falling down.
04:26Desperate need for repair and modernisation.
04:29So there will be a bit of capital spend as well, but we've got quite a detailed programme.
04:33And Helen Morgan's played a big part in that, particularly on things like ambulances and rural GPs.