One life. Live it.

I was elected for Wycombe this morning with 23,423 votes and a majority of 9560: BBC results, BFP stories 1,2. It is a great honour and delight and I am most grateful for the opportunity to serve Wycombe in this way.

My intention is to be a first-class constituency MP and to at least match Paul Goodman’s excellent record. I’ll be putting the hospital first, as promised.

But in the meantime, bed and the hope that we will have a Conservative majority by the end of today.

Via the Bucks Free Press, Election campaign kicks off in Wycombe:

THE General Election got into full swing yesterday as candidates met voters in Wycombe. OLIVER EVANS speaks to the candidates and voters.

The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and the UK Independence Party canvassed voters within yards of each other as Labour went to the doorstep.

Bookies’ favourite, Tory Steve Baker, met voters outside Lloyds bank armed with blue balloons and a petition calling for more cash and control over the NHS.

Follow the link for the full story. You can find our campaign page here.

I was very glad to meet so many people and have the opportunity to discuss, in addition to our NHS campaign, jobs and the economy, family issues, education, foreign affairs, immigration and local services.

Via conservatives.com:

David Cameron has welcomed the official announcement of the General Election date.

The election is a choice between five more years of Gordon Brown’s tired government making things worse – or change with the Conservatives, who have the energy, leadership and values to get Britain moving again.

Speaking to supporters this morning, David Cameron will say that the Consevatives are “fighting this election for the great ignored”.

“Young, old, rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight. They start our businesses, operate our factories, teach our children, clean our streets, grow our food, keep us safe. They work hard, pay their taxes, obey the law”, he will say.

“They’re good, decent people – they’re the people of Britain and they just want a reason to believe that anything is still possible in Britain.”

“This election is about giving them that reason, giving them that hope”.

At last, we can begin to look forward to the Big Society replacing the Big State:

What I have spoken about today combines optimism about the potential for social renewal with realism about the role of the state in fighting poverty and inequality.

If we stick the course and change this country then we will have a national life expanded with meaning and mutual responsibility.

We will feel it in the strength of our relationships – the civility and courtesy we show to each other.

Just as we have felt this coarsen in the past decade, so I believe we will feel it change for the better in the years ahead.

And we will feel it in our culture – a new can-do and should-do attitude where Britons once again feel in control of their lives.

This is not the work of one parliamentary term, or even two. Culture change is much harder than state control. It will take more than a generation. But it is because I believe the appetite for change is there that I know that change will come.

The era of big government has run its course.

Poverty and inequality have got worse, despite Labour’s massive expansion of the state. We need new answers now, and they will only come from a bigger society, not bigger government.

That’s why it’s now clear to me that the Conservatives, not Labour, are best placed to fight poverty in our country.