Phillip Howells Conservative CONSERVATIVES are campaigning on a Welsh manifesto of more police, cleaner hospitals, lower taxes, school discipline and controlled immigration.

Labour is deliberately misleading voters with claims that there will be £35bn of public services cuts under the Conservatives. This is nonsense. We have identified £35 billion in savings on government waste, £23 billion of which will be ploughed back into public services, £8 billion used to pay off some of Gordon Brown's increased national debt and £4 billion used to fund tax cuts on council tax for the elderly, on pensions and on house stamp duty.

Council tax has risen more steeply in Wales than in England since 1997 (84% in Islwyn) despite Welsh GDP being only 79% of England; you earn less yet pay more in taxes under Labour. Average incomes in the UK have declined for the first time in decades and families have become poorer - due to the many new Labour taxes. Conservatives will offer a lower tax economy, which promotes enterprise, growth and increased overall prosperity.

Crime, especially violent crime, has risen since Labour's 1997 election, yet detection rates have gone down in Wales. Alcohol-related crimes impact upon Islwyn streets. We will recruit an extra 5,000 police officers a year in England and Wales and reduce paperwork so more bobbies can be out on the beat.

Labour's health policies in Wales have been 'damned' by the independent Audit Commission. Welsh NHS hospital waiting lists have increased by almost 80%. Conservatives will fight to reduce waiting lists, to get cleaner wards and to give local health professionals more control over their hospitals, free from central interference.

Poor discipline and increasing violence in schools are plaguing our society; yet the Labour-controlled Assembly has failed on its absenteeism and truancy targets and insists schools must take back disruptive pupils so school discipline is even further undermined. Conservatives will give head teachers control over admissions and exclusions, with the right to insist on parental agreement to discipline children.

There is a clear choice for your vote in Islwyn on May 5. You can either reward Mr Blair for eight years of broken promises and vote for more years of talk, or you can vote Conservative, to support a party that is committed to action on the issues that matter to hard working local people.