Malcolm Cupis is the Reform UK Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Melksham and Devizes. We spoke with Malcolm about his decision to stand.
“I grew up in Melksham and went to school at Aloeric Primary School and George Ward Comprehensive… and live in Keevil with my wife Caroline, two dogs and a cat.
Can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers?
I grew up in Melksham and went to school at Aloeric Primary School and George Ward Comprehensive before emigrating to South Africa with my family when I was 15 years old in 1983.
I returned to this country in 1989 and became Editor of the Melksham News and founder Editor of White Horse News in 1990. This was followed by a career in public relations which included living in London, the Middle East, and extended periods of time in various parts of Africa, and the Far East. I returned to this area in 2019 and live in Keevil with my wife Caroline, two dogs and a cat.
“The Party stands strongly for the classically liberal values of low taxation, personal responsibility, small government, empowered individualism”
What made you decide to stand for Reform UK?
I was an active member of the Conservative Party for 25 years before resigning last year. The farce over the leadership contest was absolutely the final straw for me. The Conservative Party has moved further and further away from core conservative values in the last 20 years and I no longer felt able to support it. It is absolutely clear to me that those values have been embraced by Reform UK.
The Party stands strongly for the classically liberal values of low taxation, personal responsibility, small government, empowered individualism, properly policed borders, free market economics, law and order and, above all, common sense. It is resistant to conformity, statism, bureaucracy and authoritarianism.
One of the biggest problems we have in politics now is that Parliament is chocked full of identikit career politicians who get parachuted into constituencies that they have no real affiliation to, having previously gone to the ‘right’ school and Oxbridge. They often have no real-life experience. They exist to impose centralised policies on their constituents, regardless of their opinions, needs and aspirations. I’ve done things the hard way. I haven’t been parachuted in from London or Cheshire with the financial support of a big political party.
“villages throughout the constituency, have seen largescale housebuilding in the last few years with little or no commensurate investment in associated infrastructure”
What do you see as the big concerns for the constituency and what issues do you hope to champion?
My main areas of focus are:
1. Campaign for no more housebuilding without investment in infrastructure
Melksham and Devizes in particular, but also other town and villages throughout the constituency, have seen largescale housebuilding in the last few years with little or no commensurate investment in associated infrastructure.
By this I mean roads, schools, healthcare facilities, retail leisure facilities and dedicated commercial areas. The result of this has been that living standards have dropped markedly as pressure has increased on all these things.
I will campaign vigorously to not just bring the infrastructure up to an appropriate level for the housebuilding that has taken place, but also to insist that it must be further appropriately developed before future housebuilding takes place. No infrastructure – no more housebuilding.
2. We need our own hospital
This follows on closely from the first point. With the great increase in the number of people living in the area it is iniquitous that people in the West of the constituency are dependent on the Royal United Hospital in Bath and people in the East have to travel to either Swindon, Salisbury or Bath. We shouldn’t have to travel 25 miles in an emergency for life saving treatment, or for cancer treatment or to see other specialists for long term healthcare.
Bath in particular is now very difficult to get to quickly and cost effectively due to the transport policies of the Council there. All three hospitals have terrible backlogs for appointments and operate way beyond demand levels that they were designed for.
I will campaign that we should have our own hospital in the constituency, with increased capacity for General Practitioners and dentists operating alongside it.
3. Support our farmers
This remains very much a rural constituency with very many people employed directly or indirectly in agribusiness and food production. Our farmers are under terrible pressure with supermarkets forcing prices down to maximise their profits and buying food in from other countries where farmers are more heavily subsidised. As a result many farmers are going out of business or giving up fields for subsidised solar farms or housebuilding. We cannot be reliant on importing our food from other countries. We must ensure that we grow our own food. We must support our farmers.
“Rural people deserve equal law enforcement and I am committed to campaigning for more visibility and better service from the Police throughout the constituency”
4. Prioritise the needs of local people
All across the country migrants are being prioritised for housing and healthcare, even if they have travelled here illegally. This must stop. I want to make sure that local people have priority for housing and healthcare, especially homeless ex service men and women and I will fight to make this happen.
5. Combat rural crime
Police numbers have been greatly reduced and what officers we have are hampered by endless bureaucracy. As a result the majority of their focus is on urban centres, where the majority of crime takes place and it increasingly feels as if rural areas are overlooked and forgotten. Criminals are aware of this and can see rural areas as soft targets. Rural people deserve equal law enforcement and I am committed to campaigning for more visibility and better service from the Police throughout the constituency, not just in urban and suburban areas.
For those eager to help, how can they get involved in the campaign?
You can contact me by email at [email protected], and find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/reformuk.melkshamanddevizes and X/Twitter at https://twitter.com/reformukmandd.
