Bolsover
Robert Reaney

I am a fifty-six-year-old businessman from Chesterfield, married with one grown up son. I was born and bred in Sheffield and have working class roots, which I am proud of. It gave me a firm appreciation of the few things we have and taught me the value of a good honest day’s work and getting stuck in, since we had little other choice. There is definitely no silver spoon element here. Everything we have in life is what my wife and I have worked hard for and continue to do so to this day. I have an interest in history and read quite widely.

My early working years, between 1987 and 2004, were in finance. I worked for the Prudential Assurance Co, The Midland Bank/HSBC, and then two large accountancy practices in Sheffield servicing business clients. So while I do not claim to be an expert in any of these areas, I believe that those years gave me a decent look behind the scenes at how money works. I have an insight into the world of insurance, savings and investments, banking, accountancy, taxation and how businesses run in general.

This is not bad groundwork for any aspiring politician, I guess, and one that gives me perhaps more experience than someone who has just popped out of university with a degree in rocket science. From 2004, I have been running my own vintage motorcycle business. It’s a hobby gone mad for me and has been lots of fun. I have met some quite remarkable characters and learnt an awful lot about our automotive history. More importantly I have learnt from hard experience what it takes to survive in business.

Being self-employed means you have no sick pay, no holiday pay, no pension plan or cushy benefits such as a company car, medical insurance or an annual Christmas bonus. If you make a mistake in business, you pay for it yourself. This translates to being able to work hard all month and some months finding yourself worse off financially than when you started.

Have I had months where I‘ve lost money? Absolutely, and when you’re paying personally for waste or mistakes, you learn quick. When your own cash is on the line it is a fine master. It is something many employees never experience, and I feel do not perhaps fully appreciate.

Business has also shown me the harsh reality of red tape, of accounts to be done, of VAT returns to be completed, of health and safety, of rates, bills and local government interference, etc. Frankly, small businesses are deluged with hassle. Making a profit is the least of it sometimes.

So what have I seen during these last four decades working? Well, the 1987 stock market crash was up close and personal for me. I witnessed the Millennium bug scam unfold followed by the tech stock bubble bursting. I lived through the 2008 banking crises which triggered the recession and the ‘austerity years’ (have they finished?).

We all lived through the surreal lockdowns of the pandemic and most recently the cost-of-living crisis, where everything seems to have doubled in price regardless of reason. It has all been a remarkable financial roller coaster. Working to survive can be hard enough, but when outside forces collude to make all our lives so much harder, I’ve found myself gnashing my teeth in frustration with everyone else. Which brings me nicely to politics

Just like you, I’m sick and tired of powerlessly watching car-crash politics in the UK along with ambulance-chasing politicians who leap on the latest disaster to score some minor political point. I am tired of the weekly Punch and Judy show in Westminster where seemingly ‘detached from reality’ members score political points off each other across the dispatch box, while the world outside merrily goes to the dogs.

I am tired of hearing about (and more pertinently paying for) London's problems or the seeing the country's sole reliance on the one great industry... the city/banking, etc. I am tired of seeing all the other industries being left to whither on the vine. Fishing has been parleyed off, farming is on its knees, mining has gone, steel has gone, shipbuilding has gone, the automotive industry has been sold off or is a shadow of its former self – industry of all types has been actively run down. Even the utilities and trains have been flogged off and run into the ground. We are now apparently just a ‘service economy’.

Politically, we have had people shouting at each other across the dispatch box in Westminster since Oliver Cromwell established the place in 1650. I have to ask in all seriousness, where has it actually got us? The industrial revolution did not start in Westminster, nor the age of empire, nor the age of remarkable technologies, and even in terms of law-making... how much further on are we than the Magna Carta? All of these started outside the M25 in that strange wider world known as Great Britain, which is where I would like to focus.

It is time in my life to start giving a little back and I believe I can add a little value, for what it is worth. Like you, I am sick of not being listened too. I fall down the same potholes as you, pay the same taxes as you and struggle, like you, to survive. I am listening to your problems because I share them. Let’s focus on local issues and build jobs and a brighter future here together. What I am seeing and hearing from Reform UK tackles many of these issues. Their policies make sense to me. Common sense.

I would be pleased to bring my years of experience to bear on our shared difficulties and listen to your problems. I have my feet on the ground and my head is most definitely not in the clouds. I know that all our lives can be made much better now and I want to pass on a far brighter future to our kids than we are presently on track to do.

I believe that it can be done and the choice to roll the dice and take that gamble will be yours come election day. You can choose the same old show or just maybe be brave and give the outsider a fighting chance for once. What have you got to lose? Another lost decade, or a real chance to start fixing the problems with a local representative you can relate too and is really listening.

This is who I am, and I invite you to back me to help Bolsover progress into the 2020s.