Paul Keetch is a former businessman, who is married with one son.

A. The Liberal Democrats produced a foot-and-mouth programme which called for £100m from the contingency fund to be made available, and called for a full inquiry into the handling of the crisis.

As MP I have heard many harrowing stories from hundreds of farmers. I am proud to say I have managed to help a great number of them with their problems and hosted a meeting to discuss the difficulties being faced.

Agriculture, of course, is not simply farming, and there have been knock-on effects on other businesses, haulage and tourism for example, and I have also been working to address their concerns. Liberal Democrats wish to see an end to the decline in rural areas, striving to retain vital village services and improving public transport.

We encourage people to buy local food, which is why I have been supportive of the farmers' markets we have in Herefordshire.

B. The Hereford bypass was downgraded by the last Conservative Government and dropped from the roads programme by the Labour Government.

When I was elected in 1997 I called for a decision to be taken on the bypass, the decision meant we would not have a bypass.

I have successfully lobbied for the Rotherwas Relief Road and improvements to the Roman Road. I also instigated a traffic summit in Hereford City to look at ways forward to solve the traffic problems. As someone who lives in the city I am fully aware of the problems. If re-elected I will continue to work to help solve Hereford's traffic problems.

C. Crime, and the fear of crime, has been an increasing problem in Herefordshire.

This is mainly because of the chronic under-investment by the previous Conservative and Labour Governments. The Liberal Democrats are committed to more investment and employing 6,000 new police officers.