Vote 2010: Premier quizzed over key issues by Yorkshire voters

A We take this seriously and have raised taxes on alcohol in the last couple of years. We know supermarket offers have encouraged people to buy in bulk and drink in their own homes. What we're trying to do is find a way to advise young people about the risks of drinking to excess. These are complex issues about pricing and behaviour and limiting 24-hour drinking, which is why we are giving local authorities more power by creating areas where people are not allowed to congregate and drink. I think the rise in taxation is a signal that we want to make sure alcohol is not under priced in the future.

Ruth Marsden, regional representative for the Yorkshire and Humberside Local Involvement Network

Q How will your government safeguard and strengthen our role so that we can genuinely drive improvement in health and social care in this region?

A I believe that patients have got to be in a position to trigger change in the NHS and I've said that we will protect frontline healthcare services. Part of this is giving patients individual guarantees that if they are not able to see their cancer specialist within two weeks they can go to the private sector, charge that health authority, or go to another health authority and get that care. If you don't have a doctor available in the evenings, or at weekends, then you can make sure that guarantee is cashed in. Equally, if you don't have your operation within 18 weeks then you have the right to go to another authority, or go privately to get that operation done. This is not a consultants', or a doctors' health service, this is a patients' National Health Service.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

Dr Abdul Bary Malik from Bradford

Q You have spoken about the terrorist threat we are facing. Do you think there's a link with problems in the Middle East and how will you try and bring the Israelis and Palestinians to peace negotiations?

A The terrorist threat is affected by what happens in the Middle East. It is a failure to get a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute that sometimes gives people the reason that they use to justify their militant activity. We believe that the solution is a Palestinian state side-by-side with Israel and we are working to achieve that. There are negotiations taking place at the moment and we want to see progress.

Ratna Lachman, director of JUST West Yorkshire

Q I am concerned that your manifesto makes no reference to civil liberties and human rights at all. I would like you to explain these omissions.

A I believe that the foundation of our British constitution is the liberty of the individual and we speak out very strongly against those countries where there is an abuse of human rights taking place.

As far as Britain is concerned we uphold the freedom of assembly and freedom of speech and we have changed the law so that it's possible for people to protest more easily. There are difficult decisions that we have had to make about the balance between civil liberties and the need to protect the country against terrorist activity. But equally, it's my duty to be able to tell the British people that we are doing everything in our power to protect them against that threat.

Three-quarters of terrorist plots against Britain don't come from within Britain they come from the Afghan-Pakistan border, which is why we are in Afghanistan working with 40 other countries to protect us.

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