Thursday 27 September 2007

Rugby Rail

Yesterday I met Stephen Hammond MP and Stephanie Clifford at Rugby Station. Stephen is our Shadow Minister with responsibility for Railways and Stephanie is the Chair of Rugby Rail Users Group and our meeting was to lobby and resist changes to the 2008 timetable which we believe will disadvantage Rugby. The station is about to be improved by the addition of a modern entrance and ticket hall, a new multi storey car park is to be built, and Rugby is expected to grow (whatever the outcome of the RSS consultation) in coming years. All of these will increase demand for rail travel, but the number of trains to the north west from Rugby is being reduced and there is no growth in the number of trains to London Euston, despite many being standing room only when they leave Coventry, let alone when they leave Rugby. Add to this the fact that many local services will discharge at Rugby to catch the London train and that the only services to Northampton and Milton Keynes will be stopping trains. Rugby has long benefited from good motorway links and good rail connections and it is vital for the well being of our local economy that these are preserved. Expect a campaign!

Saturday 22 September 2007

Election speculation

For the past couple of months there has been speculation about when the next election will be held and whether it will be this autumn. Gordon Brown his and his spokemens’ comments show them having fun with all of us, political opponents, the media and commentators with their constant “will he, won’t he” speculation. Today’s Times reports that Brown will not use his keynote speech on Monday to announce an election while the BBC says The Labour Party is heading to Bournemouth for its annual conference amid speculation Gordon Brown is preparing to call a general election. All of this has made day to day planning in a busy family such as ours almost impossible. Will I be able to take my son down to his first day at University? Will I be able to watch my other son play in a key Rugby match? Can I take my daughter to a party? Can I join a great friend from University at his 50th birthday celebrations? No complaints from me because I knew the form when I first decided to put my name forward as a candidate and in Rugby our local planning for an election is well in hand, but from the perspective of organising daily life and playing an active role in a family, there’s something to be said for fixed term parliaments.

Monday 17 September 2007

Creating woodland


About five years ago Tracy and I helped a friend plant up a field with trees as part of a plan to introduce woodland into a part of Warwickshire that has very little. On Sunday we were invited to a barbeque in a clearing in the wood with many others who also helped. It was great to see how the fruits of all the hard work have come on and comforting to think we had played a small part in offsetting some of our carbon usage while having a good time with friends.

A Policeman's lot

The BBC is not generally known for supporting a Conservative line. However, their website today refers to tonight’s Panorama programme about a blog written by a police officer here which shows just how right we are to keep reminding people about how our public services are being strangled by red tape and paperwork. The blog has been anonymous up to now and tells about an officer’s daily routine within the police force and how when the public think that the police solve burglaries, the public and are on patrol accosting thieves and people who are up to no good, what they actually do is “attempt to meet government statistics by solving trivial crime”. The key quote for me is that Stuart Davidson, the officer said “I was sometimes tempted not to make an arrest because processing it would mean so much time off the street.” I, for one, will be watching this evening.

Thursday 13 September 2007

Local issues matter

I spent yesterday evening at two very interesting meetings. I first attended Cawston Parish Council which is a new Council, holding only its fourth meeting having been established to serve the residents of the new Cawston housing estate. The matters they considered were very local to the estate: dog fouling and bins; overgrown hedges on a footpath; thoughtless parking; youth disturbances; illegal riding of mini motorcycles; availability of community facilities; relationships with the consortium of developers building the estate; preparing a newsletter. These are the kind of issues I became very familiar with during my five years as a Borough Councillor, attending meetings of the seven Parish Councils in my ward. I was reminded just how important these kind of issues are to local people and what an impact they can have on people’s quality of life. Big national issues are important, but often making a change on a small local matter can be the most important difference for many people. With a new Council, full of enthusiasm and ably led by Mike Stokes, the residents of Cawston can be confident that local issues that concern them will be dealt with swiftly and competently.

I then went on to the quarterly meeting of Dunchurch Divisional Panel. This is a meeting I am very familiar with having attended while I was a Borough Councillor. I caught the end of the meeting and again the issues discussed were very local: road maintenance; village policing; temporary closure of the local tip. However I was there for a discussion on the possible threat to St Cross Hospital with this group taking a lead in preparing a campaign should such action become necessary. There was a real determination to defend an asset hugely valued by the people of Rugby and I was left in no doubt about how effective and organised that campaign will be.

Friday 7 September 2007

Cameron CCHQ speech

I have just returned from a presentation by David Cameron at CCHQ in which he set out a statement of Conservative values. (Picture “borrowed” from ConservativeHome) The full speech is here, but the key points I took away were how a Conservative Government will support the family, provide opportunity and personal freedom for all, giving people control over their lives. He referred to the work of our policy groups setting how these objectives will be achieved, and contrasted this approach with the top down, state knows best philosophy of Gordon Brown. He also had fun with Brown’s citizen’s juries saying that parents & families already know what’s needed. I sat with a number of other candidates, all of whom were clearly enthused what they heard. We have supported the move to the centre ground because it the right thing to do and it is where elections are lost and won, and this statement of principles enables us to point to clear differences between us and Labour. Expect more of the same over coming months.

Wednesday 5 September 2007

Out and about


With the summer over, we're now out talking to residents with our monthly survey, this month about peoples reactions to the Government's proposals to introduce Identity Cards. I will publish the results at the end of September, but anyone wanting to contribute can do so on the Rugby Conservatives website. The photo is of our team yesterday evening in Pailton, with a first outing this season for "team Pawsey" one of whom was behind the camera.

Monday 3 September 2007

Today's news

Since my time at University I have usually read The Times, which is generally considered to be fairly balanced politically. Today it leads with the tax credits fiasco where under the highly complicated system introduced by Gordon Brown, many families were overpaid collectively almost £6billion. This has led to demands for repayment with some families unable to do and in many cases the sums being written off. On page 4 there is an account of the battle of the Army’s senior staff to prevent civil servants from cutting the number of infantry batallions by a quarter; on page 12 a report that figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that children under the age of ten were the prime suspects in nearly 3,000 crimes last year; and on page 13 details of an internal report on health tourism that the bill for treating foreign patients is now £62 million a year despite a crackdown promised by the Government three years ago.
Pick any one these to show a Government letting it’s people down by failing to take proper control of an issue. We can and will do better.

Saturday 1 September 2007

The big issue - Health

David Cameron was quite right recently to draw attention to the changes taking place in the NHS and the move away from the role of the District General Hospital generally as a vehicle for delivering healthcare. This is the style of hospital overwhelmingly preferred by users of the system who, after all, are the people paying for it. Of course the increasing specialisation within health means that it is often more appropriate for some operations to be delivered at a larger centre of excellence. However, for more general matters, people have consistently shown that, whenever possible, they want to be attended to locally, in familiar surroundings, and where they can remain close to friends and family. This is the first reason why there is a concern locally that services may in the future be reduced at St Cross in Rugby.

The second reason is the need for the Trust which runs University Hospital in Coventry and the Hospital of St Cross in Rugby to make savings of £30million by the end of the financial year. This has led to immediate proposals to cut 200 jobs. It is important for the people of Rugby that this exercise does not result in any diminution of services supplied at St Cross.

For both of these reasons, I am pleased that the new group, HOSt (Hands off St Cross) has been set up and that it is made of local politicians from more than one party. I worked closely with those active in this group a few years ago when we successfully opposed Government proposals for a new international airport in Rugby. This is a team of formidable campaigners and even though we are assured by senior managers involved in the delivery of health services in Rugby that there is no current threat to St Cross, it is comforting to know that there are capable people ready to respond should the situation change