Rugby to promote Rugby

I have just returned from the annual meeting & summer lunch of Rugby Tourism which was held at the Rugby Lions’ ground at Webb Ellis Road. One of the guest speakers was Richard Cockerill, former Dunchurch & Harris Schoolboy, former Rugby Lions, Leicester & England hooker. Richard showed a quick grasp of the challenge and opportunity for the promotion of Rugby as a tourism destination by telling us how when new international players come to Leicester, one of the first questions they ask is how far away is the home of the game and also of the interest he received as a player on an overseas tour when people learnt that he grew up in Rugby. There are few places in the world that have given their name to an international sport and I am sure that there is a great deal more we could be doing to use this in the promotion of our town.
Richard finished his speech with a clean-ish joke for a Rugby player, which left some very respectable people hoping to hear his other material some time in the future!

The change agenda

I heard Alistair Darling on the Today programme this morning, rolled out as one of Gordon Brown’s trusted lieutenants, attempting to justify why Brown used the word “change” seven time in his brief speech on the steps of 10 Downing St yesterday. It beats me how the man who held the purse strings over the past 10 years, whose input was fundamental throughout the Blair years and who was the architect of many of Labour's policies in that time can consider himself an instigator of change. Also, if and when he does change anything, and about the only issue Darling could speak about this morning was to provide more affordable housing, then that will surely be an acknowledgement that what they did and the policies they introduced up until yesterday were mistakes and wrong.

IDS in Rugby

Apologies for not keeping up with the blog over the past seven days! Last Friday, Iain Duncan Smith was our guest in Rugby at our annual dinner. Beforehand he met with our three local newspapers and gave a reporter from each of them a flavour of the material his Social Justice Policy Group will be brining out in the next few weeks. Just a few statistics: by the age of just three, children from disadvantaged backgrounds are as much as a year behind their middle class peers; nearly 60% of prisoners re-offend within two years; one in three 17 to 30 year olds is classed as a heavy drinker; only 3% of people with a registered disability are in work; research suggests 300,000 elderly people could be the victim of abuse in their own homes. Iain spoke about all of these issues and drew attention to the fact that there has always been compassion within Conservatism and that people who are Conservatives are often at the forefront of providing solutions, often without making a big issue of their activity. I know that following his visit, many more people will be looking at the Policy Group’s report when it is published.

Great article & picture in today’s Rugby Advertiser, but unfortunately not available online.

Vote Lib Dem. get Labour

Todays news of Gordon Brown's offer of a post in the cabinet to Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Ashdown, will be highly significant at the general election in a marginal consituency such as Rugby. How many people will want to vote for the Lib Dems knowing that their vote could sustain a tired and discredited Labour Government in office?

Moon walk

I spent the weekend in Edinburgh supporting Tracy and her friend Jean who took part in the Moonwalk to raise money to support people with breast cancer. It was fantastic to see 10,000 walkers making their way through the city in darkness and there was a superb spirit amongst everyone there. Hard work for those who took part, but an enormous sense of achievement as you can see from the girls proudly displaying their medals!

The Falklands remembered

I remember well the Falklands campaign 25 years ago as it took place during the period when my brother, Mike, and I were planning to set up our business and the uncertainty of war caused us to re-think our plans (we went ahead & will be 25 years old in September). Yesterday evening's news brought that all back to me & I was interested to see the old tv footage and also the comments of people involved in the conflict. I was quite moved by the remarks of a lady who who was in the Falklands for the commemoration, having lost her son, and who was asked "was it all worthwhile?" She was certain in her response "most definitely, it was important to ensure that the people here kept their freedom". Brave lady.

Cycling for leukaemia research

My daughter Sara & I have just completed a tem mile cycle ride to raise money for research into leukaemia and related diseases. For some years my business has supplied cups to to the organisers for use at the water stations and this year it was time to do a little more so I've been chasing people to sponsor me. There was a great spirit among the riders, some of whom were cyling 26 or even 50 miles. We tootled along with the youngsters & thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the Bikeathon, which only happens due to the hard work & commitment of an army of volunteers. Last year they raised £45,000 and are hoping to do better this year. The cause is so worthwhile I hope they do so.

An interest in farming

I spent Monday morning down at Rugby market with a visitor to Rugby who knows all to well about the problems facing British agriculture. Baroness Byford is the Conservative Shadow Minister for Food and Rural Affairs in the House of Lords, is from a farming background and spent time chatting with local farmers. We watched the sale of stock in the auction ring and were briefed about the move of the market from its long established site by the station to a proposed new site at the Royal Showground at Stoneleigh, which has come about solely as a result of farmers being prepared to support their own industry. We later met Ian Allen who has just ceased milking on his farm in Clifton because he is receiving 5p less for every litre of milk he produces than it costs to produce. With 31% of farmers are living below the low income threshold and incomes half of what they were in 1997, most people have very little idea of the pressures of being in farming today.

Recycling is rubbish

When I was a borough councillor, the issue of waste collection and recycling often came up with residents and I certainly heard a lot about this subject on the doorstep with candidates during the recent local elections. A scare story put about by the Lib Dems was that a decision had been taken on a change to a bi-weekly collection in Rugby when no such decision had been made and in fact the Council is currently consulting on the way forward. My own view is that if waste capable of being recycled including paper, glass, aluminium, tin, cardboard, plastic & garden waste is collected in week 1, then most familes would have insufficient other waste to need a weekly collection and this other waste could easily be collected in week 2. This would result in a weekly collection, just different items being collected on alternate weeks. So I was concerned about the article in today's Sunday Times HERE about much of the waste that residents sort out for recycling being sent to landfill. Clearly there needs to be a much more joined up approach to create a system which works. Councils have been given targets of the proportion of waste that should be recycled, and are doing what they can to hit what has been set for them, but are not taking account of what happens once the collected material is taken from them. Just another example of the inadequecies of a target based culture which has been the whole ethos of Government over the past ten years.

More on grammars

I attended two events this weekend; one a Conservative Branch function and the other the Chairman's Ball at the Rugby Lions Rugby Club. At each one, the only political issue people I met wanted to speak about was grammar schools. There is a great deal of misunderstanding about the Conservative position, not helped by us but also driven by a mischievous press. I am happy that the issue is now clear and, following Dominic Grieve's intervention thus week, that in the event that the massive housing growth that the West Midland Regional Assembly is considering were to take place, there would be the opportunity for a proportionate increase in the number of grammar school places or even a further grammar school inRugby. It is now clearly only in other parties interests to keep this issue going, and I hope that we will now be able to concentrate on our proposals for increasing standards in schools across the country and prepare our young people for the competitive enviroment they will face at the end of their education.