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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Back to work!

I am now back in Rugby after the most fantastic holiday. 2007 was always going to be a special year, and I took more than the usual two weeks for the first time since I set up my business 25 years ago. We visited Hong Kong on the way over to Australia, visited Caloundra which is a small holiday town about 50 miles of Brisbane, Fraser Island, Cairns, Ayers Rock (now known as Uluru) and the past week in Sydney. We saw many sights and took in many new experiences but importantly for me this was an opportunity to spend time with my family. It looks as though the next few weeks are going to be pretty busy and so it was great for us to be able to spend time together.

I had hoped to be able to blog while on holiday using public computers in libraries and internet cafes. That idea didn’t come off mainly because each time I logged on the best I could do was keep up to date with what was going on at home by looking at sites such as ConservateHome and Iain Dale; looking at the on line editions of national & local newspapers; wading through my inbox, often only getting rid of the junk mail before either my time was up or Sara would be tugging at my arm saying “Dad, can we go back now? ”. However, I did see the way the Australians go about many aspects of Government, some good & some bad, & hope to refer to them as I post over coming months on various subjects.

Now it’s straight back into local issues, with none more important than the threat to our local hospital here in Rugby, St Cross. More later!

The Holiday Season

This is a big year for our family with significant birthdays for Tracy & myself, Victoria is 21 & Will 18, so it was always our plan to have a big holiday this year. We’re just about to leave for Australia. We’ve been looking forward to visiting somewhere we’ve never been before and everyone has been telling us what a fantastic time we will have. I’m not an IT genius, wont be taking a laptop with me & so wont be posting regularly on this blog in the time I am away. I will try to do so occasionally through an internet café if I can get it to work, and will also check and respond to any e-mails sent to me when I can. With lots of speculation about a possible General Election in the autumn, I will make sure I keep up to date with current events, although any announcement, if there is one at all, isn’t likely to be made until October. Thankfully there is only the remotest chance I will need to get the first plane home!