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by Paul Scully | Oct 4, 2007 | News |
So, the postal strike by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) began today against modernisation of the postal service. The Royal Mail loses 5p per letter delivered but the unions want to keep their heads in the sand. Instead of efficiency savings, the net result is further cuts in Post Offices hitting the elderly and those in rural areas hardest.
I daresay, the same people will be selling copies of the Socialist Worker that I saw at the protest outside the Burmese Embassy. It was indicative of their headstrong failure to keep a sense of reality that they failed to see the irony of the fact that we were protesting against a socialist dictatorship.
Meanwhile Bob Crow is still flexing his muscles with his London Underground colleagues and the Local Government Pay award has not been agreed. Should be an interesting winter.
Picture: Beau Bo D’Or
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by Paul Scully | Oct 1, 2007 | News |
Last Monday, I sat on a panel for a Business Question Time session organised by Sutton Council and Sutton Business Forum. The other panellists were local MPs Paul Burstow and Tom Brake, council leader Sean Brennan and Roger Mills, MD of Newsquest, the publishers of the Sutton Guardian.
Although it wasn’t the bearpit of television’s Question Time, there were clear differences in our approach to Sutton High Street. Tom Brake advocated taxing the pubs on the High Street. Whereas I believe that it is a good idea for the businesses to take on more responsibility in keeping their neighbourhood safe and tidy, simply taxing them smacks of the politics of envy. He explained weakly that the large pub chains make a massive profit, they could afford it. This fails to take into account that such a move only perpetuates these faceless corporations making our town centres identikit High Streets. How would a single landlord survive such a move? Back to the drawing board for that policy, Tom.
by Paul Scully | Sep 30, 2007 | News |
On Friday I went to the Burmese Embassy in London to stand alongside exiles and ex-pat Burmese to protest at the brutal treatment of those protestors in Rangoon, the Burmese capital. I have never been to a demo before. Despite the many campaigns that I feel passionate about that have held demonstrations, I have never got up off my comfy chair to join them. Regular readers will remember that one of my first articles was about Burma. As the son of a man who came to this country from Rangoon to make a future for himself, I simply must do everything and anything that I can to support the people that have helped shape who I am.
From the days when my grandfather was in charge of the “scorch and burn” policy on Rangoon docks, destroying the ships and infrastructure that he had worked on for so many years to keep them from Japanese control in the Second World War to the detention of a family friend in Insein jail for four years with no charge or offence committed, the stories that I have been brought up with would make some reading. This having been said, all of my uncles and aunts are united about one thing; their childhood was an incredibly happy one. The memories of the excitement of childhood in a pleasant and prosperous city just make the pictures of the destruction of their birthplace all the more distressing. Just remember that this has been going on for over forty years. Whilst most people only know Burma from war films, a country that is rich in resources previously with one of the most educated populations in South East Asia has been reduced to penury, declared as the least developed country in the world and suffers systematic genocide. Still the United Nations remains impotent and useless thanks to the Chinese and Russians who sell weapons to the regime and other countries like South Africa who voted against a UN resolution earlier this year. This cynical move was to push a point home about the United Nations in general rather than anything about Burma. Yet it condemned thousands of people to further torture, imprisonment and death. If only the South Africans could see the people from Chin State that have been repeatedly stabbed before being thrown into salt water or the Karen people that have been gang-raped in front of their families before the men were killed and their villages razed to the ground.
Please spend a few minutes to watch the video. YouTube, blogging and mobile phones have made possible the pictures that we see on the news. I have had contact from someone in Thailand about my previous article. This blog was started and the prime purpose remains to make Carshalton central but we cannot underestimate the power of communication reaching across the world from our small part of South London. Several of the people that I spoke to had heard from people in Rangoon over the last few days including one man featured on the film who could hear the shots of automatic weapons over the phone as he spoke. I am so pleased that I went. The impact that it made on me was enormous, witnessing at first hand the passion and solidarity of the campaigners there and the calm of the Buddhist monks who led prayers shook me to the core.
Go to the Burma Campaign website and see what you can do. A little time from you will make an enormous contribution to the people of this country that is so often forgotten. If you have a profile on Facebook you can offer your support here. I dearly want to visit Rangoon, there are still members of my extended family there. But I cannot until the military dictatorship is removed and Burma is reclaimed from the tyrants.
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by Paul Scully | Sep 30, 2007 | News |
Iain Dale has published a guide to political blogging. Thanks to your votes, I am featured as the 155th best political blog in the UK. Never have I been so chuffed at being 155th at anything. I’ll keep on working at it and, who knows, might reach the dizzy heights of 154th next year.
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by Paul Scully | Sep 25, 2007 | News |
The Sun reacted to Gordon Brown’s speech in their usual unmatched style and wit. This “Dad’s Army” graphic says it all.
In case you can’t read it, the “What They Said” section reads:-
‘The substance of the Constitution is preserved. That is a fact.’ Angela Merkel, German Chancellor.
‘We have not let a single substantial point of the Constitutional Treaty go. This is a project of foundational character, a treaty for a new Europe.’ Jose Zapatero, Spanish PM.
’90 per cent of it is still there. These changes haven’t made any dramatic changes to the substance of what was agreed back in 2004.’ Bertie Ahern, Irish Taoiseach.
‘Only cosmetic changes were made and the basic document remains the same.’ Vaclav Klaus, Czech President.
‘There’s nothing from the original institutional package that has been changed.’ Astrid Thars, Finnish Europe Minister.
‘The good thing is…that all of the symbolic elements have gone, and that which really matters – the core – is left.’ Anders Fogh Rassmusen, Danish PM.
‘The original treaty for a Constitution was maintained in substance.’ Austrian Government website.
‘The new treaty takes up the most important elements of the constitutional project.’ Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian PM.
Despite this, Gordon Brown insists that the treaty is very different and is prepared to break his manifesto commitment by denying the British people a chance to have their say in a referendum. He insists that his red herrings lines were met. These happen to be the same red lines that were drawn in the original constitutional negotiations.
At the time of writing, 99,332 people have signed up to the Daily Telegraph petition demanding a referendum on the EU Constitution Treaty. You can join them here.
7,683 have joined in with the Sun’s version here.
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by Paul Scully | Sep 23, 2007 | News |
Recently, councillors and MPs received a letter from the NHS explaining the fact that having spent millions on deciding where to build a new hospital, we wouldn’t get one after all. Instead St Helier will see more buildings crammed on the fast disintegrating site. It looks as though maternity will move wholesale to St Helier with improved women’s and children’s services. A redesigned A&E is far too vague for my liking.
Conservative Parliamentary Candidates, Ken Andrew (Carshalton & Wallington) and Philippa Stroud (Sutton & Cheam) have called for:-
- Clarity in stating when the Trust will be free of its current crippling debt, so that it can concentrate on having a new hospital built in St Helier.
- An absolute commitment that SuttonHospital will continue to provide community healthcare.
- Support for the Royal Marsden to develop their site and enable them to continue to be respected as world leaders in the care and cure of cancer patients.
Here’s the letter in full.
Dear Colleague,
We are shortly to begin the next round of stakeholder briefings on the progress the programme has made over the summer and what the next steps will be. I wanted to give you advance notice of the position we shall be setting out to stakeholders, and Mark Easton, the Better Healthcare Programme Director, will
be following up this letter with telephone calls to your offices to book a conversation with you.
As far as the development of the general hospital is concerned, we have received a report demonstrating that a totally new built hospital on either the Sutton or St Helier sites now looks to be unaffordable under the NHS capital regime. The margin of unaffordability is such that there is no prospect of bridging
the gap.
We have also looked at a mixed new build and refurbishment option at St Helier, moving most bed and outpatient facilities into a new building replacing Fergusson House, and upgrading the main building. The cost of this option would be less than new build, and while there is still an affordability gap, it is much less than other options we have looked at.
All these options have been modelled on the assumption that Epsom hospital becomes a large local care centre as previously envisaged by the programme. However, Surrey Primary Care Trust has confirmed its intention to go to public consultation on its Fit for the Future programme in late September, subject to
South East Coast Strategic Health Authority’s quality assurance. As a result of the Fit for the Future acute commissioning intentions, Surrey PCT will not be formally consulting, at this point, on any changes at Epsom hospital.
In addition, at its recent board meeting, the PCT took the decision to join the forthcoming London-wide consultation on Professor Sir Ara Darzi’s report Healthcare for London: A Framework for Action which is expected to begin this November. The board took that decision to ensure that the views of Surrey
residents, in particular those around the Epsom area, are heard in regard to
London’s healthcare services.
In parallel with the work being taken forward on A Framework for Action Surrey PCT, Sutton and Merton PCT and Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust have agreed to work together to develop options for changes to maternity and paediatrics on both sites, in an open and transparent way with staff, patients, members of the
public and yourselves.
While questions remain about patient flows from Epsom the final size and content of both sites will remain uncertain. We are therefore following the principle of moving forward as quickly as we can on the elements of the Better Healthcare Programme that we can progress.
We are not commissioning further work on the new build options for the general hospital and we are concentrating on coming up with the right solution for improving St Helier hospital. This would need to be phased and have a number of elements: a short term investment of £1.45m to upgrade women and children’s services; the development of a local care centre on the site (which would include outpatient services and a re-designed A&E department); and a new ward block within the affordability envelope we have established, subject to confirmation of its feasibility.
We have also established there is sufficient space to develop a new inpatient mental health facility on the site. This is an option which forms part of a wider assessment being undertaken by SWL & St George’s Mental Health Trust for the location of mental health services in Sutton and Merton.
Regarding the four local care centres proposed at St Helier, Nelson, Wilson and Wallington, we will now finalise the business case for them so that we can move as quickly as possible to the next phase. We also want to explore the feasibility of developing new community and primary care services on the Sutton site, in
conjunction with the Royal Marsden Hospital.
These developments will be subject to NHS business case requirements. We do not believe that anything we are currently proposing will require formal consultation as it builds on earlier proposals that had already been subject to consultation, but we will discuss this further with the JOSC. Meanwhile, we are keen to continue to engage with all stakeholders in the development of our plans.
I hope this has made the position clear. Mark Easton, Programme Director, will in any event be contacting your office to arrange a time to speak to you.
Yours sincerely,
Caroline Taylor
Programme Sponsor
Better Healthcare Closer to Home
So, the postal strike by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) began today against modernisation of the postal service. The Royal Mail loses 5p per letter delivered but the unions want to keep their heads in the sand. Instead of efficiency savings, the net result is further cuts in Post Offices hitting the elderly and those in rural areas hardest.
