MPs Sleeping Rough

A number of MPs have been warned about sleeping in their office in the House of Commons, as it would be extremely difficult for search and rescue teams to find them in the event of a fire. Some MPs have been secretly sleeping in the Commons after late sittings in the chamber. Some MPs have also been sleeping in their offices because of the new rules which state an MP can not claim for a hotel if he/she is within commuting distance of the House of Commons. It is also believed the Clerk of the House of Commons Malcolm Jack has contacted Party Chief Whips to ensure they tell their MPs not to sleep in their offices. Those MPs who do sleep in the Commons will not publicly come out due to fear that they may be evicted.

Personally I think if an MP chooses to sleep on a camp bed or on the floor of their offices in Westminster, they ought to be thanked for saving the tax payer money, not evicted by the Commons authorities. I completely agree with Conservative MP Mark Field who said MPs were paying for the mistakes of past generations, and that “With these new rules quite a number of MPs have taken to sleeping on the floor in their office.”

Ex Labour MP Laura Moffatt used to sleep regularly on a camp bed in her office in the House of Commons because the cost of having a second home did not sit comfortably with her. She was ‘evicted’ by the Commons authorities.

TSF

Latest GDP shows strong growth

Today the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the 2nd Quarter had increased to 1.1% growth, this figure is preliminary however it has completely stunned economists and politicians who were expecting just about to achieve the target of 0.6%. There was significant growth in the services sector such as business and finance, whilst there was a fall in growth from transport and communication.

GDP in the first quarter of the year was 0.3%, the ONS said that the growth of 1.1% in any quarter last occurred in 1999 (Which is when the boom really started). The latest GDP figures are welcomed, but just goes to show though that this is the growth from the 2nd Quarter (Labour was in office for 2 of those 3 months) meant Labour was working. Labour’s shadow Chancellor, Alistair Darling says it proves that the Labour government did make the right decisions.

Did the electorate make the wrong decision over the economy? We shall have to see in the coming months.

TSF

The Case of Ian Tomlinson

Keir Starmer QC, the Director of public Prosecutions today announced that the Police Officer who shoved Ian Tomlinson, the newspaper seller who was on his way home to watch the football during the G20 protest in London in April 2009 will not be charged. Mr Tomlinson was hit and then thrown to the ground by PC Simon Harwood from the Met Police. Mr Tomlinson managed to get up from the ground aided by a passer by, only to collapse and pass away a short distance from where he had been struck by the officer.

Mr Starmer QC said; “After a thorough and careful review of the evidence, the CPS has decided that there is no realistic prospect of a conviction against the police officer in question for any offence arising from the matter investigated and that no charges should be brought against him. In the face of this fundamental disagreement between the experts about the cause of Mr Tomlinson’s death, the CPS embarked on a detailed and careful examination of all the medical evidence and held a series of meetings with experts in attempt to resolve, or at least narrow, the areas of disagreement.”

There is also criticism about the post mortem reports, there had been 3 reports on Mr Tomlinson, the first by Dr Freddy Patel stated that Mr Tomlinson died from natural causes, whilst the second and third reports stated that Mr Tomlinson died from internal bleeding. Because there was disagreement between the first report and the second and third reports, that is the reason no prosecution could be brought about.

It has also become apparent that the first pathologist the aforesaid Dr F Patel is to face many disciplinary charges and could be struck off by the GMC. I certainly do feel sorry for the family of the late Ian Tomlinson. The Police Officer should have been sacked for his involvment into Mr Tomlinson’s death.

TSF

Führer Griffin banned from the Palace

I wonder how Führer Griffin must be today. He must have woke up this morning with the sun shining, the birds singing and looking forward to the day ahead. He was going to Buckingham Palace to drink Pimms and enjoy the gardens, only to now find out he will not be going at all. Buckingham Palace has banned the BNP MEP from coming to the Palace because “ he has overtly used his personal invitation for party political purpose through the media”. The Palace went on to say in a statement that ”This in turn has increased the security threat and the potential discomfort to the many other guests also attending.”

However it is apparent that Griffin’s fellow MEP, Andrew Brons WILL attend the Palace garden party. Buckingham Palace was said to have been monitoring the BNP website and it is believed the ‘final straw’ came this morning when Griffin did and interview, and then the issue was raised in the House of Commons.

The statement from Buckingham Palace went on to say “The decision to deny entry is not intended to show any disrespect to the democratic process by which the invitation was issued. However, we would apply the same rules to anyone who tried to blatantly politicise their attendance in this way.”

At the time of writing this blog, the article published on the BNP website calling for Neo-Nazi members to send in their suggestions to the leader about what he should ask H.M The Queen should he meet her was still on the website, a screen shot is below. As expected, suggestions included immigration, there was even a little tip on the website from a Senior Non Commissioned Officer of 24 years service in the Army called Robert Sadler, who gave Griffin advice on how to address the Queen.

I agree with the Conservative Blogger Tory Radio, who says in his blog that this could give the BNP more publicity and portray them as the innocent party who have been banned from coming to The Palace. It is not often i agree with Tory Radio, and we have indeed had many political disagreements, but when it comes to an issue such as the BNP, i think people from the main three political parties can indeed agree with each other.

Will this decision from Buckingham Palace give the BNP the oxygen of publicity? We shall have to see.

The Road to Private Healthcare

You may remember back in January i published a blog about the then leader of the opposition and now Prime Minister David Cameron who had held a meeting in his private office in the House of Commons with a group which seeks to privatise the National Health Service. At the end of December 2009, Cameron had invited Dr Helen Evans from NFR (Nurses for reform),  to present her ideas about privatising one of the most important institutions in Britain – The NHS. You Can view my blog from January by clicking here.

On Monday 12th July 2010, the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley published The Coalition Government’s White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’. The aims of the white paper are to free the NHS from the bureaucracy, give GPs the power to control their budget and hand power to the patients. Now cutting bureaucracy and giving patients more say may sound like a good idea, but is it really? Is asking your local doctor to become a manager by giving him/her responsibility for spending a good idea? I think not. I don’t know about you but when i visit my local doctor, i would rather hope his main concerns are seeing me and making sure i have good health, rather than him worrying about a health budget. It really is asking GPs too much. They are doctors not accountants and managers!

Andrew Lansley wants to remove two tiers of NHS management which includes 60,000 managers and PCT’s (Primary Care Trusts). Prime Minister Cameron says this will save us 45% over the next 4 years. However Professor Kieran Walshe from Manchester Business School has said these radical changes would not guarantee an improved performance.

However it appears not all GPs are up to the challenge that awaits them, Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham responded to Andrew Lansley’s announcement by saying that according to Michael Dickson from the NHS Alliance, only 5% of GPs are ready to manage an £80 billion budget. Dr Kambiz Boomla, told the BBC’s Today programme on Radio 4GPs are busy people. We don’t have time to do this in between seeing patients, so we’re going to have to buy in commissioning support from private companies. My fear is that the government has a hidden agenda – to allow private companies to buy out GP practices.”

So giving GPs the power of where to spend an £80 billion NHS budget may or may not sound like a good idea. However what is worrying is that due to GPs not knowing how to manage a budget or indeed if they are too busy to manage a buget there is fear they may hire a third party or organisation to manage the huge budget that government is asking them to manage. This is the worry of some GPs who see ‘Liberating the NHS’ as a stepping stone to privatisation of our health service.

The Health Secretary wants to give private firms the chance to run GP consortiums and effectively make profits. It also turns out that Andrew Lansley received a £21,000 ‘donation’ a few months ago from the Chairman of Care UK which will rake in million of pounds from the Tories NHS shake up plans. Care UK is a private health care provider, the leading shareholder in the group is a private equity group called Bridgepoint.

The Lib Dem/Conservative governments proposals are great news for Dr Helen Evans from NFR (From my January Blog) who says “we can be sure that the government’s proposals represent a shift towards health privatisation on the provision side.”

Just think, a few months ago when the political parties were campaigning in the general election, David Cameron said his party could be trusted more than Labour on the NHS. And now three months into the Coalition Government, NHS spending is ring fenced, but we are moving to a more privatised style of health care in Britain. It is almost certain that those Tory MEP’s such as Dan Hannan who said the NHS was a “60 year mistake” will be extremely happy at the proposed plans. One thing is clear though, that is business and profits will be put before patients. Whether you liked the Labour party or not, we did improve the NHS during our time in office, now it seems all of our hard work is to be wiped away. Remember this is the Conservative party, the party that privatised our gas, electricity, trains and aircraft. Now they want to do the same to the NHS. A leopard never changes its spots.

I just want to end with a reminder, Labour introduced the NHS in 1948, we continued to invest, and as Nye Bevan said in1948; “The Conservatives voted against the National Health Act, not only on the second but on the Third Reading. I do not see why we should forget this.”

Labour the only party tough on crime

17 years after a rather youthful Tony Blair said in a speech that Labour would be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, it has emerged in figures today that indeed the Labour party under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had been tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. Figures from the British Crime Survey (BCS) show that during Labour’s 13 years in power, crime in England and Wales had fallen by 40%. The Conservative party have said the crime statistics are not good enough as it does not take into account those crimes that go unreported.

So whilst Labour appears to be the party that is tough on crime, the Conservatives continue to ignore the statistics just as we witnessed back in January 2010, when the then leader of the opposition and now Prime Minister used false statistics to back his so called ‘Broken Britain’ claim. It is simple, Labour is the only party that is tough on crime.

UNISON, the public sector union have warned that with the cuts in the police budget, crime will rise as up to 66,000 police jobs are scrapped. You can view Unison’s press release here.

TSF

Mandy the Meerkat

I was on twitter as i normally am, then our former Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott now Lord Prezza posted a tweet to a video on youtube. The video is according to John the next installment of Peter Mandelson’s memoirs which are currently being serialised in the times. The spoof video shows a meerkat sitting by an open fire reading a book, with the voice over by Peter Mandelson. You can watch the video here , it certainly made me laugh.

TSF