Source: Guardian: Steve Bell
May and Corbyn
Source: Guardian: Steve Bell
Daily Archives: 24 Jan 2018
Councillor planning conflicts ghost raises its head … in Torbay this time
Owl says: the story below the link seems disturbingly familiar:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9920971/If-I-cant-get-planning-nobody-will-says-Devon-councillor-and-planning-consultant.html
Unfortunately this government seems not to worry about any of these things.
“Opposition Liberal Democrats on Torbay Council have made a formal complaint about a Conservative councillor, claiming he shouldn’t be advertising his elected position on his business website.
Thomas Winfield is a director of a firm of chartered surveyors.
On the firm’s website it states that he has the “benefit” of being elected as a local councillor for Torbay, and that he is on the Torbay Planning Committee.
The Lib Dems say this is inappropriate, because of a perceived conflict of interest.
However, Mr Winfield has told the BBC that he works in finance for commercial lending, as opposed to planning work.
Mr Winfield called the Lib Dems “small minded” for making an issue of it.”
Tory donors and that “men only” fundraiser – sleaze isn’t a good enough word
“A journalist has revealed the shocking details of how young women were allegedly harassed and degraded while working as hostesses at a men-only charity gala at Mayfair’s Dorchester.
Politicians have lined up to condemn the prestigious dinner after a damning report in the Financial Times claimed female agency workers were repeatedly victims of groping and propositioning.
Two undercover reporters posing as hostesses spent six hours at the “most un-PC event of the year” – for which they were instructed to wear skimpy black outfits and matching underwear.
The paper reports that at an after-party, many of the female workers – some of them students – were “groped, sexually harassed and propositioned”, while among the prizes up for grabs at the evening’s fundraising auction were an evening at a Soho strip club and a course of plastic surgery to “add spice to your wife” for the lucky winner. …
…The Presidents Club – which denies any knowledge of wrongdoing at its events – is chaired by Mayfair property developer Bruce Ritchie and David Meller, who sits on the board of the Department for Education and the Mayor’s Fund for London. …”
Of course, Mr Richie is also a super-rich Tory donor and property developer:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/12/conservatives-tycoons-fundraising-black-and-white-ball
and Meller is a property developer academy schools investor:
http://www.mellereducationaltrust.org/meet-our-people/david-meller
What Swire thinks of NHS: likes dementia tax, tax on pensioner perks and Hunt “open to all options”
Owl says: “Hunt open to all options” sends a chill through my wings. It not only means he has NO plans but also that the option to keep the NHS a public service is doomed.
“A political consensus is emerging here at Westminster about what has to be done to save the NHS, which we all know is in crisis.
The main cause that has been targeted is social care, which has been created by an ageing population and yes, cuts to local Government.
Jeremy Hunt has now persuaded the Prime Minister to bring social care into the NHS, which is a good thing, but in my books the budget, which currently sits at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government also needs to be transferred.
The NHS rather than councils should be in charge of commissioning social care.
As we all know, old age is a condition lottery; one person might require £100,000 of care, another £20,000. Is it not a fairer solution to pool the risk between as many people as we can so that everyone loses something but nobody loses everything?
In my view, the so called ‘dementia tax’ was a good manifesto pledge because it suggested those who own their homes contribute to their own care rather than allowing our children and grandchildren, who are finding it difficult to get on the property ladder themselves, to pay for it. But it was flawed because it didn’t have a cap, which meant it failed to pool that risk.
Just how should we pay for it? Anyone I speak to seems to suggest that they wouldn’t mind paying a bit more in tax to sort it out. But how? Take money out of peoples’ estates after they die? Labour tried that, and it was quickly dubbed, by my side, as being a ‘death tax’.
Maybe the Government could raise tax by means-testing pensioners benefits such as winter fuel allowances and ending the pension triple lock, but again whenever this has been floated there has been opposition to it, most recently by the DUP.
Another idea floating around Parliament is turning national insurance into a ring-fenced health tax. Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative chairwoman of the Health Select Committee believes national insurance should also be extended to those beyond retirement age who are presently exempt.
I have spoken to Jeremy Hunt many times about social care and the truth is he is not wedded to any one idea, he is ‘open to all options’, including a dedicated tax, because he knows more money must be found and fast.
What is needed is courage and leadership to drive forward solutions, but integrating social and health care must be the right place to start.”
http://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/how-can-we-save-the-nhs-1-5366945
DCC Councillor Claire Wright: “NHS REFUSES TO PROVIDE WINTER PRESSURES INFORMATION FOR DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL HEALTH SCRUTINY COUNCILLORS”
“I am really disappointed to report that despite me asking at the beginning of January for the winter pressures information to be available at the 25 January Health and Adult Care Scrutiny meeting, it is not going to be provided.
Given the avalanche of very worrying “NHS in Crisis” press stories I sent several emails to committee chair, Sara Randall Johnson, at the beginning of January asking for information such as delayed discharges, A&E waits, levels of norovirus, staff vacancies and various other pieces of information.
I was told it would be published as part of the performance review. However, when the agenda papers were published last week, the performance review charts gave information until the end of November only.
I have since been told by the committee chair that a representative from the NEW Devon CCG claimed that they weren’t in a position to provide the information because it would give councillors an incomplete picture.
If this isn’t infuriating enough, winter pressures data is updated on a daily basis and circulated to NHS and social care managers. They have the information. And it’s as up to date as today.
The health scrutiny committee chair indicated during a phone call with me on Saturday that she thought this was acceptable and that this data not being provided until the March meeting was fine!
When I asked (as per the email below) for the data to be provided under ‘urgent items’ I was told the issue wasn’t urgent and there wasn’t time to get the paperwork out in any case.
The refusal to supply this information, is in my view, a deliberate obfuscation. An attempt to interfere with the democratic and legitimate process of scrutiny and the NHS should have been pressed to provide it for this meeting.
Here’s my email to chair, Sara Randall Johnson, sent last Wednesday (17 January):
Dear Sara
I am very disappointed that there will be no specific written report on winter pressures at next week’s meeting.
I think that most people, given that ongoing national crisis that the NHS is experiencing right now, would find it inconceivable that our committee did not have this important information to assess how our major hospitals are managing during winter.
I see that there is an agenda item for urgent items at the beginning of the meeting.
Can I ask that this information as I previously asked for, is included in the form of written reports from the four NHS acute trusts, as an urgent agenda item. This to include delayed discharges for the winter period and up until next week, A&E waits and numbers, staffing vacancies, levels of norovirus and all the other standard winter pressures reporting that the trusts do on a daily basis for their managers.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes
Claire”
Development Management Committees should not roll over for developers
“John Harris is absolutely right (With a little imagination we can solve the housing crisis, 22 January).
But we need council planning committees to stand up to profit-driven developers and throw out schemes that don’t deliver enough affordable housing, as Southwark have just commendably done with the proposed Elephant & Castle scheme.
Unlike my own council, Waltham Forest, which last month meekly rolled over and approved a scheme for Walthamstow town centre including four monstrously out-of-scale tower blocks containing no genuinely affordable housing at all.
Graham Larkbey”
“MPs finally get ‘revenge’ nine years after expenses scandal by blocking watchdog’s new job”
Owl wonders how many MPs are over 76 years of age. In 2016 there were 27 of them over 70 (the oldest being 84) and 107 between 60 and 65:
and how many take taxis from their London homes to the House of Commons!
“MPs have finally got “revenge” nine years after the expenses scandal – by blocking their watchdog’s new job.
The Commons voted 77-46 tonight to stop Sir Ian Kennedy, ex-chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, becoming an Electoral Commissioner.
Sir Ian, who led a controversial crackdown on claims after the scandal in 2009, was backed by Theresa May for the £374-a-day role with the elections watchdog.
But 40 Tory and 31 Labour MPs were branded “petty” after leading a revolt against his appointment. HuffPost UK and The Sun quoted anonymous MPs describing the move as “revenge”.
Conservative former minister James Duddridge said he believed Sir Ian was “not a fit and proper person” to serve in the four-year role.
He told the Commons: “This gentleman is 76 now, he’ll be 80 at the end of his term. When he served on a health commission, he claimed £15,000 in taxis from North London to the job.
Whilst our expenses system desperately needed to be reformed, I don’t think there’s a single member of the House that thinks IPSA is a system that is a system lacking in bureaucracy that couldn’t be well reformed.
“I don’t think he did a good job.”
Labour MP John Spellar accused IPSA of “obstructionism”, adding: “Let’s be frank about it.
“Sir Ian Kennedy, many colleagues feel, largely created the dreadful, anti-elected member, vindictive attitude that has permeated so much of IPSA. That has basically taken as its premise that they are there to make life difficult for MPs.”
Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said no objections were raised by the leaders of political parties to Sir Ian’s appointment.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/mps-finally-revenge-nine-years-11902828
East Devon Watch 