Friday, December 30, 2005

Waste of Parliament's time

Jacob Sanders's attack on Andrew Smith for not signing Early Day Motions (EDMs) is somewhat over the top (Oxford Mail, August 22).

EDMs are outdated and as Mr Smith has said earlier, they serve no purpose whatsover. Mr Sanders goes further by making the spurious claim that EDMs are "one of the most important means available to backbench MPs to represent their constituents in Parliament".

It may have escaped attention of Mr Sanders and his cohorts in the Green Party that the most important means available to all MPs, not just those in the backbenches, is the right to vote on the floor on the House of Commons where real and effective change can and will be realised. I believe Mr Smith's voting record is more than acceptable.

There are currently 727 open EDMs and I do not see how having my local MP spending weeks reading these specific documents is demonstrative of him representing the constituents of Oxford East, especially when no real change is ever going to be effected for doing so.

Posted on behalf of MICK McANDREWS, Burchester Avenue, Barton, Oxford

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Businesses are homeless too!


BUILDING housing on brownfield sites is all very well, but where are all the businesses going to live?

Mr Prescott boasts of meeting his target for building 60 per cent of new homes on brownfield sites. But in truth he has managed it only by displacing commercial development — for which there is no corresponding target — on to virgin sites.

The Government’s targets on ‘sustainable’ housing developments aren’t just a scam but a positive threat to the environment. While new homes are being built at what . . . would have been considered slum densities, there seems nothing to stop wasteful land use by commercial development.

Some of the great Oxford Street department stores are seven or eight storeys high, and highly efficient with space; yet these kinds of shops are increasingly being replaced with the likes of PC World: vast, single-storey tin sheds surrounded by acres of parking.”

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Fuel Lobby’s protests - do they protest perhaps too much?

Fuel Lobby’s protests - do they protest perhaps too much?

There is something about the Fuel Lobby’s planned protests that makes it hard to extend our full sympathy. For one thing, the tactics employed by the fuel protesters are borrowed from the bolshie trade unionists of the 1970s, and will bring great inconvenience to the public and to business. For another, it is by no means clear why farmers and hauliers should feel especially aggrieved by Gordon Brown’s fuel tax regime. Most of the fuel used by farmers is red diesel, a concoction specially devised for them which is taxed at just six pence per litre. Hauliers do not enjoy a similar concession, but such is the damage wreaked on the roads and the nearby buildings by 44-ton lorries that it is doubtful whether their taxes cover the full cost to the public purse of their activities.

Moreover, there is something to be said for fuel taxes as an efficient way of raising revenue.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Re- launch of Oxford Fabian Society


Re- launch of Oxford Fabian Society

To all members of the Fabian Society in Oxford and Oxfordshire:

Meetings of the Fabian Society have been in abeyance for some years and our opportunity to discuss matters of wider political and social issues led by invited speakers, has not been possible, particularly in the absence of the University Fabian Society.
In discussions with the Dartmouth Street Headquarters of the Fabian Society, it was suggested that I explore the possibility of re-launching the Oxford and Oxfordshire Fabian Society. Accordingly the purpose of this message is to ascertain the degree of interest amongst Fabian Society (and possibly other interested) members in such a re-launch.
The points for consideration and views (based on past experience in the Oxford Fabian Society include:
a) Meetings to be held three times each year – in term time perhaps?

b) To invite a distinguished speaker to be met by only 5/6 members (as happened in the past) is both futile and insulting. One proposal would be to circulate members 1 to 2 months in advance and arrange any meeting based only on a firm commitment of attendance by at least 20 (?) members.

c) Venues – Oxford, Headington, Thame to incorporate the requirements of both the City and County members of the Fabian Society?

d) Some sort of small subscription might be necessary, preferably not involving a tedious bureaucratic collection system.

e) Communication with members would be by email and news would be posted on a dedicated page of Oxfordprospect.co.uk at http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/Fabian%20Society.htm I have also provided a Blog site at http://oxfordprospect.blogspot.com/ to enable members to discuss the issues that matter to them.

I would be grateful if you would let me know (by email) your views on this proposal and its attendant details to ascertain whether I should proceed further.

Yours fraternally

Nicholas A. Newman

Chair Greater Headington Labour Party

Editor: Oxfordprospect.co.uk & Headington Forum

Email: editor@oxfordprospect.co.uk

Friday, September 02, 2005

Cook's agent beats 40 rivals to represent party at by-election

Date is set for Cook by-election The first steps are to be taken towards holding a by-election in the seat left vacant by the death of Robin Cook.
Labour has been forced to tread constitutional by-ways because the Westminster parliament is in recess.
The contest will be signalled in the London Gazette on Friday and the writ will formally be moved next week.
Voters in the Livingston constituency, where the former foreign secretary had a majority of 13,000, will go to the polls on 29 September.
Labour is hoping for a bounce from its annual conference in Brighton that week.
The party will be represented by Mr Cook's former election agent, Jim Devine.
But the Nationalists are relying on disquiet over Iraq, as well as local Livingston controversies, to give them a boost.
Angela Constance will contest the seat for the SNP, while the Liberal Democrats have chosen Charles Dundas as their candidate and Steven Nimmo will fight for the SSP.
Mr Cook died last month after falling ill while hillwalking in the Scottish Highlands.
He resigned from Tony Blair's Cabinet in 2003 over the Iraq crisis.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Desperate champagne socialist George Galloway grabs for gourmet creditials

Gorgeous George should show his gourmet credentials again

George Galloway’s eye for an opportunity is uncanny. The strike at the Heathrow caterer Gate Gourmet is the latest bandwagon onto which members of his Respect party have piled to extract publicity.

The move has provoked anger from Piara Khabra, the local MP, who complains the dispute is being “hijacked” by elements of the hard left. “They are trying to push ideological arguments that are just not possible,” says Khabra, who represents many pickets. “They just want to exploit the situation.”

A spokesman for Respect confirmed that members had taken it upon themselves as individuals to show solidarity with the workers, who were sacked by the airline subcontractor earlier this month. It comes a week after it emerged that the spokesman for the family of the Brazilian man shot dead by police at Stockwell Underground station was none other than a member of Galloway’s Commons staff.

The Respect MP, an avowed champagne socialist, has a penchant for good food. Perhaps a fine gesture would be to give each striker a box of Quality Street chocolates — his present to Saddam Hussein.

Henley Labour Party


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STOP BEING TOLERANT OF INTOLERANCE!

It is difficult not to agree with Mathew Parris when he argued recently in finding women wearing the veil, denying girls education and other tribal practices as female circumcision, forced and arranged marriages from abroad as offensive to western women. Such behaviour flouts western social conventions and should not be seen in the west. To read more http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/Multiculturalism.htm
More blogs about stop being tolerant of intolerance.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Has anyone heard of the Conservative Rural Action Group?

Has anyone heard of Conservative Rural Action Group? - 17 August
It’s a funny old world, claims by CRAG (Conservative Rural Action Group) that their campaigning efforts made a difference in last May’s elections, are to say the least a bit disingenuous. CRAG’s website boasts about its rural campaigning efforts having a ‘very visible effect’ on farmland and at point to point meetings. In particular it claims it played a vital role in securing such traditionally Tory London seats as Corydon, Putney and Hammersmith and Fulham. Erm – aren’t these all urban seats? This might explain why no one I know spotted these people during the elections in rural Oxfordshire.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Any hope of Labour returning to the Left died with Robin Cook

Any hope of Labour returning to the Left died with Robin

Tony Blair's advisers often quote the feminist writer Gloria Steinem's aphorism that today everything political is personal. There are few politicians, however, who prove that the personal can also be the political. Robin Cook was one who did.
As the ablest and most articulate spokesman for the Labour Left, he symbolised the path not followed by his party. Through his resignation from the Government over the war in Iraq, he became an emblem of Old Labour's frustration with Mr Blair. His death is therefore not just a personal tragedy for his family, it is also a political event. It is now less likely than ever that Labour will return to its traditional socialist roots.
There was nothing New Labour about Mr Cook. With his ginger beard, his love of horse racing and his liking for a dram (or 10) of whisky, he was the opposite of a clean-cut, mineral water-sipping Blairite clone. He preferred lamb rogan josh to rabbit polenta, trade unionists to businessmen, the Scottish Highlands to Tuscany. During the recent general election campaign, he came back to help the party as part of a strategy called Operation Hairy Lefty. It was a label that could have been invented for him.
A brilliant parliamentarian, Mr Cook, like the Prime Minister, wanted a "new style of politics" - but his version involved reforming the House of Lords and introducing proportional representation, rather than installing a sofa in the study of Number 10. As foreign secretary, his "ethical foreign policy" meant clamping down on arms sales, not toppling Saddam Hussein.
Instead of touting a pager, he had an old-fashioned red telephone installed on his desk with a hotline to his counterpart in the United States - he used to joke that the first time it rang, the caller tried to order a takeaway pizza. When all around him were throwing out government-owned watercolours in favour of Cool Britannia modern paintings, he replaced a picture of a maharaja with a giant gilded mirror. His vanity and prickly manner meant that he was unable to erect a political big tent.
On policy, he was frequently at odds with Mr Blair, preferring differentiation to triangulation. Even before Labour had won power in 1997, he said, privately, that the party's manifesto was fine - just so long as it was never actually implemented. He opposed ID cards, university top-up fees and the introduction of market forces into the public services. He would almost certainly have led the charge against the Prime Minister's recent anti-terrorist proposals. In a recent speech to the Left-wing pressure group Compass, he argued that Labour would only win the next election if it abandoned its fascination with "political cross-dressing" and rediscovered a "radical values base".
Mr Cook was the only credible figurehead of the Left - in recent years, he deployed the forensic debating skills once used against the Conservatives during the arms to Iraq debate against his own party. There is no one else who can take over this role - Frank Dobson has the beard but lacks the intellect, Clare Short shares his views on Iraq, but fails the subtlety test. Mr Cook's death will therefore alter the balance of power in the Labour Party at a time when its future is up for grabs with the impending departure of Mr Blair. There are implications not just for the Prime Minister but also for his likely successor, Gordon Brown.
Recently, Mr Cook abandoned his decade-long rivalry with the Chancellor and started campaigning for his fellow Scot to assume the Labour leadership at the earliest opportunity. He did so because, like many other MPs and activists, he believed that Mr Brown shared his views that the party needed to put clear, red water between it and the Conservatives. There is, in fact, little evidence that this is the case.
Although the Chancellor has in the past flaunted his True Labour credentials, in an attempt to differentiate himself from the New Labour Mr Blair, he has, since this year's election, come to the conclusion that electoral success comes from retaining the centre ground. At a recent internal briefing, Labour's pollster Greg Cook produced an analysis showing that if the party regained two per cent of its vote from the Liberal Democrats but lost two per cent to the Conservatives, then it would lose power. Mr Brown has been struck by the need to keep the middle classes, won over to Labour by Mr Blair, on side should he become leader.
I think it extremely unlikely that Mr Brown would, as prime minister, have given Mr Cook the Cabinet job he wanted - that of Chancellor. Had he brought him back into the government at all, it would have been in a relatively junior position where his Left-wing instincts could have been contained.
There is also little chance that Mr Brown would have chosen Mr Cook as his deputy - he is more likely to try to balance his own dour Scottish tax-and-spend reputation with a southern, centre-ground running mate. As the Chancellor himself said during the election campaign, he is New Labour and he will to a great extent be the continuity candidate to succeed Mr Blair. Mr Cook - like many others on his wing of the Labour Party - would have been deeply disappointed by a Brown premiership.
And yet, had he lived, he would, as one of Mr Brown's original supporters, inevitably have had a hold over him, not only because of his own reputation but also because of the strand of opinion he represents. His influence would have been greater over Mr Brown than it ever was over Mr Blair because their political background and instincts are more similar.
It would have been more difficult for Mr Brown to bat away criticisms from one of his most high-profile allies than it was for Mr Blair to shrug off complaints from a man who had resigned from his Cabinet. That will not now be. It will be far easier for Mr Brown, like Mr Blair, to ignore the Left because its best exponent has gone.
"There are few politicians who are irreplaceable," Lord Kinnock said yesterday. "Robin Cook was irreplaceable." It is said that all political careers end in failure. Certainly, Robin Cook's views have been defeated in government. However, as an opposition politician - whether to the Conservatives or to his own party - he was a success.

Monday, August 01, 2005

The Question of PR


I think there are three issues here, the question of people not voting, the types of PR and the size and design of constituencies.You could argue that increasing rates of non participation in elections demonstrates the success of politics in this country in solving many of the issues that concern people today. In fact the low turnout at the last election is an indication that people are very satisfied with the Tony Blair.If the political elite was truly concerned at low turnout rates, the answer is easy to resolve, copy the Australian system of compulsory voting, where if none of the parties is fancied by the voter, there is a box to tick saying ‘none of the above’.

As for PR, the question is which system to adopt, the French system of election appeals to me, where there is a run off between the top two candidates in a second election if the leading candidate in the first election does not win 51% of the total vote.I would be totally against the Israeli system which means very small minority parties can push through policies against the will of the majority of voters. As for New Zealand, there is much dissatisfaction about the system and reforms are being planned to the system, even a return to a modified form of first past the post is now being considered by political parties in New Zealand.

Looking at constituencies, the South East Region Constituency for our Representatives in the European Parliament is considered a big mistake by many. In my interview with Peter Skinner MEP see http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/Peter%20Skinner%20MEP.htm he finds it very hard to cover such a large constituency. His patch of 8.1 million people covering 83 Westminster Constituencies makes our MEPs seem remote from us.In the case of MEP I think the Region should be divided into 3 or 4 European Constituencies, in order to make things easier for both MEPs and voters.

As for Westminster MPs, I think the constituencies are too small, take Oxfordshire, we have 6 Seats representing us in the County. At the last General Election this resulted in 1 Labour, 1 LibDem and 4 Tory, even though only 34% of voters, voted Tory. If we had a single Oxfordshire multimember constituency, the Conservatives would have 2 seats, Labour 2 and Lib Dem 2. Which would mean afair distribution of seats.

Editor Oxfordprospect.co.uk & Webmaster Henleylabourparty.co.uk

Thursday, July 21, 2005

We must build more houses


We must build more homes
Attempts by a Conservative-dominated South East England Regional Assembly (Seera) to stop a democratically-elected Government plan to tackle the housing crisis is disgraceful (Oxford Mail, July 15).
While such a decision to limit house building in the area might please such selfish minority interest groups as the CPRE (Campaign for the Preservation of Real Estate Values), they will not be thanked by the two million people seeking homes in the region over the next decade.
As a result of this politically motivated decision, essential services like the National Health Service, schools and the Post Office will find it harder to find enough staff.
Nor will employees welcome the assembly's decision, as their quality of life will be threatened as they are forced to spend increasing amounts of time away from their families, stuck in traffic jams on the way to work.
This bad decision by the assembly is just another example of just how out of touch the Conservative Party is with the electorate.
Fortunately, this vote by the assembly is not binding on John Prescott's plans for the South East, and the region will get the new housing it so desperately needs.
NICHOLAS NEWMAN
Editor, www.Oxfordprospect.co.uk

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

The challenge facing us all

The challenge facing us all
Congratulations to the hundreds of Oxford people, young and old, who have backed the Make Poverty History campaign.
And well done to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for taking the issues of poverty and climate change head on.
Our world has never been richer, but every week 200,000 children under five die of preventable diseases.
Our planet is getting warmer because of greenhouse gases, but George Bush pretends it is not happening. Climate change will hit the poorest people, especially in Africa, hardest of all.
We desperately need action now, not just on debt and aid but on fairer trade and tackling Aids.
We need substantial cuts in greenhouse gases and much more investment in renewable energy.
Poverty and global warming, like slavery and apartheid, can be made history.
It is up to Blair and Bush. And it is also up to us. What Oxford people do and say makes a difference.
That is why all parties on Oxford City Council have campaigned on these issues. Giving money, buying fair trade coffee, using public transport and insulating our homes all helps.
The Oxford residents I talk to want action on climate and poverty.
If the Group of Eight national leaders in Gleneagles are not listening, they too will very quickly become history. John Tanner (Councillor), Portfolio holder for Ă˜the environment, Oxford City Council

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Parents are to blame for yob culture

Parents blamed for rise in yob culture

The majority of the public blame poor parenting for the significant rise in anti-social behaviour, according to a new survey.
85 per cent of respondents to a YouGov poll for Friday's Telegraph said parents are one of the two main factors responsible for the lack of respect people now show fellow citizens and those in authority.
89 per cent of people believe yob culture is on the rise, with 65 per cent feeling it has "increased a lot".
The survey also found that more than 90 per cent believe that people today show less respect for one another and for those in authority than they did in the past.
While that may be unsurprising, ministers and MPs may be more interested in some of the other findings of the poll.
The break up of marriages was blamed by 25 per cent. 22 per cent blamed the Blair government, teachers and councils and charities.
Only 14 per cent of the public believed that the government "can do a great deal" about anti-social behaviour, even though ministers have made the topic a key priority for their third term in power.
However, 39 per cent felt that "it can do a certain amount" although 30 per cent thought "it can't do very much," and 12 per cent suggested that "it can't really do anything".
Blair's flagship anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) policy has not been very successful, according to 36 per cent of respondents, and "not at all successful" according to 12 per cent.
While nearly a quarter (23 per cent) felt it had been "fairly successful", two thirds (67 per cent) said that, as far as they knew, no one in their area had been subject to an ASBO.
But only 18 per cent of people said they had been significantly affected by anti-social behaviour in the past two weeks.
21 per cent said they had been subject to "hardly any" anti-social behaviour, 17 per cent said "not much," and 41 per cent said "only the occasional incident".
Just 16 per cent said wearing a hood or baseball cap constituted serious anti-social behaviour.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Inside Boris Johson Country

Inside Boris Johnson Country
Henley has more in keeping with some gerrymandered constituency in Florida, than that of Britain. Which makes calls by Boris for democracy seem ironic and calls by Howard to take away the vote from Tory Party members over the choice, demonstrates the Tory Party disdain for democracy.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Political Joke

Political Joke

How many Tory politicians does it take to change a light bulb? Ten, one to go up the ladder and change the light bulb, and the other nine to think ‘I could do that; I should be the one at the top.’

Proposed political boundary changes

Proposed political boundary changes

19 May 2005 A rough estimate of the effects of the proposed boundary changes to constituencies suggests that if the changes had been in force in this year’s general election, Labour would have had a majority of 53 or thereabouts rather than 67. The Conservatives would still need a lead of 9-11 per cent to win power.
While the Boundary Commission is obliged to work on outdated electorate figures, using the most up-to-date figures possible would involve the transfer of only three more seats from the cities to the shires. While Wales is over-represented, if it were cut down to size it would lose about five Labour and two other seats.


All these changes, which some imagine would eliminate the pro-Labour bias in the electoral system, would merely cut the current majority to around 44. A very narrow lead in the popular vote would suffice to win a Labour majority, while a tiny Conservative majority would require a popular vote lead larger than the party has managed at any election since 1945, with the exceptions only of 1983 and 1987.

The reasons for electoral bias — differential turnout, more or less efficient distribution of the parties’ votes, and tactical voting — cannot be addressed within the current electoral system. If the Conservatives imagine that revising the constituency boundaries can cure the bias, they really are rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Monday, May 02, 2005

What would a Tory car friendly Oxfordshire be like?

I suppose, in the future if the car lobby get their way, a car friendly Oxfordshire would mean every arterial road in the County being turned into a motorway, including the Oxford to Witney road. Extra road lanes added to the Oxford Ring Road, perhaps a new motorway byepass built in the Green Belt around Oxford. Certainly fewer buses and train services linking the main towns in Oxfodrshire and massive traffic jams. No doubt many of the new roads in such a plan would have to be in the form of toll roads, so that the government could finance them and smog warnings would become a regular occurance. No doubt house prices would be even higher in Oxford, while those outside in the countyside could drop, as the time taken to commute to Oxford would become a major influence on house prices. Perhaps turning Oxford into a ghetto where only the rich can afford to live.

It is not a future I would like to see for the County.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

LIBDEMS U-TURNS

LIBDEMS U-TURNS
A blog to voters by Paul Collins Labour Candidate for Chalgrove
 I watched the Election Roadshow with Lembit Opik on BBC2 this afternoon - 28 April.
A woman from Liverpool said that Lib-Dem national policy for the NHS is free to the point of care. Yet, she pointed out that Liverpool City Council (Lib-Dem controlled) has made cuts in care for the elderly. They have also introduced charges.
 A trainee doctor said that she is actually in favour of top-up fees because she doesn’t see why the taxpayer should pay for it.
It might be worth pointing out to students, that although the Tories have pledged to scrap top-up fees, they will replace them with loans that have a commercial rate of interest.
If we don’t have fees, universities will just recruit foreign students, as they have to pay the full rate.
Iraq
Everyone seems to think that the Lib-Dems were opposed to the war from the start. This is not the case. Before the war started, they were skeptical but not against it.
I remember when Charles Kennedy went on an anti war march effectively without having an anti war policy.
Missing million
 On the back of our county manifesto, there is a paragraph referring to an unknown bank account with £1 million.
A few years ago my transport to and from College was paid by Social Services.
One year I had a situation where I got accepted for another College course but Social Services could no longer fund my transport.
If this £1 million was available at the time, I might have been able to go College for another year.
Posted on behalf of Paul Collins  paul234unk@yahoo.co.uk

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Voting Tory is like going back to the days of high unemployment,

Voting Tory is like going back to the days of high unemployment, house repossessions, and high interest rates. We can not go back to the bad old days of the Tory 1990’s’.

Kaleem said to an audience of supporters at the Thame St.George’s Day Festival April 23 today.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Boris as Homer

Boris reminds me of Homer Simpson and Howard of Mr. Burns as for the others, any ideas?

Monday, April 18, 2005

HENLEY LABOUR PARTY BLOG

Al this chat about housing and transport as if they were separate items is nonsense. They are inseparable in most cases. Take Watlington for example. In a large secondary school, there are teachers who can't find anywhere to live in the immediate area which is affordable, so they have to commute from the Oxford area. They'll be lucky to get anywhere suitable anyway. All the villages have clammed up and the parish ciouncils say " There is no demand in this area". What nonense- and the structure pan doesn't help. So thay have to use their own cars, as public transport doesn't seem to include Watlington in the Oxford timetable. Look at that as well.
Come on parish councils. You have plenty of space and it's not difficult to find the need.
Posted by Nicholas on behalf of Rachael Evans

Sunday, April 10, 2005

We should all wish Henry well with his operation

Best Wishes Henry on your hip operation at the Nuffield from Nicholas Newman and all the Henley Election Team. You can contact Henry at tel:01865 741155, whilst he is in hopsital.

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Contribute your comments to this Blog

Henley Constituency Labour Party www.henleylabourparty.co.uk invites its members to contribute your comments on our Henley Blog facility for your comments on the campaign . If you have any difficulty posting comments or news send it to Euan or me for posting on your behalf.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Howard Flight (too) earnest?

So Howard (Flight) is punished, by Michael (Howard), for telling the truth?
Regards
Nicholas Newman
Your Labour Party Candidate for Sonning Common for more see http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/new_page_25.htm

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Odd behaviour

Odd behaviour

When Blair does something unexpected, I tend to think that it's because he knows, or believes, something we don't, and which can't be stated publicly.
The famous 'six points on the back of an envelope' which explain his decision to join the US action against Iran (and not to accept Rumsfeld's offer to send extra Americans instead) say nothing whatever about 'weapons of mass destruction' or a danger to Britain. They do include the judgment that it would be impossible to stop the Americans going in, and that it would be better for everyone if they did not go in alone. Not because it was obvious that the occupation would be badly handled - but on the contrary because it might have been handled well - and it would take a vigorous effort to prevent them going on to invade Iraq.

In the present row over imprisonment of terrorist suspects, the intelligence which Blair has been given (and perhaps has shared with opposition leaders though not with the press) is unlikely to relate to those few who have been arrestee and held, but to the much larger number of unarrested and perhaps unidentified 'sleepers' up and down the country waiting for a call to action. And the easiest question to answer about them is not where they will attack, but when. Both theoretically and from experience (in Spain) the answer must be 'a few days before a general election'. It is very important that Blair should do what he can to make it difficult for opposition parties to exploit such an atrocity, and discourage the attempt to produce it.

Posted by Nicholas Newman on behalf of Henry Blyth

Monday, March 07, 2005

Hospital-acquired infections; and smear-tests.

Hospital-acquired infections; and smear-tests.

It's sad, how bitter the Tories become when Labour is too slow to clear up the mess they leave. They had of course expected that Kinnock would win in 1992, and catch the blame for Black Wednesday, and the inefficiency of the compulsorily contracted-out cleaners and dinner-ladies. But Major was too brave, and insisted on going out with his soap box. So today his party has tosmear all the harder.
However, dishonesty can have positive results. Just as thieves provide work for locksmiths, so smears about 'hospital acquired MRSA' will make it worth improving diagnosis.
It would anyway be hopeless to bring a case for damages over 'hospital induced MRSA' because of the difficulty of proving that the patient did not take the infection (which is endemic, but usually quiescent) into the hospital in the first place. Might as well sue over a 'hospital-induced cold'! Granted that outbreaks occur in hospitals, just as colds get worse in winter, that will very often be because immune-systems get weaker when the body gets cold or stressed. We should therefore welcome most warmly the news of a rapid diagnostic technique which aims to detect the presence of the bacteria at the time of admission. If it succeeds, it will both help to rid the hospitals of a nasty disease, and our political life of a nasty smear.
Henry

Posted on behalf of Henry by Nicholas

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Time to rename Henley Constituency?

Is the East Oxfordshire Parliamentary seat known as Henley, a British example of gerrymandering of the drawing of constituency boundaries? Well it does seem that way; it takes fewer votes to elect Boris Johnson MP in Henley as compared to electing Andrew Smith MP in Oxford East or Evan Harris MP in Oxford West and Abingdon. At present Oxfordshire has just six constituencies BANBURY COUNTY CONSTITUENCY (78,817), HENLEY COUNTY CONSTITUENCY (72,331), OXFORD EAST BOROUGH CONSTITUENCY (78,679), OXFORD WEST AND ABINGDON COUNTY CONSTITUENCY (75,153) and WANTAGE COUNTY CONSTITUENCY (74,774). To make it fairer the County needs an extra constituency or the existing six should be redrawn. The end result of either option would mean there would be fewer safe Tory seats in the county.Also naming this East Oxfordshire Parliamentary seat after the Reading dormitory town of Henley, rankles many living in the constituencies other towns and villages such as Thame or Benson, as it does not reflect the true character of the constituency, perhaps a more accurate name for the area is after the TV show which is filmed in the area ‘Midsommer’ or after the range of hills that are such a beautiful feature of the constituency ‘the Chilterns’.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

help for first time bloggers

Look for a past email inviting you to join it should look similar to this below, but refering to Henley Blog instead


Your comments go here.]-------------------------------------------You have been invited by Joe Schmoe to join a blog on Blogger.com, called Feed the Tree.Blogger is an automated, collaborative weblog publishing tool.NEXT STEPS: 1. Please follow the link below. If you do not follow this link, you will not be able to logon to the correct project. http://www.blogger.com/login.pyra?invID=PA93531A731123BR31402. If you are already a Blogger user, you can accept or decline the assignment to this project. 3. If you are not a Blogger, just enter a username and password to sign in.IMPORTANT: Even if you are already a Blogger user, please follow the above link so we can properly apply your response to this invitation.Thanks!

Oxfordshire Schools

It is a great disappointment that school exam results in Oxfordshire show no sign of improving.
A county as prosperous as ours should be doing much better.
A package of measures to raise standards over the past two years is said to have brought no improvement. Now the county council is having another try.
The new focus will look at ways of engaging pupils, parents, governors and teachers in a joint campaign to improve results.
Of course it is right that parents should play a full part in their children's education.
They can do much to support learning at home and take an interest in their children's work.
But is this going to be enough to stop the rot?
We pay taxes for our children to be educated by professionals. There are some fantastic ones at work in a school near you today.
But have we got enough stars and are some of the others simply not up to the job?
Clearly something has gone wrong with education in this Conservative/Lib Dem run County. We need to elect a Liz Brighouse Labour Team to rescue Ozfordshire's Schools.
.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Cornmarket Farce

I was disappointed to see (I suppose I half expected it) that our nefarious county council leader Keith Mitchell would refuse to apologise for the Cornmarket farce (Oxford Mail, February 17).
His ducking and diving continued with the use of a Biblical quotation from the Book of Proverbs, to avoid doing so.
I note that the quotation he has used seems to imply, however, that he is a fool and that on this occasion, he is keeping his big mouth shut.
The remainder of the quotation about being counted wise, esteemed and a man of understanding, I would have thought, based on performance, is to say the least, open to question.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Yukos a battle over justice?

It’s interesting both sides are fighting for justice, Mikhael for the right to keep his fortune and not face the next ten years in a Russian jail, while the Kremlin is fighting for the Russian taxpayer and the very economic future of Russia. For Europe it would be better that the Kremlin succeeds over Yukos, the EU needs a strong, prosperous and stable Russia to supply its energy supplies and provide new markets for its goods. At least the Putin regime has been delivering the goods, and the Kremlin's Treasury is enjoying its fifth year of budget surpluses, Russia is likely to become a net creditor a prospect inconceivable under the Yeltsin years, investment is up and broad based, though focused on the energy and export sectors and unemployment is down. Russia's reforms are ongoing, but Putin cannot afford to stop his program of reforms if he is to achieve more balanced economic progress for the whole country, rather than at present focused on the city regions of Moscow and St. Petersburg. For an investor as long as you obey the law and do your homework Putin’s Russia looks a good place for investment?

How do I post to Henley Blog

Henley Constituency Labour Party

How do I post to my blog?
Once you've logged into Blogger you'll see your Dashboard, showing your list of blogs. Click the green 'plus' icon to create a new post:
Next, you'll see the Create New Post page. Start by giving your post a Title (optional), then enter the post itself:
When you're done, click the Preview link to make sure it's ready to go:
Once you're satisfied with your post, click the 'Publish' button. This will publish your new post:

Monday, February 21, 2005

EU Constitution

Spain says Si! to EU Constitution by a 77% majority today. Arguments that the EU Constitution is a threat to soveriegnty are dismissed by Spainards. In the days before they joined the EU they had soveriegnty, bu they also had Franco, fascism and poverty. They prefer to live in a prosperous democratic EU. That is why we must vote Yes in the Eu vote.

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Welcome to the Henley blog

Henley Constituency Labour Party (DRAFT)

Welcome to the Henley Constituency Labour Party Website Blog Page. Our Parliamentary Candidate Kaleem Saeed during the election will be posting his thoughts on events as events unfold. Candidate Kaleem Saeed is standing in the the misnamed parliamentary constituency of Henley. This East Oxfordshire constituency is famous for being the country retreat of Westminster Villagers such as Jeremy Paxman and fellow Comedians Rowan Atkinson and Boris Johnson the Editor of the Spectator. To many television viewers the constituency is more familiar as the location for the ITV Detetective Series Midsommer Murders staring Jeremy Irons. Kaleem Saeed as your candidate would welcome enquiries and comments on election matters that concern this constituency. Please return to website at
http://www.henleylabourparty.co.uk