......She's In (apologies to the EDP)

How strange - the Tory candidate for South West Norfolk easily withstood all that opposition from local party members and was formally adopted as PPC (again!)- and with an enormous majority!! I wonder why? After all that very public opprobrium and sabre rattling, all the 'outing' of the sins of her past and resentment that she wasn't local - she walked it!! She walked it, not in glamorous gold lame but in Tory uniform of Alice band and a dowdy blue frock!! Not so much 'spin' as homespun!!!

Am I a bit of a cynic (moi?)or do I detect slick Dave's heavy hand here? Of course it's a total coincidence that the senior members of the local party were called into Tory HQ just before the re-convened hustings isn't it? Well - isn't it????

No wonder I get an insane desire to giggle when they try to be taken seriously over the whole mess!

Value for Money?

I would like to know your opinions about the Local Government Review. For those of you who haven't really taken this on board - Central Government have been consulting for months on the abolition of District and County Councils and merging their responsibilities in either one single Unitary authority, or various different layouts - essentially with "Greater Norwich" as one unitary body at the centre but with several different ideas for another unitary body to cover the rest of the County.

If one of these plans succeeds, there will be far fewer Councillors. At the moment, each District has its' Councillors and the County has a different set of Councillors - except that sometimes, and in the case of the new County Council quite often, the same people wear two different hats - hence the expression "twin-hatters". Under the proposed arrangements, this double status would disappear - as would the financial advantage of being a twin hatter - instead of two lots of Member's allowances there would only be one.

I must hold my hands up at this point and admit to being a twin hatter myself for a brief period. However, when I realised the sheer impossibility of doing both jobs properly, I didn't stand for re-election at District level.

Contrast that with the actions of the Conservative members of Norfolk County Council who, although already Members of District authorities, stood as County Councillors and who have now flatly refused to allow discussion in public of Members' allowances in a public Scrutiny meeting.

There is no doubt that there are cost savings to be made in unitary authorities. The public would find it easier to understand where to go with matters if there was one council which dealt with everything. Duplication of effort would be avoided and the expensive senior management structures would be simplified.

Tell me what you think? Shouldn't this issue be properly aired in a public forum? Voters in Norfolk pay for their elected representatives - if you feel the need for a different approach, let me know!

A new lease of life

The start of a working week and, for as long as I can remember, I'm pain-free!! The sticks have been abandoned and the clips came out this morning so - I'm "up and at 'em" again. Before I move back to the business of campaigning, I will take time to reflect on my luck. I have good health and strength - not to say determination. I am surviving my recent "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" and managing to retain a sense of humour which will always carry me through. I have good support from family and close friends and - crucially - I know how to ask for the help I need.I worry for people who don't, people who can't and for people who feel they shouldn't even try.
As my readers will know - part of my work is with International students in London. Many of these brave young people arrive at the college I'm involved with, straight from the airport, loaded with suitcases and with a boundless enthusiasm and optimism which brings tears to my eyes. When you talk to them about their lives at home you can understand why they want to train here and why so many of them intend to take our old skills and traditions back home when they finish their studies.
We are often too keen as a nation to put ourselves down and we should stop it! Britain IS Great and deserves celebration. We are a key player on the world stage and punch above our weight in Europe. Our current difficulties - political and monetary - are huge but nothing we haven't dealt with before. We just need a change in approach. During the Thatcher years, serious damage was done to British society. Our old patterns of care and support for each other in our communities was sneered at by "Loadsamoney" characters and we haven't really recovered. Tony Blair did nothing to turn around the decline in society - a whole generation of adults have grown up with a "devil take the hindmost" attitude with the obvious fallout on the most vulnerable of our people.
David Cameron's attempts to "spin" the image of his party are so superficial as to be laughable. Scratch the surface of the "Caring Sharing Conservatives" and what do you find? A party which preserves the priviledges of the wealthy, pays lip-service to equal opportunities but pillories only the female protagonist in an affair, encourages the bonus culture in banks and will repeal the Act which bans hunting with dogs.
"Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose!" I believe Dave - you can fool some of the people some of the time but some of us have had enough and will let you know! Even the diehards of your own party can't be bothered to pretend that your carefully manufactured image resembles reality.
It's Time for a Change in politics my friends - don't let the Tories assumed right to inherit go unchallenged - I don't intend to roll over and nor should you!!

Time to say "Enough is enough"?

A quick trawl through the EDP today reveals the following proposals:

• a fare hike from £334 to £501 for all students (post-16) from September 2010
• the most needy students will have to cope with a rise from £167 to £334 per year (double!)
• an about face by David Cameronon his "cast-iron" pledge to hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty
• a farce around the selection of South West Norfolk's Tory PPC
• on the very day my letter expressing concern about day care is published - £40m of spending cuts proposed, by the Tory County Council, in the budget for Adult Social Services, in day care, bathing services and enabling grants for voluntary agencies which provide the very "choice" which people are supposed to have these days. Add to those, cuts in private care home contracts and half a million to be "negotiated" out of care packages for the most vulnerable people of society
• Savage cuts in Children's Services budgets
• and....last but not least...the refusal of Tory County Councillors to have a public debate about member's allowances in a Scrutiny Committee at County Hall . Have they learned nothing from the MP's expenses debacle? Do they think that the public doesn't know that at least half of them have a pecuniary interest in retaining their "twin hatter" status by opposing unitary status for Norfolk/Norwich?

When I say "enough is enough" I mean that people want to see real change from the current red/blue, blue/red pattern. Choosing an MP isn't about going along with the patterns of the past - what do you say?

A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!!

As you may be able to tell, I'm going stir crazy as I can't drive at the moment! The pleasure of living off the beaten track is being tarnished slightly - isn't it odd how much one misses something when you know you can't have it? Even the bus doesn't stop anywhere within the kind of distance I can manage on sticks. Enough whinging Jacky - at least your condition is temporary!!
This has set me thinking about public transport within Norfolk. At one time, people who didn't/couldn't drive used the bus to go shopping or visiting family and friends. As our villages have dwindled away due to the gentrification of cottages for holiday purposes we have lost shops, pubs and schools. Due to the de-regulation of buses, loss making bus routes have been removed from schedules and the downward spiral is hard to turn back.
In some villages, enterprising Parish Councils have organised their own facilities such as shops or small buses but, as younger people move to the cities, this becomes hard to sustain. It really is a vicious circle, however you look at it - village houses are priced beyond local reach, shops close, pubs close, buses vanish - where will it end? I am lucky enough to live in one of the largest villages in Norfolk but it is becoming unique!!
Enough gloom - it's a beautiful day out there and I'm going to stand in my garden - using one of my dogs as a crutch if he'll put up with it, and thank the Lord for things I have got, plan to improve on what I haven't and recognise what I must do without for the time being!

Fascinating!

I've just been taken out for Sunday lunch by an old friend who knows exactly how independent I am and how far from my dotage. I'm glad of the help as, for the shortest time possible (believe me!) I am using sticks to keep the pressure off my knee and it's always nice to be taken out to lunch BUT.....

I now fully understand the title of a radio programme aimed at disabled or older people:
"Does he take sugar?"

Even in a town where I am well known as something of an independent "so and so", I have been treated as simple minded, invisible or otherwise incapable of managing myself - and that includes the behaviour of my old friend!

Do we really do this? When people show signs of weakness, do we unconsciously attempt to kill them with kindness or worse - with thinly veiled contempt? I think, as a people, Brits are kind and considerate but how long a step is it from that - to asking an older person, in public, if they have performed their bodily functions normally?

Something to reflect on as I champ at the bit here, unable to drive for the moment and trying to arrange a family funeral!!