Read more about the campaign to save the NHS below.
You are
going to pay
to have your air polluted
An incinerator is to be built at New Barnsfield, Hatfield.
Actually, planning permission has not yet been granted by the County
Council. 
However, they are so confident that they will
give planning permission to their contractor (Veolia) that
they have already shut the central library, which was on the
site, and put the books into storage. They also plan to move the
special
school next door into temporary accommodation for the duration of the
construction at considerable cost.
This is in Hatfield. So, why should it concern us? There are four main reasons:
-
The prevailing S.W. wind will carry the smoke over Hertford, Ware and parts of this constituency, such as Standon, Braughing and Buntingford. Modern plants filter out most toxins from the smoke, but dangerous particulates still escape into the air.
-
The incinerator will burn 300,000 tonnes of waste per year, with a minimum of 180,000 tonnes coming from Hertfordshire. This means many lorries heading on to the county's roads to carry the rest.
-
Construction and running costs are both high, arguably much higher than alternative waste disposal methods. The incinerator is being built through the PFI scheme, so that we shall all be paying for it over the next 25 years. It is true that it will produce electricity, but waste incineration is by far the most expensive way there is of producing electricity.
-
The plant will still cause pollution of the atmosphere, since it will produce CO2. Furthermore, since there is a minimum amount of waste that Hertfordshire will be contracted to supply, it will actually discourage recycling.
Concerned? The consultation on the plant ends on 31 January 2012. So, go to www.hatfield-anti-incineration.co.uk to learn more and to find out how to respond to the consultation document.
Labour's Kieran Thorpe, a Welwyn Hatfield councillor, (above) has been very active in the campaign against the incinerator.
20 January 2012
Almost all
GPs want the
Health bill to be withdrawn
Over 98% of general practitioners want the royal medical colleges to press for the withdrawal of the Health and Social Care bill, according to a survey by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).
The majority think that the bill will not improve patient care
and that it will increase bureaucracy - the very opposite
of what the
Tory-led government say will result from it. Over 89% think that it
will increase private sector involvement, which increasingly seems to
be the core purpose of the bill. You can read more on the RCGP's website.
"These results are devastating for both David Cameron and Andrew Lansley. It is hard to see how they can possibly carry on with their Bill in the face such overwhelming professional opposition," says Andy Burnham, Labour's shadow health secretary (right).
He calls on the government to withdraw the bill and begin cross party talks on greater involvement of GPs in health service commissioning, using the current structures.
The government has repeatedly said that it is important to involve GPs more closely in commissioning. Dr Clare Gerada, who chairs the RCGP, suggested from the outset that this aim could be achieved by the simple expedient of appointing GPs to the boards of Primary Care Trusts.
Sign the Labour Party's Drop the Bill petition and also the e-petition set up by a GP, if you have not already done so.
More on the changes that no one voted for below.
12 January 2012
Tory attack on trade unions defeated
An attempt by a Tory MP, Jesse Norman, to introduce a
10-minute 
rule
bill to make trade unions refund the cost of time off for trade union
duties, including time spent on training others and on health and
safety, was thrown out by the Commons by 211 to 132 votes.
This measure, which could have destroyed good employer-employee relations in the workplace, was strongly attacked by John Healy (left) for Labour.
The fact that 132 Tories could vote for such a measure shows their lack of understanding of how to establish good work relations.
12 January 2012
Half the
hospital beds for
private patients
Up to half the beds in foundation hospitals could be given over to private patients. An amendment to the Health and Social Care bill, currently going through the House of Lords, sets the cap for private patients at 49%.
And remember, it is intended that all hospitals should become foundation hospitals.
Perversely, Andrew Lansley, the Tory Health Secretary, says that this will benefit NHS patients through the income generated. It looks more like a panic measure because hospitals are finding it difficult to cope within their newly constrained budgets.
Andy Burnham, Labour's shadow health secretary, says: "This surprise move, sneaked out just before Christmas, is the clearest sign yet of David Cameron's determination to turn our precious NHS into a US-style commercial system, where hospitals are more interested in profits than people.
"With NHS hospitals able to devote half their beds to private patients, people will begin to see how our hospitals will never be the same again if Cameron's health bill gets through parliament."
More on the outrageous health service changes below.
28 December 2011
Write
your resignation letter
over Christmas
Andrew Lansley (Secretary of State for Health) has sent pro forma resignation letters to the chairs and directors of primary care trusts (PCTs) throughout England, for return by 31 December.
The abolition of PCTs is one of the proposed changes in the organization of the NHS contained in the Health and Social Care Bill. Their role would be taken over by GP consortia (now with the addition of other health professionals).
There are only two problems:
-
The consortia to replace the PCTs are not fully in place.
-
The Bill has not yet been passed. At present, the House of Lords is considering it.
"It is arrogance in the extreme and an affront to democracy to dismantle the NHS in this way before Parliament has given its approval," says Andy Burnham (above), Labour shadow Health Secretary. "The Government is steering the NHS towards the rocks and, unbelievably, is now busy throwing captain and crew overboard."
More on the health bill below.
20 December 2011
Only one social
housing
start in East of England
There was only one social housing start in whole of the East of England in the last six month period. This is massively down on the normal number: in the previous two six-month periods the starts had been 6,116 and 5,362.
The same is true of the whole of England. Disgracefully, starts were down by more than 99% to 454.
The mirage of "compassionate conservatism" is disappearing before our eyes.
20 December 2011
£65
million to re-organize
the NHS in Hertfordshire
"We will stop top-down re-organizations of the NHS that have
got in 
the
way of patient care," said David Cameron. Work began on the
re-organization plans immediately they took office. Broken promise 1.
"We will give the NHS a real rise in funding," said David Cameron. The increase is minimal - insufficient to cover increased responsibilities. Broken promise 2.
And now we find that £3.5 billion of this virtually static NHS budget is to be spent on the re-organization, instead of patient care. This is a re-organization which has no democratic mandate and which was not in the Coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats.
Nevertheless, the Liberal Democrats have been voting for the disgraceful Health and Social Care Bill. Even Liberal Democrat peers have supported the government, with some notable exceptions, such as Baroness Shirley Williams.
In
Hertfordshire alone, 
NHS Hertfordshire, our primary care trust, has
been told to set aside £65.4 million over two years for the forthcoming
re-organization.
How can this be justified, when those on low incomes are having to pay up to try to rescue George Osborne's plan to deal with the deficit (see below)?
If you have signed the 38 Degrees petition and the Drop
the Bill petition, you may wish to sign the petition set up by a GP on the 
government website or go to NHS Alert to
see what else you could do.
Within this constituency, we plan to deliver leaflets, because we believe that people are not really aware that the NHS is being demolished before our eyes. Email us if you can help with that.
Read more in earlier items here.
6 December 2011
It's the poor
as gets
the pain ...
It's the same the whole world over,
It's the poor as gets the pain,
It's the rich as gets the pleasure,
Ain't it all a bleedin' shame?
"The (Autumn Statement's) tax and benefit measures are, on average, a takeaway from lower income families with children, and a giveaway to those in the middle and top of income distribution," says Robert Joyce, who is a researcher with the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
The money for the boost to the economy is all coming from
those below the average wage, whilst those above the average wage
actually recoup some of the money that they would have lost as a result
of earlier measures.
The IFS has analysed the "Osborne Effect". In 2012/13, for example, those on £15,700 pa will loose 1.7%. The least affected are those on around £40,000 pa, loosing around 0.2%.
Even the richest 10% of the population, with an average salary of £76,100 pa, loose only slightly more in monetary terms than those on £15,700 - £301 compared with £266, in spite of earning nearly five times as much.
As Liam Byrne (above), Labour's shadow Secretary for Work and Pensions, said after the Autumn Statement, "David Cameron has just buried compassionate Conservatism for good."
Read on to the next item for more on the Autumn Statement.
5 December 2011
It didn't have to be this way
The Autumn Spending Review
An extra £158 bn of borrowing. This takes borrowing in future years £37 bn above Labour's plan.
Two years extra of austerity to eliminate the deficit.
George Osborne's austerity
programme choked
off the growth that was
beginning under the Labour
Government. This was well before the crisis in the Eurozone,
although
this new crisis has exacerbated the problems.
So, just like the budget last March, we have George Osborne's plans for growth resulting in a downgrading - by almost half - in the forecast for growth.
There are measures to try to boost the economy: £400m to jump start construction projects, underwriting of mortgages for first time buyers, £1 bn for small and mid-sized businesses and £1 bn for the Regional Growth Fund. There is money too for additional capital expenditure in schools, but half of this extra £1.2 bn is for unneeded free schools.
But this is not what the extra borrowing is for. The extra borrowing is to pay for the mess created by the Coalition Government, which has reduced tax revenues and increased unemployment costs. These new measures are to be paid for by us - or, at least, some of us.
The promised rise in child tax credits has been scrapped. This means an extra 100,000 more children pushed into poverty. After two years of pay freeze, public sector workers will get only a 1% rise for each of two years, rather than the promised 2%.
There will not be a tax on bankers' bonuses, as Labour had proposed. So, unlike those 100,000 children, bankers will not pay. And those even poorer than this will pay too: the overseas aid budget will be cut, in spite of David Cameron's promise that it would not be.
We are losing count of how many of David Cameron's promises have been broken. "No re-organization of the NHS," he said. "We shall be the greenest government ever," he said. "We will maintain NHS funding," he said. And now he cuts the other ring-fenced funding - overseas aid.
"It didn't have to be this way," says Ed Balls (above left),
Labour's
shadow chancellor. "His economic and fiscal strategy (is) in tatters.
And it is not as if they were not warned - including by their coalition
colleagues."
And it does not have to be like this now. Labour's plan for growth and jobs has already been set out. You can remind yourself here.
30 November 2011
Anger over pensions
On 30 November, almost all the unions
in the public sector
plan to strike. It is a measure of the anger of their members that most
of 
them
voted to strike by a much higher majority than British governments
usually get
at
general elections. Amongst them is the National Association of
Headteachers
which has never before in its 114 year history gone on strike.
There are number of myths which need to be busted:
-
Public sector pensions are not gold plated. The average is less than £5,600 p.a.
-
Public sector pensions do not need to be reformed. The Labour government negotiated radical changes in 2007.
-
Public sector pensions have not become unaffordable. Because of the Labour government’s changes, the future cost was reduced by 14% according to the National Audit Office, with costs stabilising at 1% of GDP or 2% of public expenditure.
-
Public sector workers are sharing the pain of recession. The coalition government has imposed – without negotiation – a pay freeze and a lowering in the rate at which pensions, including those already in payment, increase.
Under the 2007 reforms, the unions agreed these changes: pension contributions were increased: pensionable age was increased to 65 for new entrants; a new system was introduced whereby individuals and the state share the cost of any unexpected increase in longevity of pensioners; and civil servants accepted a career average scheme.
The argument that, because private sector employers have reneged on their responsibility to provide for their employees in retirement, public sector employers should do the same is particularly pernicious. Private sector employers got away with reducing pensions because their employees largely had not joined trade unions and because they protected existing employees, imposing the massive reductions only on new recruits.
“We don't have a crisis in public sector pensions. 
We
have a crisis in private sector pensions. Most private sector employees
will become a burden on the state when they retire. Private sector
employers have already imposed an unacceptable burden on
taxpayers. Public sector employees will find themselves, as taxpayers,
paying for the withdrawal or reduction of private sector pensions,”
says David Bell (right),
North East Herts Labour Party’s parliamentary spokesperson.
You can read David’s analysis of the Hutton report on public sector pensions here. Our earlier comments are here.
Under the threat of the strike, the government improved its proposals, but they still want to make a further increase of around 50% in contributions, raise the age of retirement and reduce the pensions. No wonder public sector employees are angry.
There are no marches on 30 November in our constituency. The nearest are in Hertford and in Cambridge. If you are a public sector worker or you wish to support them, you can get details here.
23 November 2011
Privatisation
is coming to
a hospital near you
The disaster about to overtake the NHS - unless the House of Lords saves us from it - is getting scant coverage in any of the media. This letter from David Bell (below right), vice-chair and parliamentary spokesperson of the constituency party, was published in the Royston Crow of 17 November 2011. A similar letter was published in the Comet on the same day. This is the text of the letter:
Privatisation is coming
Privatisation
is coming to a hospital near you. Hinchingbrooke
Hospital
in Huntingdon is to be run by a private company. The
government points out that it is 49% owned by staff, but the
controlling 51% is in private hands. In
any case, after the 10-year contract, other private companies could
take over.
Such privatisations are taking place elsewhere in the NHS, but this is the first hospital. If Royston Hospital is saved ("New move on the future of hospital", November 10), it could well end up in private hands.
Meanwhile, the government’s Health and Social Care bill is going through Parliament. After Commons’ approval, only the House of Lords can prevent the disintegration of the NHS.
The
initial bill was, after a widespread outcry, withdrawn and amended.
This
has lulled people into thinking that the bill is now
acceptable. However, clauses remain which will lead
to a break-up of the NHS into unco-ordinated units, many run by private
companies.
Liberal Democrat, Labour, cross-bench and even Conservative peers have been trying to prevent this. Yet, the media have given this very little coverage. They have got the government to re-consider the clause which removed the Secretary of State’s duty to provide NHS services, giving it instead to unelected quangos, but we do not know the outcome of this.
The Lords are now considering the “hands off” clause. This allows the Secretary of State to interfere with how organizations provide services only if it is absolutely essential – a hard test to meet if the action is challenged at law.
Even if these clauses are amended, do we want the government to spend £2 bn on a re-organization which nobody voted for and which David Cameron promised before the election would not happen?
If you want to keep a national health service, show your disapproval of this bill at www.38degrees.org.uk or at www.dropthebill.com.
David Bell
Parliamentary Spokesperson
North East Herts Labour Party
The front page of the same edition in which this letter was published reports that the privatisation of Royston hospital is, indeed, being proposed. (And, yes, that is Ed Miliband in the top right corner of the front page. He was visiting the business park in Melbourn.)
17 November 2011
Drop the Bill
Sign the petition
Today Andy Burnham, Labour's shadow Health Secretary, is
calling
for the Government to drop the Health and Social Care Bill. His
call comes as the Government seems to be considering yet
another
retreat - this time on the part of the bill which would give NHS
organizations autonomy and thus allow competition rather than
collaboration.
Even if all these changes are made at the behest of many distinguished peers from all parties and the cross benches, the Bill will still be wasting £2 bn on a re-organization which nobody wants and which nobody voted for.
Remember that David Cameron promised no re-organization of the NHS before the election, perhaps the one aspect of the Tory manifesto that was appealing to many voters! After the election, we get the biggest ever re-organization. And perhaps the biggest ever breach of a politician's promise.
38 Degrees has been doing a great job with their petition, which now is nearing half a million signatures. Now you can sign Labour's very clear "Drop the Bill" petition. Click here to do it now, before the Coalition Government destroys the NHS.
If you have not signed the 38 Degrees
petition, sign that as well and help them to continue to put pressure
on the Lords. Click here.
8 November 2011
Government
to discuss
further amendment to NHS Bill
Amazingly, the media have in the main not reported the very important debate in the House of Lords on Wednesday. Important amendments had been tabled by Baroness Williams, Baroness Finlay and Lord Patel and also by Baroness Jay and Lord Mackay of Clashfern - a mix of Labour, Liberal Democrat, Conservative and crossbench peers.
These amendments were aimed at ensuring that the Secretary of State would have ultimate responsibility for the NHS, would be accountable to Parliament for the public money spent on it and for the services that it provides.
"It is important to have an absolutely solid basis by which the whole of the House and the public can understand exactly the accountabilities and responsibilities of the secretary of state," Baroness Williams said. Lord Mackay put it succinctly: he wanted to ensure that "the buck stops here".
Earl Howe, speaking for the Government, agreed to further discussions about the role of Secretary of State and, therefore, the amendments were not proceeded with. As Shirley Williams pointed out, if they had been proceeded with and had been defeated, then the House of Lords would not have been able to further consider this crucial part of the Bill.
3 November 2011
Sharon Taylor
selected
to stand for Stevenage
Congratulations to Sharon Taylor on her 
selection
as the Labour and Co-operative Party candidate for Stevenage. Sharon is
the leader of Stevenage Council and the leader of the Labour Group on
Hertfordshire County Council. She stood for Stevenage in 2010, when she
lost narrowly to the Conservative candidate.
Her website is www.sharontaylor4stevenage.com.
26 October 2011
Labour MEP manhandled
from media area
"Disgraceful action by Tory Council"
Richard Howitt, the elected Labour MEP for the area (pictured right),
was
physically removed from the media area at the Dale Farm site. On 19
October 
2011,
when the bailiffs were moving in to remove travellers from Dale Farm in
Basildon, Richard was specifically invited by the BBC to go to the site
and give an interview for the BBC programme Look East.
Before the interview took place, Richard was told by a council official that Basildon Council, which is Tory controlled, was ordering him from the site. Two security guards seized Richard by the arms, lifted him over the distance to the edge of the media area and pushed him on to the road.
Although the BBC relocated their cameras in order to interview Richard, interviews that had been scheduled for LBC, ITV Anglia and Sky News did not take place as a result of this action.
One can only speculate about the reason for this action, but it seems that the Council wanted to suppress Richard's criticism of the way that they had proceeded in evicting the travellers, although he has consistently called for the law to be respected and for the police to be supported.
"Disgraceful and politically
motivated action by the Tory Council," said Clyde Millard, our
constituency party chairman (left).
"Richard is an MEP, so surely this is a contempt of the European
Parliament and a denial of free speech." His message to Richard was:
"100% support for your legal action and for all the great work you do
for everyone in the Eastern Region."
You can read more here and see messages of support from the Labour leader on the Basildon Council and many others, including some Conservative supporters, here.
26 October 2011 (revised 28 October 2011)
All the fuss in the media about what Liam Fox has or has not done has obscured two far more important new items: the Lords' vote on the NHS Bill (see below on this) and Labour's plan for growth and jobs.
Last
Thursday, Ed Miliband (left)
and
Ed Balls (right) launched
the plan to
restore growth to the economy and give hope for employment to
the
record number of unemployed. Youth unemployment is at a record high.
Unemployment for women is at a 23-year high and total unemployment at a
17-year high. In the EU only Greece and Portugal are growing more
slowly than the UK.
The five points are:
1. A £2 billion tax on bank bonuses
to fund 100,000 jobs for
young people and build 25,000 affordable homes
2. Bringing forward long-term investment projects, like new school
buildings
3. Temporarily reversing the VAT rise – a £450 boost for families with
children
4. A one year cut in VAT to 5% on home improvements and repairs to help
small
businesses
5. A tax break for every small firm which takes on extra workers
Read more about the plan and how it would help the East of England here.
15 October 2011
Out of touch and out of date
The world has changed. The Tories haven't. Read a detailed critique of the Coalition government here.
15 October 2011
Still some hope for the NHS
The House of Lords rejected the motion by Lord Owen and Lord Hennessy to refer part of the government's NHS Bill to a special select committee. Labour peers and about half the cross-benchers voted for the motion, but all but two Liberal Democrat peers voted against.
However, there is still a little hope, although the patient is very sick. The Bill does have to go through the committee stage in the House of Lords. So, sign the 38 Degrees petition if you have not yet done so.
In the debate, Prof. Lord Darzi, the consultant surgeon who was a health minister in Gordon Brown's government, put the main issue vividly: "We now (will) have health and well-being boards, clinical commissioning groups, clinical senates, local health watches, the NHS commissioning board, a quality regulator and an economic regulator ..... Who is reponsible for making sure that the NHS saves more lives this year than last? Who is accountable for how its budget is spent? Who will inspire NHS staff to lead the difficult changes?"
He got no clear answers, because there are no clear answers.
13 October 2011
Outrageous
The destruction of the NHS
"We will stop top-down re-organizations of the NHS that have got in the way of patient care." That's what David Cameron said before the general election. It is outrageous that we now face a complete change in how the NHS works.
More outrageously, even before the bill gets through
Parliament, the Coalition
Government is implementing many of the changes, to bring more and more
private companies into the system. GP commissioning bodies are not in
control of this. They are required
to find three outside bodies for a whole range of services.
Most outrageous of all - the unaccountable quango, the NHS Commissioning Board, will control the £120 bn budget of the NHS. The Secretary of State will be forbidden from interfering! Questions about the NHS in the House of Commons are likely to be ruled out of order!
Only the House of Lords stands between us and this disaster, after the Liberal Democrat MPs caved in to the Tory agenda for privatising health services. Lord Owen (David Owen) is proposing to refer much of the bill to committee scrutiny in the House of Lords. This, at least, offers some hope of a more rational way forward.
Our new shadow Secretary of State, Andy Burnham (above), proposes co-operation with the Government on giving GPs a bigger role in commissioning if the Bill is dropped. We shall see if the Government really believes that the important change is to bring GPs into the commissioning role, or if their real agenda is privatisation by the backdoor.
They did not respond to the proposal from Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, when she suggested that they could involve GPs in commissioning by putting them on the boards of primary care trusts - an almost cost-free method of achieving what they said was their main aim.
Polly Toynbee, writing in the Guardian on 7 October called this a "constitutional affront". Read more about this affront here.
10 October 2011
A new bargain for Britain
One of the worst legacies of Margaret Thatcher's government was that she was successful in getting people to believe that greed is good. The banking crisis has shown us where that gets us!
Ed
Miliband, in his thoughtful address to the Labour
Conference last
week, set out his determination to tackle this culture which is so
corrosive of society. He said that we had a "failure of a system, (of)
an old set of rules, an economy and a society too often rewardinng not
the right people with the right values, but the wrong people with the
wrong values."
One example is senior bankers taking unjustified rewards. "We must end the cosy cartels of the way top pay is set in our economy," he said.
"The top demand of my Shadow Cabinet, my party, my team, is this: ambition to change out country. That is why we were founded."
"The new bargain in our economy must be built on co-operation, not conflict. That is the most important future for the trade unions in this country."
He also saw our environment and climate change as "an essential part of the new bargain - responsibility, commitment for the long term". "So let's break the dominance of the big energy companies."
It is now the task of all of us in the Labour Party to work out the policies which will deliver Ed Miliband's vision of "a new bargain to ensure responsibility from top to bottom.... to break open the closed circles and break up vested interests, that hold our country back".
You can read the full speech here. Unlike David Cameron he did not change his views because the press criticised what he was going to say!
5 October 2011
Boundary Changes
The Boundary Commission for England has made its initial proposal for changes to Parliamentary constituencies as required by the Coalition government's legislation.
The proposals are now out for consultation until 5 December 2011.
The proposed changes involve the constituency shedding some of the East Hertfordshire wards and acquiring two Central Bedfordshire wards. More ...
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