Friday, March 30, 2007

One thing's for sure it's Grey


The Conservative Party Website



Has anybody else noticed how "Grey" and ghost like the Town centre appears?

I know the New labour Councillors haven't because of the rose tinted specs they all walk around wearing, after all Cllr Stephen Harker says "it will make Darlington a unique, vibrant place to shop".

Perhaps he has not seen all the empty units, perhaps he has not heard of the many Darlington branded independents that have closed, relocated or are struggling. Perhaps he is unaware that since the work on the Pedestrian Heart started we have lost shoppers to Northallerton, Richmond and Middlesbrough.

Or perhaps as I think, he and his New Labour friends could not care less.

Back from London


The Conservative Party Website


Just back from a work related course in London.

I was lucky enough to be asked to appear on "18 Doughty Street" VoxPolitics with Iain Dale and others, I very much hope that I "Bigged Up" Darling ton and the North East, which was the idea. From the feedback I have had I did just that.

18 Doughty street is an Internet television channel, it is a tool that all politician should be using, doughty Street is a Conservative channel, whether or not Lab, Lib/Dem ones exist I do not know.

But when I think that the MPs have voted themselves even more money to communicate with us poor souls in the real world (only TWO Conservatives voted for it), it shows me that the MPs really do not have any idea about what technology is out there, and how many,many people wish to communicate in this day and age.

Our Politicians need to drag themselves into the 21st century.

Quentin Davies, Conservative MP for Stamford & Grantham and Castle Point Tory MP Bob Spink are the two Conservatives that should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves, we expect it from self serving New Labour and the Lib/Dems, not Conservatives.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Brainless laws we would like to be rid of


The Conservative Party Website


The Telegraph asks what laws would we want repealed, full story linked.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/26/nlaws26.xml

here are the top five











Not much to argue with there, but the "Civil Contingency Act" sneaked in behind the ban on hunting would be at the top of my list

Harry Potter and the Poisoned Chalice


The Conservative Party Website


What a sorry choice, a dour Scot or Harry Potter














And we must assume young Potter will be in the mix, because he says he not interested. It is a sorry state if this is all that is on offer.
We citizens deserve better.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Things can only get better - VOTE CONSERVATIVE


The Conservative Party Website



Friday, March 23, 2007

We do not love the EU


The Conservative Party Website


The Political elite really need to get it into heads that we do not love the EU.

50 Responses to the Independent
The Independent this week lists 50 reasons why we should love the EU. Donal Blaney has something to say about that.

Today’s Independent has sunk to new depth of vacuous journalism by posting on its front page “50 reasons to love the European Union”.

1.The end of war between European nations – the EEC came into being in 1957. World War 2 ended in 1945. And US involvement in Europe through NATO, and the threat of invasion by Soviet Russia, may also have had something to do with it…

2.Democracy is now flourishing in 27 countries – how fantastic that we in Britain can put our democratic society down to the EU. There was I thinking that we, and our European cousins, all had democratic traditions that pre-dated 1957 but it goes to show how bad my education was.

3.Once-poor countries, such as Ireland, Greece and Portugal, are prospering – thanks to subsidies paid for by wealthier countries that have held those wealthier countries back from keeping up with American rates of economic growth.

4.The creation of the world's largest internal trading market – but we keep being told that India and China are now free market economies and, therefore, internal trading markets that are far greater in size than the EU.

5.Unparalleled rights for European consumers – which are harming businesses from remaining competitive as the pendulum has swung too far.

6.Co-operation on continent-wide immigration policy – this is a reason to LOVE the EU? Seriously?

7.Co-operation on crime, through Europol – I am sure those British plane-spotters arrested in Greece feel relieved to learn that we are adopting such levels of co-operation.

8.Laws that make it easier for British people to buy property in Europe – but higher taxes to pay for the EU mean that any profits earned are eaten up.

9.Cleaner beaches and rivers throughout Europe – these Europhiles claim the credit for everything, don’t they?

10.Four weeks statutory paid holiday a year for workers in Europe – and this is a good thing for our economic growth how, exactly?

11.No death penalty (it is incompatible with EU membership) – it was actually blocked by the European Convention of Human Rights.

12.Competition from privatised companies means cheaper phone calls – I think Lady Thatcher deserves the credit for privatisation, not the EU. But it’s nice to see The Independent come on board and embrace privatisation!

13.Small EU bureaucracy (24,000 employees, fewer than the BBC) – that’s like saying I am a better person because I only beat my wife once a week as opposed to someone who beats his wife every day. The EU bureaucracy is growing, not shrinking.

14.Making the French eat British beef again – wow, The Independent has even begun bashing the cheese-eating surrender monkeys now!

15.Minority languages, such as Irish, Welsh and Catalan recognised and protected – they were protected anyway! They managed to survive centuries without the help of the EU!

16.Europe is helping to save the planet with regulatory cuts in CO2 – or, alternatively, it is reacting prematurely to climate change without any certainty that CO2 emissions are the problem and by failing to do enough to encourage technological solutions to climate change.

17.One currency from Bantry to Berlin (but not Britain) – and yet still the economic growth rate of the EU and the United States are higher than those in Bantry or Berlin.

18.Europe-wide travel bans on tyrants such as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe – which he is ignoring and he remains in power terrorizing his fellow Zimbabweans.

19.The EU gives twice as much aid to developing countries as the United States – that is simply untrue. Sorry guys. Of course the fact that EU countries have any spare money to give away to the third world is only thanks to the fact that those EU countries don’t spend enough on defence because they sit back like spoiled children relying on the US to defend them.

20.Strict safety standards for cars, buses and aircraft – as if these would be less strict if the EU didn’t exist.

21.Free medical help for tourists – it’s not free, guys. It’s paid for out of taxation. Have you still not learned that there is no such thing as government money, only money previously belonging to taxpayers until it was appropriated by the state?

22.EU peacekeepers operate in trouble spots throughout the world – doing the easy jobs so that the US does that tougher ones; this seems to miss out on noting that EU peacekeepers fail to intervene lest they get a graze on their elbows.

23.Europe's single market has brought cheap flights to the masses, and new prosperity for forgotten cities – but these cheap flights blight the environment, oh Independent. Surely “the masses” (as you so charmingly refer to us) are supposed to stop flying to save the planet?

24.Introduction of pet passports – I might give you this one although I have yet to use my dog, Bella’s passport to go overseas.

25.It now takes only 2 hrs 35 mins from London to Paris by Eurostar – and there was I thinking this was paid for by the British and French taxpayers. Did the other EU states chip in to pay for this?

26.Prospect of EU membership has forced modernisation on Turkey – now THAT is satire, surely?

27.Shopping without frontiers gives consumers more power to shape markets – but it isn’t truly a market without frontiers. There are limits on the amounts of goods we can bring into the country so consumers don’t actually have this power.

28.Cheap travel and study programmes means greater mobility for Europe's youth – they are only cheap because they are subsidized by taxpayers.

29.Food labelling is much clearer – again, as if this wouldn’t be happening anyway!

30.No tiresome border checks (apart from in the UK) – nice and easy for terrorists and jihadist sympathizers to move freely around Europe (apart from when entering the UK).

31.Compensation for passengers suffering air delays – we are getting to the meat now, aren’t we?!

32.Strict ban on animal testing for the cosmetic industry – thereby causing the cost of cosmetics to rise and some companies to go out of business.

33.Greater protection for Europe's wildlife – yes, because all those nasty member states wanted to ruin wildlife until the EU came along.

34.Regional development fund has aided the deprived parts of Britain – by subsidies instead of encouraging true economic growth.

35.European driving licences recognised across the EU – you have GOT to be joking. An Italian’s driving licence is worth the same as mine? Have you SEEN the way people drive in Rome?

36.Britons now feel a lot less insular – yes, the nation that conquered a quarter of the globe and which trades with every corner of the earth is such an insular little country, isn’t it?

37.Europe's bananas remain bent, despite sceptics' fears – but the EU still spent time and money passing pointless regulations on the curvature of bananas…

38.Strong economic growth - greater than the United States last year – one swallow does not a summer make.

39.Single market has brought the best continental footballers to Britain – and brought in wage inflation, diving, dissent and decimated our national teams.

40.Human rights legislation has protected the rights of the individual – ECHR, not EU. Sorry guys!

41.European Parliament provides democratic checks on all EU laws – ROFLMAO.

42.EU gives more, not less, sovereignty to nation states – oh come ON!

43.Maturing EU is a proper counterweight to the power of US and China – and there was I thinking it was simply an economic union without aspirations of being a superpower in its own right!

44.European immigration has boosted the British economy – just ask people who have lost jobs to Polish plumbers and Estonian waitresses.

45.Europeans are increasingly multilingual - except Britons, who are less so – ah the joys of English being the global language of business!

46.Europe has set Britain an example how properly to fund a national health service – wrong. Switzerland has shown Britain how to run and fund a health service.

47.British restaurants now much more cosmopolitan – with smaller portions, menu items no one can pronounce and waiters with attitude problems.

48.Total mobility for career professionals in Europe – again, simply nonsense. As an English lawyer I cannot simply go and work elsewhere in the EU.

49.Europe has revolutionised British attitudes to food and cooking – yes, those great European companies that are ubiquitous such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Burger King…

50.Lists like this drive the Eurosceptics mad – they just make us more Eurosceptic!


By: Donal Blaney | 21-03-07 16:41

Haematology unit


The Conservative Party Website


1300 signatures on High Row in two hours, just two hours this is fantastic, the people of Darlington paid for the Haematology Unit it should remain at DMH.

We have written to the Echo on this matter, it provoked a reply from John Saxby himself (letters below), urged on by staff we have written again we hope it will be published but if not it is here.


HAEMATOLOGY UNIT (24/02/07)

ONCE again, MP Alan Milburn needs prompting to speak up for the people of Darlington. Is he more concerned with making money outside of politics?

He earns £60,000 - plus expenses and pension - as an MP.

According to The Londoner's Diary column of the Evening Standard newspaper, he also raked in up to £95,000 through non-parliamentary work over the past 12 months, plus £25,000 from writing newspaper articles.

The column said he had recently set up a company, called AM Strategy Limited, for the purposes of his "media/consultancy work", and one of his biggest money-spinners, generating £25,000 to £30,000 a year, came through sitting on the Lloyds Pharmacy Healthcare Advisory Panel.

We, as a town, face more closures at the Memorial Hospital (the inpatient haematology unit). The Conservative group leader speaks out, but where are the New Labour voices?

What of the council leader? Where is his leadership, or is it that Bishop Auckland General Hospital being a PFI (Private Finance Initiative) has to be filled at all costs and New Labour has told its councillors to keep quiet on contentious issues?

Is our hospital to close ward by ward until it is no longer viable, the land being sold to developers? - David Davies, Kate Davies and Tim Hinton-Clifton, Conservative Candidates, Pierremont Ward, Darlington.



MEMORIAL HOSPITAL (05/03/07)

THE letter from David and Kate Davies and Tim Hinton-Clifton (HAS, Page 10, Feb 24) questions the future of Darlington Memorial Hospital (DMH).

Over the past several years, the clinical position of DMH has been strengthened.
Orthopaedic trauma surgery for the south of County Durham and Darlington was centralised at DMH in 1999.

Following the Darzi report into services in County Durham and Darlington, consultant-led obstetric services, gynaecology services, as well as emergency and major elective surgery, have also been centralised for the town and the rest of South Durham at DMH.

Centralisation of these services was clinically-driven and was designed to ensure these vital services remained in the south of County Durham and Darlington.

Our plans to centralise inpatient haematology services at Bishop Auckland are also clinically-driven, and are a relatively small move in the opposite direction.

Importantly, 95 per cent of all haematology services are provided on an outpatient, or day-case basis, and those services remain at Darlington.

To suggest the future of DMH is under threat because of such a move is nonsense. Could I ask those people who feel it necessary to make such assertions to contact me so I can acquaint them with the facts. - John Saxby, chief executive, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

Rats and Sinking Ships!! (Yet to be published, at time of blog posting)

We refer to John Saxby’s letter of 5th March. Our reply has been driven by the many people who have come to speak to us about this issue since our original letter, including many staff from Darlington Memorial Hospital.

Many Darlington residents perceive the closure of wards of our hospital as very negative and staff morale at DMH seems very low. We appreciate that emotions in Bishop Auckland are also running high on this issue but our main concern has to be the DMH.

Mr Saxby says that these decisions are clinically driven. We believe that the people of Darlington and those who raised the funds to secure the in-patient haematology unit deserve an NHS that is driven by the demands of its patients.

We, and we suspect many Darlington residents, are not reassured by the platitudes of a man who is leaving to take up a post elsewhere. We sincerely hope that Mr Saxby’s replacement has much greater empathy with their staff and patients and realises how important our hospital is to many in their greatest hour of need.

David Davies, Kate Davies and Tim Hinton-Clifton
Conservative Candidates for Pierremont Ward

I just love this


The Conservative Party Website


I just love this, it is worth a look.

http://eclectech.co.uk/guantanamobay.php

Cut and Paste or clik on the post title.

Referendum on Elected Mayor


The Conservative Party Website



Having been at the meeting, several things surprised me.

The Lib/dems got it wrong (nothing new in that), they thought that the Conservatives and independents would vote against it, why they would think that I do not know. Perhaps they thought it would give williams a bloody nose. Swainston it appeared to me read a prepared party political statement, so no candidate from the lib/dems should the vote be won (or do you think that they would forget there opposition and think it was the best thing since sliced bread).

Dixon was harping on about how great the system is at present with a traditional mayor doing mayoral duties in dress up. But i laughed my socks off with his "Grubby Politician" remark, what does he think we have in this new labour run council now, pure, upstanding, listening politicians, he really is taken in by all the spin.

Wallis as already mentioned has managed to put a price on Democracy, we sould not be surprised by this, but he also says on his blog that the

"Labour members had a free vote, although this didn't seem to be the case on the Tory side, where Heather Scott pledged that Concservative Councillors would be supporting Cllr. John Williams' motion".

The council meeting was discussed at a group meeting, there were no desenting voices how this equates to being whipped as Wallis implies is beyond me. The Conservatives felt it was the right thing to do.
Wallis on the other hand has done this for political reasons and like dixon has not had the courage of there convictions, wrap it up any way you like, but in my opinion new labour have done this for political reasons to make themselves look Democratic and not for the people of Darlington.

You would think if you were of a cynical mind that the result was engineered, but surely that couldn,t happen???

We are a Town grown up enough to decide our own destiny.

What will they TAX next


The Conservative Party Website



Macavity the mystery chancellor


The Conservative Party Website




Thursday, March 22, 2007

AT LAST


The Conservative Party Website


At last I am back up and running, for some reason my computer has never liked "google", and it has been very frustrating trying to get onto the blog through said google. It now seems to be up and running smoothly, so below this post are a couple of letters published by the Echo from myself and running mates Kate and Tim.

I will be posting regularly from now on.

Where is our M.P.


The Conservative Party Website



It has struck us, that, once again a big decision has to be made concerning our Town, yet as seems to be the case, our M.P is missing from the decision making process, WHY?. As far as we are aware Alan Milburn is on a lecture tour in the USA, lining his pockets rather than being where he is needed, this is par for the course where new labour is concerned.

Another despicable display by our M.P. who could not care less about his constituents, if the Tesco deal does go through perhaps the photo oppotunity will be a big enough draw to bring him to Darlington once again.

All three of us have attended many of the debates and meetings concerning TESCO. Is it too much to ask that our M.P attends just one? We are only prospective politicians for this town and we have made an effort to safegaurd our town, because we live here, the towns livelihood is our livelihood.


Tim Hinton-Clifton, David Davies and Kate Davies, Conservative Candidates, Pierremont Ward.

Double Standards


The Conservative Party Website




At the beginning of the Tescogate scandal Catherine Whitehead the Borough Solicitor wrote to all Councillors about – “Council Consultation on Redevelopment of the Feethams/Town Hall Site – Position of Members of Council”. In this letter it is stated that “Any Member who makes a definite statement of their position in relation to the proposal which is yet to come before the Council risks an allegation of bias and pre-determination… If a Member decides that he or she does want to express very definite views about whether to proceed with the redevelopment or indeed join a campaign or lobby group then that Member may need to declare an interest at the Council meeting and consider carefully whether they can take part in the Council decision.”
On Friday 20th October the Echo published the following article – “A Leading councillor has declared his personal opposition to the proposed Tesco development in Darlington town centre - barring himself from future votes on the issue. Councillor Jim Ruck said a survey of his council ward had revealed the vast majority of people are so strongly against the plans from the multi-national supermarket that he felt he had no choice but to speak out. By speaking out now the councillor - the Conservative shadow cabinet member for highways and transport - will be excluded from any further official debate on the subject. And he will be ineligible to vote when the proposals are put before a full meeting of Darlington Borough Council.”
This week on the Darlington Borough Council website an article was published – “Council Leader Says No To Tesco 31/10/06 - DARLINGTON Council Leader John Williams will be urging fellow councillors to reject Tesco’s plans to redevelop part of the town centre – after the scheme was greeted by overwhelming public opposition.”
Is it one rule for New Labour and another for everyone else? John Williams statement is a clear case of predetermination and as such Mr Williams should be excluded from the decision making process alongside Mr Ruck.
We are therefore asking you the current Conservative Councillors and prospective candidates to add your weight of support to this motion as we intend to send this letter to the local press before the end of the week.

Tim Hinton-Clifton David Davies Kate Davies
Conservative Candidates for Pierremont Ward, Darlington.