Campaign for a better NHS

This weekend I will be out campaigning in the Hendon constituency to highlight the increasing failings in the NHS caused by 10 years of mismanagement by Gordon Brown and the Labour Government.

I will be highlighting David Cameron's message that over the last 10 years under Gordon Brown's management the NHS has become a vast inhuman machine resulting in failing staff morale and patient care.

Instead of the increasing amount of central control which as seen millions of pounds waisted on a failing computer system and training thousands of doctors who are then told there are no jobs for them, I will be highlighting the Conservative alternative.

I believe in an NHS run locally by doctors for the needs of their patients.

Please contact me if you would like to join me this weekend in the campaign for a better NHS.

New Hendon Conservative Association Website

I am pleased to let you know of a new Hendon Conservative website at


www.hendonconservatives.org


The website will provide you with all the latest local news about the Conservative Party, its activities, events and campaigns in Hendon.

How to join Hendon Conservative Association

Hendon Conservative Association are currently recruting new members.

If you want to play your part by joining the Conservative Party and helping to elected the next Conservative Government and Conservative MP for Hendon Constituency with David Cameron as Prime Minister you can do so.

All you have to do is send a cheque for £25 marked for 'Hendon Conservative Association' addressed to:

Hendon Conservative Association
Freepost
212 Ballards Lane
London
N3 2LX

You can also call the Membership Hotline on 020 8445 4292 or the Membership Department on 020 8445 4292. Please ask us if you wish to pay by direct debit.

You can also contact us by email at fingold@btinternet.com if you wish us to send you a membership form.

If you don't want to join the Conservative Party but just want to help out with campaigning please use the same contact details. You can help with campaigning by offering to:

- deliver leaflets and letters
- stuffing letters into envelopes
- door to door campaigning
- telephone campaigning
- helping on election days
- putting a poster in your window

We look forward to hearing from you and helping to elect the next Conservative Government and Conservative MP for Hendon Constituency.

Warning about extra traffic in Edgware

I have been informed by Transport for London that they will be carrying out improvements to Edgware bus station from today. As a result all buses will not be starting or terminating in the bus station but rather on Station Road. Therefore, expect that for the foreseeable future that there will be extra congestion on Station Road, Hale Lane and the surrounding roads.

Why I am against ID cards

I am against the plan for ID cards which could cost the government as much as £20 billion. However, not only will the whole system be hugely expensive but it will also require

everyone in Britain to go to a regional centre to be fingerprinted and interviewed to prove who they are.
everyone in Britain to pay at least £93 for a combined ID card and passport package.
You will have to pay at least a further £30 if the card is lost or stolen, or if you get married and change your name.

No longer will people be free to be citizens of this country.

They will do nothing to improve our safety. They are not the answer to the threat of terrorism, to benefit fraud, illegal immigration, human trafficking or to identity theft. They are a waste of money, and so I am pleased a Conservative Government will abolish them.

Update on Science Review

Last year I reported that I was working on a review into how science is taught in schools in Barnet. The committee which I am on has decided to concentrate by looking at the affect of the new GCSE science curriculum which has been introduced for year 10 students this year, while comparing it to the old curriculum.

We are about to embark on looking at a few case studies schools where we will be answering the following questions.

Questions to Staff

1. What science qualifications do you have? What initial training did you undertake?
2. How well prepared are you for the new GCSE courses?
3. How well do you understand the new pedagogy for teaching science?
4. What are your views on the new GCSE compared to the previous curriculum?
5. What are resource implications of the new GCSE?
6. Apart from the new GCSE what range of science courses are available to students in your school?
7. Do you think the new programme is likely to increase science take up post 16?

Questions to year 10 students:

1. What difference do you find between science classes in Y9 and Y10?
- more internet access
- more use of computer programmes
- different resources

2. Is it helping you understand issues around you?
- global warming
- environment

3. Does this course help you to be enthusiastic about studying in science post 16 – even at college/university?

Questions to Post 16 science courses students

1. Why did you choose science (specific subject?)
2. What aspirations do you have for science after school (college/work?)
3. How relevant do you find science to the world around/you?

Scotland copies Barnet

Last night I attended a very interesting training session on the Looked After Children (children in care) services in Barnet.

We were told about the council's innovative Education Champions scheme, which the Scottish Executive have advised their local authorities to copy.

All of the senior staff in the Council are given a looked after child in order to monitor their educational achievements and ensure they are helped to achieve the best results that they are possible of achieving. The senior staff act as educational champions by encouraging all the staff that work with the child to work harder to encourage the child to succeed and ensure they get all the support they require.

This is helping the children most in need, while also benefiting the experience of council staff and at no extra cost to the taxpayer. It also ensures that looked after children in Barnet have been achieving better educational standards than children elsewhere in the country.

I think this is a really positive scheme and something that should be encouraged across the country.

NHS Failings

As I wrote about back in December, one of the reasons why it is not possible to cut council tax in Barnet is because the NHS is failing and is requiring local councils to carry out more work.

London Councils the representative body of local authorities in London is now highlighting this issue and is calling for an urget meeting to discuss this with the Secretary of State for Health.

Across London, local authorities are having to find an extra £15 million to cover the costs of NHS failings due to the NHS deficit of £120 million in 2006/7.

Congratulations Joanna

Congratulations to the newest councillor in Barnet.

On Thursday a by-election was held in East Barnet, following the sad death of Olwyn Evans.

I am pleased that the Conservative candidate had a resounding win, to that the new councillor for East Barnet is Joanna Tambourides. With a turnout of 31%, the result was


Conservatives - 1666 - 49.1%
Labour - 1025 - 30.24
Lib Dems - 552 - 16.28
Grens - 147


This huge support for the Conservative candidate shows that in Barnet as is the case around the country, the Conservative party is the choice for increasing numbers of voters, as we offer a positive and modern approach to the issues of the 21st century.

Why doesnt' Transport for London care about Edgware?

Transport for London has rejected my proposal supported by the Conservative Administration of Barnet Council for Edgware Station to be reclassified from Zone 5 to Zone 4.

I proposed the rezoning idea so that the commuters to and from Edgware on the Northern Line would be reimbursed for the often horific service that commuters experience when travelling to and from Edgware .

The rezoning proposal would save a commuter £264 on their annual bill.

However, for no clear reason TfL have rejected this proosal, despite agreeing to rezone some other stations in east London.

If you want to support my campaign to get Edgware Station rezoned let me know.

Holocaust Memorial Day

"Never Again"

"Never Forget"

This weekend as we commemorate the Holocaust, these are two quotes that are often said about the Holocaust, but do enough of us really mean it? That is why we need Holocaust Memorial Day.

Just over 60 years ago, while Germany were trying to win World War Two, they were also putting huge efforts into another major operation. An operation to destroy an entire people, the Jewish people. The aim of the Nazis was to murder every Jewish person in the world. Thank G-d they failed in both their aims; to win the war and to destroy an entire nation.

However, while they might have failed in their aim, the Nazis were able to kill 6 million Jewish people and millions of other people, inclusing homosexuals, gypsies and many others.

That is why we need a Holocaust Memorial Day, to remember that it is possible for us, human being's too hate another group of people enough to kill an entire people. We need to keep remembering so we never let it happen again.

However, sometimes we do let it happen and let it drift from our memories. That is why not enough of us have stood up to stop further genocides in the last 15 years; in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda, and currently in Darfur, Sudan. We should all stand up and speak out so no genocide is possible anywhere in the world.

However, while these are in far away countries, and we might say it is not possible to stop these, lets start nearer to home. In the last year or so I have noticed a growing resurgence of racism in this country, which was most recently highlighted on Big Brother. I believe the experience on Big Brother is just mirroring what is increasingly happening across Britain.

Therefore I am pleased that this year the theme of this year's Holocaust Memorial Day, is Dignity in Diffence. Racism exists because we do not accept that people can be different but rather everyone should be the same. Therefore, in Britain, while encouraging respect for Britain, we should also respect cultures and experiences of different people, allowing us all to live together, while not hating others for being different. This is how we can stop racism from ever happening again.

I hope I have made my message clear, but I believe, the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, writes this a lot more clearly and so I include his idea below.

“The message of Holocaust Memorial Day is simple. There are many faiths, cultures, languages and races, but we have only one world in which to learn to live together and it is getting smaller every year. How many more people will have to die in the Middle East, Kashmir, Northern Ireland or the Balkans before we learn that those who are not in our image are nonetheless in G-d's image? That in diminishing others we diminish ourselves? That we are enlarged, not threatened, by diversity? Looking back on the past half-century, one fact stands out like a beacon of hope. Those countries and faiths that have genuinely confronted the Holocaust have made real progress in fighting prejudice and rendering it inadmissible to the mainstream of politics and culture. Holocaust Memorial Day is a way of ensuring that this message will not be lost with the passing of time. We have walked too long through the valley of the shadow of death. Once a year let us remind ourselves and our children what happens when we forget that the people unlike us are still people, like us.” (From The Times - January 2001)

Campaigning for better services on the Tube

At last night's Council I made a speech in support of a motion condeming the quality of the sevice on the tube and the high cost. I was also pleased that my amendment was supported which called for Edgware Station and other Barnet stations in zone 5 to be reclassified as a zone 4 station to save money for commuters. My speech is below.

"I want to take you on a journey of what it is like for the residents of Edgware travelling on the tube. However, unlike the Northern Line, I hope to get to the end. Traveling on the Northern Line to Edgware, is often like taking the lottery and guessing how many trains you will need to get from central London back to Edgware.

As someone who travels on the Northern Line everyday I have heard stories from fellow passengers, who have had to take 3 or 4 trains from central London back to Edgware. High percentages of trains either terminate at either Golders Green or Colindale and with no explanation except for that the train is running late.

And, over the last three years delays on the Northern Line have doubled.

All this means that even more passengers are squeezed on to the next train, ensuring that we again benefit from the London Underground experience of being treated like sardines.

And this is the all too familiar story that passengers have to deal with when traveling on the underground everyday. However, while the service that we the customers experience on the underground get worse every day, Ken Livingstone, the supposed friend of the Londoner, feels free to raise the cost that we have to pay every year.

This year the cost of getting a years season ticket from Edgware to zone 1 is £1592 a year a 5.3% increase on last year. While, if you can’t afford this as a one-off payment, you have to pay £153 pounds a month, which is £1835 a year, which is again an increase well above inflation and is likely to be more than £2000 next year.

This all means that while our public transport is getting worse, London is the most expensive place to travel in the world. Traveling in London costs 56% more than the world average and is well over twice the cost of traveling in comparable cities such as Tokyo, Paris, New York and Rome.

However, when it comes to the more vulnerable in our society who are unable or unwilling to use an Oyster card, the cost is even more exorbitant. It now costs £2 to jump on a bus in London or £4 to go one stop on the tube.

It is now cheaper to get a taxi than use public transport. What message is this trying to send when we are trying to find ways of reducing congestion on the roads. And lets not forget London is now an Olympic city. Are we really going to encourage more tourists to London when they see how much they have to pay to travel around our city.

However, should we really be surprised at these inflation busting price rises of between 5 and 35% percent for public transport, when we see the current state of the economy. One thing is for certain, when Tony Blair reluctantly lets Gordon Brown become Prime Minister, he won’t be able to say that … “We have never had it so good”.

Inflation is at its highest level for 16 years, interest rates keep on rising, utility bills keep on rising and moving house is now unaffordable for many. Virtually everything seems to be rising in price especially Gordon Brown’s taxes, but I am looking forward to see that Council Tax bills in Barnet will rise by less inflation or in real terms actually fall.

This shows that as with Conservative Councils all around the country we are trying to help our residents live for less. However, even before the Conservative Party wins the next General Election, I believe that we can do more to help our residents have a better economic well being by spending less. Therefore I urge the Cabinet to support the Conservative Live for Less Campaign, which helps people save money on how they live.

I therefore urge all members to support this motion condemning the cost of public transport and other costs of living for our residents, imposed by Gordon Brown’s mismanagement of the economy.

Thank you"

Barnet helps to save the planet 1

We are increasingly hearing scary reports about how due to the pollution we cause the world is warming up which could have dangerous implications for the future of the planet even in the next few years.

I therefore think it is important that when-ever and where-ever we can we should make changes to the way we do things to reduce the amount of pollution that we cause. I specifically think it is important that we use technological innovations to reduce pollution levels when it is possible to do so.

For these reasons I am please that the Conservative run Barnet Council has changed the fuel technology used by its fleet of 265 commercial vehicles. Since September 2005 when Barnet was one of the first local authorities in the country to sign up to the ChemEcol Diesel Fuel Combustion Technology, also known as Additone EC-1500,the dangerous gas emissions released by the Council's fleet has been cut by more than 100 tonnes. At the same time the technology change saved the Council £20,000 in fuel costs, which has been used on other front-line services and keeping the council tax rise below the rate of inflation.

Lets Make Edgwarebury Park a Green Flag Park in 2007

Last year the success of Barnet's Premier Parks policy began to be seen, with 4 of the Borough's parks being granted Green Flag Status.

This year I hope that Edgware's Premier Edgwarebury Park will also be able to join the list of Green Flag parks. This will be due to the amount of work that our Conservative Council has done and will do to continually improve the park.

However, to help this, I believe it would be useful to set up a Friends of Edgwarebury Park group so that we know from its users what improvements Edgwarebury Park requires. If you would like to get involved in this please contact me.

Happy Christmas

News about the Council Tax 3

At the Council meeting on Tuesday, the provisional Council budget and Council Tax level was announced for 2007/08.

The Council Tax has been provisionally set so that it will rise no higher than 3.8% and could well be lower by the time it is confirmed in March.

While this increase is below inflation as promised, I would have liked it to be lower. However, this is not possible due to the poor funding grant by the Labour Government to Barnet and Gordon Brown's NHS funding crises. As a result of the underfunding in the NHS. Barnet is having to provide extra services and so 1.61% of the council tax increase will be to provide health services that the NHS should be providing. Without this amount in the budget the tax increase would be around 2.25%.

This Council Tax increase is likely to be one of the lowest in the country. This is a result of the efficiency's the Council is making and even some cuts where required.

What I found interesting that both Labour and the Lib Dems did not criticise the low increase in Council Tax. Instead they both said we should be providing more services which would therefore make the Council Tax increase much higher.

This therefore shows that the Conservative Council is delivering high quality services which people want at the lowest possible level of tax.

News about the Council Tax 2 - The NHS Crises

As I explained in my previous update the key reason that Council Tax will be rising in Barnet and across London and the whole country is because of the lack of Government funding for local authority services.

However, even worse now is that Brown has also started to underfund the NHS, so that many of the services at Barnet General, Royal Free and Edgware Community Centre are under threat. Due to the underfunding for our local hospitals and less staff, the hospitals are struggling to provide all the services they require.

As a result of Labour's mismanagement led by Gordon Brown, these services are having to be picked up by local councils across the country including Barnet. Therefore, the NHS Funding crisis means in Barnet an extra £2.2m of costs has to come out of the local council budget.

This will see the NHS FUNDING CRISES RAISING COUNCIL TAX BY 1.61%.

News about the Council Tax 1

At last nights Council Meeting the Leader announced the headline figures for the 2007/8 budget and Council Tax ahead of it being finalised at the Council Meeting in March.

As this is an important and complex subject I thought it would be useful to outline the key information to make it understand for you to understand.

The first key issue was that of the capital grant that Barnet Council will be receiving from the Government.

The Government will be giving a 2% increase in the grant it gives to Barnet Council in 2007/8. This is the lowest grant in the country for the second year running, so that the Labour Government, has continued to ensure that they are underfunding the services provided in Barnet.

You might wonder why as a Conservative that believes in low levels of public spending and taxation levels I am complaining that the Government is spending a lack of money on Barnet. However, the reason for this is quite clear.

Since the Labour Government was elected they have continually, led by Gordon Brown, set more and more requirements and targets which they have forced Councils to carry out. As a result over 75% of local council services are forced on Councils by central Government. However, while each year, requiring Councils to carry out more and more work, the Labour Government has not increased the funding required to carry out these services at the same rates.

The Government has hit the Borough of Barnet particularly hard. While, each Council is required to carry out the same services, not each Council receives the same rate of increased spending. Barnet has been hit with just a 2% this year. so that for two years running we have received the lowest grant increase in the country.

The 2% increase in Barnet compares to an average of
3.2% for outer London Councils
3.4% for London as a whole
3.8% for England as a whole

Therefore, the Government is penalsing the residents of Barnet to help other boroughs particularly in the north of England.

I will provide more information on the budget tomorrow.

Cleaner Streets for Barnet

I am pleased to let you know that Barnet Council has announced new improvements to the street cleaning service for Barnet and especially town centres such as Edgware.

At last nights Council meeting I asked Matthew Offord, the Lead Member for Environment a question about what new improvements were being made to the street cleaning service.

I was told by Matthew Offord that the improvements will include a specific cleaning service around 20 town centres in the borough including Edgware. The cleaning staff will also have new uniforms to make them more recognisable so that members of the public know who to approach.

I am glad that a new street cleaning service is being introdued in the Borough. T hough standards are already very high, there is always more to be done. I look forward to a very real difference being made on the streets of both Edgware and Barnet as a whole.

Langdon Community

I was pleased to attend a function organised by Langdon Community on Sunday. Details of the charity can be found at http://www.langdon.info/

Langdon Community is a charity that provides support for young Jewish adults with learning difficulties/disabilities to enable them to determine and maintain a lifestyle of their own choosing which affords dignity, fulfilment and individual status and maximises their potential for independence in the wider community. The Community seeks to empower and enable people to enjoy lifestyles, which are age, culture and needs appropriate.

The Community had previously been based in Manchester. However, in recognition that many of the people they support come from families in London, Langdon have now opened their first residential home in Edgware. I was therefore pleased to attend this ceremony which saw their patron the Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks officially open the new home.

This was actually the first time I had heard of this charity, but I believe this is an excellent charity which helps to provide support to those in need so that they are able to then support themselves and take part in everyday society as much as they wish.