Not every Conservative MP is as enthusiastic about the ConDem coalition as the leadership of both parties would like us to believe.
Here's how one Conservative MP publicises the dangers of Vince, Nick and their gang...
Monday, July 19, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Jobless should seek joy in flower arranging says our MP...!
I missed this gem from the Daily Mail last month, as it was published on the first day of my holiday...but I hope you agree it is worthy of a wider audience...
An MP suggests that those thrown onto the dole should seek joy in er, flower arranging!
Not just any MP, but John Hayes, who, as well as being Conservative MP for my patch -is also now a Minister for Education in the ConDem Government.
John seems to have largely got away with what some might consider an insulting gaffe from a Minister whose Government is presiding over damaging cuts likely to throw hundreds of thousands on the dole.
One can only imagine the furore if a Labour Minister ever made such comments!
An MP suggests that those thrown onto the dole should seek joy in er, flower arranging!
Not just any MP, but John Hayes, who, as well as being Conservative MP for my patch -is also now a Minister for Education in the ConDem Government.
John seems to have largely got away with what some might consider an insulting gaffe from a Minister whose Government is presiding over damaging cuts likely to throw hundreds of thousands on the dole.
One can only imagine the furore if a Labour Minister ever made such comments!
Friday, July 09, 2010
We save our phone box!
Well done to my fellow parish councillors Judy Stevens and Chris Pearce - and children from our local school - to save our traditional phone kiosk and give it a new lease of life...
See report and photos in tonight's Peterborough Evening Telegraph.
See report and photos in tonight's Peterborough Evening Telegraph.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
We're all in this together...
No wonder the Tory Leader of a city council didn't want voters to know where she was when workers were being sacked to save taxpayers money...she was in South Africa watching the World Cup as part of a £5,000 junket paid for by the same generous taxpayers...!
Same old Tories eh?
Same old Tories eh?
Friday, June 11, 2010
New Tory MP supports making museum history...
The Tory adviser who has become MP for the historic town of Stamford fails to support the campaign to prevent closure of the local museum in the next round of cash-cuts proposed by his mates on Conservative-run Lincolnshire County Council...
I can't help contrasting Labour's achievement of boosting attendance at museums and art galleries by making public access free of charge - and the Conservative plan to shut them down!
UPDATE: Lincolnshire County Council says Stamford is the 'finest stone town in England' and has a promo on its own website extolling the educational opportunities at the museum they are proposing to shut down.
I can't help contrasting Labour's achievement of boosting attendance at museums and art galleries by making public access free of charge - and the Conservative plan to shut them down!
UPDATE: Lincolnshire County Council says Stamford is the 'finest stone town in England' and has a promo on its own website extolling the educational opportunities at the museum they are proposing to shut down.
Another teenager killed on local roads...
Shocked to hear tonight that Deepings Comprehensive School has been rocked by yet another road tragedy. A teenage girl was killed yesterday lunchtime when the car she was in flipped over near Maxey roundabout on the A15 road to Peterborough.
I understand she was in a car with friends following completion of a GCE exam at Deeping School earlier in the day.
From memory, I believe that's four Deeping students killed on local roads in as many years.
Thoughts are with the family and with head teacher Chris Beckett and all thosen at the school.
UPDATE: Tonight's Peterborough Evening Telegraph on the tragedy.
UPDATE 2: Spalding Guardian has named the girl who was killed in the crash - and reports that a male driver has been arrested on suspion of causing death by dangerous driving.
I understand she was in a car with friends following completion of a GCE exam at Deeping School earlier in the day.
From memory, I believe that's four Deeping students killed on local roads in as many years.
Thoughts are with the family and with head teacher Chris Beckett and all thosen at the school.
UPDATE: Tonight's Peterborough Evening Telegraph on the tragedy.
UPDATE 2: Spalding Guardian has named the girl who was killed in the crash - and reports that a male driver has been arrested on suspion of causing death by dangerous driving.
Friday, June 04, 2010
Local schools cuts hit those who need most help...
Jobs are being axed at a south Lincs school which says Tory-run Lincolnshire County Council has cut funds for children with additional needs.
Sad to see that jobs of seven teaching assistants and two support staff are being scrapped at Robert Manning in Bourne - a first-rate school which produces excellent results - despite seeing the most academically gifted youngsters creamed off by Bourne Grammar School.
Bourne Grammar of course also produces some impressive results too!!
But has anyone heard of cuts at Bourne Grammar...?
Watch this space....!
Sad to see that jobs of seven teaching assistants and two support staff are being scrapped at Robert Manning in Bourne - a first-rate school which produces excellent results - despite seeing the most academically gifted youngsters creamed off by Bourne Grammar School.
Bourne Grammar of course also produces some impressive results too!!
But has anyone heard of cuts at Bourne Grammar...?
Watch this space....!
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Not often I agree with anything in the Daily Mail but....
...I'll make an exception in response to Israel's latest arrogant murderous atrocity on the high seas http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1283051/Brutality-Israels-aid-ship-attack-lose-faith.html
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Record-breaking Swimming Club deserves our support...
Hats off to a trio of Deepings youngsters who have been breaking records in the swimming pool.
And hats off to their coaches at Deepings Swimming Club, who have a long record of achieving fantastic results - against all the odds.
Last time I checked, South Kesteven District Council were charging our thriving swimming club over £30,000 a year to use the pool.
In my view, our swimming club provides a fantastic service in investing in our young people that is vastly under-valued by Grantham-based South Kesteven District Council.
Isn't it seriously crazy that the main activity of our local swimming club is not swimming at all - but fundraising merely to get youngsters pool-side.
And hats off to their coaches at Deepings Swimming Club, who have a long record of achieving fantastic results - against all the odds.
Last time I checked, South Kesteven District Council were charging our thriving swimming club over £30,000 a year to use the pool.
In my view, our swimming club provides a fantastic service in investing in our young people that is vastly under-valued by Grantham-based South Kesteven District Council.
Isn't it seriously crazy that the main activity of our local swimming club is not swimming at all - but fundraising merely to get youngsters pool-side.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
catching up...
Back from the General Election campaign, good to be home in DSJ, trying to catch up on lost sleep, but fascinated to watch the horse-trading not seen since 1974...more later.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Tory cuts hit Lincs families who need most help...
Families in Lincolnshire caring for children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus have been dealt a devastating blow by local Conservatives.
The Tories who run Lincolnshire County Council have decided to axe funding the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus.
Next week the group, which supports 155 people and their families in Lincolnshire, will lose its £17,000 annual grant.
In the scheme of things, and given LCC's whopping budget, £17k does not sound like a lot of money to provide support to 155 families. It's a little over £100 per family. No doubt the costs of a local authority social worker offering similar support would be considerably more than that.
Having served as a county councillor for eight years until last year, I could certainly suggest a few more effective ways of saving a few bob of taxpayers money...
Why is it that those who need our help most always seem to suffer first when it comes to 'efficiency savings'...?
In any case, as this letter from the Association in the Stamford Mercury suggests, the cost-cutting may be a false economy. In the end it will be social services who have to pick up the pieces when it all goes wrong for the families helped by the Association...
By his own admission, David Cameron is desperate to start taking an axe to public spending, promising, in his own words, an age of austerityif he gets the keys to Downing Street.
Pulling the plug on vital public services that millions of people rely on would, in my view, damage our social fabric. It seems a bit rich trying to get elected by telling us (wrongly!) that Britain is Broken, and at the same time planning to slash public services.
Cameron's axe would also put the fragile economic recovery of our nation at risk as we come out of the worst world downturn in half a century.
Sadly, 155 families in Lincolnshire are getting an early taste of what life under a Conservative Government would be like for millions.
Same Old Nasty Tories eh?
The Tories who run Lincolnshire County Council have decided to axe funding the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus.
Next week the group, which supports 155 people and their families in Lincolnshire, will lose its £17,000 annual grant.
In the scheme of things, and given LCC's whopping budget, £17k does not sound like a lot of money to provide support to 155 families. It's a little over £100 per family. No doubt the costs of a local authority social worker offering similar support would be considerably more than that.
Having served as a county councillor for eight years until last year, I could certainly suggest a few more effective ways of saving a few bob of taxpayers money...
Why is it that those who need our help most always seem to suffer first when it comes to 'efficiency savings'...?
In any case, as this letter from the Association in the Stamford Mercury suggests, the cost-cutting may be a false economy. In the end it will be social services who have to pick up the pieces when it all goes wrong for the families helped by the Association...
By his own admission, David Cameron is desperate to start taking an axe to public spending, promising, in his own words, an age of austerityif he gets the keys to Downing Street.
Pulling the plug on vital public services that millions of people rely on would, in my view, damage our social fabric. It seems a bit rich trying to get elected by telling us (wrongly!) that Britain is Broken, and at the same time planning to slash public services.
Cameron's axe would also put the fragile economic recovery of our nation at risk as we come out of the worst world downturn in half a century.
Sadly, 155 families in Lincolnshire are getting an early taste of what life under a Conservative Government would be like for millions.
Same Old Nasty Tories eh?
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Brave Hykeham lad awarded George Medal...
The exceptional bravery of our troops in Afghanistan is brought home by the posthumous award of the George Medal to a lad who went to the same school as me in North Hykeham near Lincoln.Captain Daniel Shepherd was killed last summer attempting to defuse 13 Taliban bombs in 36 hours, and honoured with a full military funeral at Lincoln Cathedral. On Friday, Captain Shepherd was awarded the George Medal.
I see from the press coverage that, like me, he went to All Saints Primary School, Moor Lane, North Hykeham.
Even though I never knew Captain Shepherd, the fact that we went to the same primary school perhaps three decades apart, makes it hard not to feel a connection, however tenuous.
And I can't help wondering if, 20 years ago, young Dan might have been a cub in one of my late Mum's packs in North Hykeham, or perhaps sailed one of the dinghys donated to Hykeham scouts by my late Dad...
Anyway, this is the Ministry of Defence tribute to Captain Shepherd when he died last year
At the time of his death, family members left heart-breaking tributes to Dan on the Lincolnshire Echo site.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Have you spotted the white blackbird...?
Not seen in my garden yet, but this resident of Deeping St James was given a mention on national 5Live radio the other day - and the Peterborough ET has a photo.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Cameron throws red meat to his Tory Euro-sceptics...
Good to see the ugly face of David Cameron's Conservatives finally getting some exposure.
This week our local Euro-MP Glenis Willmott is rightly questioning why Cameron's Conservatives have allied themselves with a right-wing - some would say extremist - organisation.
The Conservative Leader wants us to believe he has the judgement to lead our country - but he can't see a problem getting into bed with a right-wing party which takes part in controversial marches said to celebrate the wartime Latvian SS.
I would have thought the very name Latvian Fatherland and Freedom Party would have set alarm bells ringing with David Cameron who wants us to believe he has the judgement necessary to lead our country...
But David - or do we have to call him 'Dave' now - clearly did a deal with the unsavoury right-wing Euro-sceptics in his Party when he became Tory Leader.
Just about the only promise Cameron has kept is to abandon the British Conservatives long-held links with the moderate European Peoples Party, and join a new rag-bag coalition of right wing nutters - including the Latvian Fatherland and Freedom Party, amongst others.
By abandoning the EPP - the party of Sarkozy and Merkle, the UK Conservatives are isolated in Europe. Given the chance, they would isolate Britain in Europe.
You don't have to take my word. Ask life-long Conservative MEP Edward McMillan Scott who defected to the LibDems at the weekend.
McMillan-Scott put it in his own words in a telling article in The Observer in which he describes the Conservatives under David Cameron as not a nice party.
This week our local Euro-MP Glenis Willmott is rightly questioning why Cameron's Conservatives have allied themselves with a right-wing - some would say extremist - organisation.
The Conservative Leader wants us to believe he has the judgement to lead our country - but he can't see a problem getting into bed with a right-wing party which takes part in controversial marches said to celebrate the wartime Latvian SS.
I would have thought the very name Latvian Fatherland and Freedom Party would have set alarm bells ringing with David Cameron who wants us to believe he has the judgement necessary to lead our country...
But David - or do we have to call him 'Dave' now - clearly did a deal with the unsavoury right-wing Euro-sceptics in his Party when he became Tory Leader.
Just about the only promise Cameron has kept is to abandon the British Conservatives long-held links with the moderate European Peoples Party, and join a new rag-bag coalition of right wing nutters - including the Latvian Fatherland and Freedom Party, amongst others.
By abandoning the EPP - the party of Sarkozy and Merkle, the UK Conservatives are isolated in Europe. Given the chance, they would isolate Britain in Europe.
You don't have to take my word. Ask life-long Conservative MEP Edward McMillan Scott who defected to the LibDems at the weekend.
McMillan-Scott put it in his own words in a telling article in The Observer in which he describes the Conservatives under David Cameron as not a nice party.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
