Save Surbiton Hospital II

Things seem to be hotting up on the Save Surbiton Hospital front.

In conversation with the Editor of the Surrey Comet they agreed to run a campaign to fight any closure of the hospital. As he remarked to me there is a certain sense of déjà vu as it is only six years ago they were apparently going to go away and plan its future. No idea what happened to that and it is very curious they are now taking such fast action to close down the beds.

The Comet has set up a campaign website on their own: Surrey Comet

I have also started an online epetiton on the Council website so we can apply pressure there.

We also have a motion being debated at Full Council next week.

I also have a meeting on Monday 3rd October with the CEO of the PCT so I can understand a little more what this is about and why the PCT can be so overspent considering how much of our tax goes to the NHS.

Sewage follow up

Time for a follow up on my earlier blogs about the problem of smells from the Berrylands Water Treatment Works (sewage to you and me).

I was sent some interesting news from a reader of the blog who pointed me in the direction of a recent case concerning Mogden Works in Hounslow, also Thames Water.

On 19 July 2001 the London Borough of Hounslow served abatement notices on Thames Water under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for causing odour and mosquito nuisance.

On 8 June 2005, after four years of legal wrangling, Thames Water finally accepted a legally binding schedule to comply with the July 2001 odour abatement notice. It includes operational changes that need to be implemented within 7 days and 30 days and sets a 42 month timetable for fitting covers to the storm tanks, east and west inlet works and the east side second stage primary settlement tanks.

The Mogden residents fighting this have a campaign website all about the problem and their actions. Admittedly this is a bigger works but then it is not the size but the smell that is at issue.

I have now met with the Borough’s environmental health officer and he is considering whether there might be grounds to consider some form of action against Thames Water. The legal technicalities of this are that we need to set up some form of monitoring if we are to ever form against that would hold up scrutiny.

We clearly need to monitor the situation and see what develops. I will pursue the other avenues and see what happens.

Lib Dems facing donation inquiry

My blog on this occasion is not a particular dig against the Lib Dems but a serious view that some day someone will need to be brave enough to sort out once and for all this issue of political donations.

I do not know what will hapopen in this case but clearly the donor thinks they broke the rules. Could it lead to a fine or MP's having to recontest seats?

University drop-out rate rising

BBC NEWS | Education | University drop-out rate rising

I suppose in a way this is inevitable if you have more young people going to University.

Putting aside whether you think this is a good or a bad thing the fact that some of the highest drop out rates in England are in London you wonder whether mergers might be on the horizon. Does London need all the Universities it has?

The Council last night started an investigation into the plans for Kingston University to massively expand its provision. The fact is that we need to ask real questions about whether we as a Borough want or can accommodate the types of growth that the University wants. The most fascinating thing to emerge last night that is if you add together the graduates from Kingston University who stayed in Kingston to the numbers currently attending they already account for about 20% of Kingston's residents.

Surbiton Hospital to close

Public Board Meeting - 23 September 2005

This is an utter disaster and one we need to camapign against.

Kingston PCT is consulting on the proposal to close Surbiton Hospital because the building needs large maintenance bills and they have overspent their budget already this year.

Where are our taxes going?

Surbiton Hospital not only provides local care for those recovering from operations but is also a local centre for x-rays etc and widely used by GP's in the area. At the time we should be driving to localise public services here we are closing them because the health service has run out of money. Sadly, we are not alone in this and there is a pattern acrioss the country of community hosiptals closing due to lack of money as you can see fromn this article in The Spectator.

I will kee you in touch with developments.

BMA warns of jobless doctors

I think this has to be one of the most perplexing things I have read for some time. Of course the Department of Health has to defend the position but can it really be true that we are now facing closing hosiptals as well as Doctors out of work and yet waiting lists that hardly seem to budge?

Flat Tax

There has been a lot in the press for some time now about the issue of flat tax. The Adam Smith institute has written a paper on flat tax proposals for the UK. The Shadow Chancellor has decided to set up a commission to examine the pros and cons. The fact that it has set the Labour advisors into a very fast spinning process probably also means it is worth examining.

In a nutshell it seems to mean a massive simplification of the taxation system so that you have only one rate of tax and no allowances. If flatter tax means simpler tax then there will be many who will find this appealing.

To offset the disbenefit this would have on low and middle income earners there would be a relatively high threshold at which no tax would be paid. There figures vary from proposal to proposal but the threshold being talked of at present is between £10k and £12k. The benefit of this is obviously that quite a large number of people would pay no tax at all; large numbers of pensioners, those on benefit or in part time jobs that currently pay when over the current low threshold of about £4k.

Sounds good you say? Those against the idea believe that this is unfair as it benefits those on high incomes who will pay less. One of the oddities of this argument, and the current tax system, which I have never understood, is that when you have a system based on percentages of gross income then the richer always pay more tax. Surely those on the left ought to be arguing that having everyone paying the same rate of tax is fairer for all, in the same way having comprehensive education is supposedly giving the same level of education to all, regardless of a students relative strengths and weaknesses. (In passing I do not believe the comprehensive system has worked precisely because the weakest and poorest have ended up being pushed out of the most successful schools by kids with wealthier more mobile parents. Wealth creates mobility. At least with the Grammar Schools ability was the deciding factor not wealth - Greenwich judgement aside)

Above all this is the issue that in countries where they have introduced flat tax their productivity and growth has risen sharply. What is difficult to ascertain is whether this is because of flat tax or just their normal economic growth pattern.

I think examining this system is probably a good idea. It is politically “trendy” at the moment to say it should be looked at and I think it is responsible to rule it out or in as an idea. Incidentally, I gather that the Government have looked at it but refused to publish the section that said whether it was a good or bad idea; something to hide?

Brown calls for oil price effort

The trouble with this type of announcement from the Chancellor is that with New Labour it is still to difficult to know when something is earnestly meant or is being spun to divert attention.

Fuel protests appear to be a likelihood over the coming weeks. To divert attention the Chancellor shifts the blame to global oil prices, even though they actually make up a very small part of the total fuel price.

However, I believe there are some issues here. It is all very well for the Chancellor to say that there should be investment in refineries and in alternative energies, but I do not see the British Government trying to do much. Where is the encouragement to the car industry in the UK to start to move away from oil based fuels? The fact is I believe I am right in saying that there are more car companies manufacturing cars in the UK than any other country in the world. With such a diverse audience of global companies I would have thought there was a real opportunity for this Government to change global attitudes to motor fuel consumption. Perhaps the problem is that actually the Chancellor likes the fuel tax escalator because he needs more money to spend!

I have two cars; one is a people mover to get my family around and the other is Smart car. The Smart is very green and low fuel consumption. I was interested recently in Autogas, partly because of price. Startlingly even if you did convert, which many can, you might be able to halve your fuel bills but there are hardly any refuelling points in Kingston. In fact the closest appear to be in Ewell and Wimbledon.

Vote Liberal - get a mess!

"Top Liberal Democrat Vincent Cable has said his party could form a coalition with the Conservatives in the event of a hung parliament."

I know the Liberals have dissapeared off the airwaves since the General Election but this is a prety desperate attempt to create a story. Perhaps my Liberal readers could tell me what the advantage for the Conservatives would be in going into coalition with a high tax, high spend party to the left of Labour?

I have been sent this from a friend in the US, even though it is UK TV. Amused me anyway!!

Lessons in dealing with disaster

A different perspective

This is a very interesting piece on the hurricane disaster in New Orleans. The last few days have been full of Bush Bashing and how the US Government was slow to respond etc.

This piece argues that this may well have been right, but when you have a media that builds every high wind into a devastating storm before they reach land then there creeps in hurricane fatigue in those who listen and should be taking weather advice? There were dozens who told us they decided to ride the storm out, in the same way they had probably ridden out other "Disaster storms" predicted by the media. In fact in the preceding few days before the storm struck even this one was downgraded from a grade 4/5 to a grade 1. Is it surprising some thought they could ride it out? You cannot blame the media for everything but they do control the way we think and understand the issues that happen around us and the weather is another area where the temptation to aggrandise a storm to catch headlines and fill the news bulletins must be great.

Yet, one day during the week the news carried images of an elderly care home where old people were dying because they had no power or food and water. I kept asking myself "why were they there?". They were advised to leave by the state Government but they chose not to; is it the state Government responsibility to evacuate care homes or should local Government be taking care of that?