Shadow Health Secretary meets health campaigners & GPs

Shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley MP, came to Dover to meet our health campaigners and local GPs. He listened carefully to what everyone had to say.

The GPs explained they'd like to commission local beds and doctor led emergency services in Dover. Andrew Lansley said that he would support them in the event a Conservative Government is elected.

For me, this is a defining moment. Dover deserves its fair share, has a right to expect fair treatment and should have a hospital. Without the ear of Government little will be done - and let's face it, we haven't exactly had the ear of Government Ministers when it comes to getting things done locally in the last ten years have we? What Andrew's visit says to me, is that Dover will get the ear of a Conservative Government and there is hope that things can change.

MPs who fiddle expenses should be expelled

The way Parliamentary expenses have been abused is a spectacle I find truly disgusting. So let me make my position on MPs' expenses very clear:

MPs WHO FIDDLE EXPENSES SHOULD BE EXPELLED FROM PARLIAMENT

The reason I raise this now is that MPs have just voted to keep the "John Lewis List". One of the MPs that voted for it was Dover & Deal Labour MP Gwynfor Prosser. And let me be really clear on my reaction. I condemn him for it totally, utterly and unreservedly. I'm not usually one to go swivel eyed about things - but this issue is an exception.

MPs - and Mr Prosser - had a real chance to restore trust in public life. Instead they stuck their snouts deeper in the trough. Shame on every MP that voted for it. It's a disgusting spectacle. Families are under real financial pressure. MPs should be thinking about how they can put more money in the pockets of the people, not line their own pockets.

More jobs and money for hard working families are my priorities - this is why I am involved in public life. For me, to serve is an honour and a vocation, not a living and a trough. Simple as that.

A proper hospital for Dover - update

In the last ten years, Buckland Hospital has been systematically destroyed, to universal dismay. Mr Prosser, the Labour MP, told a public meeting that he supports a plan for a polyclinic in Buckland’s car park.

That would not be good enough. Dover deserves a proper hospital. While the ideal would have been to improve and invest in Buckland over the last ten (wasted) years, it’s not the best for a new facility. The access, location and future space to expand are not the best.

So I don't agree with Mr Prosser’s support for the Buckland polyclinic. Nor do I believe this would be the “temporary” solution Mr Prosser claims. Ten years of advising the Shadow Cabinet on the management of the public finances has given me the experience to understand how things work at the highest levels of Government. It has also taught me how often temporary becomes permanent . . . and that people are right to be cynical as good intentions without funding are good intentions and no more.

Thankfully, things have already moved on. Reg Hansell, David Hannent, Pauline Majors, Denise Smith and 20,000 signatures do make a difference. I support and salute their work. Discussions are ongoing for a better located site and the likely settlement looks set to be better than the original offer Mr Prosser is so keen on.

Yet I am pessimistic that these discussions will get us fully where we want to be. I am not convinced the Government will agree to care beds, or adequate emergency services. I have therefore been pressing those engaged in the discussions for a site where greater expansion will be possible in the future. So that if this Government fails us again, a new Government would have the scope to make the further improvements we would all hope to see.

The Government's crazy school closure plan

Many parents will be terrified at the Government's plans to close schools. The threat is to close schools that fail to meet a benchmark of 30 per cent of pupils achieving at least five good GCSEs including English and maths.

Now, we all want better results, yet this policy is clearly barmy. Every school is unique and one size does not fit all. Locally, head teachers have been pointing out to me that the existence of grammar schools makes it a lot harder for non selective schools to achieve this benchmark. This is clearly true.

So I have taken this up with the Shadow Secretary of State for Schools, Michael Gove MP, who he tells me that he is acutely aware of the issue and believes account needs to be taken of special factors that affect schools.

In working the improve the quality of education, the Government should not go around stirring up fear. It's just not a way to treat teachers, parents or our kids. The education of our children is too important and a more thoughtful approach is required.

The photo is of me giving tickets for the Archery competition to the head of White Cliffs Primary School, with Chris Russell, Head of the Astor Fedferation. The White Cliffs School story is a lesson for us all - catchment areas may be tough, but it doesn't follow that schools in such areas have to be rubbish! Well done to them for bringing hope for a greater future to our children.

I think it's great that we have such a variety of schools - faith based, grammar, non selective, independent, city academies. I would like to see that variety further increased, with more schools that offer workplace skills based vocational education. All of us who are parents of school age children know that getting the right type of school with the right culture is a priority. A greater variety will make it easier for parents to achieve.

Petition for a proper hospital

I strongly support Dover's fight for a proper hospital. The Labour Government wants to palm us off with a polyclinic - this is not good enough! There should be beds and doctor led emergency services. So we are circulating this leaflet to give everyone the chance to have a say and join the campaign!

Visit to Pfizer

Together with my South Thanet colleague, Laura Sandys, I visited Pfizer with Shadow Chancellor George Osborne. It was amazing to see the work done at this World Class research centre. Above is how Pfizer reported the visit in their magazine.

I am really proud we have businesses like this in East Kent and will do all I can to see that they not only stay, but expand over time.

Rally for a hospital

Some 1,500 came along for the hospital rally and march on Saturday.

Afterwards, I joined Cllr David Hannent at Blakes to help raise funds for the Dover hospital campaign. We pulled pints behind the bar. Blakes kindly donated all profits from the event to the hospital campaign fund.

It was great fun to help raise funds for the hospital campaign. Blakes have been incredibly generous in their support. Cllr Hannent deserves the congratulations of the whole community for the great work he did with Reg Hansell to organise the most amazing and successful march I've ever seen.

Marching for a hospital

Over the last ten years, Buckland Hospital has been ruined by the Government. It's now got to the point where it isn't really a hospital at all - not beds, no doctor led emergency services.

Today I joined the march of some 1,500 people calling for Dover to have a proper hospital. Reg Hansell and the Dover Hospital campaign group organised it. I spoke of the need for Dover to have its fair share and a proper hospital was part of that.

In the picture, Reg is in the foreground as I have a few words with the charming and engaging C Cllr Newman, who represents Dover Town at KCC.

World Hepatitis C Day marked

World Hepatitis C Day was 19 May 2008. I joined Dover Hepatitis C campaigner Tracy de Gietelink to mark the day.

Few infected people know they have the condition. Tracy, who herself has Hepatitis C, runs the "Woman Aloud" The C in Me workshop to bring attention to Hepatitis C and how carriers can avoid infecting others.

Tracy told me that this condition is the leading cause of liver disease worldwide. Yet Hepatitis C has a 'zero' profile amongst the general population in this country.

Hepatitis C is most commonly associated with drug users, and the prison population, so measures are already in place in these areas, to educate and identify carriers of the virus. The workshop seeks to reach the people, especially women, (there's been a 40% increase in ladies over the age of 60, diagnosed with Hepatitis C, in the last year) who have had either medical or dental procedures, before 1991, (when proper Hep C screening of blood donations began). They might have unknowingly received contaminated blood products.

Another group that need flagging up are the growing amount of people of all ages having body art and piercings. As Hepatitis C shows no symptoms, until the end, who knows who sat in that chair before them? It could have been anyone. Tracey was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 1991… after having given blood on 3 prior occasions.

I was really impressed by Tracy. She is doing fantastic work - not for herself, but to warn others to take care. That's real compassion. I admire Tracy so much for her work. She highlighted to me the importance for routine medical testing for Hepatitis C.

Go Whites!

Congratulations to Dover Athletic on becoming Ryman League Division One South champions.

Winning the league was a tremendous feat and a great success for the club and our community. I was personally overjoyed to see the team lift the cup recently following the Sittingbourne game and take it for a well deserved walk around the pitch! The team deserve the highest praise for their great effort and the brilliant result.

Yet congratulations are also due to everyone at the club who helped achieve victory. Not least the club's board. The long, near 4 year, march back from relegations and financial problems didn't just happen by chance. It happened because of the unity of purpose shared by everyone at the club from the board downward. This I saw for myself attending the presentation dinner at the Ramada.

The Whites are so fortunate to be so well supported. There are regularly over 1,200 supporters in the Dover terraces. With this kind of support, the team can only go from strength to strength. Go Whites!