Veronica Goddard

…………Conservation is a harmony between men and land.

As part of the initiative by Encams (Keep Britain Tidy) I have signed up to the ‘Big Tidy Up’ and have pledged my time to pick litter along the flood dykes and in Whinney Hill Woodland. If you would like to help, please let me know or turn up on September 27th about 10.30 and give me a hand. I have badges and bags for the litter.  Bring your own gloves!

……..but it’s no more than a thought, wishful thinking!

Unlike the councillor for Camden who has moved to America, but still claims expenses, saying he still gives a good service to residents of Kentish Town. How the devil can he give a good service? Does he still take a walk around his constituency looking for problems to solve. Is he still available for his constituents to report their concerns? Does he still make his vote count at his committees? Does he have a surgery? Does he give a voice, to those who elected him?

This is a fine example of how not to represent the people who took the trouble to go to the poll and cast their vote.

….It seems to have worked for Redruth in Cornwall where a  pilot scheme which ran for three weeks saw the introduction of a voluntary curfew.

Children under 10 were asked to be off the streets and in their homes by 8pm and under 16s by 10pm. Those breaking the curfew were picked up by police and taken home for ‘an old-fashioned chat in the presence of their parents.’

Devon and Cornwall police yesterday revealed that antisocial behaviour reports fell by 60 per cent compared with the same period last year.Crime, generally, was down 50 per cent. If we could get a similar result alot of people would be much happier. It apears to be a scheme well worth a trial.
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Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg today called for patients to be allowed to pay for extra treatment without losing the right to free NHS care.

Speaking to the thinktank Reform in central London, Nick Clegg spoke of incidents of patients being refused NHS treatment because they had bought life-extending cancer drugs.

Outlining Liberal Democrat plans to introduce co-payments to NHS care, Nick Clegg said:

“There is a real, human conflict between the needs of the large organisation and the needs of the individual.  An extra week of life may not count for much on a bureaucrat’s chart.  But if you’re saying goodbye forever to your children?  It couldn’t matter more.

“We cannot continue to deny people the right to top up their care - particularly where they are following their clinician’s advice - when the NHS has finite resources and cannot provide everything for everyone.”

Branding Labour’s experiments with NHS reform as ‘a failure’, Nick Clegg said:

“More than any other public service, the NHS has been the guinea pig for the New Labour experiment in massive central spending and control.

“The health service budget has tripled in eight years.

“And the health service has been the subject of more Whitehall command and control, more central targeting, and more inspection and micromanagement than this country has ever seen.

“The Department of Health has introduced literally hundreds of bills, white papers, green papers and targets.

“And for all this change, and all this money, what have we got?  Productivity is stagnant.  Outcomes are worse than in much of Europe.  And health inequality is the widest since Victorian times.  Labour’s experiment has failed.”

Speaking about Liberal Democrat plans to guarantee patients private treatment if NHS treatment is not available within set waiting times, Nick Clegg said:

“Everyone should have the right to private treatment, paid for by the NHS, if the waiting time is not met.

“We would extend direct payments and personal budgets - so people with long term and chronic conditions choose what care they need.  And we need a network of Patient Advocates to provide information, guidance and support to those who need it.

“I’m delighted that Reform has endorsed this Liberal Democrat proposal in today’s report.  And I support your suggestion that Health Protection Providers - or PCTs in our system - should be allowed to incentivise or even pay people for making healthy choices like quitting smoking or going to the gym regularly.”

….We all want to help each other. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery.

I am not sure what the great Charlie Chaplin would make of today’s society. We have people who have to suffer repeated flooding in their homes, perhaps because the powers that be are loth to make good the delapidated drainage systems, preferring to line the pockets of their investors. We have the elderly dreading winter and the rising cost of heating their home and we have an apparently unstoppable rise in knife crime seeing the young of our country falling under the blades of their peers.

The Liberal Democrats have ideas which address a good deal of what is wrong in society today and if you would like to see a drastic change, why not join us, by clicking on the link to the left of this column or by contacting me.

Together we can make it happen. Click on the link to the right “Make it Happen” to read Nick Clegg’s ideas for the restoration of Britain to Great Britain

……is as unlikley as seeing a squadron of pigs flying over my garden, but the poll which you can read by following the link below, seems to infer that his return is the only way that Labour will improve their rating with the public. If this is the supposed answer to the Labour Government’s woes, then I have to admit to a small amount of sympathy for them!

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20080906/tuk-blair-only-alternative-to-brown-6323e80.html

……It would be a much fairer system; abolish Council Tax as they are planning in Scotland, where they aim to replace it with a levy based on income tax, according to plans announced yesterday by First Minister Alex Salmond. He said: “Abolition of council tax will lift 85,000 individuals out of poverty. It will save the average Scottish family between £350 and £535 a year.” 

This further highlights the raw deal received by the English. It would be terrific if the English Government followed this fine example of fairness for all. (Don’t hold your breath! I don’t see it happening here!)

……giving the lie to the Think Tank who poo-poohed the north as a loser in the ‘Where to live’ stakes. This Think Tank advised everyone to move south because the north was an area unlikely to improve!

Check out the link below to the Financial Times, to read the full story:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/288befaa-794f-11dd-9d0c-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

………..for the  meeting of Friends of Peafield Park and Hornby Plantation yesterday and thankfully the weather was kind. We enjoyed a walk in the woods and what a delightful place it is!

Sue Parkin led the walk explaining the projects undertaken by members, which included the planting of hundreds of violets, teasels and holly bushes by Alan and Barbara Eames, stalwarts of the group. There is an area of wetland where golden kingcups and purple loosestrife flourish around a small pool. In the wood there is the biggest hawthorn I have ever seen and I found a magnificent parasol toadstool, which I am sure is the perfect place to spot elves and fairies - only if you believe!

Hornby Plantation is a hidden gem for those who like nature in the raw, as opposed to pretty municipal parks. Mansfield district has such a variety of green spaces that no-one can fail to find something to suit their particular taste in nature.

…………nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trickery and duplicity, than straightforward and simple integrity in another.

We Liberal Democrats are wise to the trickery and duplicity of others. I trust you will agree that this must determine that we are ’straightforward’ and carry ’simple integrity’ as our sword.

If you are of a similar mind, with a distate for double-dealing, why not join us. There are easy ways to do this - click on the link at the left of this column or simply give me a call.