Latest Newsletters >>

Next Newsletters >>

Chilwell event, Small Print Bill, GP contracts

17 February 2008

Hi all -

A few quick updates:

1. A few more hands this week?
------------ --------- --------

Thanks to everyone who has been helping deliver 15,000 letters about
the housing issue this week. We could do with a tiny bit more help in
the coming week for Chilwell (we need about six person-hours in total
to complete the coverage). So far we've only asked people to do their
own areas, but if anyone can do an hour or two in Chilwell this week
please let us know (0115-9430721) . As before, this is a non-partisan
thing, relating only to the housing issue and advertising the...

2. Chilwell Forum launch
------------ --------- ---

This will be at the Chilwell School on Friday, 7pm for 730 (i.e.
doors open at 7, we start talking at 730 sharp). I'll brief people
about where the housing issue stands, and give an update on what
happens after the tram inquiry too, and then we'll throw it open to
anyone who wants to say anything about Chilwell. Ideally I'd like to
find a few local co-organisers to help set up future such events.

3. Small Print Bill
------------ -------

My 10 Minute Rule Bill outlawing the use of small print to qualify
contracts and advertising comes up on Tuesday week. It's being backed
by RNIB, Age Concern, Help the Aged and the plain English Campaign.
10 Minute Rule Bills nearly always have a gruesome death in limbo,
since they don't get Parliamentary time to complete their passage,
but the point is to raise an issue - in this case particularly the
rising tide of duff "you have won a prize" letters which are
deceiving ever-larger numbers of vulnerable people, with get-outs in
tiny print ('prizes subject to availability, recipient must collect
in person from Bognor Regis').

4. GP contracts
------------ ---

Tere are two parallel controversies going on about GP surgeries. One
is the basic contract. The previous contract was generally seen as
pretty generous to GPs, to the point that the British Medical
Association negotiators gave interviews expressing their incredulity
that they'd been offered it. This time round, however, the Department
of Health has asked GPs to have one three-hour surgery out of normal
working hours. The BMA opposed this and offered a two-hour surgery.
Negotiations became deadlocked and there have been clouds of rhetoric
about it, including a controversial leaflet by one local surgery
which suggests that it's all part of a government plan to replace GPs
with large private companies and urges all patients to write to me
(only three have done so). The BMA have now hinted that they might be
able to live with the proposal, though, and is currently consulting
its members.

A separate debate is going on about whether group practices should
be encouraged to have specialists on the premises, so that things
that you might normally need to have done in hospital could be done
in the surgery. Where possible, single-handed GPs would be encouraged
to group together with others, as is already the case nearly
everywhere in our area (but obviously not practical in a remote
village). There are clearly pros and cons in having group practices,
but in urban areas they seem here to stay and most people do in
reality see the same GP each time, unless they need in a crisis to
see whoever is available immediately. As group practices are th enorm
already here, I don't think our area will be much affected, but it's
more an issue in London where there are apparently many single-GP
practices.

While I think some of the rhetoric is frankly silly, it does seem
a pity that relations between Government, Trusts and GPs have got so
strained, given that financing of surgeries is better than ever and
we are all ultimately on the same side (patients!). I've urged the
Department of Health negotiators to be as flexible as possible, and
asked local GPs to try to influence the BMA team similarly.

Best wishes

Nick

Green belt campaign update/Sharia/crime/schools chess/e-petitions

15 February 2008

Hi all –

1. Housing development – a startling refusal
------------ --------- --------- --------- -----

Armed with the 2,000 responses that many of you have sent about the
proposed housing development, I contacted the consultants who are
assessing the proposals, and asked them for a meeting to put the
factual issues that so many of you have raised. Startlingly, they
replied that they are under strict instructions from their clients
not to talk to any local politicians. They give two reasons: first,
they are looking only at the technical aspects (such as impact on
traffic), so don't want to hear about political considerations;
second, as so many people in Broxtowe have objected, it might bias
the result if they listened to all our points.

This seems to me completely unacceptable. Obviously a
technical consultant doesn't want to sit through some sort of
political harangue. But the consultants are coming in from London and
assessing dozens of different locations in a few weeks. People who
live locally are aware of technical issues – traffic, flooding,
infrastructure, water courses, and more – which we need to be sure
they're aware of. Otherwise, projects might get to the detailed
planning stage with basic flaws overlooked. It's part of my job as a
politician to represent people's concerns, including technical
issues, and I'm frankly not willing to accept that the unelected
Nottingham Regeneration Limited (which is a company set up by all the
local councils to do this sort of study) should be able to exclude
elected representatives from the technical assessment stage.

And as for the argument that listening to the issues that I
raise might bias the outcome, it's open to other MPs and their
constituents to raise concerns too. It's really not our fault if some
of them don't – perhaps because they have less reason for concern
than we do?

Do you agree? If so, may I ask you to write to NRL to say so,
simply asking them to listen to the practical points I would like to
make on your behalf? Their address is:

Nottingham Regeneration Limited, Shire Hall, High Pavement,
Nottingham NG1 1HN

Incidentally, to reinforce the point that Government policy
is for eco-towns and sustainable development, not just cramming
houses into every spare bit of space, I raised it at Prime Ministers'
Questions. You can see the clip here:

http://tinyurl.com/23bkvo

In case you wonder about the gale of heckling in the middle, that's
an occupational hazard of PMQ at the moment – the Conservatives are
routinely disrupting points made from the Government side, however
serious the issue, the idea being to put the questioner off his/her
stroke. As you'll see, it sort of works, but not for long.

If you are one of the kind people who has volunteered to help deliver
letters on this subject, you should get a little package with a
request for delivery near you in the next few days. Thanks again for
your help!

2. Treating people as individuals
------------ --------- --------- --------

I've just written a longish article for the next Beeston Express on
the sharia law issue. As lots of you read that I won't repeat it here
(though if anyone wants to see it anyway, let me know and I'll email
it), but essentially I'm saying that I've no problem with people
resolving personal issues (such as money-lending or settling divorce
proceeds) any way they like, so long as it's voluntary and doesn't
conflict with general British law. On the other hand, having two sets
of legally-binding laws for one country is a complete non-starter for
all kinds of reasons, including simple practical ones.

But I also made another point that I'd like to explore a bit here.
The Archbishop was, it seems to me, responding to a demand that
virtually nobody is actually making. I have lots of Muslim
constituents. How many times have they asked me to make sharia part
of the British legal system? None. Is there a campaign for it? No.

More generally, can we say that Muslims in general, or
Christians, or atheists, want any one thing? Have a look at this poll
of Londoners from a few months back:

http://tinyurl.com/2jphbh

The striking thing is that the "all Londoners" sample and the "Muslim
Londoners" sample have almost identical views on almost everything.
They have different religions, but it's not making them think
differently – about crime, tolerance, terrorism or pretty much
anything else.

This is important, because it often seems to me that half the
problems of the world come from the human readiness to categorise
people by group. At a trivial level, it doesn't really matter –
Arsenal supporters don't in general really hate all Manchester United
fans, they only pretend to. But once it gets into the political
realm, it becomes dangerous, since we stop treating people as
individuals and start thinking of them as part of a different tribe.
And it's completely unnecessary. Of course we should be
helpful to people of other religions if there are practical issues
that don't cause problems for others – if Jewish employees want to
take Saturday off instead of Sunday, any reasonable employer will try
to make it possible, and it's simply thoughtless to insist on serving
pork as the only option in a canteen where the workforce is partly
Muslim.
But we shouldn't go looking for divisive issues, and the Archbishop's
mistake, it seems to me, was that he's reinforced the tendency to
think in tribal terms. His remarks, well-meaning though they were,
have increased the number of people who are afraid that Muslims are
collectively making demands on non-Muslims. In reality, the Muslims I
know just want to get with their individual lives, like nearly
everyone else. Meanwhile, the law should protect us as individuals
with a right to be different from each other. I don't want a
Christian State, or a Muslim State, or any other theocracy – just a
decent society where we can all do what seems to us right, as well as
we can. So, I believe, do most people of all faiths and none.

3. Lots of short items
------------ --------- -

To conclude, a few items I've been asked to pass on:

- South Broxtowe (Beston, Stapleford, Bramcote, Attenborough,
Chilwell, Trowell) police report further progress: offences down 18%
on last year (5263 victims down to 4332); burglary, car theft and
criminal damage were all down by over 20% over 2007, encouragingly
following the start of neighbourhood policing teams. Dwelling
burglaries are now fewer than one a day in the whole of south
Broxtowe (20,000 homes). The fly in the ointment is "common assault",
with an increase last year of 33, many of them domestic violence (the
more serious cases of wounding and aggravated bodily harm have
fallen). The police are looking at targeting repeat offenders and
giving vulnerable people personal attack alarms.

- If you'd like email updates like this from my colleague in
the European parliament, Glenis Wilmott, drop an email to
maggie@gleniswillmo tt.org.uk and she'll add you to the list. Say I
sent you!

- Are you involved with a local school? If so, might they like
to have 10 free chess sets? There are no strings – it's an offer from
the English Chess Federation sponsored by Holloid Palstics (who are
giving away 250,000 sets), and the school can take it up by
contacting them at Office@englishchess .org.uk

- LibDem councillor Adele Brunton asks me to plug the thriving
Oxfam bookshop in Beeston. I'm glad to – it's got a large enough
choice that you can shop there for pleasure rather than only because
you want to support the cause, and it's an interesting experiment – a
charity shop that just focuses on books.

- Would you use an e-petition system to press issues in the
House of Commons? There's a consultation going on until the 18th (I
know the web page says the 15th, but apparently they've extended it)
at
http://forums.parliament.uk/e-petitions/index.php?index,1

Best wishes,

Nick

Green space campaign update/MP staff and families/child porn/debates/book aid

02 February 2008

1. Huge response to development campaign
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ------

I've had around 1,500 responses in the last week to my letter
opposing the (in my opinion) greedy development proposals – the
largest response I've *ever* had to on any subject. A few points came
up a number of times:

a) Where do things stand?

At present, we are only dealing with a wish-list from developers. It
isn't a list of potential sites proposed by the council, government,
European Union or anyone else – it simply a list of places where
developers have said they'd like permission to build. Consultants are
now winnowing out the obviously unsuitable sites, and influencing
that is what my campaign is about.

If any of the proposals survive to planning stage, it will *then* be
time to lobby the council in a big way. The LibDem council leader has
come under fire for saying that it was premature to bombard the
council, but although we're from different parties I think he's right
on this – they haven't had any concrete proposals, and until the
consultants have done their job the council can't say anything
useful, and if we bombard them with 1500 letters they'll send us all
standard replies saying "Please get in touch if there's an actual
application" .

b) Are there public meetings to discuss it?

Yes, I'm going to one at Watnall WI this morning at 11, organised by
Nuthall councillor Philip Owen. On February 22, I'm launching the
Chilwell Forum at the Chilwell School (7pm for 730) with this being
the main item on the agenda. On February 28, the Bramcote
Conservation Society has organised a meeting at the Memorial Hall,
from 8pm, where I'll be speaking together with councillor Stan
Heptinstall.
The purpose of these meetings is to brief people on what's
happening and respond to questions and suggestions on issues to raise
in the discussions with planners.

c) What's it got to do with me?

My Conservative opponent has said that if she were the MP she would
not `meddle' with Broxtowe council like this. She says she would
leave council business to Conservative councillors, and concentrate
on her role in Westminster. I don't take this as an unfair attack –
it's a point of view that many MPs hold and goes back to Edmund
Burke's concept of the role of MP, focusing on national issues. The
late Eric Forth MP was the extreme proponent of this: he reportedly
used to throw away constituents' letters about local matters without
acknowledgment, but he was generally thought a brilliant
Parliamentarian.

But I disagree. Like it or not, it seems to me that the role of MP
has evolved and we are (or should be) among the community leaders,
with a responsibility to inform people about what might happen to
them and fight on their behalf. There are many national policies that
interact with local issues, and I see it as part of my job to ensure
that when we say nationally we want more affordable and sustainable
housing, it is locally implemented on sensible brownfield sites. I
supported the development on Chilwell Barracks, where several
thousand people now live – it's near a main road and several shopping
centres, and disused army sheds are as brownfield as you can get. But
I strongly oppose sprawling all over our green areas and I think it's
right for me to take a lead on this.

You'll be able to choose between these different approaches when
the election comes round, but for now I plan to carry on `meddling'.
It's also important to press the issue in Westminster, and I plan to
raise the matter at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, when I'm
drawn a place for a question at about 12.20.

2. MP staffing
------------ -----

Following the controversy about Derek Conway MP's family, a note on
my own staffing. My wife works for me eight hours a week from home,
helping me with administrative, secretarial and research work, and is
paid a fifth of the recommended secretarial pay. MPs are entitled to
three full-time paid staff, but I've organised it as a job-share and
have six other part-time team members, of whom two share the running
of the Westminster office and the rest work up here on your casework
and on non-partisan newsletters - many of you will know Cllrs Pat
Lally and Steve Barber, who both work part of the week for me and the
rest on council work.

There have been proposals to ban all MPs from employing members of
their family as staff in future. That seems to me a pity - there are
numerous examples of effective partnerships and it allows for help
outside normal working hours. As many of you know, I work pretty much
round the clock, and it's helpful to have an assistant available
whenever needed. However, it needs to be transparent, and the pay
strictly proportionate to the commitment: I personally think it would
be better if all MPs' staff were directly employed and their pay
rates set by the House authorities, who would be free to check the
work being done whenever they wanted to, and that may well be an
outcome of the current controversy.

3. How do the police track child porn users?
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ----

I had an interesting though depressing visit yesterday to the police
unit that tracks down people who download child pornography off the
Internet. I need to check with them how much of their methods I can
discuss in public, but the six-man team there say the problem seems
to be growing rapidly. It's not that there haven't always been people
interested in this sort of stuff, but whereas they used to have to go
to a seedy bookshop in Soho, they can now access it in seconds on the
Internet. The unit also deals with the hideously difficult problems
of how to intervene when under-16 teenagers get into chatrooms and
have suggestive conversations (and more) with strangers. Their main
recommendation to parents is to have the computer somewhere where
other family members pass by, so kids aren't tempted to get drawn
into this sort of thing.

4. Café Scientifique
------------ --------- ---

The climate change eat'n'debate event in Stapleford attracted 31
people, the highest number yet in the series. Professor Poliakoff (a
constituent who recently got a CBE for his work in science) was there
and asked me to draw attention to this:

Café Scientifique & Culturel meets upstairs in Muse, Broad Street,
opposite the Broadway on a Monday evening from 7pm for drinks and
socialising. The talk starts at 8pm followed by time to refill
glasses, then the Q&A. The Café is organised by volunteers and is
self financing with donations asked for on the night. Future speakers
include from Nottingham University Dr Andy Bennett talking about how
to take animals out of research and Dr Yan on biomimetics and the
development of green energy; David Thornhill will look at the
challenge of traffic in Nottingham, while Professor David Brown (NTU)
discuss video games in education and rehabilitation. It offers a
forum for people from a diverse range of backgrounds to discuss
science, technology and culture in a non academic setting. See
http://www.leftlion .co.uk/ for programme details.

5. Schoolbooks for Africa
------------ --------- -------

Another constituent asks me to draw attention to the READ project. He
writes: "READ is an educational charity that recycles unused
resources to give Tanzanian children a brighter future. We collect
unused GCSE textbooks from local schools, screen them for quality and
relevance then ship them to Tanzania. Our volunteers spend 6 weeks
every year in Tanzania distributing the textbooks and building links
with schools there.

In addition to collecting resources from local schools we work
closely with them to educate their pupils about global citizenship.
Our volunteers give presentations drawing on their first hand
experiences in Tanzania to show the issues facing Tanzania schools in
an interesting and accessible way. We do far more than merely
soliciting donations from the local schools, we work hard to maintain
contact with them and in doing so build strong working relationships. "

If you're interested, contact him on mightyjim_uk@hotmail.com

Best wishes

Nick

The email Holocaust curriculum myth/MP pay outcome/miscellaneous updates

26 January 2008

Hi all -

1. DEVELOPMENT PROPOSALS

Many thanks to all the hundreds who have responded on the housing
issue - I hope to report further soon.

2. SUNDAY'S CLIMATE CHANGE LUNCH

Look forward to seeing many of you there - just to confirm in case
you've not got the details to hand, it's on Sunday 27th at Vivo on the
main road in Stapleford (164 Derby Road), 1230-1430, £20 for meal, wine
and debate.

3. ANOTHER EMAIL MYTH

Several of you have sent me emails criticising a supposed attempt to
suppress discussion of the Holocaust. This is another of those trouble-
stirring email myths, and there are three versions. One claims that
Muslim pressure has forced the removal of the subject from school
curriculums from British schools, and essentially blames Muslims, A
variant says it's a Government decision and urges you to oppose Labour.
A third variant says it's actually an American college that has banned
it, and seems anti-American in flavour.

They're all nonsense. The Government asks all schools to teach about
the Holocaust so that pupils can learn about the extremes that hatred
of other religious and ethnic groups can lead to. No American college
has banned it either.

There are several emails like this, and a common theme is that wicked
Muslims are making the Government or other bodies do unreasonable
things - others alleged that we were banning the Red Arrows as un-
British and that we were making taxpayers finance a giant mosque. Some
of the emails have been traced back to pro-BNP websites; others seem to
have started with genuine misunderstandings. As with emails that urge
you to tell all your friends about anything (e.g. a supposed virus),
it's always worth checking a key phrase (such as "Holocaust
curriculum") with the word "hoax" in Google. If you get any of these
email circulars yourself, please advise the senders.

It's sad that anyone wants to perpetrate this sort of stuff, isn't it?
Society is quite divided enough without people seeking to stir up
divisions. It's made worse by well-meaning but silly attempts to to
meet non-existent objections. The recent reported proposal by judges in
some contest to rule out a children's book about pigs because it might
offend Muslims and Jews simply misunderstands both Islam and Judaism.
They don't teach that one mustn't mention pigs, only that they think
one shouldn't eat them!

Nobody had objected to the book - the judges just imagined that they
might. Most people of all beliefs and non-belief are far more sensible
than that. The same judges ruled out a book that portrayed a firm of
unreliable builders, on the grounds that many builders are indeed
reliable. Yes, yes, but is any builder really going to take offence at
the idea that an unreliable firm exists? Come on!

4. MP pay rise outcome

It was barely reported so you may have missed it, but MPs accepted
unanimously the Government's recommendation that the proposed pay rise
be phased like the police award so that this year's increase was cut to
1.9%. Quite a few MPs were threatening to rebel and demand the 2.5%
rise at once, on the basis that an independent commission had
recommended it (the same point that the police make) but the rest of us
twisted their arms and eventually they caved in.

The only other change decided this week was that MP's staff should
increase from 3 to 3.5, to cope with the general rise in the number of
constituents who ask MPs for help. I don't think this is controversial,
and it also passed unanimously.

5. Speeding cars

A couple of small successes. I've had approval for an application to
get an interactive speed sign on Main Road, Awsworth, to discourage
cars racing through the village and up Awsworth Lane. These are the
signs that alert you if you're exceeding the limit (the Beeston ones
courteously say "thank you" if you're not, which seems a nice extra
touch). Experience suggests that they do work, not least as reckless
drivers rightly suspect that a mobile camera may sometimes be placed a
bit further up the road - if you've ignored the sign and maniacally
zoom onwards at 50mph it's really a fair cop, isn't it?

Also, a cross-party result in Watnall: requests made for several
years by me and by Conservative Cllr Philip Owen for speed cameras on
the B600 (where speeding cars are a long-standing menace) have finally
born fruit: they'll be installed in March. There's a similar cross-
party effort for the accident-prone Depot Corner in Toton. I know you
think that politicians are always squabbling, but for these local
things I'm always happy to work with anyone and try to give credit for
it too. People who bother to get involved in politics actually have
more in common with each other than with people who don't give a hoot
about anything!

Best wishes

Nick

Sunday's climate change debate details/why are we helping China?/more data loss!

19 January 2008

Hi all -

1. Next Sunday's debate
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~

I'm finalising the arrangements for next Sunday's eat'n'debate event at
Vivo, the Italian restaurant in Stapleford, the theme being "Climate
change: is Britain doing enough to help save the planet?" It's on
similar lines to the previous events, but I've made a couple of
changes. Practical details:

- It's from 1230 to 230, at 164 Derby Road Stapleford NG9 7AY (the main
shopping street - there's lots of nearby parking).

- I'll introduce the theme during the first course while you eat. Then
I'll shut up and eat while you comment and discuss it, and try to
respond at the end. I'm planning to discuss two distinct aspects: why
we think there's a genuine problem to tackle, and the ways we need to
tackle it - e.g. are the targets ambitious enough, and what can Britain
do anyway?

- Your £20 (£10 for unwaged, £5 for under-16) gets you a choice of
starters, a choice of main courses, and a glass of Italian wine (but
kids don't get the wine!), plus as much debate as you like.

- It'd be helpful if you can let me know if you expect to come, with
names (we'll have named placemats for you), but you can pay on the day.
Any surplus is destined for my campaign fund to help me keep pace with
Lord Ashcroft's munificence.

Other debates coming up:
- Feb 8: Is Labour still democratic? Beeston North Labour are
organising a debate on whether we've become too autocratic, at the New
Venture Social Club from 7pm

- Feb 22: Chilwell Forum: As part of the follow-up to the campaign I've
launched against the development plans, I'm planning an event at The
Chilwell School to brief people on what's happening and what we can do
about it.

- Mar 16: Eat'n'debate format again, at the Yod Thai restaruant in
Beeston - this time on "How to tackle anti-social behaviour", with
Vernon Coaker (the Minister responsible) introducing the discussion

- ???: date to be fixed: "Are political parties and party whips good or
bad for democracy?" with Geoff Hoon the Chief Whip introducing the
subject.

2. Why are we helping China?
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

A related point raised by a baffled constituent: why have we agreed to
give aid to China? - they seem to be doing fine without it?

There is in fact an explanation. It's to help fund technology to boost
energy efficiency as well as increase the use of clean coal and carbon
capture systems. It depends how serious you think climate change is,
but the position is essentially that:

a) Most scientists advise that it's serious and can be affected by
collective government action to reduce carbon emissions

b) If the Chinese don't do anything about it, we're largely wasting our
time

c) The Chinese say they'd like to help but as a developing country
can't really give it top priority

In this situation it makes sense to offer technical help and assistance
to enable them to do the job without having to prioritise it with their
own resources over something basic. It's probably a *more* useful
application of the money than anything we could do with it for the same
purpose in Britain, since their coal-fired stations are polluting much
more than ours, and if it carries on we'll suffer the impact as much as
anyone else on the planet. Also, it gets the Chinese used to using
British environmental technology, which we hope will produce future
exports for us. So on this occasion we're not actually giving aid from
noble motives - we think it's in our direct interest both climatically
and economically.

3. More data loss!
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~

We are reading repeated reports of computer files and laptops going
missing with large amounts of personal data, and while I often feel the
media exaggerate fears, in this case I think both exasperation and
alarm are appropriate. It's not the fact that IT people cut corners
(leaving laptops in cars, downloading large files and forgetting to
encrypt) - I worked in IT in the private sector and I saw countless
cases of staff taking a short-cut simply because they knew how to. The
point is that the system should be designed to prevent it.

This may be a bit technical but bear with me. There are three
aspects to data base security:

a) How many people are on the data base?
b) How much data is available on each of them?
c) Who has access to which data?

What I find shocking about recent cases is not that there are large
databases (which is natural enough) but that the answer to c) often
seems to be "anyone working in the organisation has access to all the
data". This is simply asking for trouble, because in real life you
can't rely on busy IT staff always behaving with approriate restraint
and care. And it is technically completely unnecessary: every modern
data base system allowsd you to limit access at individual data field
level, so that, for instance, there might be many people in the
organisation allowed to look up the names and departments of staff, but
few allowed to see their home addresses.

Because of my background I do know more than most MPs about this sort
of thing, so I'm taking a particular interest in it, and hope to be
able to contribute constructively. I'll write about it again when I've
investigated further. I'll be debatinmg it on Radio 5 tonight just
after 10pm, incidentally.

Best wishes

Nick

Developers' proposals update/a visit to the Conservatives/Climate Change debate

16 January 2008

Hi all -

1. Developers' proposals update
------------ --------- --------- -

Many thanks for the dozens of offers to help deliver my letter to
constituents to alert them to the proposals: several thousand have
gone out, and most of the rest will be going out in the coming days.

I've also agreed with Paddy Tipping, who has similar proposals
affecting Hucknall, that we should try to convene a round-table
discussion with planners and the consultants on the issue to ensure
that everyone is aware of all the issues. I'd stress that at this
point there is no reason to write to the council officers as they
don't have a single concrete planning application - what we're
lobbying for is the consultants to reject the greedier schemes of
developers *before* they get to the planning stage.

The Evening Post is planning a big feature on the campaign next week,
and if you'd like to give your comments to them, they'd like to hear
from you - email charles.walker@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk

2. A visit to the Conservatives
------------ --------- --------- -

In general I don't use these emails to criticise the other parties
except during elections, as except at elections the question of who
to vote for doesn't arise. However, I'm tempted by an email from a
new constituent. He says he understands it's a marginal Labour/Tory
seat, and he's pleased to hear from me, and how can he hear from the
other side to make a comparison?

OK, a comparison is quite easy. The two relevant websites are

www.broxtowelabour.org

and

www.broxtoweconservatives.com

Do have a look at both and draw your own conclusions. The
Conservatives see their site as important and plugged it in the
Christmas cards sent via the national party to many constituents with
an estimated £3000 of Lord Ashcroft's money. It's stylish in the way
that you'd expect from the new image that Mr Cameron promotes, with
soft green colours and two young people posed in the centrepiece.

That said, I don't want to be rude but the local content seems to
have been last updated around 8 months ago. It urges Tony Blair to
resign. It asks you to vote Tory in last May's local elections, and
urges you to return soon for the latest news about them. It says that
it has a survey of residents and a list of councillors, but if you
enter "survey" or "councillors" in the site search, you'll get an
empty result.

The Conservatives also have a Broxtowe section on their national
site. This too bears signs of lack of local input - both Nottingham
and Kimberley are misspelled. They're certainly putting lots of money
into their Broxtowe effort (they'd allocated £125,000 at last count
so the Xmas cards are just the start) and maybe that will make up for
the lack of localness - many experts who reckon that nowadays people
vote on the basis of general national impressions rather than any
local commitment. I'd like to think that's not true, but we'll see!

3. Climate change debate
------------ --------- ---

As the series of eat'n'debate events last year proved good fun, I've
arranged three more. These format is the same at each: for £20 you
get a good two-course meal with a choice of dishes and a debate on
the issue of the day - I lead into the subject while everyone else
starts munching, and then there's an open discussion.

The cost includes some fund-raising for my own campaigns, so you
shouldn't come if you positively object to my being your MP, but with
that reservation everyone is welcome regardless of party preference,
and we've had Conservatives, LibDems and Greens at the previous
events. We're introducing a discount to £10 for people not currently
in employment, and anyone under 16 needs only pay £5.

The next events are:

SUNDAY JANUARY 27, 1230-1430, at the Vivo Italian restaurant in
Stapleford: "Climate Change: is Britain doing enough to help save the
planet?" We'll be discussing the outcome of the recent global summit
on climate change, as well as the Bill currently going through
Parliament and how that might affect our daily lives. As a change
from the usual buffet format, this one will offer a menu of
individual choices, with up to half a dozen starters and main courses
to choose from and a glass of Italian wine to go with it.

SUNDAY MARCH 16, 1230-1430, at the Yod Siam restaurant in Beeston.
This one has a guest speaker, my Gedling colleague Vernon Coaker, who
is the minister responsible for combating anti-social behaviour, so I
thought we'd have a discussion about that - more details to follow.

The date for the third one isn't fixed yet, but it'll be on the theme
of 'Are political parties healthy, and are whips in Parlioament a
good or a bad thing?' - and for that I'm getting Geoff Hoon, the
Chief Whip, to come and put the case for his controversial role.

If you'd like to come to any of these, please let me know (obviously
subject to confirmation when you know the date of the third), so we
can plan seating for the right numbers.

Best wishes

Nick

Help me oppose the greedy development plans!/council tax update/NHS update

06 January 2008

Hi all -

I'll keep this shorter after last week's monster!

1. Help needed!
------------ --

Thanks for all the feedback on the huge proposals from developers. To
recap briefly: they want virtually all the green area west of Castle
College in Chilwell including the tram park-and-ride site, nearly all
of Field Farm north of Stapleford, all the space west of the A6002
business park, most of the space between Trowell and Cossall, and all
the space between Kimberley, Watnall and Moorgreen.

Frankly the proposals seem to me unbelievably greedy, and they'd
snarl up the roads in every case. I've been persuaded by your
feedback that the project west of the A6002 won't work either, so the
only one that looks a serious candidate is Stanton Ironworks, which
is at least a bona fide brownfield site - even here there are traffic
issues, but perhaps soluble ones.

I'd like to brief people in the affected areas, and have written a
non-political letter which will be ready to go out next weekend. If
you share my view that we need to get in early to prevent this
nonsense, can you spare a few hours over the following week to help
deliver it? You will not be asked to deliver anything with a party
political content - this is simply a letter from the MP explaining
the risk to the area and asking people to respond. It could well mean
the difference between the area being swamped by traffic or not.

If you can help, please let me have your phone number and address and
we'll get in touch.

2. Council tax update
------------ ---------

Years of lobbying by me with other local MPs finally bore fruit with
a very helpful funding settlement for Nottinghamshire this year, up
£9 million per year and well over inflation and what many others
received. As a result, the County expects to keep their council tax
rise (which is 70% of what you pay) well under the maximum permitted
5% - probably around 3% both this and next year - while:
* relaxing the criteria for social service support at home so that
500 people with 'moderate' needs can benefit
* taking additional crime-fighting measures
* improving out-of-school facilities for kids and
* setting up rapid response teams to deal with potholes and blocked
drains much more quickly.

Broxtowe borough didn't do nearly as well, though a little better
than last year - their finances look tight and I'll report back on
any implications for their activities.

3. NHS updates
------------ --

One of you reminded me I'd promised to report back from the meeting
with Nottinghamshire health chiefs just before Christmas. I
unfortunately left my notes at the meeting, but these were the
highlights from memory:

* The feared redundancies at the NUH were almost entirely avoided,
and the hospitals have resumed recruiting nurses and cleaning staff.
The deficits have all been eliminated and all local trusts are in the
black with a bit in hand.

* The imminent opening of the Diagnostic and Treatment Centre at the
QMC site, while it should provide excellent new facilities, is
inhibiting the development of new services in GP practices and local
health centres and the transfer of routine work from the NUH is
organisationally and financially tricky, so they have to be careful
with budgets this year too.

* A really intensive ward cleaning programme, carrying out the
Government's rolling deep-clean programme, tightening up hand-washing
on entry to wards, and more. Because C Difficile and other bugs are
widespread in the general population, they'll never be able to
prevent them coming into the hospital altogether (you can't refuse to
treat an urgent case while you test him for bugs) but they're
confident of progress.

* Waiting times are continuing to decline, with cancer checks (like
mine) all within two weeks and the target of no more than 18 weeks
from first GP session to any operation still looking feasible

* Morale is felt to be improving as uncertainty about redundancies
fades. Pay restraint and pressure of work are both still causing
frustration, though staff do feel somewhat more appreciated by
management and the continuing good feedback from patients helps a
great deal.

Most of this tallies with the feedback I get from most of you (more
welcome!). Where things go wrong it tends to be in communications - I
spent an hour the other day with a patient who had had a complex and
dangerous case handled apparently well from the medical viewpoint,
but with virtually no information on what was happening to her, so
she'd had quite unnecessary stress. The NUH consultant had come to
her home to hear about it: he apologised and said he'd try to ensure
this improved.

Best wishes

Nick

A long chat about Britain's future/important housing proposals

01 January 2008

Hi all -

Happy New Year! Let's hope for a pleasant year for the community as
well as for each of us as individuals.

This is going to be a long message, and you may want to skim it for the
parts that interest you. See later for some important and potentially
explosive development proposals.

First a quick note about Sheila Foster's funeral: Thanksgiving service
at Attenborough Church Friday, 4th January, 1.45 pm. Family flowers
only, any donations to "Zippers Bowling Association" for distribution
to Cardiac Charities within the area and sent to A. W. Lymn, Trent
House, Station Road, Beeston. Refreshments afterwards at the Chilwell
Masonic Hall, High Road/Cator Lane (while the family will have a
private committal at Bramcote Crematorium) .

1. A long chat on Britain's future
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~

Media coverage of politics in Britain is dominated by short-term
battles, and there's a real appetite for long-term thinking that isn't
being met. The most popular email I've ever sent (judging by feedback)
was this one a year ago:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BroxtoweInfo/message/362

in which I talked about my personal background, what had led me to
become a Labour MP, and what I thought about British politics today. So
for New Year I thought I'd try and do something similar about what the
Government is trying to achieve in the longer term. This is, I suppose,
slightly partisan in that it's a Labour government, but I'm not going
to contrast with other parties or ask you to vote for anything. I just
thought you might like to see the larger picture as we see it, so you
can decide what you think of it. I think the term 'vision' is overused,
but that's the general idea. It's going to be long - if you find it
boring, skip to the housing issues in point 2.

I'll list what I think our priorities are. I've been reading
Churchill's war memoirs, and I'm struck by the frequency with which he
declared everything to be a "top priority". All politicians do this a
bit ("Get your road cleaned more often? We'll make a top priority") but
unless it's part of a wartime morale-boosting effort it's not very
meaningful. So I'll try to indicate the downsides too.

a) A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY

Without being propagandist I think it's fair to say that we've been
doing quite well over the last 10 years: the world has gone through two
entire economic cycles with major recessions in most countries. There
are always things to worry about, but so far we've avoided either
recession or inflationary surges.

But it's going to get harder, for two reasons. One is the combination
of increasing world trade, huge income disparities with Asia, and the
exploding Chinese and Indian economies. That is simply not sustainable.
China and India are going to get substantially richer (as are smaller
mini-tiger economies like Vietnam), their currencies will rise steadily
(which will gradually reduce the income gaps) and the world economy as
a whole will benefit, but we will struggle to keep growing in this
situation.

Second, quite apart from climate change (see below), the economy needs
to be more sustainable in terms of curbing energy growth and limiting
pollution. For example, it's no good having a short-term 'solution' to
the energy issues that ends up with us being totally hooked on Iranian
and Russian gas supplies: one doesn't have to be a cynic to see that
they might blackmail us one day if we depend on them.

Getting these issues right is the first priority, because if we don't
have a sustainable economy we will ultimately fail at everything else. But if we give this priority, it means saying "no" far more often than
we'd like. The current 2% limit of public pay settlements is a good
example - I opposed one bit of it (the police settlement) just last
month, but the sober fact is that it's not going to be possible to have
real increases every year, and politicians who routinely endorse every
claim are simply kidding you. Where I think we go wrong is alternating
feast and famine - e.g. many nurses had impressive earnings gains in
Agenda for Change, followed by a virtual freeze this year. We should
try to smooth it out so both individuals and public services can plan
better.

B) PROTECTION

Two short-term and one long-term goal:

* Support the neighbourhood policing teams. This is one innovation that
has really worked pretty well (see my website for the contact details
if you need them), and we hope to expand them and develop handheld
computers for patrols so that they don't have to keep returning to base
for paperwork.

* Now that we have more police and more arrests, expand the criminal
justice system to deal appropriately with the criminals. This does
partly mean a further expansion of prisons but also an expansion of alternative ways of
dealing with criminals, notably drug rehabilitation. Note that this can
collide with the overriding economic objective - e.g. the probation
service is not getting the resources that we'd like this year.

* Make it harder to evade detection. This involves the largely
uncontroversial e-borders scheme (which reintroduces exit controls and
enables us to see, using visitor ID cards, who has come into and left
the country and if they are who they say they are) as well as the much
more controversial issues of detention of terrorist suspects and the
national ID register, which I'll come back to an a later email.

C) CLIMATE CHANGE

This isn't actually that high up most people's list of priorities. Some
don't believe it's a problem, some are fatalist about it. But if most
of the scientific advice we are getting is correct (and it seems
irresponsible to assume they're all mistaken) we are dumping horrendous
problems on our grandchildren.

The most urgent job is to promote international agreement, and we
pushed hard for the agreement in Bali, which was a !small! step in the
right direction. It looks as though the next US president is going to
be much more open to the issue so we want to have initiatives ready for
him or her. In the meantime, we're pushing through our binding UK
targets and doing controversial things to reach them, including the
planned network of offshore windfarms, the Severn barrage and new
nuclear power stations - virtually nobody likes all three of these, but
we think we need a mixture of low-CO2 domestic energy producers if
we're remotely serious about either energy secuurtiy or climate change.

D) EDUCATION

This links into the economic objective - if we don't have a competitive
education system, we don't have a competitive country. The main current
push is into individualised schooling, with personal advice for every
pupil and more systematic setting into classes of similar ability. But
the economic link is also producing controversial results, notably the
shift of Further Education subsidies from leisure-oriented courses
(e.g. dancing and history) to work-oriented courses (e.g. literacy and
apprenticeships) . We really don't like doing this - part of the Labour
tradition is supporting adult education for quality of life - but we
are hugely worried by the stark fact that two million adults have no
work qualifications whatsoever.

E) HEALTH

This is an area where we believe, contrary to what the media like to
suggest, that we've already got a long way. For instance, I recently
had a cancer scare. My GP saw me the next day, and booked me a referral
through the new IT system. I was seen within 10 days (and the computer
didn't know I was an MP, so no special treatment), waited five minutes,
got a thorough scan, and was called by the consultant on the next
working day, as he'd got the results (all clear) transferred to his PC.
Every step of this - referral, tests, transferring the results,
reporting back to the patient - used to take far longer, and people
could have months of uncertainty while they chugged through the system,
due to shortages of staff, equipment and infrastructure.

I talk to lots of constituents about their experiences with the NHS.
For a few, it's gone horribly wrong. But most were surprised to find it
all worked pretty well: they were seen promptly, treated kindly, given
adequate though not great food, in apparently fairly clean
surroundings, and got the results within a much shorter time than it
used to take.

What we're now trying to do is fill the gaps, the immediate ones being
psychological therapies (which are in short supply and have just had a
huge funding boost) and out-of-hours support. Beyond that is the vast
area of improved preventative public health, which for any long-term
strategy is more important than direct care.

F) PENSIONS

The proportion of pensioners in the population is rising steadily,
despite the influx of young immigrants, and many are not especially
well-prepared for it. The early Government priority after 1997 was
helping the people who were literally dying of cold or under-
nourishment: the minimum pension credit and winter allowance have
virtually banished that appalling feature from modern Britain. The
current focus is on the middle-income group of pensioners, who've saved
a bit and have small occupational pensions. The restoration of the link
with earnings in 2012 is one part of that, and the introduction of
company schemes for all employees (unless you perversely insist on
opting out) is another, with a default public scheme for all employers
who are too small to operate their own.

G) OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT

This is simply to deliver the commitment to 0.7% of GDP used to help
other countries escape from poverty. We think it's in Britain's
interest to build friendships this way, but beyond that it's simply a
human duty to pull our weight in a way that we haven't always done in
the past (in 1997 the proportion had fallen from a past peak of 0.5% to
a microscopic 0.25%). That means £1 of every £140 that you earn is
going to help prevent starvation and get countries out of the poverty
trap. Some people feel this is too much: if so, it's a reason to vote
for someone else as I actually think it's too little.

These are the issues that come up in discussions with Ministers all the
time: they are the main priorities. Obviously a Minister for, say,
culture is going to pursue his or her brief as a personal priority, but
this reflects the overall strategic direction of the Government. Things
I've not mentioned have slipped down the scale. The obvious one is
foreign intervention: we are virtually out of Iraq, and although we are
helping stop the Taliban returning in Afghanistan (because they
exported terrorism when in power - if we weren't fighting them there,
we believe we'd be in greater danger here), an obvious effect of the
change of Prime Minister has been a much lower priority to
international military intervention. Similarly, the zeal that Tony
Blair had for European integration has been replaced by a more
pragmatic approach: we want to accept the current treaty because it'll
help operate the EU more sensibly, but there's no detectable government
interest in pushing forwards, joining the Euro, etc. I'm still pretty
pro-European as I think that continent-wide cooperation is nearly
always a good idea; the government is however now largely agnostic on
the subject, simply looking at ideas on their merits when they come up.

Feedback welcome! I shouldn't think anyone agrees with every item, and
I hope everyone will agree with some of it. But you'd get the
impression from media coverage that there isn't a strategy at all, and
I wanted to put it to you so you can judge it for yourself.

2. Housing proposals
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~

I wanted to alert you to some quite explosive proposals that you may
want to study in the innocuous-looking

http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/cdplanningsuesbrief2.pdf

This is long and complex but here's the key points for our area.

* It's widely recognised that there is a housing shortage in the
region. This is mainly due to social trends (people living longer, more
people living on their own) and economic growth above the national
average. Unlike some areas immigration isn't a major factor (not that
many people find their way from Poland to Kimberley), but first-time
buyers have real problems getting on the housing ladder, and house
prices have been rising sharply until the recent national dip.

* The local councils are therefore looking for potential places to
build new settlements. The first short-list (see 2.9 in the paper) was
entirely outside our area, mostly in the huge borough of Rushcliffe,
which has also been short-listed for one of the carbon-neutral
model "eco-towns" that Gordon Brown announced last summer.

* However, they're now looking to expand the list, and the additional
options are mostly in our area (see 2.10). These would be unlikely to
see any new housing before 2011 (5.1) so it's all at a very early
stage. This paper is about selecting someone to report on the options
by March.

* Now skip to the maps in the Appendix. You'll see major potential
sites identified, notably a huge area around Watnall (like the one that
I successfully helped fight a few years ago, but bigger), the big
space north of Stapleford, and the area between Trowell and Cossall;
they are also looking at the old Stanton site.

I thought I should alert you to this as I don't suppose it's the sort
of stuff you would normally see (though there has been some Evening
Post coverage), and one of the jobs of MPs is to keep people informed
early on about proposals affecting the area.

What should we make of these options? I'm wary of the common political
hypocrisy of supporting new housing in general but opposing any
particular project - we do need a decent supply of good housing in our
area. However, some of these seem to me simply not supportable by the
local infrastructure, especially the roads - it was that point that
killed off the Watnall project last time, and I can't see that things
have got any better.

There is also the quality of life argument: in the unlikely event that
all the options were chosen, the communities of Stapleford, Bramcote,
Trowell and Cossall would link up into one suburban sprawl, as would
the whole area east of Kimberley. Another area seems to be smack on the
tram route and if the tram goes ahead will presumably not be practical.

I'm therefore planning to oppose some of the sites in an early
submission to the people who get the contract: it's best to influence
the process early.

If we accept that some more affordable housing would be a good thing,
we should also discuss what we might *not* oppose. The Stanton option
looks to me plausible at first sight if the transport issues can be
addressed, and I'm not instantly opposed to the area by the business
park off the A6002 - it's surrounded by roads (and if there is more
housing it will attract more bus services) and I'm not sure it's really
used much for walkers or any other environmental purpose?

At this point I just want to inform you and listen to your feedback. I
don't want to jump the gun as I don't know everything about all the
sites. But I'm keen to represent your feelings - it'll have a major
impact on our community in 10 years' time and I want to make sure
you're listened to, as in the Watnall and Field Farm proposals last
time.

Best wishes

Nick

Sheila Foster

22 December 2007

Hello all –

I promised a final round-up before Christmas, but there is some very
sad news. Sheila Foster, who was for many years the leader of the
Conservative group on Broxtowe Council until she finally stood down
in May, died this morning. I understand that it was suddenly and
without pain.
Sheila was the best kind of councillor – hard-working, serious and
non-partisan in her daily work, without any of that getting in the
way of being a vigorous competitor at election time. So far as I can
remember, we never exchanged a cross word, and I recently wrote a
recommendation for a group who were hoping to get her recognition in
a future Honours' List. I'm sure everyone would like to join me in
offering sympathies to her husband Ralph and their family.

I don't think there is anything else that won't keep, so I'll
just wish you a very happy Christmas and hope we can all look forward
to a good year in 2008.

All good wishes

Nick

Police pay dispute/Christmas absence

14 December 2007

Hi all -

A bit short of time but a note on the police pay dispute. A quick
word of thanks to all those who've signed up for my Sunday evening
discussion at the Ilkeston Radhuni (159 Bath St, 6pm-8pm, though I
think the restaurant is doing another round from 8pm to 10pm for
those who can't make the announced time) - looks like our best
turnout yet.

To recap briefly: this is one of my series of "eat'n'debate' fund-
raisers: you pay £20 and get as much as food as you can eat and as
much debate as you could want. This one is on "Will we make poverty
history?": Is fair trade making progress? Is the World Bank capable
of reform? Will the WTO talks succeed? Are we helping or manipulating
developing countries with economic agreements? Will the rise of China
and India help or hinder other developing countries? Are `food miles'
an important environmental issue or disguised protectionism? What are
Britain's prospects for poverty elimination in a globalised world?

1. Police pay dispute
------------ ---------

I think we're making a mistake with this, but will try to summarise
the two sides of the argument fairly so you can decide.

* The Police Federation (union) and employers (police authorities)
were unable to agree a rise, so sent it to arbitrators to try to come
up with a formula acceptable to both sides. The arbitrators
recommended a 2.5% rise.

* Since most policing costs are ultimately funded by taxpayers, it
went to the Government for approval. Here it ran into a wider policy
restriction. The Treasury says that it thinks the global economic
situation is sufficiently unstable that we need to be very careful
with spending this year, so it's told all Ministries that it won't
fund any public sector pay rise above 2% this financial year (April
2007-March 2008). The only exception has been for the Armed Forces,
who got larger rises: apart from that, the Treasury says it wants no
exceptions to avoid setting off a spiral of claims.

* That left the Home Secretary with two options: to reject the
arbitration proposal and impose a 2% rise, or to delay it by three
months so that the impact in the current financial year would be only
1.9%. The latter gives higher pay for police from next year so she
opted for that.

* However, since the police are not allowed to strike, they have been
left with settling for an arbitration deal that they didn't much like
and then finding it's delayed by three months as well. They say it's
unfair to agree to arbitration in the first place if you're not
prepared to accept the outcome, especially as they don't have the
strike option. They will now ballot on whether to ask for the right
to strike in future.

Personally, I understand the overall Treasury policy (and accept it
for MPs' pay, where it will, I predict, also be imposed), but I think
that cheese-paring over three months is a unnecessary annoyance for
people who are extremely important to the community. I've had a
certain amount of grousing on the lines of 'Someone stole my video
and the useless police haven't caught him, so why give them a rise?',
but overall they *are* doing an increasingly successful job, as a
glance at the crime figures (and indeed the number of people locked
up in prison) shows.

It's especially a pity as we've had an unusually good settlement for
Notts Police. I led a lobby last month for two things: an above-
average settlement to enable us to develop neighbourhood policing,
and further central funding for the E Mids Strategic Operations Unit.
We've got both, and we should be feeling very hopeful about the
prospects for further improvement. It's such a pity to have morale
undermined by this row.

I don't think, though, that calling for the power to strike is going
to get anywhere. If the police did go on strike, public opinion would
turn on them in an instant, as soon as the first crowd of yobs
careened down the high streets breaking windows and grabbing goods.
My suggestion would be to negotiate arbitration in future that is
*compulsory* on both sides.

2. Xmas holidays
------------ ----

I expect to be away over Xmas and New Year in the cottage that we
rent in Northumberland. The office will also be closed in Christmas
week. However, if you email me I'll pick it up on my Blackberry and
will answer in emergency. Last year I had an email on Christmas Day
suggesting changes in the structure of stamp duty. They were sensible
enough, but a bit of restraint would be appreciated as my wife does
like to see me sometimes...

I'll do a final pre-Christmas update before then: I'm seeing the QMC
and City management today and the Justice Secretary on Monday and
will report back on those. I've also asked for and got an interesting
personal assignment, but I probably can't go into detail on that
until the New Year.

Best wishes

Nick

Other voices...experience of homelessness/a US perspective/voting for Sherwood

9 December 2007

Hi all -

Rather than write again myself this weekend, I thought I'd pass on
some feedback that may be of interest:

1. Homelessness

In reply to my update on progress in this area, a constituent writes:

"Found this an interesting read especially in terms of the
homelessness issue as I was homeless myself for about 3 years when I
was younger. It was very difficult to access the support I needed to
change my situation but St Mungo's gave me a real opportunity to sort
myself out with a supported housing flat, and after selling Big Issue
for most of the time that I was homeless they also provided
invaluable counselling to help me escape domestic violence, support
with going to college and I literally left London, hostels and Big
Issue to go straight into university.Although I know this isn't a
conventional route out of homelessness I certainly made things change
in my life but this was through more guts and determination and
charitable support and not through anything from the government
initiatives (although to be fair I started uni in 1995!).

There is such a lot of support needed to break cycles of homelessness
with linked problems of mental health, low self esteem, substance
abuse etc and I think it will take huge investment to get things
moving in the right direction. One of my main concerns is around
short term funding, especially in this area where you have to really
invest in the longer term - I hope the government is taking a long
term view to this and offering a good mix of support that isn't about
fundraisers ticking box's but about innovation and flexibility to
support individual needs.... "

2. Political funding

An American friend, Ralph Hanahan, who went round with me in the last
election writes in response to my proposal on setting limits on
political spending:

"As an American who has participated as a volunteer in the British
political system, I feel some qualifications to opine upon the
question of the Americanization of your political processes.

Let's all face it -- there are plenty of things that work toward
making all of us cynical and "turned off" about politics. But as an
American, let me tell you that the financing of politics over here is
right up at the top of the list.

Why should only the very wealthy (or those connected to the very
wealthy) be able to put up a political campaign that has some
possibility of success? Well, that's just the way it is in the USA.

Mostly, it's such a waste. Millions of dollars that could be put to
worthy charitable uses instead go to buy adverts that demean
political opponents. The most successful negative campaigner wins.
Americans are simply bombarded with repugnant words and images on
television, radio, billboards, automated telephone calls, and mailed
items.

You might be amused (and, perhaps more than a bit incredulous) to
hear this, but speaking personally, I enjoy experiencing British
politics because your system is such a breath of fresh air compared
to ours.

When I tell my fellow Americans that I've actually gone door-to-door
with the person who held the equivalent job as our Secretary of
Defense, their jaws dropped. When I tell them that my friend, the MP
for Broxtowe, must go and face his electorate face-to-face on their
doorsteps, well, they find that difficult to imagine.

You see, here in the USA, my Congressman would never waste his time
coming to my door. He's too busy raising money and currying favor
with deep-pocketed contributors. If I write to him, I get a form
letter in reply. About the only way I could hope to talk to him is if
I traveled to Washington and camped out in his office.

Why am I saying all of this? It's just that I believe that you, my
British friends, have an opportunity to stop your political system
from becoming like ours. You risk losing something which, while not
lacking flaws, is far and away superior to our way of doing
politics.

There was a popular song from the 60s with a lyric that went
something like, "Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what
you've got 'til it's gone." Sure, fix the defects in your campaign
rules and methods. But trust me, less money and more personal
involvement is the way to go."

3. The Sherwood Forest appeal

Lots of you have forwarded emails urging support for the Sherwood
Forest vote on lottery funding, and as every area will be campaigning
similarly for their projects, do consider supporting our local one.
The case for it is summarised here:

http://www.robinhood.co.uk/resources/eblasts/phase_5/

Voting closes at noon tomorrow Monday! It's probably best to phone -
I tried hard to vote online, but the site refused to believe that I'd
correctly read the code lettering designed to stop spam.

Best wishes

Nick

Housing and homelessness/pensions/what is your money spent on?

5 December 2007

Hi all -

This is a diverse update to pass on various things that you may find
interesting, rather than focused on a particular theme.

1. Meetings on asylum, immigration and integration

Thanks to all who came to these - about 50 to the first one on asylum
and 30 to the lunch discussion on integration (which raised over £300
for my campaign funds). I've report back to Lord Goldsmith's
citizenship qualifications study with the impressions from the latter.
At the latter meeting, opinion was divided about whether people seeking
to become British should have a formal test, but there was a unanimous
view that the current test is too oriented to facts (e.g. the percent
of women in Parliament) and too little to values.

Incidentally, I see a racist website claims that I said at the asylum
meeting that I was in favour of 'open borders' (i.e. no immigration
controls). I said no such thing (I'm liberal on asylum policy but
immigration will in my view always need management), but some groups
are frankly unscrupulous when they get on this subject: they reckon the
end justifies the means.
I have another fund-raising dinner on December 16, this time on the
theme "Will we make poverty history?" It's at the Radhuni restaurant in
Ilkeston on December 16 from 6pm to 9pm. As before, £20 gets you as
much delicious food as you can eat from the buffet (and free beer and
soft drinks too this time), and as much debate as you'd like. Please
let me know if you hope to come, so the restaurant can prepare enough
curries!

2. Help for Nottingham to ease housing pressures
------------ --------- --------- --------- ---------

The Government has allocated £37 million over the next 3 years to
Nottingham, Leicester and Derby to help with housing infrastructure;
it's also rumoured that Rushcliffe is short-listed for one of the "eco-
towns" that Gordon Brown announced. These are intended to provide a
larger number of new homes at affordable costs, built to be carbon-
neutral and supported by renewable energy sources.
At the same time, they've announced £150 million nationally to make
further progress on homelessness. The number of rough sleepers in
Britain is estimated to have dropped by 73% since 1997, but it's
generally accepted that this has in many cases just moved the homeless
off the street into temporary accommodation (currently 101,000 people) -
better than nothing, but not a long-term solution. The government's
objective is now to halve the number in temporary accommodation and end
it altogether for 16-17-year-olds, who are particularly vulnerable to
getting into trouble if they are close to being homeless.

3. Pensions Act becomes law
------------ --------- ------

This Act is pretty crucial but has attracted little notice as it's
uncontentious - John Hutton's reputation in Westminster is largely
based on his remarkable feat in getting everyone to agree on it. Main
features;

* Employers will automatically enrol workers over age 22 and earning
over £5000/year in a workplace pension scheme, unless the employee
explicitly opts out, and will be required to make contributions
(typically 3% of earnings, with the employee contributing 5%).

* There will be a simple low-cost national pension scheme for people
who don't have their own company scheme.

* People will get more information about exactly what to expect from
the national pension (which is as planned to be relinked to earnings
from 2012), to help them decide how much to put aside in savings.

Coupled with the scheme to insure all current schemes in case of
collapse, this goes a good way to giving a secure basis for long-term
planning. I've been arguing that the next step should an integrated
statement for everyone of working age of their pension expectations,
taking into account all public and private pensions (we should have the
data available, since pension schemes are all registered). You'd get
this as an annual statement, so that even if you'd worked for half a
dozen employers you'd see a clearly-stated total figure, and could act
accordingly.

4. What are the spending priorities?
------------ --------- --------- -----

As a member of the Public Accounts Commission, I see reports from the
Public Audit Office on value for money in public spending. I thought it
might be interesting for you to pass on a survey in the latest report.
This shows how spending is changing annually in real terms (i.e. after
inflation) over the 2008-11 period. Bear in mind that these are %
increases, so a moderate increase on a large budget (e.g. the NHS) is
actually more than a large increase on a smaller budget.

International development: +10.1% per year. This is to meet the
Government's target of reaching the UN standard of 0.7% of GDP given to
help developing countries.

Culture, media and sport: +6.5%. This is partly the Olympics and partly
support for more exercise, for free museums and the arts.

NHS: +3.8%. This is less rapid than in recent years, reflecting the
progress in reducing waiting lists and the end to most of the financial
crises that beset many trusts in the last two years, but it's still a
rapid expansion to try to meet the target that nobody should wait over
18 weeks from GP to operation.

Communities and local government: +3%. Slightly above average, mainly
to keep council tax down.

Schools: +3%. As with health, the decelerates from a record-breaking
expansion in recent years, but is still a healthy increase. There is
also a £21 billion investmen tplan running from 2008 to refurbish or
replace everty secondary school in Britain.

Transport: +2.4%. This is mostly investment in the railway network,
roads and in our case also trams. It includes £13 billion on upgrading
the road network, such as the M1 project.

Universities: +2.4%. This is to try to keep pace with international
competition

Defence: +1.5%. The subject of recent controversy, this reflects the
phasing-out of our Iraq involvement, balanced by additional helicopters
for Afghanistan and the early stages of work on the new aircraft
carriers.

Environment and rural affairs: +1%. This is a mixed bag of
environmental support (such as our flood protection) and subsidy for
farmers.

Home affairs: +1%. This is for policing and new prisons, and slower
than increases in recent years.

Foreign Office: no change.

Justice: -1%. This reflects efforts to streamline the courts system.

Revenue and customs: -4%. This reflects the controversial programme to
reduce staffing following greater computerisation.

Work and Pensions: -5%. And so does this, with nearly all pensions and
benefits now computerised and a marked reduction in staffing.

We'll all find things to agree or disagree with here, I'm sure, but I
hope it's helpful to have a transparent picture of what is happening. I
agree with most of these, though personally I wouldn't have bid for the
Olympics and would give lower priority to roadworks, while I'd put more
into the environment and home affairs.

Best wishes

Nick

previous newsletters >>