Ignoring Monday evenings Group meeting and Thursdays evenings General Committee meeting, the main event was Full Council on Wednesday. This was the last meeting of Council before the elections on 3rd May. There were a number of fairwell speeches from those standing down and a significant amount of political posturing (from all sides). Additionally later in the week I found out that Councillor Drake (Lib Dem) would be standing down to ill health. I certainly wish him a speedy recovery. Also Councillor Phil Williams (Conservative) would also be standing down early; I have been told for working reasons, but nothing official. This means that instead of 16 seats being up for election, we now find ourselves competing for 18. Quite a stretch financially given our current bank balance. What could be amazing is that in a place like Peartree, which was opposition held on 4th May last year, we could find ourselves holding all three seats in the ward this year!
Moving onto back to the Council meeting; it was a genuine shame as we looked over to the middle benches of the party opposite as we looked at those very likely to lose and those standing down. It became very apparent that there was a real gap in where the next generation of their party were to come from. Those seriously capable and experienced young Councillors would not be in the chamber post May. This is a poor state of affairs for the Tories locally and something which I understand that we had to grapple with some four years ago. With the development of our development plans, areas of responsibility and a Leader who gives us as many opportunities as we want, the future of our inclusive side of the chamber looks very rosey.
The meeting had a number of issues to discuss, including the saving of the Civil Service Sports Ground in Freemantle. As I understand it, a real team effort spanning political partys and officers careers over the past decade. Well done Southampton City Council in keeping this recreation area for future generations.
However that is probably where the goodwill ended. First up was a deputation from a member of the public on the way in which they felt they had been treated in the redevelopment of the Graylings housing complex in Millbrook. Without embarassing the individual, she gave an empassioned plea to ask for reconsideration of "forced reallocation" of a number of older and vulnerable residents. Both myself and Councillor Furnell spoke on this ward issue - namely that we still had not received information on what other sites across the city had been considered for the citing othis new dementia unit; why residents had not properly been taslked to - I'm not sure how you'd feel if your elderly mother was to that she'd be moved from her long time home with a weeks notice. Don't get me wrong - new money for the Council for new facilities is excellent, but there is a right way and a wrong way of doing things. I will not elaborate on the disgusting way in which the Cabinet Member for Housing slandered the petitioner, but suffice to say that a formal display has gone in to officers of the council regarding his personal attacks. Truly disgusting.
There was also a petition from the No Biomass Group. It was a shame as the Mayor did not allow for further debate on this important item to my ward. However, the important and repeated fact is that all partys are still opposed to the monstrosity. Between us we are all deeply concerned as to the motives and capabilities of Helius.
Although having spoke at every Council meeting since being elected, I had to make my formal maiden speech. Its an opportunity to speak on an issue of importance and all Councillors within the chamber must sit tight and listen politely. For my maiden speech, I chose voter registration:
I speak to you today not as a member of the Labour Party, not as a proud Unison member, but as a fellow elected representative. Each of us within this chamber has a moral obligation to carry out our civic duties to the best of our ability.
For my part, I am fully aware of the priceless gift that my constituents have bestowed upon me, and at every meeting, with every piece of casework; every policy idea drafted; I feel the weight of expectation upon my shoulders.
We are a curious bunch. We enjoy politics. The rest of the population view us with candour, distrust and in some cases pity. Politics has however, always been my calling. I remember fighting the 1992 election at my junior school, as the Numero Uno party. My election as president of the student union at my sixth form college, with a commitment for softer toilet paper. The joy of winning the race to be an elected member of Birmingham University. And lastly, as Councillors Furnell and Wells would agree, Millbrook the best ward in the city... and where in May of last year I made 1904 good, good friends.
My driving motivation, as I hope would be the motivation for the majority of my fellow councillors in this chamber, is the ability to shape the world around us. Every time I drive past the newly repainted disabled bays at Penrith Court or address the Infrastructure Planning Commission on the Biomass Monstrosity, I feel I have played my part in making a difference.
Whether it is speaking at meetings, writing blogs or knocking doors, we can create democratic capacity amongst those who live, work, and visit destination Southampton. In support of this motion, we have a duty to maximise democracy within our communities to address the democratic deficit. Attitude is a little thing that can make a big difference. We have a difficult task ahead of us, ranked below tabloid journalists and estate agents; there is a significant degree of scepticism from the public on our motivations.
The majority of people don't care about what we think they care about. They want their pavements kept clean, the roads free from potholes and the council to get the bins emptied. Ensuring that every citizen has a voice is as important to our existence as protecting the weak and vulnerable. The Electoral Commission estimates that voter registration changes will leave a third of our community without an opportunity to affect change.
I would urge the Government to drop the opt-out so that individuals cannot reject their civic duty; Officers of the council should guard against an estimated 1% monthly deterioration in the register; and most importantly we should acknowledge that low registration follows urban and socially deprived areas, whilst affluent areas have higher registration leading to disproportionate and an undemocratic state of affairs.
Chris Ruane MP best described the precipus we find ourselves standing on: "The peoples who are going to be left off are poor. They are black minority ethnic. They are those renting privately and in social housing. We are going to return to electoral registers akin to Alabama in the 1950's." Any measure which leads to a significant reduction in levels of voter registration runs counter to the Government's stated aim of re-distributing power and opportunity to people. Parliamentary constituencies will be redrawn on the basis of numbers registered to vote rather than population. This will affect communities with transient populations, like inner cities, seaside towns --- settlements with concentrations of students, black minority ethnic and poorer people. Communities exactly like Southampton.
To vote is not a lifestyle choice. It is to play an active part in our city. To have responsibility as well as rights. Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. In facing changes to the electoral registration process, we in this chamber must have the courage to listen to our citizens, and listen to them no matter what they tell us at the ballot box.
It was well recieved in the chamber and a number of officers and Councillors of all sides came up to me to congratulate me. Very flattering and embarassing in equal measure.
After my maiden speech it was time to second a motion on the NHS. It was a passionate speech, given the venom pooring forth from the opposition benches. For a number of months, we are often told how we basically caused the fall of mankind. My seconding of the motion was a rally against some of the untruths and political points trying to be scored by those dismantling our National Health Service. Notes of my speech below:
The Kings Fund review of NHS performance since '97 noted significant progress over the past decade, and highlighted a number of notable achievements:
· life expectancy up for all social groups
· Hospital waiting times down (more than 90 per cent of patients waiting less than 18 weeks)
· Infant mortality down
· Smoking rates down
· Infection rates for MRSA and C. difficile down
· deaths from cardiovascular diseases down
· deaths from cancer down
The NHS in England is a £100 billion-a-year business. It sees 1 million patients every 36 hours, spending nearly £2 billion a week. Aside from the banks, the only companies with a larger turnover in the FTSE 100 are the two global oil giants Shell and BP. If the NHS were a country it would be richer than Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the proportion of managers in the UK workforce in June 2010 was 15.4 per cent. The NHS Information Centre showed in 2009 about 3.7% of the total workforce were managers. If anything, based on these figures it would suggest that our NHS, is under- rather than over-managed.
This is not policy continuation: Within the next two years SHAs and PCTs abolished; GP consortia spending the majority of the NHS budget; public health to Councils; And two new national bodies – the Monitor and the NHS Commissioning Body – to take responsibility from the Department of Health. So while key aspects of the reforms may not be completely new, some are, and their scale and the speed with which they are planned to be introduced is bordering on insanity.
The Government talks of devolving power and decision making to the lowest possible levels. Well, the people and professionals have spoken; they don't like what they see.
On the future of our most precious National Health Service, I thought I would read the following excerpt of a letter to the Deputy Prime Minister, dated 9th March 2012:
As organisations representing over 100,000 professionals working in the NHS and providing frontline care to patients, we urge you to rethink your position and consider the full impact of these reforms on our ability to provide care to patients.
Our mutual concern remains providing and planning the best possible quality of care to our patients. We hope you will consider the wealth of our experience, and will look at ways for us to work together to make the health service secure, stable, and safe, now and in the future.
We call on your party, and the Coalition Government, to work with doctors, nurses and other health professionals to find an acceptable way forward in the best interests of our patients.
Yours sincerely
Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners
General Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives
Chair of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
Chief Executive of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
Chair of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
Chief Executive of the Society and College of Radiographers
Chief Executive of the British Dietetic Association
Chair of the British and Irish Orthoptic Society
Chair of the British Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists
However, the last words I reserve for Ken Clarke’s Tory Reform Group:
Mr Lansley seems like a man clinging to a time-bomb that only he cannot hear ticking. The Government urgently needs to look at what he is trying to do and accept that it needs drastic, perhaps total, reconsideration.
Is politics truly the art of the possible? What is certainly impossible is ploughing on without confidence. This is the situation in which Andrew Lansley now finds himself, where self-confidence is no match for the lack of confidence held by other people.
For the good of the NHS, Andrew Lansley must admit defeat and head to the backbenches
So that was a week in my political life. I did forget to mention seeing Torys out again in Millbrook. They must be scared if they are door knocking and not just getting others to put their leaflets out - we didn't see them out in the ward in June, July, August, September, October, November, December, or January. But then as someone said on the doorstep yesterday, "there must be an election on!"
Whatever you're doing today, have a good day. I am spending it with my wife and letting her know just how much I love her and our baby daughter.
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