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Via the Bucks Free Press, Health bosses slammed for not appearing at public meeting:

HEALTH bosses were lambasted tonight for sending no one to face questions from members of the public worried about the future of Wycombe Hospital.

Speakers slammed The Primary Care Trust and NHS Buckinghamshire for saying nobody was available to attend, describing their decision as “appalling” and “scandalous”.

Around 200 residents attended the meeting at Great Marlow School, Bobmore Lane, Marlow, which was organised by Marlow People’s Action Group.

Many expressed their fears for the future of Wycombe Hospital and Marlow Community Hospital in Glade Road – despite strong denials this week from health chiefs that either is in danger.

Members of the public are quite right that the NHS is insufficiently accountable to local people. Buckinghamshire health services are underfunded. On top of it all, clinical professionals carry an unacceptable burden of bureaucracy and reorganisation.

This is why I am calling for fair funding, local control and freedom for clinical professionals. As Paul pointed out, becoming a self-governing Foundation Trust would help enormously and we can only achieve that with fair funding. Further local control can be achieved with local commissioning by GPs. Please show your support by signing the petition below.

Meanwhile, we must pursue our campaign for local hospital services against the backdrop provided by today’s Daily Telegraph, which claims:

Tens of thousands of NHS workers would be sacked, hospital units closed and patients denied treatments under secret plans for £20 billion of health cuts.

The sick would be urged to stay at home and email doctors rather than visit surgeries, while procedures such as hip replacements could be scrapped.

The plans have emerged as health chiefs draw up emergency budgets that cast doubt on pledges by Gordon Brown to protect “front line services” in the NHS.

Documents show that health chiefs are considering plans to begin sacking workers, cutting treatments and shutting wards across the country.

Before voting, the public deserve to know the choice they face.

I was delighted that Labour agent Mr Barlow hailed Paul as a “fantastic MP”. I can assure him and all electors that I have every intention of diligently taking forward Paul’s great work.

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Our draft health manifesto

NB: The author is Tim Hewish, who I am glad to welcome as a local contributor. — Steve

Buckinghamshire is blessed with having Grammar schools and is complimented by a large number of successful State schools; however not all parts of the country are so privileged. I was fortunate enough to attend the release of Policy Exchange’s latest education report, Blocking the Best, which focuses on the obstacles people face when trying to set up their own independent state school.

Shadow Schools Secretary, Michael Gove MP, gave the keynote speech in which he centred heavily on how little access disadvantaged children have to a better education and improved horizons. You can read a bite-sized account of Michael’s vision here.

To provide a backdrop, the Conservatives are strongly in favour of Academies, which are a type of school that can be set up by parents, teachers, businesses; and charities that are free from the tangled web of constant assessment, league tables and the prevalent dumbing down of our education into issues based learning.

Mr. Gove spoke of the revolutionary KIPP schools (Knowledge is Power Programme) in the US. (A video by its Founders can be viewed here) These schools sprang up 15 years ago and focused on the very poorest in urban America with 90% of the pupils from Afro-American and Latino descent. What KIPPs managed to achieve were that 85% of the total pupils succeeding to go on to college.

What are the secrets to their success?

Read more

I just spent a most enjoyable and productive evening with South Bucks National Farmers’ Union, which followed a recent visit to a local farm.

Discussing farming in Buckinghamshire

In particular, we discussed NFU President Peter Kendall’s speech, “Delivering Farming’s Future”. He repeated a point made by Norman Borlaug, a Nobel laureate and great agricultural scientist, that:

In the next 50 years we are going to have to produce more food than we have in the last ten thousand years.

I am reminded of a remark heard elsewhere that restrictive measures can only restrict production. We might do well to rethink farming regulation substantially.

Nick Herbert MP’s agenda for British farming, “A New Age of Agriculture”, seeks to do just that, with an industry-led review of all existing regulations. See page 7 of the policy document:

I was also asked to respond personally to a wish list from Chilterns Farmers formed at the 4 March Chilterns Conservation Board Farmers’ Forum: I believe I passed muster! It was certainly a very interesting discussion and, yet again, I am staggered by the grotesque bureaucracy which has been heaped upon practical, productive people.

I think perhaps it is time for change.

Well, after visiting the magnificent Wycombe Abbey School yesterday to discover that they are very happy to share their facilities with the state sector, and after a great doorstep session this morning in Totteridge, where I found Labour voters coming over to the Conservatives, I am feeling rather upbeat, despite disquieting polling and despite agreeing with William Hague:

And I say it is that most crucial election because I believe the choice for Britain is as stark as this: it is change or ruin.

…

We are telling the British people the truth: we cannot go on like this.

We say to them now: it is time, it is time to make the break. We cannot go on just borrowing money from China so that we can buy their goods and then borrow some more. Gordon Brown is like a credit card company who will always send you another letter saying it would be so easy when in debt to borrow even more. Every family, every small business, everyone except this Government knows it is the road to ruin.

…

So it is time for change. And if we do not take this opportunity, grasp this hour, to set a new direction for Britain, then I tell you in all frankness that it will be too late. It will be too late in 5 years’ time to say we should have got rid of them, too late to reverse the decline: the debt will be too big, the bureaucracy too bloated, the small businesses too stifled, the slope Britain is sliding down will be too steep.

Yes, this year, the choice is change or ruin, but I believe people understand that this is true. People know that the days of bureaucracy are over. People must have more to do with one another and the government less.

A new publication,  The choice at this election, explains how Conservatives will:

• Act now on debt to get the economy moving
• Get Britain working by boosting enterprise
• Make Britain the most family-friendly country in Europe
• Back the NHS
• Raise standards in schools
• Change politics

It’s this simple: vote for change, vote Conservative.

Beth and I were delighted to watch Wanderers beat Millwall 1-0 this afternoon in an exciting match.

Congratulations to the Chairboys!