Youth Unemployment

My son left school 7 years ago and he was lucky in that he found a job quickly and has managed to build a career. However I still see a number of his old school friends, in Windsor and Maidenhead, unemployed and strugging on benefits to get a start in life. According to the right-of-centre think tank ‘Policy Exchange,’ 70,000 job seekers have had their benefits unfairly withdrawn; they say that this is one of the reasons for the rise of the use of food banks (like Foodshare in Maidenhead). The double whammy of damaged prospects, from lack of work experience, and financial punishment is not helping our younger generation.

Nationwide, the numbers of unemployed 16 to 24 year olds is nearly a million and it is estimated that if they all stood in the dole queue at the same time that the line would stretch from London to Edinburgh! It is time for the government to work with employers to provide a guaranteed, compulsory starter job and training for all young people who have been out of work or education for a year. The Labour party have produced a fully costed plan to do this; for the sake of the Royal Borough youth, lets hope they can shame the Condems into implementing their plan.

Printed in local newspapers March 2014

Ban the burner!

A couple of weeks ago the UK received a visit from a poison cloud, full of invisible toxins and very visible saharan sand. Poison clouds move with the air currents and there is no such thing as a ‘safe area’ in our world. However we cannot always blame other countries for our problems.

Unfortunately, one of the most unpleasant polluters of air locally is one that could have been prevented by the 2007 Conservative led, Slough Borough Council, it drops it’s poison on Slough, Maidenhead and Windsor residents daily. Last summer temperatures soared and most of us enjoyed spending time out-doors; then on the morning on the 5th September, the Colnbrook incinerator released an enormous cloud of toxic particles into our atmosphere. A local air quality monitoring station recorded a massive 985 rating of course, particulate matter; the rating level that is considered safe is below 54! 

The waste that is burned there daily, includes radioactive waste. Another type of incinerator pollution are dioxins, they are invisible, not measured, and are some of the most dangerous airborne poisons. All the air pollutants are densest in the 17 mile radius round the incinerator and locally that also includes reservoirs that we drink from.

Infant deaths, ischaemic heart disease, bronchial/lung and many cancers are caused by polluted air and found in high percentages in areas close to incinerators. Locally, we inhale the toxic waste sent to be burned by Ealing, Brent, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond on Thames councils. 

Surely we know enough about poisons, disease, carbon fuels and climate change by now to know that we must stop burning? Ban the burners and lets get real about our health and the air we breathe. 

NHS privatisation in Berkshire

The future for Berkshire NHS services has never been at greater risk. 

In March 2014Adam Afriye MP and Theresa May MP both voted with the Government to allow the Health Secretary to close hospitals even when they are performing well (section 119 of the Care Bill). A closure order can now be made in order to move funds from good hospitals to others that are struggling financially. 

Between the 3rd and the 11th of April there was a very brief public consultation by the Competition and Markets Authority on the merger of Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust with Heatherwood and Wexham Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Only a week was given for us to say how the merger could affect the quality of care for NHS patients locally.

The door is now open for the ever increasing speed of privatisation of the NHS and the prioritisation of profit over quality of service. The NHS is the bedrock of our caring society and it is distressing to know that the futures of Heatherwood, Wexham Park and Saint Marks Hospitals could be decided with such little reference to the local community.

Our chances of living healthy lives are directly related to how well off we are and how far we live from health services. Less well-off people cannot afford long, expensive journeys or to take time off work to visit distant health services. There is no greater inequality than the difference between good health and poor health and shorter life spans. I urge people to speak up and defend Heatherwood hospital and other local NHS services at every opportunity. Let’s not lose our precious NHS to ‘death by a thousand cuts’.

Click through to Save Heatherwood Hospital Campaign.

DITCHING DATCHET!

In January I lost my car in the floods and the insurance payment hardly covered half of the cost of the replacement. In February, my partner’s house was flooded throughout the ground floor, the floorboards are still raised, it stinks and the dehumidifiers continue to thrum. Since then I have been disgusted by the lack of support from both David Cameron and local councils.

Cameron has refused to claim from the EU Solidarity Fund to improve UK flood defences, he prefers that the UK taxpayer picks up the tab even though the European money (at least £140 million) is ours for the taking. He is also responsible for the massive cuts to the Environment Agency flood prevention work (by a third) and he shows no sign of correcting his mistake, despite warnings of more extreme weather to come in the future.

The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead leadership have recently refused to contribute to the strengthening of flood defences along the Thames. The riverside residents near Maidenhead town were protected from flooding by the Jubilee channel but downstream, Datchet residents were badly flooded when the Jubilee released the water it could not cope with. The Jubilee was only ever intended to be one of a series of similar flood defences on the Thames and it is sickening that a council should now try to wriggle out of it’s responsibilities, leaving Datchet, Old Windsor, Runnymede and Staines to sink.

Local MPs, Mrs May and Mr Afriye have had little constructive to say on this matter; will they lobby David Cameron and the RBWM, to correct their failures and help their constituents? Unlikely, Mr Afriye is against the benefits of EU membership and Mrs May always tows the party line.

Mrs May and FGM

Finally the Crown prosecution Service has announced that it is bringing a prosecution against 2 men for Female Genital Mutilation. This is an issue that I have worked with and campaigned on for years at www.actiononfgm.com and am relieved that we have now taken this small step to stop this appalling abuse of defenceless children.

However it would be wrong to think that this prosecution is a game changer: Last July I met with Mrs May MP to discuss her role as Home Secretary in ensuring that FGM is prevented in the UK. Her response was to reiterate the advice that can be found in the UK strategy to reduce violence against women and girls. Unfortunately this approach is based on the concept of ‘abandonment;’ ie the main thrust of Government policy is simply to ask people to abandon the abuse!

While there is a important role for community development, counselling and giving health advice, we must not forget that the UN deems FGM as ‘torture,’ it is a an extremely violent crime with a lifelong health and happiness impact and is punishable by up to 14 years in prison. I would say that simply asking people to stop it is not good enough.

There is a need for a proactive response from the Government, particularly the Home Office, to provide funds to bring Police, CPS, Health, Social Services, Education and Charities together to collect the data and evidence. Also to ensure that girls who show signs of being victims or being at risk can be physically examined. Far better to have a sensitive examination by a caring nurse than being attacked with a knife and permanently damaged.

Please go to my website at www.actiononfgm.com and follow the link to my Parliamentary e-petition to demand that MPs debate this proposal. Thank you

Has Adam Afriye done a deal with Nigel Farage?

The Telegraph has reported that Nigel Farage is considering NOT putting up Parliamentary Candidates in constituencies like Windsor, because of the anti-European stance of certain Tory candidates!

Has a back room deal been done? We know that Mr Afriye is not a team player, as shown by the way he handled his fantasy leadership challenge in the Autumn. However, his lack of popularity in the Tory Party may well have pushed him into the arms of UKIP. 

A self made man, Mr Afriye may be, but he still needs people to vote for him in the General Election if he wants to remain an MP. His appallingly handled leadership challenge has upset many people who voted for him last time. There is also a growing disquiet that he hardly ever shows up to community events in Windsor and only then when he is campaigning; similarly he is a stranger in the House of Commons: His apparent failure to consult with or represent his constituency has become so noticeable that many people refer to him as 'Absent Adam.'

Perhaps he will be hoping that UKIP supporters will vote for him in 2015 or will the much ignored Windsor residents stand up for their rights and vote for a change?

 Telegraph Link.

37p or 30 pieces of silver? (The cutting of services in RBWM)

The rush of a hard line Council leadership, in leafy Berkshire, to reduce staff pay, delete jobs or place them in the increasingly unregulated private sector, is reaching fever pitch.

Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead staff have been told that there will be no wage increases for all but some of the lowest paid. Many people, who are already earning much less than the National average, wil get absolutely nothing. The reality of this is that in real terms, wages will drop and the living standards of the people who work and provide essential services for us, local residents, will also continue to drop.

All this, so the average Council Tax (band D) payment can go down by 37p per week. None of us like paying tax but I doubt if these ‘real terms’ pay cuts are the best way to provide essential services like home care for the elderly. Many of us would prefer to pay the 37p and have good services, provided by quality staff.

2 weeks ago RBWM staff found out about 31 more council job deletions by chancing upon a lengthy press release on the council’s website! Clearly the Council Leadership’s strong points are not communications, good manners nor team building. The staff should have been the first to know. Far from improving public services, these cuts will place an additional burden on existing hard working staff, who are already trying to absorb extra workloads resulting from previous cuts. There comes a point when cuts actually mean reduced or inferior services. Is that what local residents really want? No, we don’t!

Lastly, local businesses will also continue to suffer as the 1500 RBWM employees tighten their belts even further. Lower wages for such a large group of local residents will  mean that there is less money to spend in local shops and businesses, destroying the local economy still further.