Campaign Diary - Day Five

Well today turned out to be as hectic as I predicted yesterday! we started the day bright and early in the Bowthorpe Main Centre, handing out leaflets and holding an "NHS surgery" (of the political sort) to see what people's views on health are. We got a gerat response, and it is interesting that the vast majority of people have a better personal experience of the NHS than they percieve as the national picture. There was a lot of talk about Tory plans to make cancer drugs more widely available. In addition the other thing that came across strongly was that people felt there was a lot of waste in the NHS that could be redirected back into frontline services.

From Bowthorpe to the doorsteps of Eaton Village where the talk moved from health to the political system. The Tory posters here clearly outnumbering all other parties it was a good reception. We met quite a lot of LibDem voters who want change and Gordon Brown out of Downing Street so are voting Conservative this time. Many people said they would be concerned by a hung pariament and that Clegg would prop up Labour (with good reasoning- the LibDems have done little else but back Labour against the Conservatives this week, to little avail).

From Eaton we went to the Anglia Square shopping centre for the seocnd half of the NHyeS day of action. We met a team working on Chloe Smith's campaign and also by South Norfolk's Tory Leader John Fuller. It was very much little good old fashioned soap-box politics (JM would be proud). Plenty of debate, some genuine disagreement and people really wanting to engage. The eprson who sticks in my mind was a young Mum who said she was furious with Labour for their scare stories about Tory policies on Sure Start. Parties shouldn't ever do this to people.

And then, finally, over to Town Close and another batch of deliveries. The shoe leather took a pounding but it was worth it to get the last of the leaflets out here. And tonight another mamouth session of replying to constituents letters and emails - am enjoying every minute.

And tomorrow - well, tomorrow belongs to my three lovely young ladies!

The Launch

Today's launch with Andrew Lansley was excellent and I will write about it more later, but I thought I would keep a rolling log of coverage and comment:

Norwich Evening News report here

And the EDP version here.

Don't mention the Q-word (unless it's quality...)

Don't take this as sign of bad parenting or anything, but Emily had a slight accident on the stairs and we had to take her to A&E at the Norwich & Norfolk. She couldn't walk properly (or at times at all) and has a problem with her ankle. Nothing a few days of ice, sitting around watching TV and all of the Dinsey Princess DVDs can't sort out.

However I would like to comment on our trip to A&E - sometimes the most bemoaned of all the NHS services. Now I know it was lunchtime on Bank Holiday Monday but the waiting room was quite full. We were seen within minutes by a triage nurse who was both very caring with Emily (who was in a lot of discomfort) but also treated Louise and I like humans even though we didn't understand the medial terminology. Emily had to go for an X-ray and was seen straight away. The process was fast and efficient - the staff so friendly and they really took the time to explain things to you properly. We were in and out within an hour and my daughter - who was born at the N&N - was in the best possible hands the whole way through. The service from the reception staff onwards was excellent. When parties run campaigns - from NHSYes to #welovethenhs this is exactly the type of feeling they wish to tap into.

So we come to the blog post title ... when we were waiting in A&E I thought I had whispered to Louise, "It's quiet here today", but the staff nurse overheard and told me off for using the Q-word lest a hoard of people suddenly descend upon A&E!!

The only Q word I'd use for our experience today is quality - well done NHS.

Labour plans £4bn worth of NHS cuts

The small print of the budget shows a £4bn reduction in the NHS budget.

Why is it that if this were a Conservative budget, the media, Unions and the Labour Party would call them "CUTS". There would be protests, direct action, campaigning & scare stories of vulnerable people dying.

But it's OK, because this is a Labour budget, so they are only "efficiency savings".

Phew.

Back The Evening News "End The Indignity" Campaign

Today the Evening News has launched its "End the Indignity" campaign. The cases of our some of our most vulnerable people being given medical treatment in what amounts to little better than a cupboard has shocked a large number of people. The management of the N&N need to suspend this practice immediately and have a full review determining how this came about. They dignity of these patients is worth more than the bureuacracy of the NHS.

The Evening News is showing why we need a strong, vibrant, independent press who can rally local people behind important cases such as this. They deserve all our support.

You can read more about the campaign here.

Mystery Solved!

Remember this story (click here) about me recieving what was pretty much a letter of abuse about a Tory leaflet which featured the NHS? Well, mystery solved because the original writter has responded with evidence of the leaflet enclosed - trouble is, the offending leaflet wasn't (as I suspected) a rouge Tory effort but the latest LibDem leaflet.

Glad we got that cleared up!

Anyone delivering Tory leaflets without telling me?

I recieved a letter today from a constituent saying that she had read our leaflet and wanted to disagree with our policy on the NHS.

Trouble is, we haven't put out a leaflet about the NHS ... which is a bit odd.

A Big Day for my Little Girl

Today Emily goes into hospital to have her tonsils out; it'll involve an overnight stay and a general anaesthetic. She is being a big brave girl, unlike her parents both of whom couldn't sleep and are nervous as hell. For Emily this is a sleepover in a hospital; for Mum & Dad its torture. Why did nobody warn us about this before we became parents?

UPDATE: After a traumatic day all is well and Emily recovering nicely in the N&N. More in the morning.

Possibly the most rude, pointless and patronising political interview ever

If you feel the need to cringe this morning I suggest that you read this interview with Dr Sarah Woolaston, the Tory candidate chosen by Open Primary in Totnes, organised by The Independent newspaper. Clearly its name has got nothing to do with the political outlook of the paper and I feel very ashamed having previously credited the paper with being a decent read after seeing this. I don't know if it tell us more about the people who email questions in (possibly the odd Labour stooge there somewhere) or the Independent team for publishing them.

Look at the questions; are these really the best they recieved? Some show little or no attempt at balance or even trying to get an important or interesting answer. Of course not all of the questions were awful - Norua Jamenez rightly asks about the experience of the Open Primary, Stephen Casey asks about the political philosophy behind Dr Woolaston's 3 year membership of the party and Craig Sotherton, Anil Joshi and Niall Simpson all asked valid questions on the NHS.

But there were others...

Jeff Gilchrist asked Dr Woolaston to justify the way the Conservative Parliamentary Party voted in the 1945 parliament; what on earth is he going on about? Do we ask the LibDems about David Lloyd-George or ask Gordon Brown to jusift the actions of Ramsay MacDonald? I am sorry Jeff but that is a very bizarre question - and unbelievably the Independent chose it to publish!

Frances Chaudrey asks about the role of Michael Ashcroft in funding Tory campaigns - OK I grant you its an issue within political circles but I am on doorsteps day-in-day-out year round and not a single person here in Norwich has ever raised it. It may be a big deal to Frances, I am not taking anything away from that, but does it really rate amongst the 10 biggest issues raised with The Indy?

Tim Vole offers the chance for Dr Woolaston to single out the most offensive thing that Anthony Steen has ever said; this question is offensive in itself (given its probably intent just to embarrass Dr Woolaston and/or Mr Steen) and Dr Woolaston's repsonse that most people have moved on is correct. This is negative politics at its worst; not tell what you want to change about the country but tell me what you hate the most about a man who is months from leaving office.

Verity Matthews asks about the expense claims of the "Tory squirearchy" - seemingly forgeting that the claims and possible illegal activites of our MPs covered all parties including the governing one - and the response of Dr Woolaston to remind them of LibDem candidate April Pond's moat was brilliant.

I don' t have a problem with challenging questions or the topics here, but I do question the judgement of the editorial team in choosing them for publication to a future legaislator. Are we really short of questions on crime, education, foreign affairs or the economy? I understand a GP getting a lot of questions on the NHS (including the fair one on Hannan's comments) but is this really the remit of her role? Or has the Independent just pandered to its own prejudices and allowed anti-Tory readers to have their day in the sun? This whole exercise is designed to trip up and embarrass not to probe, search and find her views. Where is the vision and the positive view of what Dr Wollaston can help to achieve in government?

Come on Independent, I was almost a regular reader - until this.

What have Labour got left to say?

The news that a ComRes poll for tomorrow's Indy shows a strong Conservative lead on the NHS, despite Labour's summer attack on the issue, shows again that the old political narrative is dead. Labour have tried to convince people that the Tories wish to privatise the NHS - let us assume for a moment that people believed this. What does the poll then tell us? This narrative, alive since 1997, has simply said that reduced spending equals less services (or fewere schools'n'hospitals, as Blair would say). Parties who want lower tax and less government spending also want to sack Nurses and Teachers. Now, it is all change.

People no longer wish taxes to continue to rise; most believe they should be lowered.

People no longer believe cutting costs means sacking frontline workers; in fact teachers, policeman and nurses would be the last thing to be cut out of the education, police and health system (believe me, there is plenty of bureaucracy to choose from first).

So if people do believe the Labour spin and still trust the Tories more with the NHS what does that say - other than another Labour line is dead. What now do Labour have left to say?

Of course the Tories don't wish to privatise the NHS. David Cameron, who of course has made a pledge to increase NHS spending despite overall cuts in government spending, now has people on side - he ought to take this chance to lay out in clear detail the reform which needs to accompany it.

Channel 4 - Cameron was right on NHS closures

Channel 4, not normally noted as any great supporter of the Conservtaive Party, has run an interesting piece in which they independently assess the threat to hospital up and down the country. Surprisngly they conclude that Cameron is justified to claim that they face closure. When the NHS Trusts denied this (as well they might) both Labour and the LibDems jumped on this to rubbish the whole of the Tory NHyeS campaign. Now Channel 4's factcheck says that even the case of the hospital in Bellingham's North West Norfolk seat is being discussed for closure, despite the local MP claiming otherwise and issuing an apology. So, it concludes, Cameron was right over the threat to the NHS.

I wonder if those who jumped on this issue for their own political ends will issue an apology? Don't hold your breath.

UEA cuts are a further blow to local healthcare

Norwich and Norfolk are not having a good time of it at the moment with regards to our healthcare. The loss of beds, wards and some whole facilities has hit hard both locally and around the county. All opposition parties are, quite rightly, up in arms at Labour's cuts to the NHS.

However, more worrying is news tonight that the UEA plans to cut lecturer numbers at the school of nurisng and midwifery because of a fall in student nurses numbers. Now, I know that staffing decisions must be left to the UEA, but the implication is that fewer people are training for the medical profession which will have a corresponding impact on healthcare in the locality.

Many UEA students stay on to live and work in the area - myself included - and no graduates are more welcome than those who work in our NHS. Yet with fewer coming through it may be that local providers have trouble getting staff in the future - maybe 5 or 10 years down the line.

UEA midwifery students delivered both of my children and they were both excellent - a credit to the university and the NHS. We need more of them, not less.

Is this part of a national decline, in which case what are the government doing about it?

Or is it part of a local decline, in which case what are UEA doing about it?

Either way, another blow to the NHS.

It's NOT manflu - am so happy!

It's twenty-five to five in the afternoon and I'm just up.

Yesterday I went to my GP who told me that was actually something wrong with me and it couldn't have made me happier. The thought that I have been miserbale and unwell for 10 days now and it turns out to be nothing would be too much to take. Hence, the fact that I do have something wrong with me, despite the obvious misery that brings, does actually make the pain and discomfort somewhat more worthwhile.

If you want to know just how bad it is, because I have been told I shouldn't talk (by the GP that is, not by the Labour Party) I didn't go to yesterday's council meeting ... the first I have ever missed. I didn't get the chance to rip Labour's budget apart and vote against their 4.7% max tax hike. Bugger. But I'm sure everyone there would have known that if I was there I would have voted against it.

I can now cuddle up with my antibiotics, series 3 of Spooks on DVD and a very large bowl of Rice Krispies to relax.