Ageism

Patronising beyond belief: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13247915

Surely the purpose should be to encourage everyone, irrespective of age, to access the woods.  Rather than treat the over-50s, or any other age group, as 'special' the focus should be on building stronger inter-generational links rather than 'shipping granny off to the woods' to, presumably, not meet Little Red Riding Hood.

Public Sector Non-Jobs

Reading Graham Smith's blog on the BBC web site is an increasingly sad affair with every indication that he has lost the ability to research news and is reduced to relaying the tittle tattle emanating from those in County Hall who, instead of concerning themselves with advancing improvements for who live in Cornwall, are more concerned in political point scoring.  Jeremy Paxman he ain't.

Priorities

So we are at war, in effect, with the Libyan government and have thousands of troops on the ground in Afghanistan.  The economic position is dire (thanks to the last Labour Government) and we are all having to adjust to the changes required.  So what is Nick Clegg concentrating on?  You would never guess that it is constitutional matters about succession to the throne.  A straightforward subject, clearly needed to deliver equality, however something which should just 'happen' and not be the subject of major news bulletins.

Whilst many local Lib Dems find Nick to be a great embarrassment - looking forward to local election melt-down and AV referendum failure - however surely he can, at least, pretend to be taking more interest in those issues which face so many of us.

Truro Shops

Sue reports that today's trip to Truro was noticeable for the fact that shop assistants were speaking to customers.  A sure sign that the retail trade is suffering and that the 'make sales or else' message has been issued by owners to their teams.

The roads have been quiet for some time - Brent oil is now US$118 - so petrol and diesel prices are going to rise despite the price reduction and price stabilisation introduced in the recent Budget.

All in all it's going to be a difficult year for businesses and individuals, I fear.  The price we are all paying for the inability of the last Government to manage the Nation's finances.

Perranwell Station: Stopping Trains

Given the articles in this month's Perran News, I felt the debate would be assisted by the following comments which were included in my report to the March meeting of Perranarworthal Parish Council:

"The question of seeking to automatically stop all, current request, trains has been considered before.  There are two reasons for it not occurring and hope for change in the future.  The negatives are: the tightness of the timetable and, less importantly, the cost in time and money of stopping/starting a train.  As a guide the annual cost to stop/start a mainline diesel train at one station every day for a year is £5,000 (cost of braking and fuel to accelerate) – it is accepted that the cost on the Maritime Line is less (more precise figure is not available as First Great Western (FGW) representative was not at the recent Cornwall Rail Forum meeting).  The Maritime Line timetabling is currently having a negative impact on mainline punctuality with increased stops at Perranwell Station only likely to worsen the mainline punctuality.

The positive message is that if (a) we can get to a position where most ‘request stop’ trains have to stop for passengers (suggesting an increase in use), and (b) FGW obtain permanent twin carriage trains, which accelerate quickly, then the pressure to move away from ‘request stop’ might become easy.  I understand that FGW are in negotiation to obtain twin carriage trains for the Maritime Line.

Network Rail and the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership are keen on ‘friends of’ groups for individual stations provided they are about general interest/involvement with a station rather than single issue pressure groups.  Given that there are a few initial volunteers – two names are mentioned in the Maritime Line papers and I have received an offer of involvement from (name removed) - to consider forming such a group I would appreciate the Parish Council deciding whether they want to be involved or not in creating such a group.  A speaker from Cornwall Council can be arranged to come and discuss ‘friends of’ arrangements with a prospective group."

Healthy NHS

I am pleased that the Government has today taken the opportunity to "pause" the transformation of health services to allow additional time for further consultation.  The Health and Social Care Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, promises the most profound changes to the NHS since it was created.

The challenges facing the UK's health services are enormous including the rising costs of treatment, the development of new (and expensive) drugs and surgical procedures, and the demographic effect of an ageing population.  Getting my head around the proposed changes has not proved an easy task - in recent months just as I though I understood the new structure then a further organisation chart would appear which caused me to question the extent of my understanding.

Now I have to declare a personal interest; I was born in a NHS hospital and all medical tests and treatment since then have been delivered by the NHS and NHS funded GPs.

I wish the NHS well and believe that for the overwhelming majority of the population it remains the only source of their health services.  Taking time, before decisions are finalised, has to be a good step.  In the last decade I, with other Conservatives, have worked to ensure that our Party is seen as NHS-friendly and lost its 'nasty' tag which we acquired the last time we were in government.  Reforms are necessary, including reducing the administrative costs, if the NHS is to remain fit for purpose in the coming decades.

As part of the "pause" I expect that the Government, and particularly the Conservative Cabinet members, to reinforce the message that "the NHS is safe with us".

 

Fair Share for Cornwall

Back in July 2010 Cornwall Council passed a motion regarding seeking an end to the end of underfunding for Cornwall.  The issue was taken up with the Coalition Government and the six Cornish MPs; we await the outcome of their deliberations which should be reflected in a re-distribution of funding starting in financial year 2013/14 when the current arrangements are to be replaced.  With a correction to England's funding allocation, we can then expect a suitable increase in our distribution to reflect our population dynamics which, in financial requirements, place us in need of funding over and above that implied by a simple pro-rata allocation.

The available evidence from England's funding (allowing for the current funding advantages enjoyed by Scotland by virtue of the Barnett formula devised in the 1970's) when taken in context with, for examples, the funding for Cornwall's schools and NHS strongly points towards a existing substantial disadvantage for Cornwall.  The Barnett formula sets out that out of every £1 of Government funding, 85p goes to England, 10p to Scotland and 5p to Wales. 

According to the Office for National Statistics (source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=6)  the UK population in mid-2009 was 61.8 million.  The Scottish population is 5.2 million (source: http://www.scotland.org/facts/population/) and Northern Ireland's population is 1.8 million (source: http://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/default.asp10.htm).  The population of Wales is 3.0 million (source: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/headlines/population2010/101027/?lang=en).

So based on the above the actual and correct distributions of spending should be:

		Population	Percentage of Population	Barnett formula	Correct formula
	England	51.8m	86.3%	85p	86.3p
	Scotland	5.2m	8.7%	10.0p	8.7p
	Wales	3.0m	5.0%	5.0p	5.0p
	Total	60.0m	100.0%	100p	100p

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