The only clear thing among all the chaos and confusion, is that this country has probably never been more divided – politically and socially - and in my view, more in peril than at any other time in living memory. The party system seems to have totally fractured. Not only has the Conservative parliamentary party become bitterly broken, the Labour party is also at war. Last Friday morning I felt shellshocked and upset that we had left an institution I believed worked for the greater good, despite its many faults. Since then I have watched fascinated as the subsequent dramatic [...]
At Monday’s health and wellbeing scrutiny committee, the Success Regime, led by former RD&E chief executive, Angela Pedder, outlined its progress so far and I asked about proposals to publicly consult. If nothing changes, we were told that the NHS in Devon will be a whopping £398m in the red by 2020/21. The paper submitted with the committee agenda states: “Some services such as stroke, paediatrics, maternity are not clinically or financially sustainable in the long term without changes to the way they are delivered across the system. Other services that will be targeted [...]
Fortunately, I now have a full internet connection and below is my reaction. Mr Swire seems angry that around 250 people came along to my demonstration at Ottery Hospital last month and didn’t believe his claims that the Secretary of State’s for Health’s new private company - NHS Property Services is entirely well meaning and benign. Residents present were sceptical of his assertions that the company is only acquiring community hospitals (currently owned by local NHS organisations) and charging high market rents, in order to help maintain the buildings. I held the [...]
Kenton Rogers, who co-founded social enterprise, Treeconomics, will also present to an all parliamentary group on the importance of urban trees and demonstrate the benefits that such trees provide. Using specialist computer software that his Exeter based company pioneered in the UK, Kenton has already been commissioned by several government departments to assess and report on the effectiveness of city trees in Edinburgh, Swansea and London. Kenton’s team (which is based at Exeter University) also worked with Torbay Council running the company’s first pilot project in 2011. It found [...]