A new direction for Bury South

It is not often I laugh when I get a letter from HM Revenue and Customs but today’s grovelling letter of apology from Dave Harnett, Acting Chairman, did bring more than a smile to my face.  As one of the 25m people whose data they have lost I have today received a letter (how much did that cost to send out one must ask) anyway the third and fourth sentences make the best reading as follows ‘The data is likely still to be on Government property and the police are now conducting a search.  There is no evidence that it is in possession of anyone else’.  How comforting!  The letter ends ‘I can assure you that all efforts are being made to ensure that such a loss can never happen again’.   Let’s see shall we?

The Prime Minister is asking us to believe that he did not know the identity of the third biggest donor to his party.   This is frankly incredible but I am not really surprised as it also happened at a local level in our very own Bury Council where the then Labour Leader and one of his Exective members knew little about what was happening under their control.  This begs the question once again who was actually running the Council until May this year?

 

I today attended the official launch of the White Ribbon Campaign in Bury.  The White Ribbon Campaign UK is the UK branch of the global campaign to ensure men take responsibility for reducing the level of violence against women.  

     Today’s event was organised by Jaria Hussain of Bury MBC who has worked hard to ensure a full week of activities to raise awareness of this throughout Bury.  A 150 white balloons were also launched outside the Town Hall this lunch time.

The story of the lost disks containing information on all recipients of child benefit in the country becomes more incredulous by the day.  Millions of people are worried, myself included, that their personal banking details and information about their children is somewhere out there and no-one knows where.  Millions of people are calling their banks to change their accounts or pin numbers or security details and who knows when and if the information will be found and used.  I for one will be checking my bank statements very carefully.

In typical Labour fashion of ‘throwing money at a problem’ whilst resolving nothing the British taxpayer is just waking up to the realisation that this Government and their new Chancellor has advanced about £24 billion of their money to save the Northern Rock.  Listening to a radio telephone debate on this this morning the general concensus of opinion, along with my own, was not at all favourable with this – perhaps the Chancellor may be looking for another job sooner than he thinks!
 

Last night I attended an event organised by Jackie Harris, our candidate in Radcliffe North for the forthcoming elections, which was held at Bury Masonic Hall.  It was a fantastic evening and everyone ate and danced the night away.  Our going home present was a copy of today’s Sunday Express Newspaper which reminded me of my younger days when I used to buy the Sunday papers on my way home after a night out with friends – oh those were the days!  Just listening to the rain outside why do I decide to choose the wettest Sunday in ages to go leafletting!?

Yesterday I attended the Conservative Women’s Organisation’s Annual Conference where a whole range of topics were discussed ranging from issues in Africa to Women as Peacemakers and an interview with Sir Christopher Meyer MEP Chaired by Iain Dale.  The keynote speach of the day was made by David Cameron who used this opportunity to highlight the need for rape laws to be tightened, improved victim support, and a cultural change in attitudes towards women and sexual violence.  An audience of 700 attendees welcomed his proposals. 

This morning I attended the annual Prestwich Remembrance Day Service this year held at the newly built Heaton Park Congregational Church together with Councillors from all political parties and representatives from all organisations throughout Bury including the very important youth groups such as the Guides, Scouts and Brownies.  We then marched along to the cenotaph in Prestwich where I was honoured to lay a wreath on behalf of Bury South Conservatives.  During the walk back with the parade to the British Legion in Prestwich I walked alongside a war veteran Ralph Black who was telling me about his time in the army from 1939 – 1946 – it is only by talking to people such as Ralph that you can truly understand what it was like to live and fight for your country.  I was also delighted to be introduced to a soldier who had recently returned from Iraq and who has returned to Prestwich and now works for a local law company.  We must never forget not only the two great wars but all our servicemen who have fought and continue to fight for this country.  We will remember them. 

I have been invited to lead a 10 day tour around Israel in June next year which will be shortly after the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel.  Last night an information evening was held advising would be participants of the content of the tour and a very interesting video was shown from the 40th anniversary celebrations.  Tourism is a vital part of the Israeli economy and with the new direct flight from Manchester to Tel Aviv introduced last week should help to boost this.

Oh well today I will go into work and usual and then attend my usual round of meetings afterwards but instead I could have been out and about on the streets of Bury as today there should have been a General Election – probably the most talked about election that there has never been.  Yes, Gordon Brown bottled it and why – because he claims he wanted at least 18 months to show that his policies work.  Now what are those we wonder – oh yes in a nutshell more stealth taxes I think.  This week the Government slipped into its Climate Change Bill that it plans to go ahead with a tax on bins – an American style barcode system will be installed on every bin which is to be trialled in 27 Local Authorities.   This tax will only lead to a surge in fly tipping and back yard burning something which is on the increase in Bury South already.  Perhaps Gordon Brown should start with teaching one or two of his own Party members a thing or two about environmental issues such as not to throw cigarette stubs out of your car window albeit in the Town Hall car park!