Imprisonment of Palistinian children in 'ISRAEL' - usually and allegedly for throwing stones - not Hellfire missiles

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Category: Palestine/Israel

 Mr Mel Stride MP for Central Devon and Assistant Whip Conservative Party

Dear Mr Stride,

Thank you.  I was aware of the convention, no more than convention, that ministers did not sign EDMs.  I was not aware that party whips are government ministers.  They surely act for party and not government.  And opposition whips?  Anyway, it is about time 'whipping' was abolished in this new millennium and with the UK pretending to be a democracy.

I leave that aside.  There are several hundred Conservative MPs who are not ministers.  Mr Bottomley is the only one who has signed Mr McDonnell's motion.  I ask that you circulate his EDM, preferably with my words, to your many good friends in the party who are not bound by this convention.

As I write, and as you read, there are children in cruel jails in 'Israel' who are frightened, broken and deeply depressed.  The Hares boys have been in for two years - half your time in government.  No Commons tea room for them but often disgusting food.  As they emerge, eventually, into the light of day, from concrete cells and corridors they will be as caged animals, starting at every sound and sudden image.

My disgust I feel for our governments is huge.  Please do something that is moral and principled against a regime which acts with deep cruelty and outside law.  Get the damned Israelis to lay off.

Comments on local 38 degrees blog

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Category: NHS

Car Bill BoardTTIP is a great threat but less than the corruption in our UK. Whilst people battle against TTIP, they ignore, perhaps, vicious EU competition rules.  These are central in driving 'privatisation' within OUR NHS and in our other public services. The concordat that Milburn made with Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute in 2000 was also a big factor.

The task is to get as many fellow citizens thinking, and then fighting for OUR NHS. Consider bill boards on your car if you have one. Ours are outside ready for a trip into town - made for last Saturday.

If you care for OUR NHS you will have to fight for it. The politicians have it by the throat.

Find a candidate who is independent of party, who has done a job, has principle and vision, and who will fight for our NHS among other things that are vital to us.

Roof racks and do-it-yourself skills are the only requirement. I am investigating printed posters so waterproofing will not be necessary.

OUR NHS: Are you Confused - Stop using OUR NHS as a political football

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Category: NHS

I have been pleading that the NHS should not be used as a political football for about 20 years.

The plan I urged was this -

The NHS would be kept away from the government of the day. Instead it would be led by a scrupulously chosen National Executive peopled by experts in all relevant fields and with evident wisdom in health and other fields.  They would be responsible in all respects.

It would report to parliament every six months via the Health Select Committee. That report would include progress, unmet needs, future plans etc

Paper with sketches for Dr Ben Titford, member of SD&TCCG

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Category: NHS

What are the purposes and functions of Community Hospital beds?

Dr Ben Titford presented a paper on this subject-

Proposals for the future of community health and social care services Update briefing – September 2014 Moor to Sea Locality


Ashburton and Buckfastleigh
“Engagement in the town will start later in September. It is the view of the locality GP lead, Dr Ben Titford, and of other GPs in both towns, that this rural area with poor transport links needs bed-based care for patients. This would be at the existing community hospital in Ashburton.”

1. Beds for those who are very unwell, requiring complex and increasingly specialist medical care, outside the acute hospitals – possibly fewer

2. Beds for those who no longer need to be in the acute hospital, but need to recuperate before they are well enough to go home – possibly more

3. Beds for those who are not so seriously ill they need to be in the acute hospital, but who are nevertheless too unwell to be at home, especially if they would be alone – possibly more

A bill put by Clive Efford MP

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Category: NHS

Mr Mel Stride  MP for Central Devon   

re http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/2014-2015/0018/15018.pdf

Dear Mel,

You are probably aware that the NHS is in crisis.  I am not being alarmist.  I worked within it as a doctor and surgeon for 40 years. I loved my work but I did not enjoy the bumf.  Most of this came out of political diktats - from all colours.

I have kept a close interest in OUR NHS since early retirement which came out of sickness.  On top of doing a very busy and demanding job in orthopaedics and trauma, I was fighting alone in Torbay against Mrs Thatcher's internal market and for the life of our excellent single specialism Princess Orthopaedic Hospital in Exeter, the latter with good colleagues.  Both battles were lost.  The internal market doubled the cost of administration from 5% to c. 10% as I had predicted.  The number of desks doubled and with them long and ridiculous titles like 'Patient Services Administrator'.  I had to phone him often to have the detritus removed from the corridor to my fracture clinic.  All this was not what the public might have expected from a Tory reform.  Very few people know that £1.3 billion was added to a £30 billion budget as a result of Mrs T's monetarist dogma.  But I do tell them in newspaper pieces, public meetings and on Youtube x2.