Third World Public Transport!!

Last Wednesday I had to get to the Polish Embassy in London for an 11.30 appointment with the Ambassador and Consul General to discuss my, forthcoming, appointment as Honorary Consul.

Normally I would drive to New Street and catch the train to Euston, or, if I wanted to go on to see Mike's mum in Surrey, drive to Hammersmith. As none of these were possible and the Chiltern Line service didn't fit my timings I decided to catch the 7.36 to Worcester Foregate to connect with the 8.24 to Paddington. In order to avoid a rush at the station I bought my tickets in advance and got to the ramp to the "downline" by taxi for 7.25 a.m.

I was halfway down the ramp when the cancellation of the Worcester train was announced!

Next step? Over the bridge and down to the taxi rank in the station forecourt to get a taxi to Foregate St. (a fairly reasonable £19.10)

I was early at Foregate St so managed to get a coffee and paper and got onto the First Great Western train to Paddington which, as it started at Foregate, had plenty of unreserved seats!

By the time we reached Evesham we were already running 10 minutes late and it was standing room only!

By the time we reached Moreton in Marsh the driver was announcing that we were so overcrowded that we would stop at Reading for passengers to leave the train only and we would not stop at Slough at all!!

At Oxford we were told that an additional train was being laid on so the standing passengers, by then over 100, were asked to get off and join the next train!!

We got to Paddington 30 minutes late with the driver apologising for the "totally unacceptable journey standards we had been forced to endure" (his words not mine!!)

Why on earth First had not realised that, at half term, there are MORE families wanting to travel and therefore extra carriages are needed is frankly beyond me. The return journey was little better with many passengers having to stand until we reached Charlbury.

There are times when I yearn for the good old days of British Rail.

Wrist Update!

First of all I want to point out that any "Compensation" I get from the County will be from their INSURERS NOT the COUNCIL TAXPAYERS!

The main beneficiaries seem to be Wyre Forest Taxi Drivers who are doing a superb job of turning up, often at fairly short notice, and getting me to a variety of meetings, thanks also to Cllrs Mike Price, Graham Ballinger and Rachel Akathiotis, my lovely neighbour Sue and the Lemiech family, all of whom have been, and are being, super!

The main PROBLEM now appears to be that, in deciding it didn't need pinning the Consultant may have condemned me to not getting full use back as the fracture has healed with a "step" in the joint, clearly visible on the latest x-ray!!

I will have to wait and see what happens when the plaster is removed and, if necessary, I may have to have a referral to a Consultant at The Woodlands"!

I am going to try to move the car off the drive on Wednesday (has to be moved as workmen due to repair paving), I'll see if I can!!

Cllr. Martyn Smith

Sad day! I represented Wyre Forest Liberal and Radical Association at today's funeral of Cllr Martyn Smith who had served on Sandwell MBC as a Liberal and then Lib Dem Councillor since 1980. I went with Mike Dixon of Wyre Forest Lib Dems.

The service at West Bromwich Crematorium brought together Friends in the "Liberal family" from across the OK including Colin and Joy Rosenstiel from Cambridge. There were, as one old friend put it, rather a lot of men in grey suits! We gave Martyn a good send off; it was the first time I have ever sung "The Land Song" at a funeral, a really rousing tribute!

BURMA! Your Chance to ACT!!

At the recent Liberal Party Assembly I successfully moved an Emergency Motion calling for stronger action against the Burmese regime.

This Monday, October 15, the foreign ministers of the 27 European Union states will meet in Luxembourg--and decide whether to live up to their warnings to the Burmese junta.

Three weeks ago, the EU vowed to step up sanctions on the Burmese regime if it cracked down violently on the protesters.
 
 If the EU fails to take action now, the Burmese regime will take it as a sign that international pressure is mere talk, and won't hesitate to commit further atrocities.

Burma isn't a democracy, but EU countries should be.
 
Please can we urge readers to  send a flood of messages to our own foreign ministers today to urge each of them to vote for stronger sanctions and targeted incentives to push the regime into dialogue-- without hurting ordinary Burmese people.
 
Readers can use an internet link at:
www.avaaz.org
 
The isolation of Burma should not allow us to turn a blind eye to the atrocities and suppression of democracy and human rights there

There are times when the NHS really winds me up!

Back to the Worcester Hospital trauma clinic for an 11.10 appointment on Tuesday where I was promised the consultant would assess my case. Oh Yes?

I got there in time, was kept waiting till 12.20 and was then shown into "the presence"!

The consultant told me his name, commented that the nurse who had put the temporary cast on my arm had not done a very good job, declined the offer of the sister who was there to remove the cast so he could examine my arm, did NOT bother to examine me, looked at the x rays, told me he "wasn't sure if it was ok!", told me to get it plastered and come back on Friday when HE will decide if HE will operate or not!

I am NOT impressed! On Friday HE may well decide whether or not it needs an operation, I will decide who DOES that operation and where it will be done!

At the moment I am inclined to have it done at The Priory by a consultant from The Woodlands, at least if I use my private health insurance the consultant will have the good manners to look at me when he speaks to me!

I still don't understand why a relatively simple injury needs quite so many hospital visits to even assess it! The NHS is getting more and more money every year, how much is wasted?

Watch how you go!

The car park in the King Charles Lower School (former Comberton Middle School) has kerb edgings around it. It is very poorly lit. For this reason the former Comberton First School placed sensor operated security lights on the edge of their dining room.

Last night the one which should light the crucial area at the edge of the car park failed to come on.

Net result? I have a fractured right wrist caused by putting my hand out to save myself when I tripped over the kerb edging! Well there's always a first time!

Over the years I have fallen: out of trees, through a shed roof' off a ladder, downstairs, out of the front door and off horses! I have NEVER previously broken any bones!!

Last night Mike Price took me to Worcester Hospital A and E where they x rayed it and put it into a temporary cast. Today I have to go back to Worcester to the fracture clinic! It is this sort of job which should be done at Kidderminster!

I am too busy to be laid up!

122nd Liberal Party Assembly

Regardless of the prime Minister's decision to postpone the expected election, Liberal Party members are confident to take up the challenge whenever it comes
 
At its 122nd Liberal Party Assembly the Party adopted radical and distinct policies including:
 
Abolishing the current inheritance tax system and the numerous exemptions
 
Replace it with a tax based on taxing the recipients at a marginal rate of 10%, not 40%
 
Giving all  young British citizens  a capital grant of £10,000 at 25. 
 Where young people from age 18 are able to show use of the money for educational courses, vocational training, start up of businesses or home purchase the grant to be paid earlier.
 This exciting policy of universal inheritance will help young people to break out of the poverty trap and encourage enterprise
 
Liberals also proposed integrating income tax and national insurance into one system ,with tax only starting from a threshold of £10,000. Millions of low paid would be immediately taken out of a repressive tax system. At the same time the excessive bureaucracy of numerous overlapping benefits would be cut back and simplified
 
Liberals are determined to restore the work ethic and cut the dependency culture in society
 
Debating the new EU treaty Liberals are demanding the British people have the right to vote on this new Euro Super State and want to reverse the centralising powers of the EU
 
Whenever the election comes ,we wish to turn the country round, close the inequality in wealth gap and engineer a tax and benefits  system that encourages work , savings and enterprise
 

So no Election until..........2009?

So Gordon Brown has "bottled it" and, having fired the starting pistol for an Autumn Election he has now fired again and signalled a false start with, reading his statement, a suggestion of no election, unless anything untoward happens, before 2009!

Personally some of us would have liked to get it out of the way, and kept Parliamentary Elections separate from Local Government Elections but at least, this time, we wont have to canvass in November!

What has happened to Tav and the "Wyre Forest Agenda"?

Does anyone out there know what has happened to Tavis Pitt and the popular "Wyre Forest Agenda" blog?

Although at times it irritated local councillors; many of us welcomed the opportunity it gave for non-party debate. I've tried "e"mailing Tav but got no reply. Hope everything is ok with him and that he will soon be back blogging!

And exactly WHAT was exclusive about the Shuttle "Exclusive"?

The front page of this week's Kidderminster Shuttle claims to have an "exclusive" interview with Dr Taylor and his announcement that he is seeking re-election! Not much of an exclusive guys! This story was on the tv Sunday Politics Show during the Lib Dem Assembly.

What IS a matter of concern is that it looks as though, once again "The Shuttle" is setting itself up as a Election Campaigning arm of Health Concern! The paper has, for too long, printed semi-hysterical hospital non-stories in the edition before every election and sought to distort the local political scene.

The public of Wyre Forest deserve independent journalism which is objective NOT a newspaper which is totally in the pocket of a very small, unrepresentative Political Party. If we have objective reporting, with a fair whack for ALL local candidates then we can be sure of a fair election result; if the local paper peddles one candidate to the detriment of others then that is a totally UNFAIR Electoral practice.