WILL YOU STAND UP FOR CHILDREN?
COMMUNITY PUBS NEED OUR SUPPORT
I’ve been contacted by local members of the Campaign for real Ale, CAMRA, asking me to show my support for real ale, real pubs and and consumer rights. I’m very happy to do so.
On behalf of Britain’s 15 million pub goers, I support CAMRA’s campaigning to:
1) Promote the interests of Britain’s pub goers
2) Champion well-run community pubs
3) Rebalance alcohol taxation to support beer and pubs
4) Reform the beer tie to deliver a fair deal for consumers
5) Support the role of well-run pubs as solutions to alcohol misuse
Its always been my experience that a pub where the publican takes the trouble to serve well kept real ales, will be a well run pub in all other respects. Generally where the beer is good, the food, cleanliness and behaviour of customers is good too. We are very fortunate in Shrewsbury to have a good number of quality real ale pubs in our town. This is not a matter of luck, it has taken a lot of hard work by dedicated landlords and CAMRA members. Shrewsbury has 12 pubs listed in the 2010 CAMRA Good Beer Guide, Hereford only has 2.
A well run community pub has so much to offer residents, especially those pubs which serve the excellent local brews now being produced in Shropshire. Such pubs provide a responsible controlled environment for the consumption of alcoholic drinks and deserve our support. We have all seen the dire consequences of irresponsible supermarket retailing of cut price, low quality booze, which often gets into the hands of minors.
Therefore I will be signing up to support CAMRA’s Beer Drinkers and Pub Goers Charter. I would urge those who care about our local community pubs to visit the CAMRA website at www.camra.org.uk and pledge their support.
Dr West Needs To Stop Attacking Our NHS
I was very disappointed to read Lib Dem candidate Dr Charles West’s latest outburst, this time about the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. I would have thought after other local Doctors challenged his misleading comments about the new Walk-In Centre at Monkmoor Road, he would have learned to take a wider view on the difficult subject of NHS funding. Apparently not.
Now his latest Lib Dem focus leaflet screams in banner headlines that Shrewsbury’s health services are in crisis. The RSH is full to bursting point, the boss has resigned and according to Dr West, we are at risk if we burst an artery at the wrong time. Strangely, he never has anything good to say about local NHS services, or the dedicated staff, many who have been his colleagues, who work so hard to run our NHS.
Of course I’m not saying we shouldn’t scrutinise our local NHS performance, or debate allocation of resources and service provision. But in my opinion we are never going to find the best solutions unless we adopt a more balanced approach to the subject. NHS funding has never been an easy topic. Finite resources have to be balanced against an ageing population and continuing, and often expensive, new medical advances.
But scaremongering and making misleading claims should have no place in this debate. The RSH is currently dealing with patients requiring treatment as a result of the coldest winter for thirty years with much snow and ice. No wonder the RSH is currently busy. What are the RSH supposed to do, put patients with broken limbs to the back of the queue?
I would have expected someone who spent such a long career working for the NHS to be able to take a more balanced view. After all Charles West was a manager in the NHS himself. He should also recognise the improvements Labour has brought to the RSH. The new day surgery treatment centre for instance, which is now carrying out operations such as cataracts, even on Saturdays.
I’m afraid Dr West’s comments on our local NHS are taking an unfortunate tone. I can’t recall him publishing leaflets in the past attacking the NHS in such a partial and unbalanced way. But since he became the Lib Dem candidate this is the regular message he gives out. Is this really concern for local patients, or just naked political opportunism?
MP’s CONFUSED VIEW ON EUROPE
Shrewsbury’s Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski seems to be getting increasing confused about Europe. In the Shropshire Star of 5 March he is reported as saying the region’s Euro MPs are out of touch and very detached from Shropshire people. I hardly think his own Tory MEPs Phillip Bradbourn and Malcolm Harbour will be pleased to hear that.
The letters page of the same edition of the Star continues in the same vein. Local resident Ian Minshall reports that at the public meeting in Hanwood Village Hall organised by Daniel Kawczynski, he asked about the UK’s continued membership of the EU. The amazing reply from our MP was that if he received as few as 500 letters from constituents seeking UK withdrawal from the EU, he would campaign to his Party leader, David Cameron, to make the UK leaving the EU official Conservative policy!
Assuming the letter records the meeting accurately, this is a bombshell. Conservative policy is unequivocal that Britain should remain a full member of the EU. Yet upon receipt of letters from less than 1% of his electorate, he will attempt to reverse the whole Tory position on Europe and re-ignite all the divisions that wrecked the party in the past. And don’t believe 500 letters will take long to arrive. On the very same letters page was yet another contribution from Oswestry’s strongest critic of all things European, Bob Wydell. In his letter he mentions that he has written between 1300 to 1400 letters to the press, before once again fretting about the mass immigration he feels has swamped Oswestry. It will not take Bob’s friends long to fill Daniel’s postbag to the required level.
For me, Daniel Kawczynski’s position on Europe has always been full of contradictions. In debates in Parliament he frequently adopts a very critical tone to the EU, describing himself as an “Arch-Eurosceptic” regularly. Yet the rest of Europe does not share his views, countries keep joining and more are in the queue to join the 27 members of the current EU. This included Poland, when 0ver 38 million Poles joined the EU in 2004. It is strange how insular and anti-European his views are, when one considers Daniel Kawczynski was born in Warsaw and lived in Poland until he was 11 years old.
ARRIVA TRAINS-MUCH WORK NEEDED
Like most Shrewsbury residents I was pleased with the decision of the Rail Regulator to turn down the Arriva Trains Wales application to run direct Aberystwyth to London trains. We in Shrewsbury have a great railway history, with many families involved in the industry. Shrewsbury people know their railway and could see this proposal for what it was, an attempt by a company subsidised by taxpayers to kill off the competition from the excellent Wrexham & Shropshire service to Marylebone.
Speaking to local railway people, I was shocked to find out just what a poor quality service Arriva were proposing. Wrexham & Shropshire run a locomotive hauled train of carriages, just refurbished to a very high standard, which is fit for purpose for a such long journey. The catering, with a proper buffet car, is a particular highlight, along with the customer service, which is rated the best in the country. Their new Class 67 locos have a top speed of 125 mph, thus giving the opportunity to speed up schedules as line speeds rise.
Arriva however, were proposing to run one 2 car Class 158 diesel multiple unit to Birmingham, where they would couple up to another pair for the run to London. Quite apart from the lack of space I remember these units were built and introduced some 20 years ago. They have reliability problems, as many local passengers know to their cost from regular cancellations. The top speed is 90mph. The best catering you would get is a trolley service. Whilst the people of Mid Wales might be disappointed, the fact is the Regulator has, for now, saved them from a very uncomfortable 5 hours on this inferior proposed service.
I shall be writing to Arriva Trains Wales to request that they reflect on this decision. Instead of trying to force Wrexham & Shropshire off the local rails, in my view Arriva should focus on their current local services, which often fall well short of the standards Shrewsbury passengers expect. Arriva need to tackle the chronic overcrowding on the Birmingham line. They must improve reliability, to stop the infuriating practice of turning late trains round short of their destination. Arriva should be concentrating putting their own house in order, instead of dreaming up clumsy attempts to wreck a competitor’s high quality service.
