PaulRogan

Are we in England a part of it or just paying for it?

The PM has this week mentioned Britain scores of times. He has not mentioned a Parliament for England, rightly ours to expect now that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own legislatures.

The Union has been dismantled by Tony Blair and all the other Home Countries have a Parliment, except for us!

PM Brown also did not mention much about the promised and much hoped for public referendum on our association with the EU. Treaty or Constitution, jargon which describes much the same thing. England, a great and once proud nation disolved except for the address where the bills are sent to pay for it all!

Some more interesting details, if you have broadband, please click on and see the Youtube broadcast.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0LEKTD8ECiI

_ (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0LEKTD8ECiI)

As far as I can see there as many health professionals in favour of fluoridation as there are individuals hotly against.

The issue has been debated and mentioned in Calderdale Council chamber more than once. The Halifax Courier carries many reader's letters on the subject. From all of this some facts emerge.

We do not have fluoride presently in Calderdale's water supply. Most dentists think we should have it. Our teeth, especially our children's are worse than average. There are strong individual concerns about having it. The University of Manchester sponsored website, http://www.fluorideinformation.com/ is essential reading for all.

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. 
Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.

Both subsequently died in the ambulance and their Regional Primary Care Trust set up an enquiry, chaired by Simple Simon, which came to the following conclusions:

1. The 50-mile journey to the nearest casualty department was in the couple's "best interests".

2. The fact that there was no local bed in which Jack could mend his head was "unfortunate" but no targets had been breached and he had been offered an "appropriate" choice.

3. The lack of vinegar and brown paper was not "material" to Jack's death as Government's (England only) quango, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence ("NICE"), [otherwise known as Drug-rationing In England ("DIE")] had not yet decided whether such treatment was cheap enough to be used in England (although it is freely available on the Scottish and Welsh National Health Services).  In any case both the "brown paper" nurse and the "vinegar" nurse were away on diversity awareness courses and so were rightly unavailable.

4. Doctor Foster, Jack and Jill's GP, was most to blame and should be suspended and referred forthwith to the General Medical Council as he had:

a. Not reported Jack and Jill's lackof water to Social Services;

b. Failed to diagnose that anyone going UP the hill to fetch a pail of water must have "severe learning difficulties".

c. Had not involved the "Falls" Coordinator which resulted in no "Risk Assessment" being done for the risk of Jill tumbling after Jack.Dr Foster'sGMC disciplinary hearing has been convenedin Gloucester; he is setting off for it now and hoping for fine weather!

A MODERN JACK & JILL STORY FOR AN ENGLAND OF THE REGIONS

Prompted by comments made at the last Brighouse Road Safety Committee meeting by a Brighouse Councillor, a Rastrick Ward resident complained to the Council's Chief Legal Officer (as monitoring Officer) that a statement made was incorrect and misleading.

The concern was that the meeting was allegedly told "that Metro, once the new bus station was complete, were to allow delivery vehicles to exit Ganny Road via the bus exit onto the ring road (Elland Road)." This was not the understanding of the complainer.

After investigation it is now understood that "one of the proposals being considered by Metro once the new bus station is completed, is for larger delivery vehicles to exit from Ganny Road via the new Bus Station onto the Ring Road. This is still a proposal, which was made clear at the meeting, and is one of a number of issues which remain to be resolved with Metro. It should be remembered that the new Bus Station is on private land and not highway, and the decision whether to allow larger delivery vehicles to use it rests with Metro."

It seems to me to be a vital issue for shopkeepers on Commercial Street to know whether service and delivery vehicles can gain access to and from the rear of their premises. I fear it may be too late to resolve this issue satisfactorily after the new Bus Station is completed. Absolute clarity is now required and the Local Authority should assist those shop keepers, who are after all also local tax payers, to keep their businesses viable.

I was greatly amused by this Daily Mail article by Stephen Glover More by this author »on 27^th Aug. 2007. This is an extract from the full article entitled.

Gordon Brown's Scottish homeland could become his political deathbed

We may not have realised it, but for the past couple of weeks we have been governed from a relatively modest residence in North Queensferry, Fife. This is the Scottish home of Gordon Brown, where he has been passing his so-called holiday. Holidays for Mr Brown do not entail lying by the pool in some billionaire's villa, as they did for Tony Blair.

The scots are desperate for Edinburgh to become the capital of an independent nation.

Our new Prime Minister has had his house rigged up as a 'command and control centre' with computers linked to No 10. When he rises in the morning, it is not to toast his back beneath a Mediterranean sun but to peer into a series of screens. I imagine him sitting at a kind of console, rather like Star Trek's Captain Kirk, planning his next initiatives in his Scottish fastness.

As his thoughts stray south of the border, his face must light up as he thinks of all those nice people in Middle England who have, perhaps rather surprisingly, taken him to their hearts during the past few weeks. But when his thoughts move north of the border into his own fiefdom, his brow will furrow and his face cloud over.

For the fact is that things are going very badly for Mr Brown and Labour in Scotland - very badly indeed. Far from there being a Brown Bounce, there is more of a Brown Flop.

There is the little matter of his party's disastrous standing in the opinion polls. One recent poll, published in this newspaper's Scottish sister paper, showed the Scottish Nationalists 16 points ahead of Labour. Emboldened by such results, the Scots Nats have just launched what they call 'a national conversation' about independence.

Alex Salmond, the Scottish Nationalist leader, is settling himself into Bute House, the official residence of the Scottish First Minister, and looking like the cat that got the cream. Even his opponents concede he has so far played a political blinder. He has the Opposition parties - Labour, Lib Dem and Tories - on the run.

What does all this mean for Mr Brown? In the first place, Labour's unpopularity in Scotland is one more reason for him to call a General Election soon.

The opinion poll I mentioned referred to the Scottish, not Westminster, Parliament, and there is evidence from previous polls that respondents who say they will vote for the Scots Nats in Scotland may plump for Labour when it comes to sending an MP to Westminster. The Nats may be 16 points ahead, but this would almost certainly not translate into a rout of Labour at a General Election.

So as he sits ruminatively at his console, weighing the pros and cons of an early election, we can be certain that Labour's present weakness in Scotland constitutes a good reason for not calling one in the foreseeable future. Mr Brown will assume Mr Salmond's honeymoon won't last for ever, and he'll want Labour in Scotland to recover before he presses the button.

Labour has been disastrously wrong (about devolution). Nearly all the fears about devolution have been realised and, south of the border, it has also stoked up widespread disbelief and ill-will as the English watch with amazement while the Scots are spared tuition fees and given medicines that are not available in England. £11billion a year is transferred from London to Edinburgh.

Devolution has set a bandwagon rolling that no one seems able to stop, and the pro-independence Mr Salmond is in the driving-seat. His purpose is to reassure the Scots that they have nothing to fear from independence - even though most polls suggest less than a third of Scots want it. For example, they would hang on to the Queen, with whom Mr Salmond is said to get on very well.

He says he will go on trying to persuade them to change their minds, pointing out that a large majority of Scots favour a referendum.  Whether there is one or not, I am more pessimistic than ever about the future of the Union. The Union is weaker than it was even three months ago.

Its slow disintegration may haunt Gordon Brown's prime ministership; its final collapse could be his legacy.