Carted off to Hospital.

Wednesday morning I awoke to a severe pain in the back (I usually let her sleep). Well I say awoke because it was a sort of half awake a place between being on this planet and somewhere else. My wife who is one of the worlds gentlest people was somewhere in the background having a heated argument with someone. This situation was unreal because usually our house doesn’t function until my wife has a cup of tea delivered by me and I was in a land of pain and semi consciousness and she was arguing (this had to be serious). I tried to move but with that amount of pain I was going nowhere. After what seemed like ages she appeared at my bedside and announced you better get ready the ambulance is on its way. The row had apparently been with our locum emergency doctor who did not want to come out because his shift was nearing its end and he thought she should wait and contact our GP. 11th commandment in our family is “thou shalt not pee off Nan” this rule applies to all who threaten her family or who fail to respond when she asks for help. This was not an unreasonable request as it turned out when I got to hospital and my condition was diagnosed, pain relieved and I was almost human again.
The misses was magnificent throughout this crises but I guess with my condition she has had plenty of practice. Back home now and recuperating. The drugs used to treat my new condition do have an unsavoury side effect which means I may have to stay close to a loo for a few days. With any luck though I might be able to catch up on a lot of my delayed computer work. I wish I had a copy of the argument with the Locum.

I came second

Last night was the awards ceremony for West Brom libraries autumn writing competition. My short story Upper level south side USB2567T266/1966 was awarded second prize in the short story category. My poem and word/pictures entries did not get awards but I’m rather pleased with myself because this is the first time I have entered a short story. It’s now smug the black country brummie. Great bunch of people our local writers see Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Short story

A leaflet from Labour

We’ve been waiting for months and then like waiting for a bus, two come together. What is going on? Cllr. Hosell’s leaflet contains some relevant and well thought out stories. Our ward being the best in Sandwell for recycling on the front page is inspirational and although the picture quality is poor it clearly shows a very smug Cllr. proud of the fact. Other stories were also relevant. Fighting for improved road safety on the Newton , I’m involved with him on that so well done. A good piece on the campaign for a new health centre and an update on the Durham Estate. A lovely swipe at the Liberals for not attending Town Committee meetings. I know this is accurate I’ve commented here on it. A direct comparison with recent Liberal leaflet Dave wins but if he is going to get reelected we need at least four of these per year. The downside I suppose is his inclusion of our MP as part of the team. Except for doing his monthly surgery I don’t think he spends any time in our ward and I think more likely to be a vote looser. The second leaflet was from our MP which quite frankly I felt was poorly put together with low quality pictures. During his first term we used to get a full colour Parliamentary Report which was an excellent publication this one falls far short. My summary; - “needs to do better”

Economic incompetence

And no I’m not a bloody Tory but a responsible centre right socialist. The wife’s been reading the blog and she insists we should take the money whilst we can. So I’m overruled but today’s budget statement must rank as one of the most irresponsible of all time. I would rate it as verging on criminal incompetence. Gordon did it again short changing pensioners with the inflation based increase. Increases for pensions are based on the rate of inflation in September before the budget but the inflation figure used is approx half of real inflation figure we face in the shops. Apparently we are going to get the pension increase in January this year instead of April and on top of this a sort of one off payment of 60 quid, not sure when this is going to be paid. There might also be some gain from tax changes but these are not clear. I did a little mental arithmetic on how much I thought Gordon owed each pensioner and I think it amounts to about 90 quid a week which he has cheated us out of since taking office. Thatcher started the downward spiral when she changed the system of linking pensions to pay but Brown has had 12 years to put it right and ignored us.
The Gordon and Alistair show reminded me of two blindfolded bull elephants wallowing up to their necks in a mud pond with on idea how to get out. 2.5% reduction in VAT is not going to get us going to the shops. It will help a little with our fuel bills I suppose.
The one good aspect of this package was the bringing forward of capital investment package for our infrastructure.

Gordon can stick his increase in fuel allowance for pensioners.

The news and papers have been full of speculation this weekend about the fiscal stimulus Gordon (sorry Alistair) is going to announce tomorrow. One news bulletin gave a bookie as offering 10/1on on a £100 increase in fuel allowance for pensioners. Well Gordon I don’t want it. I am not happy with the way he has treated pensioners over his period as both chancellor and PM. He has constantly short changed us with inflation increases and resolutely failed to put right the underlying inconsistencies with pensions preferring to add to the complexities of the pension’s credit system instead of giving pensioners a decent pension and letting us manage our affairs. These short term giveaways are a poor substitute for what really needs to happen. He used a £200 bribe before the last election then took it back at the first budget opportunity. No thanks Gordon I have a long memory and don’t trust you anymore. I watched the Politics show at lunch time and your body language when asked if you were considering an election next year gave it away. This is not a cure for the mess you have gotten us into but a bribe for an election next year. I also don’t want to lumber my children and grandchildren with paying back this loan at an undefined time in the future. There are other ways of stimulating the economy without massive tax giveaways. We have already had the first warnings of how he might be planning to claw it back by eliminating the free travel we currently have. I’m not making anymore predictions because as sure as sure he will be planning to get it back as soon as possible.
We need decent pensions now, an end to the Pension Protection Fund policy of not having inflation increases and a full pension for those caught in the Financial Assistance Scheme trap of only getting 90%. So come on Gordon do the decent thing at last and put your pensions mess right. I won't be holding my breath tomorrow.

Oh yes we will

Front page of our local evening newspaper The Express & Star was a story about Centro the company that provides bus services for the west Mids. Apparently they are trying to screw some more money out of the councils who provide the funding for the free bus & train services we pensioners are provided with. I was going to say enjoy but that would be stretching things a bit. The threat is that unless the councils cough up we will be forced to have to pay or at least travel half fare. This threat raises some interesting issues. Firstly with Centro who I do not believe have provided a good enough service over the time they have held the franchise. So perhaps we should be turning the threat around and asking for a better service at a lower price.
It is a good negotiating ploy; raise the spectre of withdrawing free OAP travel, see who complains, screw a bit more out of the councils and carry on as normal. Oh dear what have they forgotten? Don’t screw with pensioners. I expect if this issue does go to the next stage there will be a lot of opposition from pensioner groups including me. It’s been a long time since I was involved with a good protest this might be just the one.
So a message to all West Mids Councils, don’t be intimidated, negotiate a better deal with Centro or fire them and whatever you do, , do not even think about introducing charges for pensioners. We will make a tremendous fuss.

Oh yes we will.

Have Labour abandoned Newton Ward?

And have the Liberals been reading my blog. We received our Liberal Focus on Newton yesterday which was much as I had predicted in my earlier post “Another first for Bob’s Blog? Leading story was the saviour of Sons of Rest followed by a nice little piece on the lack of GP services in our area and their concerns that poorly maintained facilities will cause the existing doctor to leave. I would take issue with them on their story claiming there are plenty of clean public toilets in USA and the working for you year round bit. Public toilets are almost always provided by businesses over there. Regular readers will know that I tried to tease our MP to lobby for the provision of toilets in stores above a certain size in this country (blog action week). Of course this went nowhere but it might be worth raising again. Regular readers will also remember I suggested to our labour councillor who I feel is doing a splendid job that it was no use him working hard if he is not telling constituents what he was doing. The Liberals most certainly are and their policy of regular leaflets is what as kept them in power here for the last thirty years. It’s not rocket science David. Labour have not put out a leaflet since the last local election, Liberals I think it’s three.
So what conclusions might we be able to draw from this situation?
1, local labour party don’t care about the ward?
2, funding is tight and they do not have enough local support to deliver a leaflet?
3, they do not have the ability to write regular leaflets?
4, David has come to the conclusion he is a one term councillor, is trying to make an impression and get as much done as he can in the time left?
5, he is sidelined by the labour group who are not used to having a Labour councillor in Newton and perhaps he is thinking that running as an independent would be a better choice next time. Now that would be an interesting scenario. Newton as always has been a white elephant to Labour, partly because of the talents of the late Martyn Smith who was a massive champion for Newton and well deserved his longevity on the council. Things are different now which can clearly be seen by the poor quality of Liberal leaflets.
We never see our Labour MP in our ward and perhaps this is a reflection on the parties approach to us. The MP is a career politician great friend of Gordon and a junior minister so perhaps that is not so surprising. With what is happening nationally and Gordon offering a big tax bribe this Christmas could we perhaps be seeing a general election next year? How would the voters of Newton see Labour and our MP then I wonder? My guess is a big thumb’s down. But in the meantime come on David talk to us.