2006_02_01_archive

Secret goings on

As of last week, it seems that the Oxford Mail have become

web-savvy....I was astonished to read a criticism of my not updating

this blog from the local paper's "Political Insider". He achieved the

mentally gymnastic feat of both criticising me for

*having* a web-log in the first place (apparently it is the sign of

political egomania) and for not updating it! Of course, the reason

that I have not been updating it is because I have been so madly busy

(as 'The Insider' well knows, given his attendance at most council

meetings) - but since a few weeks before he decided to fill his column

with the exciting fact that I ate a bannana during Executive Board,

perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that he is searching for stories!

I can only apologise for not being more frequent in my updates, but

the real problem is that almost all of the really

interesting stuff that I am involved in at the moment needs to be kept

under wraps for the time being. My main Council

activity is acting as joint lead negotiator for the Green Group

budget, which is turning out incredibly well. Our achievements

last year were good enough, and everything is shaping up to be even

better this time around. Giving credit where credit

is due, that is partly because the Labour Group are being constructive

and sensible about it all - they realise that they need

our votes, and so our discussions are going well. Apparently the GLA

Green Group are also making huge strides in their

budget negotiations - so look out for budget breakdowns on February

15th (GLA) and February 20th (Oxford) and

descriptions of Green accomplishments. :) Nationally, I am also

involved in discussions about our elections strategy, both for the May

council elections (where we are aiming for an ambitious target of 100

councillors after the elections) and looking further ahead until 2010.

Of course, I can't post most of that publicly either!

As usual, most of the things I can actually blog about openly are

negative - and it doesn't come much more negative than the continuing

crisis in Oxfordshire's NHS. The overall deficit in our county's NHS

Trusts is now approaching 30 million, and the Government is refusing

to help - despite much of the money being gobbled up by their

restrictive targets and centralised control. Community hospitals are

closing, mental health services are being cut, and the extortionate

PFI schemes are starting to leech public money off into the private

sector. According to Patricia Hewitt, all of this will be fine, as

long as GPs open their surgeries in branches of Tescos (no, I'm not

kidding) and we allow United Health and other American corporations to

run the health service....

When combined with the Puritan, mean-spirited bullying of the most

vulnerable by New Labour (through their proposed reforms of incapacity

benefit) and the continuing deprivation of the children of asylum

seekers through Section 9 - I fail to see how any of my genuinely

progressive Labour colleagues can sleep at night...

On a positive note, I continue to try to support grassroots action by

my constituents as far as I can - and for the third time in four years

I will be helping to run the 'Defend Oxfords Green Electricity'

campaign. This time, however, I am hoping that the University will

follow the Green-inspired example of the City Council, and invest

money into constructing new renewables - making a real difference to

green energy capacity in the UK. Through campaigns such as this, as

well as the attempt to get the University's money invested in a

socially responsible manner, ordinary people can make a real

difference through collective action.