2008 News

Save Our Post Offices - The Campaign Continues 23rd February 2008

Over 70 residents turned out on Saturday to join Helen Whately's campaign to Save Our Post Offices. The five protests, held outside each of the five Post Offices earmarked for closure, received widespread support from all political parties. Kingston & Surbiton's Liberal Democrat MP, several Liberal Democrat councillors and the Labour Party Candidate turned up for photos at all five protests.

Local Conservative MPs supported the campaign, with Chris Grayling, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (and MP for Epsom and Ewell) joining protestors at Hook Rise and Stephen Hammond MP from Wimbledon taking part in the protest at Burlington Road. Feelings were running high as residents are dismayed at the prospect of losing their local Post Offices. Helen spoke to residents about the inadquately short consultation period, and how closing the Post offices will sever a vital life line for elderly and disabled users.
Helen said about organising the protests;"I set these protests up because I wanted to give all the local communities affected by these closures a chance to be heard, and because every Post Office counts."

After the protests Helen said; "I was delighted by the cross-party support on Saturday, including Edward Davey's appearance. It is vital that we can put aside out political differences and rally together for our local communities. We know the Government doesn't want to listen and is set on closing 2,500 across the country, but I will not sit back and let this happen. The closures are extraordinarily short sighted - not only will they affect many residents, especially the elderly and disabled, but they will also hurt local shops and businesses."

Helen delivers our EU Referendum Petition to 10 Downing Street 3rd March 2008
Over the past few months Helen has been campaigning for a referendum on the EU Reform Treaty, a lightly amended version of the rejected EU Constitution. Hundreds of local people joined our call for a referendum by signing the petition, which Helen personally delivered to 10 Downing Street. Local residents want to have a say on the treaty, but only the Conservatives are willing to honour their manifesto commitment. Labour now refuses to hold a referendum and the Liberal Democrats have also reversed their position. Instead of backing the motion in Parliament calling for a referendum, our local MP abstained and made a headline-grabbing scene calling for a referendum on 'in versus out' - a position which had no probability of success.

Other parties claim that they have not made U-turns on the grounds that this treaty differs substantially from the original Constitution. However, this defence does not stand up to scrutiny, literally; compare the two documents and the similarities overwhelm the differences. The Lisbon Treaty has far reaching consequences, bolstering EU institutions without resolving their democratic deficit, and making inroads into British sovereignty in critical areas like justice and foreign policy. This is why Helen has been campaigning against it and why she personally delivered the petition to Gordon Brown. Their refusal to hold a referendum demostrates how out of touch Gordon Brown's Government has become during his 10 years in power. By not honouring their 2005 manifesto commitment, Labour has shown contempt for voters. Gordon Brown goes on about building 'Britishness', suggesting children should make oaths to the Queen, but if he meant this seriously he would give people a real say on the future of Britain and our relationship with the European Union.

Kingston residents deserve better from GPs 4th March 2008
Kingston residents have the worst access to GPs out of hours in the whole of London, according to a new Evening Standard survey. This survey backs-up comments from local residents, who have spoken to Helen about the difficulties seeing doctors out of hours and often ending up waiting hours at A&E or the walk-in centre at Kingston Hospital for minor issues. There are also concerns, from both doctors and patients, over the PCT's out of hours service provided Thamesdoc. Helen said:
"GPs are the gatekeeper to healthcare for most people. They do a vital job and usually do it very well, but getting access to a GP is much too difficult outside office hours. You shouldn't have to take half a day off work to see a GP. While we have increasing choice and access to many less important services – like supermarkets opening 24 hours - access to doctors has got worse.

This is not an attack on our local GPs - this situation is a result of the Government’s new contract for GPs, which not only reduced out of hours cover, but also increased incomes. The average salary for a GP is now 110,000 but their hours are shorter than ever before. This contract was incompetence on an extraordinary scale by the Government, wasting NHS money and delivering a poor service to patients. Kingston's residents deserve better".

Over 40% of Kingston's children will not get their first choice of Secondary School 9th March 2008
Thousands of parents received letters last week giving them news of a decision which will shape their childrens' lives for the next five years - which secondary school they have got into. Forty percent of children in Kingston faced disappoinment when they failed to get a place at their chosen school. Kingston's 40% rate compares to a London average of 35% (reported by the Evening Standard) and is substantially worse than the estimated average in England of 18% (estimated by The Times).

While Kingston benefits from some of the best secondary schools in the country, there are significant differences in ethos and standards, as well as the distances children will need to travel to get to school. Parents have every right to feel strongly about rejected applications. What can we do about this high number of failed applications? Helen believes parents should have more choice of schools - that parents should be able to choose where there children go, rather than schools choosing between children. This will only work if we have more schools, which will then compete to offer excellence in education but also differentiate through developing particular strengths. To achieve this, a Conservative government will allow parents to set up their own schools where there is demand, as parents are in the best position to know what their children need.

Conservatives have been campaigning for months now, with local parents, for a new school in North Kingston. This campaign has been opposed by local Liberal Democrats. Along with the Government, they are fixated on expanding existing schools, making them ever bigger and more impersonal, rather than helping parents get want they want - a choice of good local schools.