Rejection of 90 Day Limit
10 November 2005
Boris Johnson MP hails Commons rejection of 90 day limit
Commenting on the defeat of the Government’s plans to extend detention without charge to 90 days, Boris Johnson MP today said:
It is vital that people are not fooled by the Government’s rhetoric. This measure was as much about party politics as about security. Tony Blair brought this extreme and unnecessary measure forward in the hope of dividing the Tory Party. He lost. Labour backbenchers have now tasted blood and like the man-eaters of Tsavo they will be coming back for more.
The 90 day proposal was defeated by a majority of 31 MPs, including some 49 Labour rebels, and was the first time such a Government backed motion has been rejected since Tony Blair came to power in 1997. A compromise motion, put forward by the backbench Labour MP David Winnick, to extend the police’s power of detention without charge of terrorist suspects from 14 days to 28 days was subsequently passed by 323 votes to 290.
Save Townlands Hospital, Henley-on-Thames
20 October 2005
Boris Johnson MP: Townlands Must Be Saved
Boris Johnson MP has today called on the Government to ensure the future of Townlands hospital.
Handing over a petition to 10 Downing Street containing some 10,000 signatures calling for Townlands to be saved, Mr Johnson said:
I believe Henley needs a hospital, but this is not just a question of clinical need, it is also a question of democracy. If Labour persists in its massacre of community hospitals then it should have the guts to explain the logic of this frankly bizarre decision to the British public rather than hiding behind the excuses of unaccountable, unelected officials.
In support of the petition, an Early Day Motion (number 798) has been tabled that seeks recognition for:
the valuable worked carried out by community and cottage hospitals in providing intermediate and step-down care.
and which notes that:
many community hospitals in Oxfordshire, such as Townlands hospital in Henley-on-Thames, are threatened with closure; and calls upon the Government to ensure that these proposed closures are forestalled and that community hospitals are placed back at the heart of community care.
EARLY DAY PARLIAMENTARY MOTION to follow:
EDM
Provision of Intermediate Care and Community Hospitals
That this house recognises the valuable work carried out by community and cottage hospitals in providing intermediate and step-down care; notes that the cost of treating a patient in a local community hospital is often significantly lower than the cost of treating one in a district general hospital; further notes that “delayed discharge” as a result of lack of capacity at the intermediate care level continues to plague the NHS leading to a shortage of acute beds; further notes too that many community hospitals in Oxfordshire, such as Townlands hospital in Henley-on-Thames, are threatened with closure; and calls upon the Government to ensure that these proposed closures are forestalled and that community hospitals are placed back at the heart of community care.
ID Cards
19 October 2005
Boris Johnson MP condemns Government’s ID Card scheme
Boris Johnson MP, commenting on yesterday’s vote in the Commons in favour of the Government’s ID Card Bill, has denounced the scheme as a costly and illiberal mistake:
“It is perfectly obvious that the Government intends these ID Cards to one day be made compulsory. I want to make it clear that I will in no circumstances carry one and even were I compelled to do so, I would take it out and destroy it on the spot were I ever asked to produce it. It is a plastic poll tax that will do nothing to assist the struggle against terrorists and will hugely expand the powers of the state over the individual”.
The Bill, which passed by a majority of just 25 votes, will now go to the Lords where it is expected to face further stiff opposition.
Oliver James Dommett
Parliamentary Researcher to Boris Johnson MP
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA
tel: 0207 219 8192
fax: 0207 219 1885
Blognote from Boris
Morning bloggers!
I am very sorry to have been so dilatory in my blogging, but as you all know by now, i am just a potemkin figurehead in this blog – the real star is of course Melissa.
I want to make three points today.
The first is that David Cameron offers the Tories a real chance of winning the next election, reconquering huge sections of the electrorate that think we’re a bunch of space cadets, and so on and so forth blah blah fishcakes (see last article).
The next is that we must launch a national crusade to save cottage hospitals. Across Britain there is an undeclared war to close valued local hospitals, such as the one in Henley. These institutions were created and funded by local people, usually out of public subscription. They were then of course nationalised by the NHS in 1948. Now people are finding that their hospital is about to be shut, and there seems to be not a damn thing they can do about it. I object to what is being done not just for clinical reasons, though these are powerful in themselves – it is very useful to have step-down hospitals, relieving pressure on the acute sector, and of course providing a local service for people who need immediate treatment. It seems insane to shut the smaller local hospitals, when so many beds are blocked in the acute sector with patients who shouldn’t really be there, and when we are still afflicted by waiting lists unknown to any other western society. There is a further point. It is an outrageous hollowing out of local democracy that a hospital built by local people, funded by local people, loved and treasured by local people, can be shut on the say-so of a healthcare hierarch who is ACCOUNTABLE TO NO ONE. It is time for people across the country to seize the initiative and stop this national campaign of demolition, and any interested parties can begin by coming with an Oxfordshire delegation to Downing Street on October 20, when we will present a petition to Tony Blair.
Last point: paternity leave. I can think of nothing more calculated to drive young fathers up the wall than to be required or otherwise pressured into taking six months off on the birth of a child. I can think of few things more maddening for small firms already struggling with regulation of one kind or another, than to be required first to fill in for these absent fathers, and PAY them during their absence, and then to make way for them again on their return. And frankly, folks, is it really in the interests of the babies that they should be incarcerated with their fathers, otherwise loving and doting men who will, I am afraid, be driven mad with cabin fever in an intensifying hell of milupa and perfumed nappy sacks?
Best,
Boris
Visit to Uzbekistan
It is always nice to get back and find you haven’t been burgled. The locks were secure, the windows intact, and with a song in my heart I opened my bank statement. It all seemed pretty satisfactory, if a tiny bit emaciated, and for a second or two I let my eye run down the list of outgoings. Funny, I thought. What was this ‘payment to Egg’? I seemed to have been making all sorts of payments to something called Egg. In fact, Egg had received several grand from me. I looked closer, the beginnings of suspicion frosting my heart.
