July meeting and forthcoming events

 At the monthly Branch meeting in July, we heard about the excellent talk on Housing at the GC last month, and about new David Wilson homes to be built in Lutterworth.

We held a minutes silence for our comrade Enid Hardy, who died recently, and who was a great member of our Branch for many years. We also heard news form our previous Branch member, Sheila, who now lives in Wales, but has visited China recently, and sent us news of her visit.

Count Council elections
We discussed the forthcoming May 2013 County elections. Anyone wishing to stand, please contact David Fish, secretary, by 25th July, and selection will take place as part of Branch meeting, Tuesday, 4th September.

SUMMER EVENT:
"Tea in the garden" at Willy and Carolines, Yew Tree house, Walcote, Satruday, 28th July, 3-5pm. There will be tea and cakes; music; cake, book and plant stalls. Please come and support our fundraising and social Summer event.

From the achives

As politics grinds towards its summer hiatus, you have to think laterally to find items of local demographic interest.  That led me to Britain From Above, a new site from English Heritage and the National Lottery.

This is how Lutterworth looked in October 1927.  There are five other aerial photos of Lutterworth.  You can access them here.  I don't think it would have been much of a happy hunting ground for us back then.  Most of the places our supporters live aren't there!  On the other hand, it would have been much quicker to leaflet.

For those whose canvassing practice extends further afield, Leicester in 1927 is here.  Some city landmarks have not changed much but the East Gates one has me flummoxed.

Inexplicably, there are no photos of Broughton Astley.

Lord Hunt's NHS wake-up call

There's a new post by Lord Philip Hunt on the Labour Lords site.  A timely reminder that, with the Tories sinking ever lower in the polls, this is a battle we can yet win.

Local council re-takes control of its housing

Congratulations to Charnwood Borough Council, who are about to re-take control of their own housing services.

Charnwood felt obliged to set up one of the ubiquitous "arm's-length" housing bodies after auditors (whose primary purpose was to encourage these spurious hybrids) scored the in-house service a big fat zero, which was always nonsense.  Now, apparently, 75% of tenants want their council back in charge - and elected members plan to invest no less than £60 million in their housing stock over the next five years.  You can read the full story here.

Harborough, we can safely assume, plans to invest something closer to the aforementioned big fat zero.

Charnwood have also refused planning consent for the former hospital site in Baxter Gate which doesn't conform with their Town Centre Master Plan.  Again, not something I can see happening in Harborough.  Oh for a Lutterworth Town Centre Master Plan!

Commissioner questions

I found an interesting post on the Labour Uncut site: "Question time for commissioner candidates."

Of course in Leicestershire we are not being balloted about our candidate - Sarah was the only person shortlisted.  However we now know that former air chief marshal Sir Clive Loader has been chosen as the Tory candidate.  I wonder what his view would be on the deployment of tasers and water cannons?

NB: Sir Clive already has his campaign website up and running.  Click here to view it.

NHS Risk Register

The government notoriously refused to release the risk assessment into the so-called reform of the NHS despite the findings of the Information Commissioner.  As usual, someone has leaked part of it and colleagues from the Socialist Health Association have helpfully posted it on their site.  It only covers the West Midlands, but I can't see the risks will be any different here in the East.

I am adding the SHA to the links on the righthand side of this blog.

Branch comments on current affairs

At the May Branch meeting we discussed how the Government is struggling just now. Camerons and Osbornes weaknesses are really showing through, and they respond badly under pressure, as shown at PMQ, where Ed Milliband is certainly raising his game in attacking the Tories.

The Governments seems to ge going from one catastrophe to another: Our economy has shrunk again, with the dreaded double dip recession; huge numbers of young people are out of work; the Jeremy Hunt affair is dragging on; the outrageous suggestion of moving poor London people out of the capital en masse is shocking the voters; and while there are deep cuts to legal aid, there is a planned, unwanted, hugely costly re-organisation of the NHS. What next from this coalition?

The time is right for Labour to take the stage with new policies for a win at the next General Election.