Publications

Year end with the current cold spell may seem a strange time to be talking about global warming but the end of 2009 has understandably be overtaken by the importance of the Copenhagen Conference.

Last week I took part in a debate on pensioner poverty. Now it remains a disgrace that something like 2m pensioners are still deemed to be living in poverty and it behoves any developed society to strive to do something about this.

A favourite ‘O’ level question of yesteryear was ‘What is good for the City of London is good for the UK economy? Discuss’. Now the qualification context may give away my age, but the question posed is as relevant today as it was when I was teaching back in the 1970s.

In all the debate over public expenditure cuts the simple point that has been lost is that it is the decline in revenue that has caused the deficit in public funds and not excessive spending.

This year is the century of the Girl Guides. Guiding still attracts over half a million active participants today, a marvelous exemplar of their continued success and relevance.

A short time ago I attended a lunch time reception for the All Party Group which oversees Local Environmental Quality. In simple terms this Group is the front organisation within Parliament for the Keep Britain Tidy Campaign which has recently re-launched itself to be a more overtly active organisation.

My recent article on the need for a referendum on our future relationship with the EU certainly caused a stir. In many respects I am surprised at this as my sceptical views on the EU have been long known and I thought well reported over the years.

I recently went to the memorial service for Professor Peter Townsend. Held at the Parish Church of St. Martins in the Fields just off Trafalgar Square it brought together politicians, academics, practitioners working in the anti-poverty field, as well as his many friends. Sadly Peter passed away earlier in the summer.

When I was first elected as a Councillor at the start of the 1980s local government was respected, even admired. Living in a New Town at the time the local council was desperate to take on responsibility for running the town from the New Towns’ Corporation, the then state body that oversaw those communities' development.

As we build up to the Goodwill events that will be taking place all over the constituency, I wanted to write about St John Ambulance. Ever present at so many of the activities that take place they are the UK’s leading First Aid Charity and over the years have saved hundreds of thousands of lives as well as giving us the confidence they instil when we see them wherever and whenever.