The Bewilderness

Working from rome

I am quite tempted to vote for Robespierre in the European elections, masquerading as Jean-Louis Pascual, a bus-driver who has lived in Reading for many years. Will he be asking, in monster mode, for cheese and wine orgies. Alas, no! His goals are more mundane: he wishes to become President of France. From 2006, since this competitor to Sarkozy has been around for a while:

The "Roman Party" is listed in the Evening Post as:

'Jean-Louis Pascual, a bus driver who was born in France but has lived in this counrty for 11 years, explained the Roman Party referred to the phrase "When in Rome do as the Romans do".

He said: "This is all about people coming to this country and becoming part of the community.

"There are some people who come here and stay separate, living in groups and keeping to their own culture.

"It is fine to keep in your own culture in your home, but outside it you should not be separate."

Mr Pascual, 36, of Watlington Street, is standing for Reading Borough Council because he wants to be a "minister or president" in his own country.

He told the Evening Post: "I believe that if I get recognition in this country then I will be recognised in my own country.  It is difficult to come to power in France if you are not wealthy."

He said because he was single and without children and family here, he could not be corrupted.

He also suggests British jails should be moved abroad to Russia and the money saved should be spent on the NHS.

I rather prefer his criminal justice policy. Remember tomorrow is the day when you can stand up and be counted.

Worst epsom weather ever?

Well I got as far as the station. Closed. Nice to see the emergency services were out...not! Looked for gritters. Came there none. This is the worst weather that I have seen for many years.

The pavements are impassable and I had to walk down the road in the car ruts.

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Epsom: No A & E

For quite some time, it has not been clear what the scale of cut-price services Epsom residents will receive in our bright new era of big hospitals, larger salaries and service cuts on the National Health Service. We now know that if you have an emergency, you will need to be ferried to an Accident and Emergency unit in Sutton, which will be located on the St. Helier site, Mitcham or Wallington. For people living in Epsom, this is a disaster. Mitcham, Wallington and St. Helier are all located on the far side of Sutton borough to us. I cannot see ambulances being able to get through this traffic in the rush-hour, and without, it is still a half-hour journey each way. Will Epsom Ambulance station acquire more vehicles and staff to compensate?

They have also provided a picture of new services available in Epsom:

There will be new GP "super surgeries" and clinics at Dorking, Leatherhead Hospital, Robin Hood Lane, Green Wrythe Lane, Sutton and another Epsom Downs Integrated Care Services just outside Epsom.

Other smaller units will provide for muscular skeletal services, patients with Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis and those needing eye care.

Throughout will be emphasis on preventative medicine.

Most of the residents will feel short-changed, since preventative medicine is cheaper to provide, promotes screening programs, but does not provide the infrastructure of consulting specialists that you require when trouble hits. These are taken away and require further travel to other boroughs. Let us hope that this proposal is successful:

Still remaining is the future of the bid by Dorking businessman millionaire Adrian White to buy the Epsom site for an innovative mix of both NHS and private health care co-operation.

Negotiations are believed to be going extremely well and include discussion son a centre of cardiac excellence, the incorporation of the already successful elective orthopaedic centre and Epsom's own A&E,

No price tag has has yet been projected for the Epsom site. 

No doubt Labour purists in Epsom will oppose this, but once the hospital site is sold for housing, we will have more people and less services. Welcome to New Labour's National Hell Service, where "deficits" close hospitals to fund past pay rounds that no hospital had the powers to opt out of. Should not health be teh local responsibility of tax payers and the individual?