Cllr Keith R Mitchell CBE
This page was last updated
03-01-2012
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Cllr Keith R Mitchell CBE |
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This page was last updated 03-01-2012 |
| "Too Difficult" - Index |
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 The elephant in the room There are some policy areas that are so complicated that the public prefer to ignore them and politicians feel reluctant to address them. I want to tackle some of these "elephants in the room" in this "Too Difficult" series. I have a little list which starts with planning, pensions, social care and local government finance but I suspect there will be others. The views expressed in this Blog are mine and do not necessarily represent County Council policy or Conservative Party policy |
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I am not clever enough to create a reply function on this site. If you would like to e-mail a response to me on anything below, here is my e-mail address and I will consider uploading. If I do upload it, I will do so without alteration and with the author's name. |
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| 03/01/12 |
Funding Social Care: The New Year has rightly started with a debate about funding social care. The Dilnot Report suggests a solution at a cost of less than £2 billion pa. The Treasury is sitting on a lot more than this in business rates collected and not returned to local government. |
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| 12/11/11 | NHS failings: There is growing evidence of failings in the nursing profession. This Blog addresses the issue. It suggests that the professionalisation of nursing, restricting it to a graduate-only role has been damaging to patient care and needs urgent reform. | ||||||||
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20/09/11
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Town & village greens: The concept of registering Town & Village Greens was introduced in the Commons Act 2006 which came into effect from 6 April 2007. Since then a number of community groups have sought to use the legislation to thwart developments of one kind or another. Recently, there have been calls for Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government, to review the operation of this law. Bristol, Oldham and Oxford have all seen controversial applications. Has this law, originally hailed as essential to preserve green spaces in urban areas, become a device for those opposing development to delay or defeat proposals that support economic growth? | ||||||||
| 20/08/11 |
Prison policy: I am straying well away from my local government background to talk about UK prison policy but the consequences of the riots we have seen in our major cities and the subsequent police efforts to bring the culprits to account have necessarily raised the profile of crime and punishment and we are hearing that:
Against this background, I have some questions for Ken Clarke about the need to transform our prison system from one that warehouses prisoners to one that inculcates the work ethic, teaches skills and promotes self esteem. My questions are summed up in the one question "Why are these reforms all taking so long?" |
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| 13/08/11 |
Pensions 1 - Retirement Age: This is a most complicated subject, financially, demographically and socially. I tried to write a single page covering the whole subject and have failed miserably. The result was horribly long and unintelligible. I have therefore decided to publish four pages on Pensions as follows:
Here is the first instalment. Others will follow shortly |
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| 01/08/11 |
Planning: There are some national policy issues that have enormous ramifications for politicians locally whether MPs in their constituencies or local councillors in their ward or division. Planning and housing is one of them..... |
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