Cutting Regulation - Promoting Freedom

Our country is suffering greatly under the burden of regulation. If we want to be a free society and lead worthwhile lives this needs to change. I've recently published a paper on how we must act. Please see http://www.brugesgroup.com/CostsOfRegulationPaper.pdf for the paper.

St Richard's Hospital

It's hugely disappointing to hear the news about St Richard's hospital. I consider the decision to close large parts of it to be of questionable logic to put it mildly.

Please Email: john.wilderspin@westsussexpct.nhs.uk
<mailto:john.wilderspin@westsussexpct.nhs.uk> or mike.harris@westsussexpct.nhs.uk <mailto:mike.harris@westsussexpct.nhs.uk>
or Phone: 0800 707 6975 to protest.

The Executive Board of the District Council will be meeting early next week to consider what action we can take as a council to inhibit the closure of much of St Richards.

Please look at http://www.supportstrichards.co.uk/ for information on what you can say to members of the Primary Care Trust in support of the case we are all making against closure. To lose King Edward VII was bad enough. To lose it and St Richard's is little short of a disgrace.

Let's Welcome Boris

I've enjoyed attending the Milland and Rogate annual parish meetings over the last month and talking to some of you. It's great that we have such vibrant local communities with so many different activities taking place which help make many peoples lives worthwhile and enjoyable. Here at least we still have a community.

We face many challenges with the South Downs protected status, the future of our schools and St Richard's Hospital. Many (though - to be fair - not all) of the difficult issues we face are indirectly caused by the Labour government in Whitehall which has shown nothing but contempt for England and Englishness in its eleven years in office.

Today is a great day because we can celebrate, with the election of Boris, the beginning of the end for the Marxist socialist clique which has done so much damage to our society and country. For the first time since 1997 we have a Conservative, dedicated to the interests of ordinary British people, in a position of serious power rather than a politically correct idealogue dedicated to "special interests". I've spent quite a few hours over the last month campaigning for Boris because having someone running our capital who doesn't loath the countryside and who thinks about hard working people who live in the country but work in London will be good for all of us.

Don't get me wrong, there is much still to do and many wrongheaded liberal and socialist ideas which still require challenge. The next two years will be tough - both for hard working people (as the credit crunch - caused in many respects by Labour's economic policies - bites) and for the Conservative Party as Gordon Brown fights like a cornered rat to stay in Number 10. Nevertheless, for the first time in a long time, we have someone civilised in an elected office.

It was so nice to see Boris confront an aggressive and ill educated BBC interviewer in the early hours of this morning with a lesson on the Arian controvesy. He has proved that getting elected no longer requires you to be a politically correct mouther of platitudes with strong links to the underclass. That is great for our democracy as we need intelligent people with a sense of history involved in public life. I wish him well as he tries to deal with some of the awful problems which confront London.