Category ConDem Watch
Cheltenham LibDems` plan to make party`s bird logo “very small” on ballot papers
The desperation of the Liberal Democrats has become apparent even in one of their strongholds, Cheltenham, as the result of a leaked email from one of the town`s senior LibDems. In Councillor Roger Whyborn`s campaign email, leaked to the Gloucestershire Echo, the former cabinet member at Cheltenham Borough Council told other councillors and the town`s […]
Real foodbanks, fake shops, and the fake recovery in Cheltenham
Last year the BBC reported that the number of people using the foodbank in Cheltenham had quadrupled at a time when foodbank use in Gloucestershire as a whole doubled. The BBC quoted a survey by the Trussell Trust, the UK’s biggest foodbank network, which compared the number of people accessing food banks between 1 April […]
The right-wing Tory behind Oxford food bank who thinks the welfare state is “obese”!
Robin Aitken, co-founder of the Oxford food bank, has featured prominently in the debate which has raged in recent months over the reasons for the dramatic rise in people using food banks. Aitken claims that there is no reliable evidence connecting austerity and the increase in food bank use. His views have appeared in the […]
Report on demonstration against ATOS in Gloucester
Activists from Cheltenham & Gloucester Against Cuts joined the demonstration outside Gloucester`s Jobcentre Plus building (Cedar House in Spa Road) on Wednesday to show our disgust at the way disabled people have been treated by private sector involvement in a system which is supposed to protect those who are unable to work. This was just […]
Former Thatcher adviser Alan Budd spills the beans on the use of unemployment to weaken the working class – sound familiar?
Professor Sir Alan Budd, while being interviewed by documentary film-maker Adam Curtis in June 1991 about his time as Special Adviser at the Treasury in the period 1979-81, expresses his concerns that he was being used: Curtis` narration: For some economists who were involved in this story, there is a further question: were their theories […]
In case you missed it – Nick Clegg called for the break-up of the NHS in 2005
Cheltenham LibDem MP Martin Horwood`s “House Notes” column in the Gloucestershire Echo on January 7th was a highly misleading attempt to put some distance between his party and the Tories. Martin told readers that he was: “never persuaded to support Conservative Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans to reorganise the NHS” and pointed out that the […]
George Osborne says “WE’RE STILL ALL IN THIS TOGETHER”
“WE’RE STILL ALL IN THIS TOGETHER” George Osborne, announcing on 8 October 2012 that austerity will last until at least 2018 According to Gloucester’s Tory MP, Richard Graham, failing to push through a radical revamp of the benefits system would be “too awful to consider”. The Citizen reported that in a Common’s speech on the […]
Martin Horwood`s website now slightly more accurate but still highly misleading!
After reading our recent posts on Circle Health Martin Horwood has slightly amended a page on his website so that it no longer describes Circle healthcare partnership as “100% owned by its staff”. There are still two errors on that page (one significant, one minor) which are listed at the bottom of this post, but […]
Martin Horwood responds on Circle Health
Martin recently responded to our article on one of the investors behind Circle Health who has given political donations to two Gloucestershire Tory Mps. Martin asked us to point to where he said that “Circle Healthcare was 100% employee owned”. We actually criticised Martin for describing Circle Health Partnership as 100% employee-owned, without providing the […]
Cheltenham & Gloucester Against Cuts 