jgale | 
01 October 2009 at 13:49 | 253 views
So, the Party Conference season is now well underway. Whether this will survive in the current format in future years is another matter, as the new Speaker of the House of Commons – John Bercow MP– has signalled that he wants to bring to an end the absurdly long Parliamentary Summer Recess.
This is long overdue, and could mean MPs returning in early September, rather than in mid October. But a casualty could be the three weeks allocated to Party Conferences in late September and early October. Most people, however, would conclude that parliamentary accountability should come before the convenience of political parties.
Last week my Party was in Bournemouth, and the weather was very beautiful – warm and sunny for almost all the week. We often seem to be quite lucky with the weather during our Conference, as there is often something of an “Indian Summer” at this time.
I returned to our area last Wednesday, after Nick Clegg’s Leaders’ Speech, but had to make a return visit on Thursday evening for BBC TV’s Question Time programme.
Also on the panel were (Lord) Michael Heseltine, for the Tories, Harriet Harman for Labour, former Labour Minister and CBI Boss, Digby Jones, and the new Editor of the “Spectator” Magazine, Fraser Nelson. As usual, the programme was chaired by David Dimbleby.
The programme has a large audience of around 4 million people, and is broadcast at 10.30pm, after the main news. It is actually recorded from around 8.30pm, to give the producers time to deal with any problems (on one occasion when I was a guest all of the lights went off, and we had to sit waiting for half an hour for somebody to fix the electrics!).
The questions are suggested by the audience, and the guests are not allowed to know what these questions are until they are first read out by the questioner. After the programme there is a dinner, hosted by David Dimbleby, and I was home by around 1am.
On Friday morning I was working from home, near Chard, when I received a very important telephone call from Jan Hunt, the Deputy Chief Executive of the Somerset Primary Care Trust.
Jan had rung to tell me that fantastic news that the South West Strategic Health Authority had just given final approval for a £17.5 million investment in a new hospital for South Petherton.
This is great news, that we have been waiting for a long time! The old hospital was built before the Second World War, and it was literally falling to pieces and had to be closed a few years ago for reasons of patient safety.
There then followed a long campaign to re-open the hospital, which I have been a strong supporter of. The people of South Petherton and the surrounding areas have been absolutely magnificent – turning up to public meeting after public meeting to demonstrate their support and their determination.
My particular thanks to Mary Robertson and the League of Friends and to all those who have worked so hard for this result.
I am also grateful to the local councils for all they have done to support this scheme, including backing the provision of a new entrance to the site – so that access no longer has to be through the very narrow lane which was previously the only way in and out.
The old buildings have already been cleared from the site, and there is a new access road in place. This means that the works can now proceed at top speed, and the brand new hospital is expected to open in early 2011.
I am particularly pleased that the new hospital has finally been approved, because the Government is dramatically cutting back on its plans for spending on new buildings after 2011. So, from now on, it is going to be increasingly difficult to get schemes of this kind signed off – and if we had needed to wait any longer we might have really been in trouble!
So well done to all those involved – including all those at our NHS Primary Care Trust who have worked so hard to make this dream a reality!
Ever,
David.