Save a London Park please!

Please vote in Boris Johnson’s new initiative, where Londoners can vote for the park they think should get GLA funding.

Two parks from the London Borough of Hounslow have made it onto the shortlist and could get a grant of up to £400,000 to make the park cleaner, safer, greener and nicer places to visit. It is important that we get the maximum funding possible as good parks make such a difference to living in a city.

Redlees Park:

The aim for Redlees Park in Isleworth is to make the park fun, welcoming and a high quality environment for local people. A grant would help to improve the entrances, display sculptures by local artists, provide local history information, develop a trim trail, develop facilities for young people and re-open the toilets!

Crane Valley Park:
The Crane Valley Park is a valuable wildlife corridor through west London on Hounslow Heath. A grant could help more people to enjoy this interesting area with improved footpaths and cycle routes, resting points with attractive carved benches, new signage, a new footbridge across the river, improved wildlife habitat and increased staff presence to help people feel safe.

Voting closes on 30th January 2009 and you can vote online, request a postal vote or vote by text
Web: visit http://www.london.gov.uk/parksvote/vote/
Text: text 'parks' and your full London post code to 62967 to vote for your nearest park
Post: call the Public Liaison Unit on 020 7983 4100 and request a form.

Photo - Mary in Redlees Park in Isleworth at the Urban Games this summer with Cllr Lin Davies, the Mayor of the London Borough of Hounslow and Cllr Pam Fisher

Brown’s Tax Bombshell

The Government has published their Pre-Budget Report. Their new tax and spending proposals show their plans for higher taxes and record levels of national debt. It includes:

- above inflation hikes (4.5%) in council tax which will be forced on local authorities from this April
- National Insurance will be increased for workers and for local firms
- National debt will hit £1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion pounds)
- Plans are being drawn up to increase VAT to 18.5%

I am extremely concerned about record levels of debt, higher council tax and higher National Insurance on families and businesses. How do we differ, you may ask? Our plan is to:

- freezing council tax for two years by cutting wasteful Government spending
- reducing employment costs for small businesses by cutting National Insurance and a tax break for new jobs
- getting credit flowing by guaranteeing lending to business

We need to find long term solutions to this economic crisis as the impact of this recession will be felt by individuals, families and businesses for the next 4-5 years.

We must learn from Baby P

The damning inspectors report was published today into the sufferings of Baby P.

Baby P died aged 17 months, although he was on the child protection register and had been seen by professionals 60 times. Incredible that a mother could inflict abuse on her own child. Baby P had over 50 injuries but yet nothing was noticed. This horrific abuse is yet another example of 'a broken Britain' as this case is not alone.

It brings up some serious questions about what we expect and demand from our public servants. We need to understand what happened, what went wrong, who was responsible, so that we can learn from it and make sure it never happens again.

The inspectors found systemic failings within Children's Services and Haringey Council must take responsibility for this. If only something had been done earlier by someone. A life might have been saved.

An End to the Borrowing Binge

David Cameron warned yesterday about the Labour borrowing binge which will eventually have to be paid for through higher taxes.

We have always been the low tax Party ... and so it was great to hear the Leader talk about fiscal responsibility and permanent funded tax cuts with the Conservatives. We are in a recession right now, but we want recovery as quickly as possible. We therefore need to start managing public spending better so that we can get the economy back on that road to recovery.

As a Party, we are now not going to match the Labour unsustainable spending plans for 2010 and beyond. It is not affordable. We need to stop the growth in spending or there will be huge tax rises in the years to come.

There is a clear choice between Labour and Conservative. Labour with more economic mismanagement and the same old short-term policies....or the Conservatives with a long-term vision which is more responsible, more balanced with new ideas for the future.

We will remember them ...

Today I was in Isleworth for the Remembrance Day service, organised by the Isleworth branch of the Royal British Legion.

We marched to the War Memorial on Twickenham Road, led by the Pride of Moray pipe band. It is now 90 years after the end of the first world war... and young and old were there today to remember the many men and women who gave their lives for their country ...

"When you go home, tell them of us and say -
For your tomorrow we gave our today."

The service finished with singing:

O God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come
Our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home.

May all those who are serving their country right now be kept safe and return home soon to their loved ones.

How important it is for us to support our troops and the work they do.

Photo: Mary laying a wreath at the War Memorial on Twickenham Road

Good news for Gordon at the Glenrothes by-election

A good result for Labour at the Glenrothes by-election this week... but then it would have been a disaster for them if they had lost. This was on Gordon Brown's home territory and if they couldn't win here, all would have been lost.

So what will the Prime Minister do now? Will he be brave enough to call an election in June 2009?

He has managed to recover a little in the polls over the last few weeks as some people think he has has shown leadership over the economic crisis. But how mistaken they are.

- Public borrowing has gone out of control

- He did not save in the good times so we have no reserves to support us now

- He created the Monetary Policy Committee and the Financial Services Authority but did not give them the power they needed to hold Banks to account

- Pension funds have been raided

- Government expenditure has increased dramatically since Labour came to power

- So much money has been wasted on failed government projects

The British people deserve change ...and a change for the better.

The Result - America votes for Change!

Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States of America.

I watched the results as they were coming in and then listened to Obama's victory speech at 5am. I was moved. It felt like a special moment in time. America was making history. Obama had actually defied history, achieved the impossible and made dreams come true. This had been the dream of so many people, including Marthur Luther King when he made his famous speech "I have a dream...". Many thought it would never happen.

But what Barack Obama has done, is given his country renewed hope and optimism. His response to the challenges that lie ahead has been, "yes we can". He has united so many Americans by getting them to believe in themselves, believe in change and believe that they together can make their country better.

America has proven to the world that it is a nation eager for change. We now need to do the same. We need change for the better in Great Britain.