Last week I was invited as Iain Duncan Smith’s guest to attend the 3rd annual Centre for Social Justice Awards.

CSJ AWARDS 2007

Picture: God’s Golden Acre, a work rescuing AIDS/HIV orphans in South Africa and supporting indigenous Zulu culture, provided the audience with a thrilling performance from their current UK tour 

The Centre for Social Justice Awards 2007 celebrated the achievement of 14 charities and one local authority in spectacular style at an event joined by top celebrities, senior politicians and community leaders.

The CSJ Awards were hosted by JPMorgan Asset Management in the impressive Great Hall on Victoria Embankment and drew sponsorship from the the Pears Foundation, the Telegraph Group, Sovereign Capital, Accenture, Lewis Communications, JPMorgan Asset Management and Westpac.

Award presenters include John Reid MP (Lab), Sir Menzies Campbell QC MP (Lib), David Willetts MP (Con). Celebrities included Dame Kelly Holmes, Simon Callow, June Sarpong, Jon Culshaw (who entertained the audience with impressions of Geroge Bush, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown), John Bird (The Big Issue), Richard Briers and Julian Fellows. Mark Nicholas, TV Cricket Commentator and Telegraph writer, provided entertaining commentary throughout the evening as compere.Each of the following organisations won a £5,000 Award for their effective work tackling poverty:: 

• Civitas for their supplementary schools in Tower Hamlets and Yorkshire
• Open Door North East , helping refugees and asylum-seekers on Tyneside
• One North East, rehabilitation project for alcoholics in north-east London
• OXPIP, parenting support and education in Oxford
• Save the Family, intensive residential support for struggling families in Cheshire are north Wales
• Bristol Fathers, Teenage Parents Project, a Bristol charity doing innovative work with young fathers
• Time for Families, relationship education for inmates and their partners in prisons throughout the country
• God’s Golden Acre, caring for AIDS orphans in Kwa Zulu-Natal, South Africa

Birmingham City Council received the Local Authority Award from David Willetts MP for their outstanding partnerships with local voluntary organisations. (A non-cash Award.)

The following groups were highly recommended:

• Eighteen and Under, a project helping child victims of sexual abuse in Dundee
• FRC Group, a social enterprise providing employment to long-term jobless in Liverpool
• Sunlight Development Trust, a hub of community activity in Gillingham, Kent
• XLP, working with gun and gang culture in Peckham, SE London
• Tree Aid, helping poor African families generate income through responsible use of forests

Iain Duncan Smith MP presented a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ to Bob Holman in recognition of the inspriring example he has provided in his life-long work on the Easterhouse Estate in Glasgow.

Tories take control of borough council

10 July 2007 | 08:25

RODDY ASHWORTH

THE Conservative Party was in overall control of Colchester Borough Council for the first time in 20 years last night after the dramatic defection of two former Liberal Democrats – one an ex-mayor of the town.

Terry Sutton and his son Craig joined the Tories after less than a fortnight after resigning from the Lib Dem group at the town hall.

The pair had sat in the political wilderness as the sole members of the Berechurch Independent Group for less than two weeks before yesterday’s surprise switch of allegiance.

Last night Terry Sutton said that the decision to join the Tories had come after his recognition of their positive vision for the town and the behaviour of the town’s MP, Lib Dem Bob Russell.

The move is all the more surprising as Terry Sutton was for a while a close political ally of Mr Russell, being his personal agent for the general elections of 1997 – in which the MP first secured victory – and 2001, when his majority increased.

Terry Sutton cited Mr Russell’s claim that Colchester United’s new stadium, paid for largely by a loan from the Conservative-run council, would be the “worst” in the country, as a major reason for his walking the floor to the Tories.

Yesterday, however, Terry Sutton claimed relations among Lib Dems in the town had been deteriorating for some years and their attitude towards opportunities for Colchester’s potential as a regional centre was becoming more negative.

He said the Conservatives, however, had a more positive vision for the town that he could share.

“I support their values in Colchester, particularly their business policy which will help the social aspect of the town.

“To a certain degree, within the local Lib Dems there has been some back-stabbing for a while now.

“For the last four or five years, things have been festering.

“The recent outburst by Bob Russell about the community stadium makes me think that perhaps he is not the best person to be the MP for Colchester.

“His continual interference with the Lib Dem group on the council makes me feel I can no longer be part of it.”

Terry Sutton first became a Lib Dem councillor in 1990 after a brief spell as an Independent, necessitated because he was for a while still a member of the Armed Forces and could not therefore declare any political allegiance.

Yesterday Robert Davidson, leader of both the Conservative group and the council, said he was “delighted” that Terry Sutton had joined the group.

“Terry and I believe strongly that this will bring about a positive agenda for Colchester with significant projects such as Firstsite and the new stadium as well as the proposed Cultural Quarter and the Vineyard Gate development.

“Our members recognise the strengths, skills and commitment to Colchester that the Suttons bring both to the Conservative Group and the borough.”

Martin Hunt, leader of the Lib Dem Group, could not be contacted last night. Mr Russell refused to comment.

Labour rocked by mass defection before key poll 

Labour’s campaign to hold a crucial seat was today rocked by a mass defection of its councillors to the Conservatives.

With 10 days to go before the Ealing Southall by-election in London, five Labour councillors said they were switching to David Cameron’s party.

They include Gurcharan Singh, a long-standing party member who came within a whisker of winning the selection battle to be Labour’s candidate, but lost out to fellow councillor Virendra Sharma.

The by-election, caused by the death of Piara Khabra, is an early test of Gordon Brown’s premiership. Labour is defending a majority of 11,441 over the Liberal Democrats, with the Tories just behind.

Scroll down for more…

Countdown: Jack Straw with Labour candidate Virendra Sharma, above, on the by-election frontline in Ealing today. Defector Gurcharan Singh met the public with his new party leader, David Cameron

The councillors who switched sides wore blue turbans as they appeared with Conservative leader David Cameron to announce they would back his candidate Tony Lit.

In a statement, Mr Singh and his colleagues said they could no longer support “disorganised and divided” Labour. They added: “It has become increasingly obvious that Tony Lit is the best person to represent Ealing Southall as our next MP.

“He’s energetic, dynamic and displays the kind of qualities that would make him ideally suited to represent the people.

“Since Conservatives took control of Ealing in May 2006 we have noticed that they have been making great strides towards trying to improve the quality of life for all our residents.

“We’ve reached the stage where it has become blatantly obvious that we would be doing our own voters a great disservice if we continue to dogmatically stick with a disorganised and divided Labour Party.”

 The five councillors who switched to the Tories are Gurcharan Singh, Manjit Singh, Maninder Kaur Keith, Jarnail Singh Jandu and Jagdish Gupta.

Speaking on the steps of Ealing Town Hall, Mr Cameron said: “I think the decision is a really important moment for Ealing Southall but also an important moment in British politics, because I think it’s the clearest possible demonstration that the Conservative Party, having been changed and modernised, is now a voice for everyone in the country.” Mr Cameron said that another independent candidate, Gulbash Singh, would also be backing Mr Lit.

David Cameron will pledge to overhaul the tax and benefits system in favour of a Conservative crusade to mend Britain’s ‘broken society’

David Cameron said yesterday that there was something ‘deeply wrong’ with the nation despite its continued economic prosperity.

He highlighted high rates of teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, failing schools, crime rates and prison populations in Britain compared with other European countries.

A landmark Conservative report to be published tomorrow is designed to draw clear lines with Labour, paving the way for tax breaks and benefit reforms in favour of married couples and families. It will also recommend:

* raising tax on alcohol by up to 10% to combat binge drinking

* reclassifying cannabis as a Class B drug

* forcing heroin users to go ‘cold turkey’ rather than being given substitutes such as methadone thereby creating potentially a further addiction to methadone.

Mr Cameron said the major cause of societies ills was family breakdown  ‘we need to go right through our tax and benefits system and ask ourselves why is it encouraging people to live separately’ ‘ Many couples choose not to get married and that is absolutley their decision. The point I’m making is that marriage is a good institution. It should be supported. It should be recognised in the tax system.’

Mr Cameron’s analysis was backed by former Labour Welfare Minister and local Birkenhead MP Frank Field, who argued that Gordon Brown’s tax system ‘wallaops’ two-parent families. He said a single parent with 2 children working 16 hours a week gained a weekly income of £487 thanks to tax credit paynebts. But the breadwinner in a two-parent family, also with 2 children is required to work 116 hours to get the same income.

Gordon Brown has firmly rejected the idea of tax breaks in favour of maried couples, arguing they would unfairly penalise children with unmarried parents.

David Cameron said he made no apology for speaking up for marriage. Half of all unmarried couples separate by their child’s 5th birthday compared with just 1 in 12 married couples, he told BBC’s Sunday AM programme.

Views and Comments please

Brown Cut Budget for English Hospitals – Front Page Financial Times

Financial Times reports:

Gordon Brown quietly slashed by a third this year’s hospital building and equipment budget in one of his final acts as chancellor.

Prompted by the tightness of the public finances, the new prime minister, who placed the NHS as his ‘immediate priority’ cut the capital budget on the English NHS for his 2007-2008 from £6.2bn to £4.2bn.  However, Mr Brown avoided equivalent cuts in the Scottish and Welsh NHS budgets event though the funding formula for the UK nations suggests they should have shared the pain.

The Health department’s surrender of £2bn in capital is all the more remarkable because the NHS needs the money and it had not been given greater day-to-day money to spend.

For the full story see the FT.

Questions must be asked in the light of this decision.

My  added concern -  is the gap between NHS funding of treatment in Wirral compared with the funding of treatment in Scotland – particularly when residents tell me they are having to pay £750 per injection for Macular Degenerative Treatment in Wirral which is free if you live in Scotland.

How can that be? Why should the elderly in Wirral pay £750 per injection (some being told they need an injection every 6 weeks for 2 years) when the same treatment is free in Scotland?

Please let me know your views – add comments below.