Concerns for Winchester Hospital (Edit)

“Don’t let our Hospital disappear” is the tone local Winchester MP Mark Oaten is setting for the community. Plans have recently been made to move most of Royal Hants surgical, orthopaedic and maternity services to Southampton, after complaints that there are not enough of these services in the larger neighbouring City.

This is a big problem for the Hospital, if the plan gets carried out the Hospital will be downgraded and less services will be available. Oaten is asking the Winchester public to voice their opinions on the matter, additionally focusing on where their money is being spent. “We would create patient contracts allowing individuals to decide where their money is spent and on what”, Oaten claims.

Oaten represents the Liberal Democrats and is married with two Daughters; he claims this enhances his views on the health service both locally and nationally because he wants a high level of service in case anything happens to them.

The Liberal Democrats have also released a website, ‘NHS SOS’ that sets out the ways in which they plan to make the service better for everyone. The County Council in Winchester are planning to support the scheme fully, as always working along side the Local MP to get the publics voices heard. Only time will tell if the plans will be effective, and if the Winchester locals will support all plans made by their representatives.

The Budget 2008

This years Budget Report from the HM Treasury is set out for change. It contains the Governments plans for medium-term economic position and its tax and spending plans. It comes at an interesting time, what with the problems of the Housing Market and prices in decline; will the new formed ideas of the Government be able to make a change to our Economy?

Included in the Budget Report is the statement “the economy is stable and resilient, and continuing to grow, and that the Government is meeting its strict fiscal rules for the public finances.” Although is this true? Current inflation in the Housing Market seems to be settling back down over the past month however Evan Davis (BBC Finance Reporter) states – “There is always a two year silly frenzy that has to be undone.” Although this has to be done through the help of the Government as well and there are no immediate passages in the Report that cover such schemes.

Hon Yvette Cooper, Chief Secretary also draws upon the factor of Globalisation, and how the UK must adapt to a stronger economy to welcome in the policies of other Countries. He highlights the importance of the Labour and Capital markets and states that these are key to making the economy more stable and cost-efficient. Linking back to the Housing Market the Report also highlights plans to make further business start-up an easier process for independent people, meaning that this may lead to an Increase in more Housing related businesses being formed.

Especially hopeful are those involved in buying property and renting it out as a Hotel or Home, the Governments plans to make this an easier process should allow some change to be made to the Housing Market, and may bring a change to the inflating prices on property. Although there are concerns that this change will be minimal, and that the plans proposed in the Budget Report are certainly not enough to bring an end to the Housing Market troubles.

If you would like to discover more about how the Budget Report 08 can help you, focusing especially on the above themes, phone 020 7270 4558 and ask for information about ‘Enterprise: Unlocking the UK’s talent’.

Radio News Day – Crimestoppers arrests

Simon Theobalds, Hampshire Crimestoppers’ co-ordinator, today stated that arrests have risen by twenty-nine percent in Hampshire thanks to the anonymous Crimestoppers line.

The Countys figures are better than most others, receiving one thousand, seven hundred and seventy seven calls last year. This was a record figure and twenty percent more than the last 12 months.

Hampshire’s chief constable, Paul Kernaghan made the following statement on the matter “The force’s detection rates have risen significantly this year, and Crimestoppers information has certainly assisted this.”

Festival Madness!

I’ve just spent the last few days attempting to buy a Weekend ticket to this years Reading festival, what a stressful time it has been!

The idea was to buy 3 Weekend tickets to the festival with two Uni friends, but this soon became a very tough mission, having to guess times when the already crash-prone website would say there were tickets available. So after an evening of guessing our lives away tiredness eventually kicked in, forcing us to retreat and relax our ‘Refresh page’ fingures. I managed to wake up at 9am to find tickets available on the site, and rushing to the phone we all began ordering the tickets we needed, until right at the end of the purchase is says those 4 dreaded words – “Sorry, Tickets sold out.”

So we eventually phoned up my local box office and to our immense happiness got the day tickets we wanted. And now I have the time to relax and reflect on the energy it has taken, I wonder if this is the future for Festivals like this? My family gave me the ‘Back in my day’ talk about how tickets were only £40 and available on the door, with legends such as The Who and David Bowie playing. Now look at the price and commotion we have to go through to even get day tickets!

Expect a Review of the event after the Festival. Ranting over now – it should be an amazing Festival this year with an all star line-up! Follow the link to the official site below.

http://www.readingfestival.com/home/

Dispatches – Undercover in Tibet

3 Months Undercover, thats dedication to the cause. ‘Attempting something which has never taken place before’ a Free Tibetan named Tash Despar, attempts to show the reality of the crisis in Tibet and faced Imprisonment if he was found.

Amazing video of the crossing over the Himalayas that some of the Tibetans take to escape the Chinese shows them being gunned down “Like Dogs” and interviews with some of the survivors. I found this facinating as they were able to voice their opinions safely to the Dispatches crew, whilst being backed up with real footage from the scene they are describing.

This episode is a big change into the ways Journalism is created and broadcast, especially video Journalism. There is no doubt that this documentary will be remembered for its style and content. Even the fillers are strategically placed to enhance the scenes being set by the narrator, many of the homes created by the Chinese to house Tibetans are located out in the middle of no-where. A falcon or bird of prey is filmed, maybe as a symbol of the dense area in which they live.

In various stages of the program, shots are also filmed from inside the car of police following them curiously, a very risky way to get the shots.

The most memorable scene for me was an interview with a woman who was forced to be sterilised in the most cruel way I have ever heard of, and in the interview agrees to show the scars to the camera. Tash remains calm and keeps the interview running smoothly and allows pauses for the woman to really speak her mind, finishing the interview with “Since then people are too scared to have many Children.”

Whilst this blog is just my view on how well the program was created and carried out, you can find an interesting debate on the Channel 4 News site by folowing this link!

http://community.channel4.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/503603557/m/4800077679