Julian Sturdy

Ireland the only Country of the 27 Member States that currently make up the European Union to have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty have potentially saved our country from handing over even more powers to Brussels in the name of this Treaty. We therefore owe enormous thanks to those Irish voters who voted No and in turn derailed the Lisbon Treaty - the EU Constitution under another name. Something I am confident would have happened in this Country if our Prime Minister had honoured his Parties’ manifesto pledge and given us a referendum.

Despite claims from EU Leaders saying “ratification will continue” this Treaty is all but finished, the legal position is clear the Treaty cannot come into force until all 27 member states ratify it. 

Thank you Ireland.

William Hague writing in the Sunday Telegraph renews his call for Gordon Brown to give the British people a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Watch David Cameron as he gives his reaction to Irelands No vote to the Treaty.

Congratulations to Edward Timpson MP, our new Member of Parliament for Crewe and Nantwich following his election on Thursday in the by-election. 

I spent a number of days over in Nantwich helping to campaign and there was no doubt that the good people of Crewe and Nantwich were ready for a change. However, I have to confess I was not expecting the size of the victory that we achieved, it was a fantastic result announced in the early hours of Friday morning, which saw the Conservatives gain the seat  with a 17.6% swing from Labour. 

Reading the papers today this crushing defeat for Gordon Brown and his Labour Party has attracted some very bad headlines for him:

“Labour fighting for its Life: the Government has been put on notice after Labours mauling in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election.” Yorkshire Post

“Is this the end of new Labour. As Labour reeled from its worst by-election defeat for 30 years, the Cabinet yesterday launched a last ditch effort to save Gordon Brown.” Daily Mail 

Despite these damming headlines for Gordon Brown (and I am sure the Sunday Papers will be no better) this is only one by-election, a General Election whenever it is called will be a different ball game. But the tide is turning and there must be a lot of very worried Labour and Liberal MP’s starting to look over their shoulders and wonder what the future holds. A Conservative future led by David Cameron.  

Last weekend Susan Wade Weeks (Conservative Parliamentary Candidate York Central) and I launched a campaign to encourage shoppers in York to stop using plastic bags. The campaign entitled “Plastic Ain’t York’s Bag” was launched in York City centre with us giving away 1,000 Fair Trade cotton bags in exchange for shoppers’ plastic bags.

The cotton bags were warmly welcomed by shoppers who were queuing up to exchange their plastic bags for a more attractive and environmentally friendly alternative. In fact everyone was thrilled with the bags and very keen to play their part, we had an amazing response. Our message to everyone on the day was simple – just say no to plastic in York. As consumers we have a great deal of power. If we all decide together that we don’t want something, we can really get results. This was a great start.

Heavy winds earlier in the spring resulted in an appalling number of plastic bags being blown from landfill sites and decorating the trees and hedgerows in our area. We also know now that there is a growing problem with a whirlpool of plastic bags in the Pacific Ocean endangering sea-life. It really is time to try and tackle this growing problem which is what our campaign aims to do.

We collected over a thousand plastic bags which will all be recycled.

P.S. What a great result for Leeds United on Thursday night beating Carlisle 2-0 to get into the playoff final at Wembley next Sunday. 

Today sadly is the last day that Fulford Post Office is open for business, and when Aasif Rabbani (sub postmaster) closes the door for the last time it will not only mean the lose of yet another local post office but also for the residents of Fulford, the lose of their local community shop as well.

This morning I went down to visit Aasif at the post office to whish him all the best for the future and to apologise for not succeeding in our quest to save this vital community facility from closure. Sadly it could have been so much different if the Government hadn’t pushed ahead with its plans to close 2,500 post offices across the country, pulled business out of the post office network and undermined its finances.

When the closure was announced the local community rallied around in support, we put in objections, gathered signatures on our petition which culminated in Aasif and myself presenting the petition to Number 10 Downing Street, but all to no avail as the closure plan ploughed ahead regardless of local opinion. Then a ray of hope as the Conservative Party put forward an early day motion to halt all closures. Surely all Labour MP’s campaigning against PO closures in their own constituencies would support this, sadly that was not the case as we lost the vote by a mere twenty votes. At least 19 principled Labour MP’s voted with us including John Grogran.

Unfortunately it is local communities like Fulford that have lost out as yet another important community facility closes its doors for the last time, a sad day for Fulford.

The village of Dunnington launched its bid for glory in this years Britain in Bloom competition with an excellent fundraising event in the village on Saturday night which my wife and I attended. I have supported Dunnington in this competition for a number of years now and whish them all the best for this year’s competition and I look forward to helping out at the next working party.  The competition helps to bring together local people of all ages to get involved in their local communities. The village of Dunnington is a great example of this with a tremendous amount of effort going into making the village a place everyone feels proud to live in. The hard work paid dividend last summer when the village won Yorkshire in Bloom, let us hope they can go one better this year and win Britain in Bloom.     

Many of you will have read in the The York Press earlier this week about the shocking figures revealing that more than 1,000 people have been denied treatment by North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust in 2007 following the introduction of its vetting panel. Following this shocking news I have written to the Chief Executive of North Yorkshire and York PCT calling for an urgent meeting to discuss these recent revelations.

In my letter to the Chief Executive, I have said:

“I am deeply concerned to learn about the large number of patients who have been refused treatment during 2007 by North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust’s vetting panel. At the time your PCT set this up, there was great opposition from local GPs who felt this would restrict the service they could provide and caused great distress to patients.

“Given the impact this policy is having in North Yorkshire, and the large number of concerned residents who have contacted me on this matter in the York Outer area, I would very much welcome an opportunity to discuss this in greater detail with you. I feel it is important that we have clarity over this issue given the great concern over healthcare in North Yorkshire, and the fear from a number of quarters that we are ending up with a postcode lottery health care service in our region.

“I look forward to you response and very much hope that we can meet in the very near future to discuss my concerns further.”

One of the questions I want answering is when the Humber’s Strategic Health Authority is expected to end the year with a staggering £280 million surplus, why should patients in North Yorkshire still suffer from a postcard lottery health care service?

Last week David Cameron brought the Shadow Cabinet to Yorkshire. He met with his team at Bradford’s Great Victoria Hotel before they went out on visits across our County.

In York we had the great pleasure of hosting Chris Grayling who is the Shadow Secretary of State of Work and Pensions. We visited Haxby and Wigginton Youth and Community Association at the Oaken Grove Community Centre, following a tour round the centre we met with some of the trustees, before going on to meet with local pensioners. Chris discussed with them the problems facing pensioners at the moment and their concern’s for the future.

This is my second visit to the Community Centre in Haxby and I have to commend everyone involved in the centre for helping to provide such a fantastic facility for the local community, it is a credit to the dedication and devotion of everyone at the centre.    

I would like to sincerely thank all those who rallied around and supported my petition protesting against the proposed closure of Fulford Post Office.

The response to the petition, which called on Gordon Brown to halt the ongoing post office closure program and keep post offices like Fulford open, has been simply fantastic. This culminated in Fulford postmaster Aasif Rabbani and myself presenting it to 10 Downing Street on Wednesday January 16^th.

It was essential that we responded swiftly and demonstrated our strength and unity and the full extent of our outrage, anger and frustration at these closure plans. I believe the residents of Fulford and North Yorkshire have sent a strong message to Gordon Brown which shows we will not stand by and let these closures happen.

After presenting the petition to number 10 and following a couple of radio interviews we met up with Charles Hendry the Conservative Shadow minister with responsibilities for Post Offices, at this point the day had gone extremely well but sadly things were about to take a turn for the worst. We arrived at Kings Cross to catch our train back to find that a points failure just outside the station meant no trains were coming in, after standing on the platform for over three hours with hundreds of other frustrated people we final boarded a train and arrived back into York at one o’clock in the morning. However if we save Fulford Post Office it will have all been worth it.

Ellee Seymour travelled to Number 10 with us read more about the day on her blog.   

The public consultation period is drawing to a close on the proposed post office closures across North Yorkshire. Therefore I am travelling to London tomorrow to present the petition I have been running against the closure of the post office in Fulford to the Prime Minister’s office in 10 Downing Street. 

I will be accompanied by the Fulford post master Aasif Rabbani during the trip and we will deliver a clear and resounding message on behalf of the Fulford residents, that villagers need and deserve a post office to serve their needs.

Under this Government there has sadly been a gradual erosion of the sub-post office network and they are ignoring the vital social role they play in our local communities like Fulford.

I felt it was essential that we responded strongly showing the strength of public anger and frustration at these latest proposals and that is why I am taking the petition to 10 Downing Street. The support we have received for our campaign has been fantastic and I would like to thank all those people who have signed our petition.

I am absolutely appalled that the Government has encouraged developers to pursue a covert plan for 5,500 new homes on the edge of the historic city of York. To hear that York City Council has had no knowledge of this makes a mockery of the local Government process and all the work that has gone into the Local Development Framework by the Council

The Government seems prepared to ride roughshod over planning authorities and local communities to meet its own targets on building new homes. Further development in York has to be concentrated on our existing Brownfield sites to meet the future housing demand. 

A proposal of this type would have disastrous consequences for the local community and surrounding area. York?s green belt should be treasured for future generations, it is not something you can concrete over on a Government whim, and the impact on the already heavily congested Northern Ring Road would be just unimaginable.

Although this outrageous proposal is at a very early stage, and hopefully will never see the light of day, we must still fight to protect our green belt, to protect our existing village communities surrounding York.