999 CALL for NHS | Letter of support

To welcome the 999 CALL for NHS march to Leicester on Saturday (30th August) Labour MPs, Councillors, members, supporters and campaigners from Leicester and Leicestershire have published a letter of support.

The 'Darlo Mums' are marching symbolically from Jarrow to London and are attracting strong support in towns and cities along their march. On Saturday the march will set off from Loughborough and will arrive in Leicester at around 4:30pm. The following day the march will depart for Market Harborough.

A rally will be held in Town Hall Square at 5:15pm on Saturday to welcome the marchers. If you care about our NHS and want to voice your opposition to the governments destruction of our health service please come along. 

You can read the full text of the letter and list of signatories here.

It has been signed by over 100 people including Leicester's Labour MPs Jon Ashworth, Liz Kendall and Keith Vaz; City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby; Deputy City Mayor Rory Palmer; Labour Parliamentary Candidates for constituencies in Leicestershire Matthew O'Callaghan, Jamie McMahon, Amanda Hack, Sundip Meghani & Sean Kelly-Walsh; East Midlands Labour MEP Glenis Willmott; Labour City and County Councillors; representatives of local Labour Constituency Parties; trade union activists; members of the local Campaign Against NHS Privatisation; and many more.

UPDATED 
More letters added to the letter of support, which can be read here.
Leicester Mercury coverage of the rally in Town Hall Square can be read here.

Leicester Pride 2014

I am looking forward to this year’s Leicester Pride, which is always an excellent event. I want to congratulate the Pride Committee for their hard work and determination in organising this year’s event. Pride is a powerful and vibrant illustration of Leicester’s diversity and the strength we draw as a city from that diversity. Pride also serves as an important reminder of the importance of the continuing campaigns for equality here and in other parts of the world. I send my best wishes to everyone attending this year’s Leicester Pride.

Opening Leicester Pride 2012

Morally wrong to make patients pay for hospital parking

Article for LabourList.

Over the Bank Holiday weekend the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was trumpeting his new ‘ground rules’ to address rip-off hospital car parking. Any action to curb extortionate car parking prices at hospitals should be welcomed. However, reading these new ‘principles’ it appears they are not enforceable.

My assumption was confirmed when the Department of Health answered a tweet from me by stating that ‘NHS Trusts will be held accountable to local people and organisations that represent them e.g. HealthWatch’. This confirms that the new guidelines amount to little more than a press release. It seems that hospital trusts will be free to continue charging high prices for parking.

It is morally wrong for patients with chronic conditions attending hospital for treatment sometimes on a daily basis, and visitors, to be worrying about paying for parking. The NHS was built on the basis of treatment free at the point of access. Car parking costs contradict this and should be stopped. With many NHS trusts contracting out car parking services this is yet another example of profit over patients.

When patients have to worry about paying for parking when they attend for their treatment or when families struggle to visit loved ones in hospital because of parking charges something has gone badly wrong in our health service. The coalition government abandoned Labour’s plans to phase out hospital parking charges in 2010.

Hospital car parking prices have gone up at one in four hospitals under the Tory-led Government. Jeremey Hunt’s Bank Holiday press release does nothing to address this. We need action not words. I want to see legislation introduced to ban rip-off hospital parking and to introduce free parking at NHS hospitals for patients and visitors.

A future Labour government should act on day one to end rip-off hospital parking and set out plans to end parking charges at NHS hospitals.

This article first appeared on LabourList, 27 August 2014.

Election Day

Thank you to everyone who has helped the East Midlands Labour campaign.

Today is Polling Day. Please remember to vote, and encourage your family, friends and colleagues to vote Labour today.

Every vote will make a difference. 

Find out more about Labour's plans to tackle the cost of living crisis here.
Labour's manifesto for the European elections is here.

Please tweet your support through the day #labourdoorstep #EP2014 #forthemany #IVotedLabourBecause...

@Rory_Palmer | www.facebook.com/RoryPalmerLabour

Campaign update blog

With just a few days to go until Election Day here's a quick update from the last few weeks.

Hundreds of Labour activists are busy campaigning across the East Midlands ahead of Thursday's elections. Thank you to everyone who is helping with our campaign. In recent weeks it has been good to join our campaign teams in Bassetlaw, Chesterfield, Lincoln, Erewash, Nottingham, Leicester, South Leicestershire, Buxton, Derby and Northampton.

We have also held local launch events for the final stages of our campaign. There is coverage of the events here from BBC Derby and the Leicester Mercury. 

Campaign launch in Northampton.

Campaign launch at Leicester's Clock Tower.
Photo: Will Johnston/ Leicester Mercury

Campaign launch in Nottingham.

On 28 April I joined local trade union officials and activists at the annual Workers Memorial Day event in Leicester's Town Hall Square. This is an important event and reminds us of the importance of effective health and safety laws and the need for those laws to be enforced.

It was good to join the annual Vaisakhi celebrations in Leicester including the wonderful Nagar Kirtan Parade. It was good to see so many people at the parade and celebrations at local Gurdwaras and to catch up with the Leicester Sikh Alliance and other local organisations. Many people have asked for my views on recent revelations regarding British Government and the massacre at the Amritsar Golden Temple in 1984. My view is that there should be an independent and judge-led inquiry carried out transparently, with key documents to be made public. A timetable for such an inquiry should be set out as quickly as possible.

Serving Langar with Jon Ashworth MP
at Guru Tegh Bahadur in Leicester.

It was also good to be at the annual Artisan Cheese Fair in Melton, which was again a brilliant celebration and showcase of local food producers. I have written before about my commitment, if elected, to champion the East Midlands' food and drink industry. 

With Matthew O'Callaghan at the Melton Mowbray
Artisan Cheese Fair.

Finally, with just a few days until Polling Day here's a blog for LabourList by European Parliamentary Labour Party Leader and my East Midlands colleague Glenis Willmott.

Thank you again to everyone who is supporting the Labour campaign for Thursday's elections. All your help and support is much appreciated.

Twitter @Rory_Palmer | Facebook www.facebook.com/RoryPalmerLabour

www.eastmidslabour.org.uk

Animal welfare pledges

Animal welfare is an important area of European law.

I have pledged that if elected as an MEP I will support measures to strengthen animal welfare laws. Cruelty to animals is abhorrent and we need strong and effective animal welfare laws. We also need those laws to be properly enforced here in the UK and across the European Union.

As a candidate in the European Parliament elections I have signed up to the RSPCA's animal welfare pledge and the Eurogroup for Animals/ Vote for Animals pledge.

I am also supportive of the work of the Labour Animal Welfare Society, an organisation that works to help develop Labour's policy on animal welfare. You can find out more about the Labour Animal Welfare Society's work here.

Backing East Midlands pubs and breweries | CAMRA campaign

It is good to be getting so many e-mails from CAMRA members from across the East Midlands ahead of the European elections in May (my response is also set out below).

If I am elected I would want to work with CAMRA and the European Beer Consumers Union to protect local pubs and support the brewing industry. You can read the European Beer Consumers Union manifesto here.

My response to e-mails from CAMRA members:

Thank you for your recent e-mail asking me to support real ale, community pubs and consumer rights if I am elected as an MEP for the East Midlands in May's elections.

I am proud to be a member of CAMRA and agree with you that pubs are a valuable British institution and play an important role in our local communities. 

I am very concerned about the numbers of pubs closing, for a variety of reasons, and I want to see action taken at local and national levels to protect our pubs.

I agree that more should be done to promote our local brewing industry through free tie options and a guest beer right for licensees. There are many excellent breweries across the East Midlands region and I want to see them thrive now and in the future. I also agree that beer should be affordable and I recognise the important role that local pubs play in promoting safe and responsible drinking.

You may be interested in an article I wrote for the Leicester CAMRA newsletter setting out my support for local pubs. It is in the March/April 2013 edition and can be read here. 

I am always happy to meet with local CAMRA branches and would welcome opportunities to do so.

If I am elected as an MEP in May's elections I will be proud to champion our region's pubs and brewing industry in Europe.

The ECBU manifesto.

World Horse Welfare European manifesto

Thank you to everyone who has contacted me recently about World Horse Welfare's manifesto for the European Parliament elections.

I support the aims set out in World Horse Welfare's manifesto and will support these aims if I am elected as an MEP in May.

The manifesto can be read here.

Vaisakhi Food Drive in Leicester

Last weekend I was pleased to be able to support the Vaisakhi Food Drive at Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara in Leicester.

I want to congratulate everyone involved in organising the Food Drive. Whilst it is regrettable that we need such events organising, it was inspiring to see so many people, including many young people, supporting the event. Donations on the day totalled 11 tonnes of food which will support local food banks.

There is a video of the event here, and coverage from Pukaar News here.

It was an honour to be able to speak at the Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara and pass on my Vaisakhi greetings. It was also good to visit Guru Amar Das Gurdwara for Vaisakhi celebrations as well.

Supporting the Vaisakhi Food Drive
in Leicester.

Food poverty should not exist and we are seeing increasing demand at food banks across the area. A few weeks ago I took part in a panel discussion at Leicester Cathedral chaired by the Bishop of Leicester on the issue of food poverty. In my view food poverty is a national scandal requiring urgent action. Prices are going up whilst earnings are stagnant. Many households have also been hit by the Government's changes to welfare benefits. There is a report of the 'Chewing the Cud' panel discussion here.

Campaign update blog

With less than 40 days until Polling Day Labour campaign teams are busy across all parts of the East Midlands.

Thank you to everyone who has been campaigning recently; knocking on doors, delivering literature or helping in other ways. All your efforts are appreciated and will make a real difference. In recent weeks I have campaigned in Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Kettering, North West Leicestershire, Northampton North, Wellingborough, Bosworth and Lincoln.

With the campaign team in Northampton North with
Sally Keeble recently.

I have recently taken part in two hustings events with candidates from other parties. The first of these events was a debate on climate change and environmental policy held at De Montfort University in Leicester as part of the GreenLight Festival.

Taking part in the GreenLight Festival MEP
candidate hustings.

I also took part in a debate hosted by the Nottingham Post. Nottingham City Councillor Michael Edwards did a blog write-up of the event here.

Since my last campaign update blog I have spoken at a number of events across the region including Newark Branch Labour Party; the Unison Labour Link Political Forum; Nottingham South Constituency Labour Party; Nottingham Labour by-election victory social; Western Park, Leicester Branch Labour Party and the South Leicestershire Labour Party Annual Dinner where I spoke alongside Labour Party Vice-Chair Michael Dugher MP.
It was also good to join friends from across the region at a dinner organised by East Midlands TULO (Trade Union - Labour Party Liaison Organisation) which was addressed by GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny, Glenis Willmott MEP and Michael Dugher MP.

Speaking alongside Glenis Willmott at the Unison
Labour Link Political Forum.

Addressing the South Leicestershire
Labour Party Annual Dinner.

It was also good to join Liz Kendall MP and friends from Leicester West Labour Party for their recent social event at Namaste restaurant on Narborough Road.

To coincide with the 50 day countdown to Polling Day I wrote an article for LabourList setting out the key issues we are hearing on the campaign trail and the dividing lines that are defining this campaign. You can read the article here.

If you would like to support our campaign you can find out more details and sign-up for local campaign sessions here. Thank you to everyone who has helped so far.

Twitter @Rory_Palmer | Facebook www.facebook.com/RoryPalmerLabour 

www.eastmidslabour.org.uk