ACHILLES TENDON RUPTURE

Achilles Tendon


Hi folks! Well nearly 5 weeks after I injured my Achilles Tendon during the Unitary Election camapaign, a scan revealed that in fact the Tendon is ruptured. Today I was fitted with a black Wallia boot on my right leg, similar to the one above, in the Bedford Hospital Fracture Clinic and now have to wear this for 8 weeks to help the Achilles Tendon to repair itself. Also I have to do isometric calf exercises.

Apparently it is usually non active middled aged men who rupture their Achilles tendons while playing sports with their kids, so I am just the exception as usual!

The Orthopaedic Consultant does not want to do surgery, as I am a mature woman and my tendon is apparently "squishy" and would be difficult to repair surgically without shortening the tendon. I am not allowed to drive or move about too much, so it looks as if I will have to do a lot of reading. At least I can still get up and down stairs, but I will have to rely on friends and relatives to shop for me.

Unfortunately, this injury is not helping me to bounce back from my Election defeat, but I am trying to be positive - after all I still have two legs. It is such a relief to find out what is wrong with my leg and to start the healing process.

In order to speed up the diagnosis I paid for a private scan, but everything else has been done on the good old NHS. You have to battle over some of the waiting periods - 6 week wait for physio, 6 week waits for scans etc. but when you do get the appointment, the standard of medical expertise is second to none.

Will let you know how I get on.

DAVID CAMERON VISITS LUTON

David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party, visited Luton today soon after making a brilliant speech attacking Gordon Brown's Policy Relaunch "without a price tag" as there will be no Government spending review before the next Election. Cameron lambasted the Prime Minster for his Policy's "lack of honesty on spending" and lack of real reform of our public services".

Today he British-North American Committee, a group of academics and businessmen, published a paper stating that the true cost of pensions for all public sector workers is £1.2 trillion, equal to 85% of Britain's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ie £20,000 for every man, woman and child in Britain for only 25% of the population. Gordon Brown lives in cloud cuckoo land and expects us to believe that the Government can carry on borrowing and spending vast amounts of public money without it having any effect on the British public. He seems to think that the electorate are stupid, which we are not. As Ken Clarke, Shadow Business Secretary said today:
"Britain has a dying Government, past its sell-by date and needing to be replaced"

Cameron rightly attacked Gordon Brown for his proposals which were 'rehashed' or amounted to "timid and bureacratic top-down tinkering" rather than real reform and stressed: "The truth about today's statement is it only serves to highlight the decline of this Government. Their money has run out. Their political capital has run out. And now their time is running out".Later David addressed a group of 80 Conservatives in Luton from across Bedfordshire, answering several questions clearly and honestly. He then went on to address members of the general public at one of his popular Cameron Direct meetings in Luton.

This was my first meeting with David Cameron and I find him an inspirational leader and an open, honest and empathetic speaker. David will be an excellent Prime Minister in 2011 when Gordon Brown is finally forced to call a General Election and loses.

2- TIER OR 3- TIER EDUCATION IN BEDFORD?

Elstow Lower School celebrate Ofsted success

Anne McCormick

At long last BOS has balanced the argument on the 2-tier or 3-tier education debate with an excellent, well argued letter from Anne McCormick, Head of Queen's Park Lower School and Vice Chair of the Bedford Learning Community, supported by all the Bedford Lower School and Nursery School Heads and one Middle School Head.

For too long the Primary Education voice in Bedford has been drowned out in the media by emotional, expensive and misleading propaganda from some Middle School Heads - funded by whom? - school parents or the school budgets? Why did their advertisements include Middle Schools in Central Bedfordshire, which are unaffected by the Bedford Borough proposals? Also why were 2 Bedford Middle School logos used without the permission of the Head Teachers?

The Bedford Borough Lower Schools provide a fantastic education - 80% are Outstanding or Good, including Outstanding schools in areas of social deprivation, like Queens Park Lower, Cauldwell Lower and Elstow Lower - rated Outstanding twice! Their Key Stage 1 results are excellent, but children under perform at Key Stage 2 in Middle Schools, who must bear some responsibility for pupils not achieving their full potential at GCSE. Some Bedford Middle Schools are good and two are Outstanding, but their overall performance is well below that Lower Schools.

Most UK local authorities now operate a 2-tier system, which provided an excellent state education for me and my children, all university graduates, and for two of my grandchildren who are at Primary Schools in Staffordshire and Hertfordshire.

My knowledge is also based on experience as a governor of 6 schools in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, one of the best education authorities in the UK, which has always provided 2-tier education.

In 2006 I was a Bedfordshire County Councillor when the Council wanted to move to
2-tier education but failed due to flawed public consultation, lack of capital finance for new schools and strong opposition from Mid and South Bedfordshire.

In 2009 we have a golden opportunity to get it right and create a good 2-tier education system over a 4/5 year period with £340m.government funding. Elstow Lower School is already working closely with Abbey Middle School to improve school transition and will soon be opening a Pre School - another step towards providing a more integrated 0-19 education system.

It is time to make the decision and move into the 21st Century. The new Bedford Borough Primary Schools will improve Key Stage 2 results and provide the first class education to which our children are entitled.

NORMANDY D DAY INVASION 65TH ANNIVERSARY

President Barack Obama & Prince Charles at the D Day Ceremony


Normandy D Day Invasion 65th Anniversary events in Portsmouth and Normandy, France

Today marks the first day of my new life after nearly 20 years public service as a Councillor in Bedfordshire and North Hertfordshire.

This morning I went to Elstow Abbey Church, read the Epistle and the Gospel and listened to the beautiful singing of the Amity Singers from Jersey. They are part of the Bedford-Jersey Arts Festival, celebrating a 60 year link between Bedford and Jersey children who were evacuated to Bedford during the Second World War.

Yesterday marked the 65th Anniversary of the Normandy D Day Invasion by the British, American and Canadian fleets, which led to the Allies winning and ending the Second World War in 1945. Ceremonies were attended by the Heads of State of France, USA and Canada, plus Prince Charles and Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister. The Queen should have been invited but was not due to errors by both the French and British Governments, and Prince Charles was only invited at the last minute after protests.

Britain was Germany's chief opponent at the beginning of the War, and thousands of Britons died during the Normandy Invasion to save France from the Nazis. This was a gross discourtesy and yet another example of the incompetence of Gordon Brown and his tired Labour Government. It 's time for a General Election and change!

President Sarkozy. the French President is only interested in hitching his waning star to the glamorous President Obama, the most poopular world leader, which is perhaps unsurprising as he hopes that some of the stardust will rub off on him.

My late father was decorated by the French Government with the Croix de Guerre for his role in the 1944 Normandy Invasion. He was a navigator in HMS Frobisher, the leading frigate in the British fleet, one of the first ships to arrive in Normandy.

The photographs above are a sample of the various events taking place in Portsmouth, where I grew up as the child of a naval family, and Normandy, including the beach at Arromanches. All the remaining veterans are in their 80's and 90's and very frail.

UNITARY ELECTION RESULT

Andrew Philips travels on horseback to vote in Wilstead

Well it is all over! I lost my seat after 7 years as a Bedford Councillor in spite of strong support from voters in Elstow and Wilstead - thank you to all those who voted for me and especially to my small dedicated band of campaign helpers.

I had a very tough election campaign against a well known Independent candidate, born and bred in Wilstead, who resigned from the Conservative Party in April. My vote was only 70 less than in 2007 but I lost by 153 votes, because 100 Conservative
supporters switched due to their anger over the MP expenses scandal and I was the victim of a 'dirty tricks' campaign just before Election Day from the Independent Councillor I defeated in 2005 and 2007.

No one can say I did not try hard enough - after knocking on 2,000 doors and distributing 10000 leaflets and letters, which led to the damage to my leg which will take some time to heal. At present I am having to use a walking stick and I could not possibly issue a rebuttal in time to the potentially libellous letter.

One Conservative voter, Andrew Philips, travelled to Wilstead Village on horseback to vote as a protest over his situation. His farmhouse is in Haynes, Central Beds and is accessed from Haynes High Street, but his farmland is in Wilstead, Bedford Borough Council. After the Unitary reorganisation, Andrew and his family were put on the Bedford Borough Council electoral roll. Andrew is Chairman of Haynes Parish Council and his house can only be accessed from Haynes, so naturally he wants the boundaries changed so that he can vote in Central Bedfordshire. I have supported Andrew's campaign for several months but the Boundaries Commission will not be able to resolve the anomaly until 2010, when the Ward Boundaries are reviewed.

TWO DAYS TO GO.......

I am still smiling although I can hardly walk after straining the Achilles tendon in my right leg on Sunday while delivering 300 letters to voters. Panic set in as my leg swelled up and I wondered how to continue my election campaign and deliver another 800 letters.

By Monday morning my fighting spirit had returned and I persuaded 5 friends to deliver most of the letters for me. Fortunately I can still drive as my right foot is unaffected; only the ankle and calf hurt. My leg is in a tubular support bandage and my doctor says it will take a long time to heal and there is a 6 week waiting list for physiotherapy - the joys of the NHS! In July 2004 I sustained a similar injury to my left leg which took nearly 12 months to heal completely.

Over the past five weeks, I have knocked on 2,000 doors and delivered thousands of leaflets in Elstow and Wisltead, and two other areas - Oakley and Castle Wards to help out fellow Councillors. Thank goodness it will all be over on Thursday.

LAST WEEK OF ELECTION CAMPAIGN

CANVASSING TEAM IN CASTLE WARD

Yesterday I took 2 hours off my own Election Campaign to help my fellow Conservative Councillor Andrew McConnell and David Fletcher campaign against two Independent Councillors in Castle Ward in the centre of Bedford. Most people were surprisingly friendly on the doorstep on a lovely sunny afternoon.

In the present political climate it is hard to fight Independent candidates, as I am also doing, because the electorate are angry with the 3 main political parties. However, Nigel Farage, UKIP Leader, has just boasted that he has claimed £2 million in expenses since he was elected as an MEP. UKIP have achieved nothing since 2004, apart from expelling 2 MEPs including Tom Wise for alleged expenses fraud. As for their 2004 claim that UKIP would take Britian out of Europe - a small group of UKIP MEPs is no match for the other 700+ MEPs committed to the European Union.

Tom Wise, a former police officer and Leighton Buzzard resident, had the audacity to try to stand again this year as an Independent MEP candidate until he was advised that he had to face fraud charges in court in mid June for misappropriating £40,000 of expenses! Let's hope he receive a jail sentence and drops out of public life.

As for my own election campaign I have now knocked 2,100 doors, mainly on my own, and delivered 9,000 leaflets and letters, with another 1,000 to go out this week. Most of the hard work has been done by me, with a tiny band of helpers. I would love to see Esther Rantzen, David Van Day and other TV celebrities tempted to enter politics deal with all the walking and door knocking in blazing sunshine that I and thousands of other election candidates have done for several weeks in this Election Campaign, dealing with a lot of public hostility about MP expenses.

Last weekend I voted by post, as I have done for many years due to past business commitments. Be prepared for a long yellow sheet of paper listing 14 different parties and dozens of candidates. Voters will be confused by all the new fringe parties this time - Liberata, Jury Team, UK Democracy, Christian Party etc.

If you want to get rid of the worst Prime Minister in living history, just vote Conservative and forget all the others!