Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Roger Godsiff supports the ‘Giving Voice’ campaign.
Roger Godsiff MP and Speech and Language Therapist, Siobhán Keohane, meet up for a cuppa on the Terrace of the House of Commons in support of the ‘Giving Voice’ campaign which seeks to highlight the unique value of speech and language therapy services.
Friday, 14 October 2011
Roger Godsiff MP Opposes High Speed 2
High Speed 2
4.18 pm
Mr Roger Godsiff (Birmingham, Hall Green) (Lab): Many people are using public transport more these days, particularly the railways, despite the extortionate fares that train operating companies extract from customers for the cheap but not very cheerful service they usually get, particularly on commuter lines. I very much welcome the increased use of public transport, because it reduces carbon emissions and is generally better for the environment.
Two acts of monumental folly have affected the railway industry in the past 50 years. The first was the decision in the early 1960s by the Conservative Government of the day to let Dr Beeching butcher Britain’s network of branch lines, which had linked communities across the country. The second was the decision by another Conservative Government to privatise the railways in the early ’90s, a decision that even the arch-privatiser, Mrs Thatcher, had the good sense not to pursue. Of course, this has meant that the taxpayer has been paying vastly more in subsidy to train operating companies and to the network than was ever paid pro rata to British Rail. I hope that the coalition and the Minister will not, over this decision, make it three monumental follies in a row.
The coalition proposes that we spend £32 billion by 2026 on a new rail project from London to Birmingham, which then goes on to Leeds and Manchester by 2032, allegedly saving 30 minutes’ travelling time from Birmingham and 50 minutes from Manchester. The fact that business people invariably travel first class and can use their computers and communications networks while travelling, while others will remain in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester and hold meetings using video conferencing facilities, is dismissed by the vested interest groups, which see a massive tranche of public money that they would like to access.
At a time when ordinary people are facing massive reductions in their living standards, living under threat of losing their jobs and watching their community services such as libraries, Sure Start centres and centres for elderly people being axed, we are prepared to commit £17 billion, the estimated cost of the line from London to Birmingham, in order to get business people from Birmingham to London 30 minutes sooner—always assuming that there are no high-speed leaves on the line and the high-speed signalling equipment actually works.
No wonder an online survey by the Birmingham Post showedthat 75% of respondents were against the project.
What other inflated claims are made for the project? It is said that it will help to diminish regional inequalities and promote growth, but there is no evidence of that. If we look at what has happened in Japan, Spain and France, we find that the high-speed connections there have benefited the hub much more than the outer communities.
What about the effect of the project on towns and cities that High Speed 2 will bypass? The deputy leader of Coventry city council says that the plans for High Speed 2 send a clear message that
Bearing in mind what my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry North West (Mr Robinson) said about Birmingham, I suggest that that might not be a bad idea.
Where high-speed trains do work is in countries with large land mass, but in other, smaller countries they take resources from humbler but more needed schemes, such as the upgrading of existing networks, signalling and infrastructure. Unfortunately, however, we all know as politicians that unveiling a new signal box tends to appeal less than inaugurating a futuristic new service. The project’s other exaggerated claims have already been dealt with.
Hugh Bayley: Does my hon. Friend realise that the project is not a zero-sum game? As in any business, if one invests in a new product, one gets new customers and generates economic growth. We need investment in the current network, for sure, but that is no reason not to go ahead with High Speed 2.
Mr Godsiff: I am all in favour of infrastructure investment, but I can think of a whole host of infrastructure investment on which £32 billion could be spent in my constituency, my hon. Friend’s constituency and many other constituencies. This project is not good value for money, and it has not been thought through.
Dr Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con): Surely it is a zero-sum game, as the hon. Gentleman said earlier, because, at a time when we in constituencies that are not directly affected by this railway project are nevertheless having to fight, for example, to save hospitals from closure due to cuts, it seems sheer madness to look at this level of investment instead of at saving our services.
Putting aside my views on the subject, I shall share with the House the views of a Manchester-based businessman who came to London on Tuesday for a meeting of the Surface Engineering Association, an excellent organisation that looks after the interests of companies operating in that segment of manufacturing industry. I asked him how long it had taken to travel down to London that day, and he said “Two hours, eight minutes.” He asked why I wanted to know and I told him about the upcoming debate on High Speed 2. He responded that getting to London from Manchester 50 minutes quicker did not really bother him because he used train time to work on his computer and to make calls. He ventured the opinion that if the Government had that sort of money to spend, they should do something about the bottlenecks on the M6, as well as improving the transport infrastructure in many of our cities.
Those views are similar to the majority of those expressed to me by business people in my constituency. Not one business person has come to me and said, “Thirty minutes is going to make the difference between my company succeeding or not.” It is a fallacy to believe otherwise. However, over the years, plenty of constituents have come to me and said that there should be better public transport facilities within Birmingham—an underground system such as the one in London, a tram system such as those that operate in European cites, improved bus services, or new or reopened train lines and stations within and around the city. Those are the types of improvements that the people of Birmingham want, not a vastly expensive link between London and Birmingham.
People have expressed a great deal of concern about the damage that this will cause in the Chilterns and Warwickshire. The impression has been given that only people who live there are concerned about those areas. In fact, many people living in Birmingham travel to the countryside, especially elderly people in my constituency who have enjoyed the benefits of the free or concessionary fares introduced by the Labour Government. They
enjoy the countryside; they are certainly not part of the “carpet the countryside with concrete” brigade, and neither am I.
We have had many vanity projects in this country that have been a disaster. I hope the Minister will think again about this project, because I believe that if it goes ahead, it will be a disaster
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Roger Godsiff backs ‘Smoothie’ project
Roger gave his support to the British Heart Foundation campaign to persuade people to take more exercise and to refresh themselves by consuming healthy drinks when he attended the first project in his constituency at the Shree Laxmi Narayan Mandir in Warwick Road.
The scheme enables participants to use an exercise bike which is linked to a machine which makes the ‘smoothie’ of your choice thereby enabling people to both exercise and to refresh themselves with healthy drinks.
Joining staff for the event Roger said: “This is an excellent idea. It not only enables people to exercise but to manufacture their own smoothie drinks and having both used the exercise bike and consumed the drink of my choice I would recommend this imaginative idea to everybody.”
Thursday, 18 August 2011
COUNTRYWIDE DISORDERS OVER THE LAST WEEK
The attacks on individuals and property and the looting and thieving from shops as well as the burning of commercial premises and people’s homes is a national disgrace and should be condemned unreservedly.
Whatever happened over the shooting in Tottenham can in no way be offered as a justification or excuse for the wanton destruction and looting which has taken place in areas and cities far removed from Tottenham. The family of Mark Duggan who was shot dead have totally disassociated themselves from the acts of violence and looting.
The first and only priority was, rightly, for the forces of law and order to reclaim control of the streets of our cities so as to allow ordinary citizens to feel safe and for shops and businesses to re-open. Those individuals who have been involved in the wanton acts of violence, looting and arson are being brought before the Courts and I welcome the speed with which this is being done.
Once people can feel safe to go about their everyday lives there are wider questions which need to be addressed. The events surrounding the shooting of Mark Duggan are rightly being investigated by the IPPC and questions need to be asked about whether his family were given appropriate information and counselling after the incident. Questions also need to be asked as to why it is that we have individuals and groups in our society who are so alienated that they think nothing about engaging in opportunistic crimes such as looting and destroying their own communities.
We also need to consider how we can break-up the ‘gang culture’ which has grown up in a number of our cities and which acts as a magnet - particularly for disaffected young people. These and many other questions need to be asked - will be asked - and need to be discussed and debated over the coming months once normality has returned to the streets of our cities.
I commend the bravery of the Police in confronting the rioters and the spontaneous efforts by thousands of ordinary citizens in Birmingham and throughout the country who set about clearing and cleaning up their neighbourhoods which had been attacked.
I welcomed the commitment given by the Prime Minister that all necessary resources will be made available to the Police in order to reclaim the streets of our cities but his Government also needs to look again at their policy of cuts in Police numbers which are bound mean that there are less Police, PCSOs and Special Constables on our streets in future. Taking Police Officers from behind desks to put on the streets is all very well but somebody has got to prepare the charge sheets and paperwork for the Courts otherwise the Courts will dismiss the cases and criminals will walk free.
Furthermore what happened last week cannot be divorced from what is happening throughout society at the moment. Every section of our society – except those who are extremely wealthy – are facing increasing financial pressures caused by the financial crisis which began in 2007 when the Government had to bail out Northern Rock and accelerated in 2008 when Lehman Brothers went bust. The crisis was not caused by ordinary people. It was not caused by nurses or teachers; public sector workers; people working in the private sector; small businessmen; students or retired people. It was caused by the greed, selfishness and irresponsibility of a small group in the financial sector but everybody is now paying the price. The squeeze and drop in living standards for ordinary people is the severest since the 1930s.
Nothing that I have said should be interpreted as any form of justification, excuse or apology for the despicable acts that we have witnessed over the last week but there is an old saying - ‘the devil makes work for idle hands’. Most, but not all, of the individuals involved in the in the acts of criminality have been young people. With youth unemployment, including graduates, standing at 20%; cut-backs taking place in a whole range of support services; the Future Jobs Fund and Education Maintenance Allowance abolished; youth centres and leisure facilities being closed or their usage restricted and recreation grounds and parks having their maintenance reduced it is self apparent that there are going to be a lot of young people, many of them very impressionable, hanging around on our streets with very little to do and no money in their pockets. It was like a tinderbox waiting to be set alight.
There are two more points I would wish to make.
Last week the Prime Minister said that he wouldn’t allow Human Rights Legislation to interfere with seeking out the perpetrators of these acts of criminality. This might have superficial attractions and is certainly a popular ‘sound-bite’ but we need to be careful. If we are saying that we are standing up for the rule of law and that it must be upheld in a democratic and civilised society then we have to stand by the rule of law as it is - even if it can be an impediment to swift action. Certainly all the individuals involved in these acts of criminality need to be arrested and brought before the Courts but we need to do this within the law and if changes need to be made in our Human Rights Legislation, or our relationship with the European Convention on Human Rights, then these changes need to be made for the right reasons and not as a kneejerk response to these acts of criminality for which the Police have plenty of existing powers to arrest, detain and charge the people involved.
The last point I would make is that the disturbances and destruction have not just resulted in property and possessions being lost but have also resulted in three tragic fatalities in Birmingham and one in London. The three young boys who were tragically killed in Dudley Road were doing nothing more than trying to defend, with others, their properties. Similar groups of people and shopkeepers have joined together in many other towns and cities. These are not vigilante groups. They are just groups of ordinary innocent people whose lives and livelihoods are suddenly under threat and if the Police were too stretched to respond to their calls for help then, so far as I am concerned, they were perfectly entitled to join with others in protecting their own property and possessions. The three young people were killed as part of the madness that descended on Birmingham on Tuesday night and our thoughts and condolences have to be with their families of these three young men. The dignified and measured comments of the father on one of the victims was incredibly moving and clearly shows that even at a time of despair goodness and dignity can prevail.
We owe it to those who lost their lives to make sure that everything is done to prevent similar occurrences happening again.
Monday, 8 August 2011
Roger Godsiff Corporate Media
Dear All,
There was a supplement in yesterday’s Birmingham Post, “The Business of the Olympics – the West Midlands Connection”, which has inadvertently and mistakenly made a connection between Roger Godsiff MP and the Birmingham company, Corporate Media Ltd.
Advantage West Midlands, in its role of tracking firms in Birmingham which have won contracts to supply the London 2012 Games, keeps a list of these successes, broken down by Parliamentary Constituency. AWM supplied this list to the Birmingham Post, as a good news story, to help preparation of the Olympic supplement.
In the case of Birmingham Hall Green, the Constituency MP, Roger Godsiff, is named after his Constituency (as are all other MPs); and on the line below that is the first contract winner (in alphabetical order) in Hall Green - Corporate Media Ltd.
By mistake, these two lines of text have been combined in the newspaper article, making “Roger Godsiff Corporate Media”. This is an error, and Advantage West Midlands apologises for this and regrets any misunderstanding caused. I am sure the Birmingham Post will also separately make the situation clear.
Jim Johnston
Business Manager - 2012 Games
Advantage West Midlands
Switchboard 0121 380 3500
Direct Line 0121 503 3299
Mobile 07880 740 141
Dear all, just to follow up from Jim's previous email, I would just like to reiterate the points he has made that the mistake is ours and that there is absolutely no doubt that Roger Godsiff has no connection whatsoever with Corporate Media Ltd or any other company that has benefitted from Olympic contracts, certainly to our knowledge.
While the mistake was completely unintentional, it has undoubtedly caused some distress to Mr Godsiff and for that we unreservedly apologise.
best regards
Alun Thorne
Editor
Birmingham Post
While the mistake was completely unintentional, it has undoubtedly caused some distress to Mr Godsiff and for that we unreservedly apologise.
best regards
Alun Thorne
Editor
Birmingham Post
Sunday, 7 August 2011
BIRMINGHAM MP SLAMS REMOVAL OF COACH CONCESSIONARY TRAVEL SCHEME (CCTS)
Birmingham Green MP, Roger Godsiff has written to the Secretary of State for Transport, Philip Hammond, urging him to think again about the removal of the Coach Concessionary Travel Scheme which provides half price coach travel for disabled people and those over 60 in England and Wales. The scheme is scheduled for withdrawal at the end of October.
Mr Godsiff said: “I have a number of concerns about the plans to scrap this scheme but what concerns me most is that the Department has yet to conduct an impact assessment of the schemes removal. Undoubtedly, the removal of this scheme will have an impact on the viability of other services and represent an immediate rise in the cost of living of those who currently make use of it. More fundamentally, I don’t think it is sufficient just to allow ‘the market’ to provide a solution as business’s, quite rightly, pay regard to the bottom line only and not any form of social provision. There is no doubt, as history tells us, that services will contract”.
On a more broader point Roger Godsiff went onto say: “How can your Department justify support for High Speed 2 (HS2) London to Birmingham, cost £44billion, with a reported £17 billion taxpayer subsidy to cover ticket price shortfalls with the cost of scraping this scheme £20 million?
National Express, who obviously have a vested interest in the scheme continuing, have estimated that 400,000 passenger journeys which begin or end in Birmingham are made using the half price concessionary fare and that 400,000 is equivalent to over 20% of all journeys which begin or end in Birmingham.
In 2010, over 3 million journeys were made by passengers using the scheme on National Express coaches alone. The equivalent scheme in Scotland – which provides free, not half price, coach travel for disabled people and those over 60 – remains in place.
Mr Godsiff said: “I have a number of concerns about the plans to scrap this scheme but what concerns me most is that the Department has yet to conduct an impact assessment of the schemes removal. Undoubtedly, the removal of this scheme will have an impact on the viability of other services and represent an immediate rise in the cost of living of those who currently make use of it. More fundamentally, I don’t think it is sufficient just to allow ‘the market’ to provide a solution as business’s, quite rightly, pay regard to the bottom line only and not any form of social provision. There is no doubt, as history tells us, that services will contract”.
On a more broader point Roger Godsiff went onto say: “How can your Department justify support for High Speed 2 (HS2) London to Birmingham, cost £44billion, with a reported £17 billion taxpayer subsidy to cover ticket price shortfalls with the cost of scraping this scheme £20 million?
National Express, who obviously have a vested interest in the scheme continuing, have estimated that 400,000 passenger journeys which begin or end in Birmingham are made using the half price concessionary fare and that 400,000 is equivalent to over 20% of all journeys which begin or end in Birmingham.
In 2010, over 3 million journeys were made by passengers using the scheme on National Express coaches alone. The equivalent scheme in Scotland – which provides free, not half price, coach travel for disabled people and those over 60 – remains in place.
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