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

Web  http://www.advantagewm.co.uk

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

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.

Roger Godsiff urges "No" to an elected Mayor for Birmingham.

The decision as to whether Birmingham should have an elected Mayor will be taken at the same time as the local elections.  People will have different views on this issue as they did on the AV Referendum.  Personally, I am totally opposed to the idea of an elected Mayor for Birmingham because I do not believe that it will improve the governance of Birmingham and it will dilute still further the role of elected Councillors and will concentrate even more power (limited though these might be) in the hands of one individual.  Of course it will be argued by supporters of the idea that London has an elected Mayor so why shouldn’t Birmingham but the two situations are totally different.

London has 8 million plus people living in it compared with 2 million plus in Birmingham.  London has 32 boroughs whereas Birmingham is one single authority.  London used to have a London-wide authority, the Greater London Council, sitting above the 32 boroughs.  It was abolished by Mrs. Thatcher in the 1980s because the GLC was a constant irritant to her.  The idea of importing an elected Mayor system from America was dreamt up in Downing Street by people who had no experience of being in, or running, local Councils and because it was American and trendy it was adopted by the Blair Government as an alternative to reinventing the GLC.  Other than being a focal point and advocate for London the Mayor of London only has real influence in a couple of areas which are under his control and neither of these apply to Birmingham.  The London Mayor controls London Underground and London buses but Birmingham does not have an underground system and the bus service is not under the control of the City Council.  Ken Livingstone introduced congestion charging in London and there would be a good case for doing this in Birmingham as part of wider transport policy but this can be done by an elected City Council and you do not have to have a Mayor to do this.

Elected Mayors were a ‘trendy idea’ and some Councils adopted them.  Some of these Councils, like Stoke, have since scrapped the idea while others, like Hartlepool, showed what they thought of the idea by electing a candidate who stood as a monkey to be Mayor!  What the people of Birmingham want is good governance by their elected Councillors and not a gimmick which will eliminate still further the role of the elected Councillor as is the case with the London Assembly which is virtually powerless.  I will urge anybody who cares to listen to vote ‘No’ and I am quite prepared to work alongside similar minded people in other parties to defeat this proposal.

Badger Cull

The Government does have to combat Bovine TB but there is no need for them to slaughter Badgers to achieve this.  Badgers can be trapped and vaccinated and this is a much more humane way of dealing with the problem of Bovine TB rather than wholesale slaughter.

Southern Cross, CQC's and PCC's

Responding to a letter that I sent to Paul Burstow MP, Minister of State for Care Services before the closure announcement, Paul Burstow said reassuringly: “The Government is determined to maintain continuity and quality of care for all care home residents across the country.

Mr Burstow also said: “We consider the private sector should be fully capable of resolving this issue”. 

I wish I could share his confidence but residents of Southern Cross have no grounds to be confident in the performance of the private sector as they have learnt to their cost. If Government’s continue to abandon large areas of social provision to the private sector without adequate oversight vulnerable members of our society will continued to be viewed as tradeable assets - much to the delight and profits of private equity funds -  and not people.

The performance of the Quality Care Commission (CQC) has been worse than lamentable in this respect as has the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) in the case of Murdoch. It seems that all you have to do is put 'Complaints Commission (CC) in a title and you are guaranteed ineffectiveness.

Roger Godsiff wishes Salma Yaqoob a speedy recovery

Responding today to the news that the Respect Councillor, Salma Yaqoob, was stepping down as a Councillor in Sparkbrook due to her worsening health Roger Godsiff said “I was very sorry to hear about Salma Yaqoob’s deteriorating health problems.  It is perfectly understandable that she should concentrate on regaining her health and she will have the love and support of her family and friends in achieving this.  I wish her a speedy recovery.”

NoW Phone Hacking Scandal

Speaking today after the latest revelations of phone hacking from the News of the World employees, Roger Godsiff MP said: “These events will have disgusted most people. The idea that a newspaper and its owners could access the mobile phone records of victims and relatives of terrible crime is utterly contemptible”.

Mr Godsiff went on to say: “What is needed is a full and independent judicial enquiry with the ability to subpoena witnesses and take evidence.

In the light of allegations of large amounts of money having been paid to sources within the police for stories and the poor record of police investigation in this matter to date, the Metropolitan Police or any other police force is not an appropriate body to conduct this investigation. Nor is the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) which has shown itself to be toothless and serve the interests of newspaper proprietors and not those of the general public.

With regard to Jeremy Hunt’s decision to give Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation the go ahead to acquire BSkyB, I can only reiterate what I have said previously that I am totally opposed to this take-over. I share the views of many others that the assurances which Murdoch has given about the independence of Sky News is not worth the paper that any such assurance was written on. Recent events have only served to confirm my worst fears in this regard”.