A commission set up by the Scottish Labour Party has reccomended a minimum price for alcohol should be established  throughout the UK to reduce consumption.

The Alcohol Commission has recommended a ban on alcohol sales below the total cost of production, duty and VAT throughout the United Kingdom, and it also said a levy on alcohol retailers should be considered, to help pay for alcohol related services.

Other proposed measures include a social responsibility levy on alcohol retailers, or a local sales tax, to help pay for the costs of emergency and other services.

The commission proposed that there should be a limit on the number of licences in each area, and that local alcohol strategies should established across every council area to encourage a cultural change, and the commission also wants to ban  the sponsorship of sporting events by drink companies, and consideration given to a total ban on alcohol advertising.

 Professor Sally Brown, the Chair of the alcohol Commission said:

“We are agreed that increasing the price of alcohol should be part of a broader package to reduce levels of abuse. Our view is that taxation should be the main lever for raising prices because the additional revenue raised goes to the public purse.

“Some of our recommendations may be challenging, but they are also necessary if we really want to deal with this problem and not just talk about it.”

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said:

“Labour’s Alcohol Commission makes some constructive suggestions for debate, but it ducks the central issue of tackling the cost of alcohol sold at pocket money prices in Scotland.

She added:

“A ban on alcohol below the aggregate of duty and VAT is not a serious alternative to minimum pricing because it would create a price so low it would have no impact on the levels drunk – and therefore no impact on the harm and misery caused.

“Our offer to Labour and the other opposition parties is still open.

“We will consider any amendments they want to propose for the Alcohol Bill that provide a realistic, workable and effective pricing intervention that can be put in place now.

“Their commission has failed to come up with anything of substance, but the door is still open.”

Alcohol Focus Scotland’s chief executive, Dr Evelyn Gillan, said:

“We know that banning the sale of alcohol below the cost of duty and VAT would have little effect on reducing harm as a two litre bottle of cider currently on sale for £1.32 would actually come down in price to 85p.”

The government has been warned in a report by the Campaign for Better Transport that private toll roads are not a cost-effective answer to traffic problems.

The report says the UK’s only private motorway toll road on part of the M6 has not significantly reduced traffic congestion, and campaigners added that the owners of the toll road, near Birmingham lose tens of millions of pounds a year on the road.

Midland Expressway, which operates the M6 Toll, was asked to comment by the BBC, but declined.

The Campaign for Better Transport has concluded that the government should not consider that privately financed schemes are a solution to economic problems.

The campaign group argued that journey times on the M6 were only marginally better than they were before the toll section opened nearly seven years ago, and drivers were deterred from using the road by the charge of £5 per car.

The campaign also estimated the operator of the toll road was losing more than £25million a year, which is discouraging potential investors.

Campaigners have used documents from the Highways Agency, the Transport Select Committee and Midland Expressway to compile the report, which concludes that not only has the toll road failed to improve transport in the West Midlands, but also that drivers who paid the toll were not receiving value for money, and it said that the Highways Agency isplanning to spend £500million on congestion relief that the M6 Toll was supposed to have provided.

Campaigners have said that new legislation against dangerous dogs “cannot come soon enough” following a recent attack on a ten year old girl by two rottweilers.

Rhianna Kidd was attacked by the dogs while riding her bicycle in Dundee on Sunday. The primary school pupil received treatment for a fractured jaw and has received plastic surgery for her injuries.

Caroline Kisko, of the Kennel Club, which has been campaigning for a change in the law regarding dangerous dogs, said:

“People deserve to feel safe around dogs and the new legislation cannot come soon enough.”

A new law on dogs was passed by the Scottish Parliament earlier this year but is not due to come into force until February.

Mrs Kisko said that the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act will place more emphasis on prevention of dog attacks by changing the emphasis of the legislation on the responsibility of the owner, and tackling dangerous aggression at the earliest stage of bad behaviour.

She added:

“This new legislation goes a long way towards protecting the public through tougher action at the first signs of dangerous behaviour.

“Owners of aggressive or violent dogs of any kind will be brought to account, which in turn will prevent a large number of attacks by dealing with problem behaviour at the first signs of aggression rather than when an attack has taken place.”

Liberal Democrat Health Minister Paul Burstow says the new NHS 111 service will be better for patients.

The Coalition Government announceded that it intends to establish a new NHS 111 service in the Health White Paper in July, which will be piloted in four areas of the country before being rolled out in 2013.

Liberal Democrat Health Minister Paul Burstow said:

“NHS 111 will build on NHS Direct but will go further providing a much more integrated service for the public.

“Unlike NHS Direct NHS 111 will be free to call. Where NHS Direct can only signpost other services NHS 111 will be able to book a GP appointment and go straight through to local out of hours services. If you do need an ambulance the 111 service will cut out the need to go through the 999 service assessment.

“NHS 111 will ensure people are put in touch with the right health professional first time. By doing that the new service will reduce the pressure on 999 services and A&E departments.

“This is a simple, cost effective idea: from 2013 people can ring 111 for non life threatening health concerns and 999 when it is a matter of life or death.”

The Grimsby in Bloom ‘Big Tidy Up’ is back on the road again next month and we’re looking to you, to come along, join in the fun and help us to make Great Grimsby a tidier place to live, work and play.

In conjunction with the national Keep Britain Tidy campaign, Grimsby in Bloom volunteers will be taking to the streets of Great Grimsby’s East Marsh this coming Saturday morning, 4th September.

After meeting at the Youth Offending Service offices on Heneage Road at 10.30am, the volunteers will be armed with bin bags and litter picks and taking to the streets, hoping that even more of you will come along than ever before.

Ernie Brown, chairman of Grimsby in Bloom said:

“This will be our 3rd Great Grimsby ‘Big Tidy Up.

“Each time that we get together our volunteer numbers grow and it’s really good to see the number of people willing to take part in making our town that bit nicer, increasing every year. This year we’re hoping for record numbers to come along and help”.

This series of Grimsby in Bloom Big Tidy Ups, will be taking place during every Saturday throughout September.

“During the last series of sessions, earlier on this year in March, we had a total of 99 volunteers collecting 176 sacks of rubbish from the streets and alleyways of town and we’re hoping for bigger and better this time”, continues Ernie.

Grimsby in Bloom volunteers will be doing 8 x 2 hour stints covering every ward in town on Saturday mornings and afternoons throughout September. Even if you can only spare 1 hour it will be a big help.

This coming Saturday, after finishing in the East Marsh Ward at 12.30pm, we will be heading towards the West Marsh area of town, where we’ll be meeting at the Macaulay Area Action Group Hall on Haycroft street at 1.30pm.

The Big Tidy Up will also be coming to the Yarborough Ward on 25th Septmber, when volunteers are asked to come to Littlecoates Community Centre between 1.30 and 3.30 to help tidy up the area.

If you would like more information about Grimsby in Bloom or would like to make a donation to this years campaign, please contact Honorary secretary, Jacquie Brown on 01472 859336, e-mail grimsbyinbloom@btinternet.com or send us a letter to 16 Coach House Court, Caistor, Lincs, LN7 6BX.

In an interview in today’s Observer the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, admits that he worries about making the right decisions, and he said that when the cuts are made they are made with care.

With the first Liberal Democrat Conference since the formation of the coalition rapidly approaching, the challenge for Danny Alexander and Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg is to sell austerity not just as necessary, but as being progressive. He says:

“I worry about making sure we make the right decisions, that we make cuts with care,”

Danny Alexander told the newspaper the reality of the situation at the moment is that there is no choice but to cut and that the least progressive thing is to deny there is a problem, claiming that it was Labour that created the mess, and accusing the Labour party of “hypocrisy”.

“That budget deficit means we are spending £150billion more this year than we raise in taxation. It is genuinely unavoidable that we bring our public finances back in order… There is absolutely nothing progressive about leaving a rapidly growing burden of debt for the next generations to inherit.”

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury is adamant that he can stand the pressure. He said:

“Those things don’t bother me really – it goes with the territory.”

“I spend all my time worrying about doing the right thing in government. We have seen previous governments spend all their time worrying about this newspaper or that columnist.” He claims that is what stopped New Labour being radical.

Danny Alexander says he has spoken to Jim Wallace, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats in Scotland who formed a coalition with Labour:

“They got a lot of scrutiny at the start because people weren’t used to a coalition, but by the end people saw that the Lib Dems had made a real difference.”

He added that the party went on to improve its position in the next election.

“We signed up to this because we believed the country needed stable government, and I think over five years people will see we have made a real difference to government.”

Could the Liberal Democrats one day work with Labour? Danny Alexander said:

“Let’s get this coalition out of the way first. Ask me that in five years’ time,”.

When it comes to Labour, Danny Alexander wants to push the point:

“I just think from a party that presided over increasing child poverty, that failed to reintroduce the earnings link for pensions, that had the most centralised control over public services – I will not take lectures on fairness from them,” he says. “They are irresponsible, [they] deny the problem the country faces – that puts them at the least credible end of politics.”

New figures show that complaints about NHS hospitals and community health services rose by a record 13.4% last year, and over 100,000 complaints were received in the year 2009/10, an increase from 89,139 to 101,077 between 2008/09 and 2009/10.

All NHS trusts and community services are required to supply data for the report but it is not compulsory for the 130 foundation trusts to do so, but 18 of them refused to revealany data.

Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat Health Minister, described the rise as “the public’s verdict of the last Government’s NHS record”.

He said:

“Despite the hard work of NHS staff, they demonstrate that, after 13 years of targets and tick-boxes, more people than ever complained about their experience of the NHS.”

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, described the rise as “very worrying” and said many more people felt like complaining than actually did so.

More than £350 million of taxpayers’ money was spent by the Labour government on health campaigns urging the public to drink and eat less, exercise more and practice safe sex, it can be revealed today.

The amount spent  on poster, television and cinema campaigns increased thirty fold during Labour’s period in Government, but still failed to prevent the growth of the “lifestyle” diseases the money was meant to reduce, and at the same time the number of sexually transmitted infections doubled, and levels of obesity and binge drinking soared.

Experts in advertising and health accused Labour of spending”staggering sums” which have had little effect on people’s behaviour.

Paul Burstow, Liberal Democrat Minister of State for Health said that only “essential” advertising campaigns would be permitted in future. He added:

“As part of the drive to reduce the UK’s budget deficit the Government is getting a firm grip on its expenditure”

The new figures, which were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the amount spent by the Department of Health spending on advertising rose from £2 million in 1997 to £59 million this year.

In addition, many NHS quangos and Primary Care Trusts paid millions more for separate publicity and marketing campaigns intended to persuade the public to change their habits.

The campaigns included a cinema advertisement which showed a pregnant young girl vomiting into a lavatory, and wishing she had practised safe sex, “know your units” leaflets advising people on safe alcohol intake, and the 5-a-day campaign advising people to eat more fruit and vegetables.

During the period, male drinking patterns have barely changed, and:

• The number of women drinking more than Government levels has risen sharply.
• Levels of sexually transmitted infections have more than doubled, reaching a record high last year of 482,696.
• Obesity levels have reached epidemic proportions, with one quarter of adults now classed as obese.
•  Almost one third of all children overweight or obese.

The numbers of smokers fell under Labour, but at a slower rate than in previous years, which suggests the trend may have had little connection with Government awareness campaigns.

Research earlier this year revealed that one of the Government’s best known health campaigns, a £3.3 million effort to promote the values of eating “5 a day” had failed, as fruit consumption having risen by just one per cent, while vegetable consumption fell by 11%.

Prof Tom Sanders, head of nutritional sciences at King’s College London said:

“The campaigns on alcohol have been a total disaster, and stood no hope against the massive liberalisation of drinking hours. The 5-a-day campaign didn’t have an evidence base behind it, and it made almost no impact on fruit eating and was a total flop for vegetables.”

Prof Sanders said the massive spending poured into Government campaigns was doomed because “just publishing propaganda telling people what to do doesn’t work”.

Chris Arnold, a former creative director of advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi and the author of a book on ethical marketing, said:

“Advertising is not the way to change people’s behaviour. The Government would have been much better off giving it to organisations doing the work on the ground, but they wanted to be seen to do something.”

Fiona McEvoy, from the TaxPayers’ Alliance, accused Labour of wasting millions on “preachy, patronising media crusades” which had done nothing for the health of the nation.

She said: “After so many years of nannying not only are the public’s wallets lighter, their health is in fact worse.”

The proposed new 111 number for medical care is designed to be used when a patient’s life is not in immediate danger but they do need help straight away.

Trained call takers will be able to give medical advice over the phone or direct more serious cases to the ambulance service or give details of the nearest walk-in centre or health centre for less urgent problems.

999 will remain the number to call in an emergency, but , it is hoped that the new service will reduce pressure on frontline A&E and emergency services, as almost one third of all calls to 999 are classed as non-emergencies and do not require an ambulance to be sent.

The free hotline will be trialled next year before being extended nationwide, and will operate alongside NHS Direct to start with, and eventually it will replace NHS Direct.

The British Heart Foundation has urged anyone who thinks they are having a heart attack to call 999 for the fastest response and the best chance of survival.

Examples of times when the urgent care number could be used are:

• if children fall ill outside their GP’s normal opening hours
• when people are injured away from home and do not know where the nearest medical centre is
• minor accidents.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said examples where 111 may be used included:

• parents who are concerned when a child wakes up in the night with a sore stomach and appears to be in some pain
• a patient who is terminally ill finds that their symptoms deteriorate and they urgently need stronger pain relief
• an older person has a fall.

Katherine Murphy, director of the Patients Association, said:

“Moving to a single number is the right direction because patients are not clear where to call for non-emergencies. Feedback from the pilots will need to be looked at closely to ensure a smooth transition and patients should still be able to use the original numbers until the new number is bedded in.”

Health Minister Mike O’Brien said:

 “Patients have told us that they need clear, easy advice on how to find healthcare quickly when its less urgent than 999 and I am delighted that Ofcom has allocated 111 for these purposes. Our research with the public showed a strong preference for 111 over any other three-digit numbers because it is easy to remember.

“The NHS has a range of non-emergency healthcare services. The memorable 111 number will support these services and provide more choice for patients to find the care they need. This will be particularly useful outside of GP surgery hours and for people who are away from home.”

Nick Chapman, Chief Executive of NHS Direct said:

“NHS Direct is looking forward to working with local NHS organisations to pilot the new 111 number. We believe that it will increase the access that patients have to the information and advice they need to help themselves and make best use of the NHS.”

Ambulance Service Network chair Heather Strawbridge said:

“111 must be just the front end of a much better system of healthcare which ensures patients get the right services, in the right place, at the right time.

“We need services to work together more effectively and treat more patients in the community or at home when it is safe to do so.

“111 should therefore be the ‘icing on the cake’ of much wider changes to the emergency and urgent healthcare system so we can provide a range of urgent services 24/7 including GPs in and out of hours, walk-in and urgent care centres, minor injuries units, social care and mental health services and community nursing teams.”

The Department of Health also announced Prof Matthew Cooke has been appointed as the new National Clinical Director for Urgent and Emergency Care.

The Daily Telegraph has reported yet another Labour waste of public money, and yes it is our money!

The previous government announced grand plans to build nine regional “super control centres” to replace the existing smaller units but they have now been empty for up to three years partly because of problems with IT systems.

Taxpayers have been left footing a rent bill of more than a £1 million a month.

The nine control centres were constructed as part of a government project, known as FiReControl, to revamp and regionalise the fire service and reduce the number of centres that handled emergency calls.

The scheme was originally announced by the then Local Government Minister John Healey, and at the time in November 2008 the former Liberal Democrat Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, Julia Goldsworthy said:

“This supposed cost-cutting measure is behind schedule and the budget is rising fast.

“Now that the Government has conceded that the new Fire Control Centres will not open on time, shouldn’t they also admit that the project was doomed from the start?

“Closing dozens of local control centres will not improve fire safety and it now looks like it’s not going to save money either.”

Scheduled to cost around £340 million, now the costs have since swollen to £423 million.

The centres were established after concerns were raised about the lack of capabilities for authorities to react to major disasters.

However, some problems with computer systems, installed by European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) mean certain new centres may not be in operation until 2013.

It is believed the delays have been caused by a combination of factors including government negotiations and problems with the IT systems.

It is understood the number of centres were built due to “political reasons”.

One source said: “You can save money by having less centres.”

A spokesman for EADS said:

“The control centres are now being properly populated with kit and IT.

“The centres are not empty simply because of problems with the IT systems. It goes beyond that.

“Between now and 2013 they will be up and running.”

It is understood that at least three centres will be ready for testing by the end of the year.

Earlier this year two senior Liberal Democrat MPs Nick Harvey and Adrian Sanders said the entire project should be scrapped.

Liberal Democrat MP for North Devon, Nick Harvey said:

“As costs have more than tripled over the course of this project, with overruns of over £200 million, it is time we cut our losses before even more public funds are squandered. While the Government has been dumping copious amounts of money into this project, Devon’s fire and rescue services have been forced to make do with cuts. This cannot continue.”

Liberal Democrat MP for Torbay, Adrian Sanders added:

“It seems ridiculous that throughout this process the Government has completely ignored the views of professional firefighters. They have told me that this system will be inefficient and could cost lives. That alone should mean the Government turns its back on this ill fated scheme.”