It’s always good to start with a video though, so to whet your appetite here’s a promo video from Cameron, Clegg and Lansley advertising a great investment opportunity;

I don’t need to tell you how much concern is felt by many about the reforms to the NHS proposed by your Right Honourable colleague, the Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley. I count myself amongst the number of those with deep reservations.

There are many arguments against the changes[1] but fundamentally it comes down to two issues for my family and I;

Firstly, we are dismayed at the prospect of opening the NHS up to private profit and at a cost to the NHS of £3 billion. The NHS is far from perfect but we as UK citizens currently have no conception going bankrupt through illness, unlike many Americans where the number 1 cause of bankruptcy us through health care bills. Do not take us even one step down that path, it is madness for the sake a little profit in the hands of a few already rich men.

Secondly the government has absolutely no mandate for making these changes, indeed they make our current Prime Minister into a liar. During the election campaign  he commented on more than one occasion that the NHS would suffer no further top down restructuring.  David Nicholson said these changes could be “seen from space”.

What would I like you to do? I would like to know what your position on this is, how do you intend to vote? I would also like you to raise the issue in the House of Commons on my behalf. Furthermore, I would like you to represent my views in the most strenuous way possible to the Prime Minister, David Cameron and the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley.

I look forward to your response and your swift attention to this matter,

[1] http://falseeconomy.org.uk/nhs

Dear Jack Straw,

I read in today’s Independent that DEFRA is proposing to press ahead with a badger cull. I’m not at all clear whether this is an announced policy or an over-enthusiastic journalist, but I and my family feel very strongly about the subject and would very much like to hear about your stance on the matter.

To be clear, culling badgers in an attempt to control Bovine TB is
uneconomical and at best of doubtful benefit; the RBCT conducted over 5 years of culling [1], resulting in the deaths of 10,960 badgers, and concluded that culling badgers in any practical and applicable way simply doesn’t work.

Please can you explain to me why the government is ignoring the science and listening only to the NFU? (quite apart from the contemptuous labelling of anyone who dares opppose their plans as mere anthropomorphising beatrix potter fans).

Why is vaccinating badgers being down-played? Why are we not talking about improving bio-security on farms? What about cattle-control measures?

There are many options available that don’t involve unlawfully killing a protected species, why is our government not pursuing them?

Yours sincerely,

Chris Keegan

[1] See this letter (very scientific!) from Nature for an explanation of what the Randomised Badger Culling Trial was: http://www.welshwildlife.org/attachments/Badgers/Donnelly%20Nature.pdf

Or if you’d prefer a less dense version, Jo wrote an excellent summary of Rosie Woodroffe’s talk about RBCT at this year’s Badger Trust conference.

I set The Isolationist up originally when I was on the cusp of moving from Bristol to Portsmouth as a way of keeping in touch with friends. As I set it up again, I’m on the cusp of another adventure, this time to the north. Blackburn. Home of the lovely Jo and her daughter Kayley who now form the centre of my world.

I’ve written much in the past and it seems a shame to lose it all, but these days content is cheap so I’ll edit, curate and file to oblivion what doesn’t have at least some merit. Always look to the future. A future of a coalition government that requires much attention. A future of technology; I am a massive geek after all. Most of all a future of family, happiness and maybe some business success.

I’ll talk about that lot along the way, as long as I get an hour here and there.