British National Party Public Services News Bulletin w/c March 5, 2007
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1. TRAINING CRISIS IS 'DRIVING DOCTORS ABROAD

One reason used to justify mass immigration is that without immigrants our health sector would collapse but,at the same time,it's very hard for British graduate doctors to find a training post.It's clear that those blunders are part of a well devised long term strategy aimed to disincentive British students from enrolling in medical courses so that there will always be a strong incentive to justify mass immigration and a good reason to convince a reluctant electorate to support it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/05/ndocs05.xml

The British Medical Association has warned that low morale and a lack of confidence among junior doctors is causing growing numbers to look for jobs abroad. More than half would consider going overseas if they were unable to find a training post in the UK, it said. The BMA blamed the chaos created by a new training system which has left thousands of junior doctors without jobs as trainee consultants. Flaws with the government scheme, called Modernising Medical Careers (MMC), were highlighted by The Daily Telegraph last week after despairing doctors called it "a shambles". The BMA said that this, coupled with a below-inflation pay rise of £650 per year for trainee doctors, was leading to widespread loss of goodwill in the profession. Medical royal colleges will meet today to discuss the crisis. "There is generally a feeling of low morale and a lack of confidence. The two things are making more and more of them seriously consider leaving the country," a BMA spokesman said yesterday.

"Recent research has shown more than half of junior doctors would consider going overseas were they unable to find a training post in the UK, and more than four in 10 would consider leaving medicine altogether." Concerns have centred on problems with the website through which doctors now have to apply for consultant training jobs, which has been blighted by technical problems.The Daily Telegraph has been inundated with letters and emails from doctors in despair over the issue. One said he has been forced to look for a job abroad after he was offered just one interview in the UK. "The central computer system crashed and repeatedly lost my data," he said. "Application forms arrived on consultants' desks late and were apparently not marked properly. "I and many thousands of colleagues are distressed and feel rejected by a system to which we have committed a great deal. "In the meantime I shall return to applying to jobs in New Zealand and Singapore just in case - potentially taking my £250,000 of training with me." Another doctor said she was "in despair" after she failed to secure a single interview, when part of the online application she submitted was translated into unreadable nonsense. The BMA has written to the Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, calling on her to delay the interview process.

2. NEW NURSES TOLD: NO JOBS

http://www.thisisleeds.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleID=2089373&SectionID=39

MUM-of-two Janet Clark sold her home to put herself through university after being told the NHS was "crying out for nurses". Three years on, after qualifying as a children's specialist, she has been told it might all have been a waste of time and money. Janet is among the dozens of newly qualified nurses in Leeds who cannot get a job because of cost-cutting measures. Janet, from Halton, Leeds, said: "I was already working in the NHS in admin but I had always wanted to be a nurse, right from volunteering at Seacroft Hospital at the age of 14. "I called NHS Careers to see if there was any point in applying to become a nurse. They told me that a person with my life skills would be hugely valuable to the NHS. They said I would be guaranteed a job those were their exact words. "To have given up my job, to have sold my house and to have worked incredibly hard for three years, at huge personal expense, then to be told it was all a waste of time – it's heartbreaking." Around 98 nurses including Janet qualified in January from Leeds University. Around £30,000 worth of taxpayers' money was spent training each of them, working out at almost £3m. The January group is not alone, however.

Nurses not due to qualify until March and August have been told not to expect jobs in the NHS either. In total, more than 200 nurses are expected to be affected this year, with many saying they are being forced into jobs outside of health care. Others are playing a waiting game, relying on their families for support until work comes up. However, they cannot wait for ever. Registration rules mean that unless nurses complete additional on-the-job training, a preceptorship in their first year after qualification, they will not legally be entitled to work in the future. Former office worker Beth Hall, 27, from Horsforth, Leeds, spent three retraining as a nurse and also qualified in January. The mum-of-one said: "I know that no one has a right to a job when they leave university. But just up until two years or even 18 months ago we were told that there was a nursing crisis. The NHS couldn't wait for us to qualify. "It would be more understandable if you knew there were lots and lots of nurses. But every ward I have been on has been understaffed. "It's just so demoralising. It's desperate. We're just hoping that things will change soon. "One of the worst parts is that nursing training doesn't qualify you for anything else. It's entirely vocational, not like a degree course which you could apply to several different careers."

Mother-of-three June Staniforth, from Cookridge, Leeds, spent five years training to be a children's nurse, completing foundation courses at Thomas Danby College before joining the diploma course at Leeds University. Ironically, she gave up a job as a healthcare assistant on a children's ward to train as a nurse. Now, she could not get her job back even if she wanted it because qualified nurses with years of experience are having to vie for lower-paid jobs. June, 42, said: "I really feel that I shouldn't have bothered. It has taken me five years to get to this point and for what? "My only hope is that come April, the recruitment bans will be lifted a bit and we will have a chance. Other than that I don't know what I'm going to do, but I will have to look for a full-time job elsewhere."

Nicola Maher feels her nursing career could be written off already at the age of 21. Nicola, from Shadwell, Leeds, won a place on the children's nursing diploma at Leeds University after completing her A levels. But despite qualifying in January she has failed to find a job in nursing. Instead she is working as a pharmacy assistant, a job she is hugely over-qualified for. She said: "I needed financial help from my parents to get through the course so I didn't have the same problems as some people. But my family were really shocked when I told them there would be no jobs for me. At first I think they just didn't believe me, because like everyone they had seen all the headlines about a nursing crisis. "You see all this money going into the NHS, but where is it being spent? It's certainly not on the wards which are still massively understaffed." Beth added: "We don't blame Leeds hospitals they and their staff have been very good to us and have given us the best training we could have hoped for. "In fact, we would love to work for them. But the pressure being put on them to save money just seems to be unbearable." Another nurse, who didn't want to be named, said she was due to graduate in March. Only one out of 25 in her group had a job lined up. She has applied for more than 50 NHS posts, sent her CV to seven hospitals, two hospices and six nursing homes. The one job she was interviewed for went to a nurse with more experience. She added: "They are desperate for us to work on the wards in Leeds and I would love to go and work there in April. Despite poor morale among staff, it is a job I love."

Hospitals in County Durham where newly qualified nurses have also struggled to find work – have set up a special scheme to allow nurses to gain their preceptorship. But bosses there have come under fire for paying the graduates just £480 a month for the extended period. Janet, Beth, June and Nicola, however, say they would jump at the chance to work for the same amount in Leeds. Beth said: "The best we can hope for, if jobs don't suddenly become available, is that we can get on to a preceptorship scheme, so at least we have our full nursing training behind us." Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust which runs Leeds General Infirmary and St James's Hospital is grappling with predicted debts of £7.7m this year alone. To cut costs it is enforcing a recruitment freeze, except in cases where wards become dangerously understaffed. Some nurses have argued that is already happening. Nationally, the Royal College of Nurses estimates that around 18,000 nursing posts have been lost to the NHS because of cost cutting. A National Day of Action over the state of the NHS is being staged on Saturday by 16 health service unions and the TUC. A rally will take place at Leeds Cathedral Hall on Great George Street, Leeds, at 11am. There will also be mass leafleting from noon in Millennium Square and outside the City Art Gallery on the Headrow.

3. TORONTO COUNCILLOR NOT SOLD ON LONDON'S CONGESTION FEES

Congestion charge has always been a way to increase taxation rather then speeding up traffic and it's far from clear if such improvement did really happen. Actually measures like road restrictions and traffic humps may have worsened it.

http://www.thestar.com/article/187817

If congestion fees ever come to the city of Toronto, it won't be a pretty sight. "There will be headlights shining out of my butt before we ever see congestion charges in Toronto," Councillor Brian Ashton told the Toronto Star. Ashton, who heads city council's planning and growth management committee, recently spent three days in London, England, where the city has imposed heavy fees on drivers entering the central city. Ashton, a member of the newly created Greater Toronto Transportation Authority, said in an interview last week the agency would be foolish not to consider the same kind of congestion fees for Toronto. But after checking the situation firsthand, he said he doesn't think the program would work in Toronto. Ashton (Ward 36, Scarborough Southwest), said London brought in the fees – now about $20 per vehicle – to clear up traffic snarls downtown and not as a tool to encourage public transit and thus battle climate change, which is what many supporters in Toronto have cited as a reason to look at the idea. "In London, they had so much congestion that buses and taxis and even emergency vehicles in the centre of the city couldn't move."

4. WATER BILLS TO RISE AS PROFITS POUR IN

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/03/03/ccwater03.xml

Millions of consumers will not have been surprised when water regulator Ofwat confirmed on Thursday that average domestic bills would rise this year by more than twice the rate of inflation. Letters telling householders of their increases were already landing on doormats. The water industry collectively made about £3bn last year, and they didn't do that by delaying sending out bills. Nor, say consumer groups, did they make that sort of money by meeting promised improvements in services and infrastructure. This year's rise in bills, which increase a typical household charge by £20 to £312, come on top of double-digit rises last year. The prices were agreed as part of Ofwat's five-yearly review for 2004-2009, a settlement that many critics warned at the time was too soft. Ofwat set the cost of capital, the rate of return that water companies could make, at 5.1pc. This was more than many other regulated sectors, especially energy. "In terms of the price review, you do have to ask questions about whether Ofwat was too generous last time around," said an official at the Consumer Council for Water yesterday. After Ofwat's price review, shares in water companies soared and the sector became alive with takeover speculation as investors identified the industry as a secure and low-risk revenue stream for the next few years. Indeed water companies were awash with so much cash that some paid special dividends. In fairness, some others paid customer rebates, but that just served to heighten concern that Ofwat had somehow got its numbers wrong.

"The water companies are demonstrably not doing what they should be doing, in that they have invested a lot less in the infrastructure than Ofwat actually allowed," said the Water Council official. "They haven't actually been doing what they should have done in return for the money that customers have provided," he added. In the financial year 2005-06 water companies were meant to have invested £4.3bn under the Ofwat settlement, but the actual figure is only £3.4bn. Some of the investment delay was unavoidable. For example, Thames Water's planned spending for that year included finance for a desalination plant at Beckton, in the Thames Estuary. But planning permission has still not been given. In other areas, though, companies have dragged their feet. Ofwat had to force Thames, which is raising bills 6pc, to do extra work to meet leakage repair targets, and Severn Trent (up 5.7pc) and Southern (6.3pc) were fined for failures in customer service standards. "We're not in the business of allowing big profits," said Ofwat's chairman, Philip Fletcher, last November. And yet, water companies are doing just that. In December, Pennon reported first-half, pre-tax profits up 17pc. This was after it spent £15m giving £20 rebates to each of its customers, a fraction of the £200m it paid in dividends to shareholders. Meanwhile, Northumbrian Water saw interim profits rise 17pc. The companies' financial performance meant the value of shares in quoted water firms rose by a third last year, and are up about 22pc so far this year.

Last year Thames, which as Britain's biggest offender for leaking pipes faces a huge repair bill, was nevertheless sold to a consortium led by Australia's Macquarie Bank for £8bn, making a £300m profit for German owner RWE. But it is estimated that RWE had taken more than £1bn in dividends during its ownership of Thames. Also last year, Osprey Acquisitions, an international consortium, paid £2.2bn for AWG, the owner of Anglian Water (price rise: 8.8pc). The £15.55p-a-share deal was about a 26pc premium to the estimated value of AWG's asset base. Ofwat will be watching how those water companies that have dragged their heels over investment plans catch up on their spending during the remaining two to three years of the current price settlement. But some City experts think the series of mergers and acquisitions in the water industry in recent years has made it more difficult for the regulator to assess companies' financial strength and spending commitments. Other people think it is time to put the "public" back into public utility. They point to the mutual ownership structure at Welsh Water, one of the best performing water companies in Europe. The Government, however, has shown no desire to go down this route.

Another alternative is for Ofwat to use more effectively the extra powers it was given under the 2003 Water Act to punish companies for under-performance. It has been suggested that, at the very least, Ofwat should hold an interim price review. But this seems highly unlikely. Ofwat's Philip Fletcher said on November 1: "We continue to believe the cost of capital was appropriate at the time we set the price limits and we have no intention of changing it before the next review." Ofwat says that if by the end of the current price review the settlement was deemed to have been on the generous side, then the subsequent price review will include any necessary adjustments. And yet, consumers should prepare for the worst. Fletcher also said in November that preliminary analysis suggested that bills will have to rise still further in the next price review to meet infrastructure spending. If the analysis proves accurate "then we would see significant increases in bills in 2010. In some cases, significantly big bills", Fletcher said. "But we are not predicting bill increases." Water companies themselves are starting to get fed up by the criticism. Colin Skellett, chairman of Wessex Water (price rise: 9.4pc) said: "The sole reason for the price increases is to pay for the investment programmes.

At the time of the price review we submitted a business plan which said we should limit the price increases to 2pc per annum above the rate of inflation, and phase the investment programme accordingly. But we didn't win on that, so we were told the investment programme had to be done more quickly. "As long as there are these large investment programmes, particularly the requirements coming out of Europe for higher and higher [environmental] standards, bills will continue to rise." It was plain wrong to suggest there is any evidence that price rises are being driven by payments to investors, he maintains. "Prices are driven by the investment programme. The cost of capital that was set was a reasonable cost of capital at the time it was set," Mr Skellett said. Critics might respond: even if it was reasonable then, it certainly isn't now.

5. GRAMMARS STILL DOMINATE LEAGUE TABLES

We have always been in favour of more grammar schools and more selection and this study proves we are right.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/01/nschools01.xml

Grammar schools dominate league tables for 14-year-olds published today. The continued success of the selective grammars comes as more than a million parents across the country prepare to hear today which primary or secondary school their child has got into this September. It is feared thousands could be left without their first choice as competition for places at the best schools reaches fever pitch. Yesterday it emerged that parents in Brighton will have to compete in a lottery next year to get their children into some of the city's most popular comprehensives. The Labour-run council is the first in the country to use an "electronic ballot" when schools are over-subscribed. Ministers said other schools nationwide should consider using the same tactics. But today's league tables are sure to fuel the popularity of the country's remaining grammar schools, which continue to select pupils using the traditional 11+. Figures show that pupils make faster progress between the age of 11 and 14 at grammars than any other schools in England. So-called Key Stage 3 results show that 81 of the top 100 schools rated using the "valued added measure" are grammars. It is a blow for the Government which hoped the new style tables would put comprehensive schools on an equal footing. Although grammars are heavily over-subscribed, Jim Knight, the schools minister, said last night that they harmed those children left behind.