Whoops! Where's our £4m gone!

Finance and Audit Scrutiny Panel last night. We had an emergency item on the Icelandic Bank crisis. I chaired the meeting which was hard with the opposition trying at every point to blame us for what happened. The point was, it has happened. The warnings were out there that some authorities heard and some did not. We were one of the ones who did not. Perhaps Cllr Smith who is Portfolio Holder for Finance could have done more - the point is the Council are very unlikely to get their £4m back when it matures in December. We, as the Opposition, have got to ensure that this does not affect the residents and that it does not happen again.

Ghurkas

I was very pleased to see in the papers that Gurkhas were to be given the right to stay in this country - I hope the Government follows this up! At conference this year, there were many of them working in security and I spoke to some of them on the day of the court case. They are the most dignified of men who have served our country so well. In the past they have been stationed in Colchester and I hope one day we have them back here. Good luck to them and they deserve our thanks.

Conservative Party Conference

A Group from Colchester attended this year and it was very different from other times - business like, serious and corporate. Because of the financial crisis there was no time for frivolity and also as we drove back for the mayors funeral on the Monday, we were in no mood for hilarity.

For those who have never been to a party conference it is very different to what you see on the TV. There are hundreds of fringe meetings in other rooms around the site and it is here that you learn the most. I attended many on defence and health. One, with Bernard Jenkin MP, concentrated on what state our army is in and gave us valuable information on the condition our soldiers face, both at home and abroad. It was also attended by Winston Churchill and members of the UKNDA (UK National Defence Association) and I hope soon to set up a branch in Colchester.

I also attended a very good event on death with dignity with the shadow Health Minster. Due to the endless bureaucracy in our hospitals, if a patient is diagnosed as terminal, it can take weeks for a plan of care to be written. At the most traumatic time, this is not what a patient or their family needs. We also heard about the work of Marie Curie nurses and hospices. I asked about how volunteers are supported as the strain on them can be immense - because of my comments the Health Minister has offered to look into the support they receive. This is what conference is all about - learning from others but giving something back to Shadow Ministers so that they can go away and make things better too.