Andrew George
Promoting the
Politics of Courage
I’m running a positive campaign to restore decency and honesty to our politics. To build a brighter future. To combat those who want us to become more inward-looking, backward-looking, more self-absorbed. I’ll build a campaign for an outward-looking, forward-looking and compassionate country.
We’ve been misled by a privileged clique who’ve irresponsibly played on fears to stoke prejudice. We must get beyond the Brexit chaos they’ve dragged our country into. We must restore the things that matter for the sake of our children’s future – our NHS, our schools and the very sustainability of our planet.
Come and join a growing campaign team. We’re determined to win this seat back this time, to make the difference, to build a brighter future.
Many people say “you politicians are all the same”. That statement has never been more untrue. The choice here is stark:
Andrew George - Standing up for Cornwall
National campaigner, local campaigner, MP.
Andrew describes his role - "Seeking out the silent voices. Standing up to bullies. Fighting for justice”
Liberal Democrats - Building a brighter future
Can we end "corridor care" at the same time as slashing hospital budgets?
That's what the government believes. And that's what West Cornwall Healthwatch's excellent and well attended public meeting at the weekend wanted to get answers to.
Speakers included local Doctors who have been charged with delivering the government's policy. I offered a background to what has happened locally and my own critique on the government's approach.
As many know, the Government's "NHS Ten-Year Plan" set out unarguable proposals for three key "shifts". From:
1. "Sickness to Prevention"
2. "Hospital to Community"
3. "Analogue to Digital"
Presenting agreeable slogans is one thing (after all who is going to instead propose we should shift from "Prevention to Sickness" etc!?). However, delivering such plans is another.
The "shift" from "Hospital to Community" has been quietly going on for some time. As I showed, the NHS Confederation published a report twenty years ago entitled "Why we need fewer hospital beds". Managing a system so it needs fewer hospital beds is one thing. But cutting hospital beds without knowing how the system will cope would be unwise. That's what i warned then. But NHS chiefs decided to quietly carry on with the policy anyway, irrespective of the scepticism expressed by people like me at the time.
Acute Hospital beds in 2004/5 stood at 145,218. By last year beds had been slashed to 114,000. If the NHS had successfully improved preventative medicine and policy and hospitals had successfully found a way of speeding safe patient discharge such that fewer hospital beds were needed, then that would have been deemed a successful policy. But the widespread reporting of 20+ ambulance queues, shocking levels of "corridor care" and overwhelming stress throughout the hospital system, suggests, as i pointed out, the fine theory should be confronted with the uncomfortable truth that these policies are failing.
Though I quite understand NHS chiefs are obliged to press on with the policy of slashing hospital budgets while promising to improve the ability of our GPs, community health systems and voluntary sector to relieve the pressure on our hospitals, reality suggests otherwise.
The safety regulator - NICE - advises that for a hospital to manage patient flow and pressures safely it should achieve no more than a 85% bed occupancy level. But in most acute hosptals it is far higher. At Treliske (Truro) it is usually above 95%!. Across England, Wales and Cornwall there's an average of 2.4 beds per thousand people (in Cornwall it is closer to just 1.9). The EU average is around 4.6. They resource their hospitals such that they can better cope with the ebb and flow of patient emergencies and demand.
I am pressing government ministers and local NHS managers to face up to these realities and to ensure our hospitals are stabilised while the ability of our GPs and community nurses and service are expanded. Once that is achieved, of course we can then carry on with the "shift". But not before.
West Cornwall Healthwatch
NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
BBC Cornwall
Cornwall Live
ITV News West Country
Packet Newspapers
#NHS #SaveOurNHS Keep Our NHS Public
Big congratulations to the Cornish Pirates who defeated the previously invincible Ealing Trailfinders in today's Championship league match in Penzance.
I was following on the excellent Saturday afternoon BBC Cornwall Radio programme with John Martin. Nail-biting, exciting and it was obvious the team played with outstanding determination.
Ealing Trailfinders have been literally invincible. Winning all 26 of last season's league matches, and being undefeated this season...until today. This was after the Pirates lost badly last week at Coventry in an astonishing 17 try match.
Thank you. 😊
That Camborne won again in National Division One and Redruth kept a perfect start to the season again in National Division 2, added icing on the cake. 😎
Cornish Pirates Supporters’ Forum
Cornwall Live😎
By good fortune Petroc Trelawny coincidentally arrived on St Agnes to complete his magnificent outside broadcast "Where the Light Sings" on BBC Radio 3 when I disembarked there. Link below.
It featured the remarkably talented 'Aggie' resident, Piers Lewin, who performed two of his own works and contributed more, his fellow and equally talented Scillonian, Joe Keelan, and local Cornish band 'Dalla' (Beginning). I strongly recommend you listen to this while it's still available on iplayer. Entertaining, informative, and moving...
The deeply sorrowful work composed by folk singer Angeline Morrison in 2022, "Unknown African Boy", is based on a tragedy during a shameful past. An 8 year old Ghanian slave boy who drowned when the brig 'Hope', on its way to an English port, wrecked off St Martins in 1830. His grave marked in the Churchyard there.
I hope you find time to replay this entrancing, and at times intense 2 hour programme.
It was good to catch up with Petroc the following day.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0031pvp
BBC Cornwall
ITV News West Country
Radio Scilly
The Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly is a world apart. Certainly very different from the mainland, even from the communities of west Cornwall. In truth I represent two separate constituencies. So many of the factors affecting the Islands require a bespoke solution, and which doesn't set a precedent nor would be appropriate for mainland communities.
I've just completed my customary early autumn - but all too brief - visit to catch up with Scillonians, and to consider the many pleasures and challenges of life on the five inhabited islands. I also make every attempt to have another brief visit every year on at least one other occasion (usually early spring).
The constituency stretches (in a straight line) over 100 km/63 miles from east to west. Nearly half is the 28 miles/45km between Lands End and Scilly. Though the ferry from Penzance steams over 90 km/56 miles and can take up to 3 hours.
Concerns about transport - including risks of the loss of inter-island transport to St Martins and St Agnes this winter - housing, childcare provision, concerns re. emergency service technology, funding and support for post-16 education, leasehold reform, water and waste water management under South West Water, the very funding settlement for the Island Council (Council of the Isles of Scilly), were amongst the many issues raised at public meetings, private appointments and surgery sessions.
But Scillonians are not insular, and were interested and concerned about the wider scene, the world stage, appalled at the atrocities and conflicts around the world, and of course hold strong opinions about activities in our parliament and the world of politics. More than 60% of island households attended my public meeting on St Agnes, more than half on St Martins, and a good turnout on St Mary's, with Steamship Co. CEO, Stuart Reid and Helicopter service Chief, David Page, joining me to address questions on transport provision.
My interest doesn't and cannot wane when I'm not there, so of course the things that matter to the residents of this separate constituency continue to concern me along with those of the equally distinct constituency on the mainland.
Please contact me and my office if you missed me during my visit and have matters on which you believe I can assist.
Email andrew.george.mp@parliament.uk
tel.: 01736 339526
PO Box 371 Penzance TR18 9GN
Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust
Cornwall Live
BBC Cornwall
Radio Scilly
ITV News West Country
It’s responsible, not scaremongering to warn about the risks of the super El Niño. 🌎
So, I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s warning, and that he’s prepared to speak out.
He, Ed Miliband, highlighted this warning at the United Nations and has rightly warned world leaders about the risks of conflict, forced migration and food shortages that could follow such a climate crisis – all brought into sharper focus by the impending super El Niño.
Scientists warn of up to half a million deaths globally by February as a result of the El Niño.
We’ve seen the damage caused by Storm Goretti. We’ve just experienced the hottest summer on record. Weather extremes are now a fact of life. Though we can lessen the impact. It’s never too late.
We’re overly dependent on fragile supply chains that reach around the world for everything from our food to our fuel. Extreme heat and other climate impacts in countries experiencing summer while we’re in winter will have cascading consequences here if we’re not preparing domestically and working with international partners.
The El Niño is sending us telegram of things to come. We cannot keep burying our heads in the sand. We must stop pumping fossil fuels into the atmosphere and better prepare for the climate emergency. If we fail to adapt, climate shocks will bring greater challenges.
El Niño is a weather event which causes abnormal warming of surface waters which disrupts weather globally, with potentially massive consequences for our day-to-day lives.
Preparing for El Niño means preparing to protect people’s living standards from the climate shocks ahead.
Cornwall Live BBC Cornwall ITV News West Country Packet Newspapers Cornwall Climate Care Cornwall Climate Action Network Helston Climate Action Group Cornwall Climate Action Coalition