Month: November 2012

Peterborough Hospital PFI – Who Signed It Off?

17:15 Thursday 29th November 2012
Drive BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

Note: Answer at foot of post

CHRIS MANN: Peterborough City Hospital’s crippling debt is being described as a very serious situation. An investigation by the National Audit Office revealed that Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Trust had a £46 million deficit last year, one of the worst debt-ridden hospitals in the whole of the Health Service. .. So let’s bring in Dr John Lister now from the pressure group London Health Emergency, who’s written a detailed report looking into Peterborough City Hospital’s PFI. John, hello to you.
JOHN LISTER: Hello there.
CHRIS MANN: You’ve looked at all the hospitals actually in the Eastern Region. So put Peterborough in perspective. It’s the worst, isn’t it? Continue reading “Peterborough Hospital PFI – Who Signed It Off?”

Coalition Plans Massive Green Field Building Programme

16:51 Wednesday 28th November 2012
The Jeremy Sallis Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

JEREMY SALLIS: The Planning Minister says a third more open land must be built on to meet the demand for housing. Nick Bowles believes building on another three per cent of land in England, bringing the total to about twelve per cent, would solve the housing problem. It would also mean an area more than twice the size of Greater London disappearing under concrete. But the Minister is giving this guarantee. (TAPE)
NICK BOWLES: We’re saying very clearly that we’re going to protect the Green Belt, we’re going to keep the Green Belt, but people, if they want to have housing for their kids, if they want to have people able to bring up their kids in a small house with a garden, they’ve got to accept that we’ve got to build more on some open land. Continue reading “Coalition Plans Massive Green Field Building Programme”

Government Work Programme Yet To Deliver

17:25 Tuesday 27th November 2012
Drive BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: The Government’s missed its own target for getting the long term unemployed back into work. Figures just out show only three out of every hundred unemployed people got jobs lasting longer than six months. The target was five. Employment Minister Mark Hoban said thousands of lives had already been changed, and argued the programme was only in its first year. .. Labour says the Government is failing the long term unemployed. The Shadow Employment Minister is Stephen Timms, and he joined me earlier with his reaction to those figures. Continue reading “Government Work Programme Yet To Deliver”

Freddy Bannister Remembers The Rolling Stones

17:55 Monday 26th November 2012
Drive BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

(MUSIC: NOT FADE AWAY)
CHRIS MANN: Well they haven’t faded away, have they? The Rolling Stones in fact have been on stage in London as the start of a series of gigs to mark their 50th anniversary. Last night’s show saw Mick Jagger strut across the stage in familiar style, as the band performed hits that spanned the decades. Now my next guest was one of the leading concert promoters of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. He knows the Rolling Stones well. He first booked them about 50 years ago, and then went on to book them many times, including for the Knebworth Festival, which he founded. Freddy Bannister is now retired and lives near Cambridge. Freddy, welcome.
FREDDY BANNISTER: Thank you very much Chris.
CHRIS MANN: Can you believe that all these years later so many bands from the ’60s are still going as strong as this? Continue reading “Freddy Bannister Remembers The Rolling Stones”

Tories Split On Europe

13:22 Monday 26th November 2012
World At One
BBC Radio 4

MARTHA KEARNEY: The Leader of UKIP Nigel Farage described David Cameron as the major obstacle to any kind of discussion or deal with UKIP. Speaking on the Daily Politics on BBC2 earlier, Nigel Farage said a pact would only be possible with a change of Leader. (TAPE)
NIGEL FARAGE: If Cameron went and somebody pragmatic, grown-up and sensible like Michael Gove was Leader, you might think then we could sit round the table and have a proper discussion. Continue reading “Tories Split On Europe”

Addenbrookes, Monitor, Cuts, Compliance, Regulation, Targets and Pressure

17:07 Friday 23rd November 2012
Drive BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: The health watchdog Monitor is having to take action against Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It’s after a number of failings at Addenbrookes Hospital, including botched surgeries where instruments were left in patients, and the wrong person being operated on. Yesterday on Drivetime and this morning on our Breakfast Show we heard how Addenbrookes was failing to meet targets when it comes to cancer treatment and A&E waiting times. Jane Ramsey is the Chair of Governors at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She had this message for patients. Continue reading “Addenbrookes, Monitor, Cuts, Compliance, Regulation, Targets and Pressure”

Clegg Moots Cash Boost For Northstowe

17:08 Thursday 22nd November 2012
Drive BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: The Government today put the Cambridgeshire new town of Northstowe firmly at the top of its building priorities, as it looks to solve the nation’s housing crisis. It’s to share in a £250 million injection of cash to unblock delays and get work on the first of a planned 10,000 new homes started by the Spring of 2014. The announcement was made today by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and afterwards he told me more. (TAPE)
NICK CLEGG: A number of sites around the country including Northstowe which have have got blocked for various reasons, and you’ll know as well as I do that there’s been a bit of stopping and starting on the Northstowe project for some time now, and basically .. and there are several other sites like Northstowe around the country, in other parts of the country, where if we can only unblock them, all at the same time, we’d be able to build close to 50,000 new homes across the country pretty quickly, including of course up to 10,000 homes in Northstowe. And I’ve announced today that we’re putting up, as far as central government is concerned, £225 million to be made available to those sites, so that we can finally get building. And I very much hope that that’s the final bit in the jigsaw puzzle if you like, which is required to give the green light to Northstowe becoming a reality, and not just a dream on a planner’s map.
CHRIS MANN: So how much of that £225 million will be spent on Northstowe? And what exactly will it be for? Continue reading “Clegg Moots Cash Boost For Northstowe”

Dame Mary Archer On Women Bishops in the Church of England

08:14 Tuesday 20th November 2012
Bigger Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Mary, where do you stand on this women bishops thing? Is the Church massively out of step with society?
LADY ARCHER: I think the Church is moving into step, if it does take the step to permit women bishops. I think it would be a big setback if, having found the way forward to women vicars, and goodness I don’t think the Church actually could keep going without them now, they then shut the door on women bishops, for rather arcane theological reasons that are connected with what the Bible may or may not say. And we don’t take the Bible literally in all areas. We don’t, most of us, believe the world was created in seven days for example. So I do think that the new Archbishop, Justin Welby, is right to press forward with this debate. And I very much hope the General Synod will say yes to women bishops.

===============