An open letter from Polly Billington
MORE people in Thurrock die of smoking related diseases than the national average.
We have more obese children and adults, worse rates of diabetes and fewer mums breast-feeding their children.
The life expectancy of a man living in Tilbury is more than eight years less than a man living in Orsett. This isn’t just unfair, it’s also uneconomic. The burden on the NHS including GPs’ surgeries is increased by this ill-health.
So it is extremely disappointing that the government’s allocation of money to deal with these issues falls short by more than a million pounds.
When there isn’t much money around it is important that the cash we have is spent wisely. Instead the government has chosen to allocate public health money simply on how many people live in an area rather than on need.
The top-down reorganisation of the NHS means tackling these issues is now in the hands of the local council. By handing over significantly less money to deal with these issues, the Tory-led government is making it harder for the local authority to tackle the high levels of obesity and smoking in Thurrock.
Early deaths from cancer, heart disease and strokes are all now higher than the national average, even though only a couple of years ago, the numbers were going down.
Public health programmes work. Without them more people will die early, and their illness will put more pressure on an already pressurised NHS.
The government should allocate this money to public health now in order to reduce the costs to the NHS of ill-health in the future.
Polly, this is an admirable “open letter” however it does not tell anyone what you or your party would do to rectify it.
At the moment the “Tory Lead Government” as you put it is trying to get people off the “Sick” Dole” “Benefit” and back to work. This will take out a lot of the obesity and diabetis problems, as people will not be lying around on their sofas all day. You state the current government ‘s allocation is £1m short, tell us how and where you would find this shortfull, without further borrowing please! as that is why we are in the predicament we are now in seeing govenrment needing to trim funding .
Stopping people smoking would I am sure have a positive impact on the NHS, however it would also destroy a huge income for the UK, so it would be a very brave politician to declare war on the Tobacco companies( unless this is what you are suggesting?) People have enough stark warnings on the cigarette packet alone that SMOKING KILLS so if they do not want to give up they wont and all the money in the world spent on trying to convince them otherwise would go up in a puff of smoke (sorry about the pun). Personally I dont see the need to educate new mum;s anymore than we already do that “breast milk is best” as I know many folks who were not breast fed and they are doing ok.
In conclusion Polly ,please do not preach to us about what a perfect world should look like, as your past government made most of the mistakes with regards to overspending,over crowding via mass immigration, and creating a welfare dependant society, which has in my opinon created all the problems your “open letter” talks about.
I think there has been plenty of advice and information about all of the ‘evils’ Polly covers in her open letter but there is nothing anyone can do if some folks choose to ignore it. Actually, it is everybody’s right to ignore anything the Government says. If people choose to smoke and eat takeaways, it is their right to do so. I can’t see any point in wasting more money on trying to get a message across to people who don’t want to hear it.
On another point, I did have a little chuckle at the following line “When there isn’t much money around it is important that the cash we have is spent wisely.” Does she mean as wisely as Labour spent our money when they were in power, I wonder?
We need mandatory tests on everyone and those who fail due to they have ever smoked lose all state benefits and pension entitlements and the usage of the NHS in their lifetime.
Catching the bus, you are joking, right?
We are in tough times and need to make savings from the welfare bill. We have done a fantastic job in cutting benefits from the disabled and those on incapacity benefits we now need to cut the welfare bill further by scrapping things like the pension that make up the spiraling costs.
We cannot pay for the lifestyle choices of those who drink and smoke there way through life and expect the hard working people to support them in old age.
Yes they do pay a little in but it does not cover the real costs and the younger generations have to support them.
abolishing the pension and banning them from NHS useage would encourage people never to take up a bad habit. Its time for us conservatives to support those who do the right thing.
Catching the bus the sarcastic tone tells me you’re on the side of more welfare. The problem is you probably don’t realise how close you may be to what is going to come in the future. When interest rates go up and add over £100 billion to our current interest repayments on current debt who knows what will be cut. Stupid politicians that have promised people everything for nothing will add trillions to our future debt if we carry on in the same way. You won’t need to stop people using the NHS becasue it won’t be there. Those enjoying life on benefits need to re-evaluate their life because it will come to an end, Why do you think the Labour party are going along with the Tories,
No I am not on the side of welfare. the opposite, I am just dealing with facts liberals find hard and tories don’t want because they want there little cushy number when a pensioner.
We are all in this together and need to make cuts.
I think the only way the debt will come down and as you pointed out the sooner the better is if we scrap.
1. the Pension for people who don’t wish to work anymore at 65 and sit in there flat with the curtains closed living off hard working taxpayers for the rest of there life. people can work till they drop at 80 or 90.
2.Sell the NHS off (Privatise) and jack the prices up so it is profitible or atleast breakeven.
3. Get rid of National Insurance as its now invalid.
4. cut corporation tax so companies are registered in the UK and not Ireland.
5. sell off everything schools, hospitals, royal mail, so on.
I am sick of seeing little old men and women pottering about not making themselves useful to society. I for one don’t wish to support this kind of lifestyle.
First of all with regard to smoking:- All these old people that you see about now grew up surrounded by smoke filled pubs, rooms, buses, cinemas etc. How on earth did they manage to get so old?
Cancer, asthma and heart problems are now attacking the so called younger generation more than ever. Look in any hospital and take note of the ages of the victims.
Yes the government should be putting in money for health care, but they should not use lifestyle as an excuse for industrial pollution.
I was born and grew up here in Thurrock and have never been to such a dirty and polluted area as this. It has become a laughing stock to the rest of the country.
Maybe Polly Billington should take a ride around Thurrock and look at the grass, trees and hedgerows. In other parts of Essex they are prominently green. Here they become a dirty grey. Answer? Polution. Thurrock has suffered years of breathing in cement dust, chemicals, oil residue and that’s only from the industrial elements, let’s not forget the landfill sites that contain more than their fair share of possibly illegally dumped waste matter. Think again Polly, is Thurrock a home for people or is it just an industrial tip.
Now they are adding the port and are ready to increase the pollution level with all the diesel fumes from hundreds of huge container lorries that will be using Thurrock’s roads. Why were the docklands moved away from London to Thurrock? Were they offensive to the eyes of those money grubbers in Canary Wharf?
As for that person hiding behind the name of Catching The Bus, whether you go private or NHS you could well end up in a care home with somebody having to wipe your backside for you. Think about it.
As for hiding behind a username. Yeah lets all go back 15 years and post under our own names only for some malicious person to go posting in other forums such and such is a padaphile or any other shocking thing that will show up in search engines I have seen one person end there life due to this very thing and it was in the media in there country.
Why do you use a username Janet?
I use the username I always have Catching the bus which is all on the wayback machine in suicide forums and suicide usenet groups.
Casey knows who I am and so does Myles Valen Cook..Now Myles posts under his own name and look at all the s&*( he has had for it.
OK Catching the bus I respect your reason and do agree with you that malicious and sick beings (can’t call them people) do post despicable items against others that are untrue. I meant no offence to you.
I use a username as it is required.
But I still think you are wrong with your attitude toward elderly people and the NHS.
Right, I’ve got a couple of things to add to everything that has been said in the comment stream here –
1) Catchingthebus is personally known to me as he stated. He, as everyone else, has the right to choose an anonymous username and he is perfectly right about the attacks you get if you post under your own name. Anonymous usernames are fine if, like Catchingthebus, you aren’t going to attack someone; if, however, you’re a nasty piece of work who attacks people online, you should have the guts to use your real name or shut the Hell up.
As for requiring a username, your real name can be your username. Or do people require an anonymous username for some other reason?
2) Spending on pensions is a large proportion of DWP spending; in fact, it dwarfs spending on disability/sickness benefits. This being the case, it seems strange that pensioners are exempted from most of the changes in welfare. If we’re “all in this together” then everyone should be feeling the hurt. The only reason pensioners are being exempted from the changes in welfare is because they are the largest group available to vote and the Tories need their votes. They are buying pensioner votes.
3) Smoking is never going to be stamped out completely. Yes, smokers contribute money via tax on cigarettes, etc but they also cost the NHS a fortune not just on smoking related illnesses in themselves but also amongst the non-smokers around them. Do they contribute enough to make the money put in to equal the money they cost to make their cost to society a zero sum? If so, let them smoke their lives away – that’s their right.
4) Obesity problems aren’t just a problem caused by people on welfare, it is a societal problem. People on benefits would probably like to eat healthier but it costs too much to buy fresh produce. If you want to tackle obesity, make healthier foodstuffs cheaper. But there will always be people who wish to eat unhealthy stuff no matter how much it costs and that’s their right too.
I have my own opinions on the NHS and welfare some of which may coincide with commenters here and others that do not, however, I leave my contribution here as I wish to confine my comments to the comment stream debate and keep my other opinions for my blogs (should I write any more).
Somehow this discussion has become side-lined to pensioners and smokers. I also have strong views on drink related costs to NHS.
However my main point when I joined the discussion was that has anyone considered the fact that pollution is a main contributor to serious health problems like heart and asthma related illness.
Lifestyle in Thurrock is no different to many other U.K. towns yet It seems all the blame in Thurrock is being attributed to lifestyle. Why are you all avoiding the pollution problem?
Thurrock is well known for its industrially polluted air quality.
TRUTH EVADENCE CAN SERIOUSLY HARM YOUR HEALTH.
I agree with you about pollution and the effects on health. sadly I don’t think any government will tackle it.
I am against Coal and nuclear power stations due to the effects it has or may have on the environment. I am also impressed with the work and speaches of Green MP Caroline Lucus. One of the few people in the commons who stands out on this subject.
Everything in Myles’ comment is spot on. People will still smoke, eat badly, drink excessively no matter how much money you waste trying to convince people not to.
I’m glad that pensioners have not been troubled by all the cuts. That generation worked extremely hard, in tough times, in crappy jobs for little money (my own grandparents included) and yet they still managed to create a home, bring up children with manners and understood the value of money. I’d happily pay more tax if it’s going to help our pensioners.
Caroline Lucas doesn’t have a clue. All it takes it watching her for ten minutes on programmes like Question Time to realise she is a bit of a nutcase. By the way Catching the Bus, 17 years and counting with no global warming despite big increases in atmospheric CO2 (which, by the way, isn’t a pollutant).
I’ve lived in Thurrock for over forty years and haven’t experienced any health issues caused by pollution. Maybe I’ve just been lucky?
Also, being rich or poor doesn’t really affect which foods you eat, that is another myth. There are just as many well off folks scoffing down takeaways and assorted ‘bad’ foods as there are folks on benefits. After all, veggies are way cheaper than meat so if affordability were the only factor then the welfare claimants would all be vegetarian wouldn’t they?
As for moving the Ports out of London, it’s nothing to do with Janet’s eyesores or greedy Docklands based businessmen it was about cargo ships getting too big for trip up the Thames and about building a modern port for the modern world at a time when Britain’s trade was expanding rapidly. Don’t forget that the Port of Tilbury was here long before most of the housing was and it provided thousands of jobs in its heyday. However, Tilbury is a decidedly 20th century port in a 21st century world, it’s almost obsolete now so the new port will ensure that Thurrock continues to be a major world freight hub. That has to be good news doesn’t it?
There isn’t really an excuse for eating badly other than sheer laziness and convenience. Parents can’t be bothered to tell their children no. The very same parents can’t be bothered to exercise or eat properly themselves. It’s easier to stuff a bag of chips than it is to buy some vegetables and cook a meal. And it’s nothing to do with time. Take a look around Grays and you’ll see most of the obese parents have all day to cook a meal because a large number of them don’t work. It is true that a large number of people will choose a pack of fags and a 2 litre bottle of white parafin over a healthy meal any day of the week regardless of how many time you tell them it’s nopt good for them.
Polly is a member of that group of people in society that believe that they know best and they want you to give them your money to tell you all about it. They are the pc nanny state brigade spawned from the neo liberals that have haplessly run this country for the last 15 years.
grays64 Believe what you want .
Who do you believe in Parliment has a clue?
Catching the Bus, that’s a curious question you put to me. I doubt you will find a post of mine expressing support for anybody in Parliament. I think that, by and large, the information coming out of Parliament is garbage. Actually, I am not really sure what your last post to me was supposed to be commenting on exactly.
I was trying to find out where on the political landscape you are? as it’s strange saying Lucas has not got a clue about the environment.
Oh I see! Well, I am in the landscape of understanding that climate changes but that it’s cobblers that CO2 is responsible for anything other than improved plant life! I find Lucas to be a bit of a Harpy who is rather clueless as to how nature works and chooses instead to believe in, and re-spout, a load of techno-babble. I prefer to look at the science which leads me increasingly to believe that none of them have much of an idea how the environment works but that the models that have been used to predict catastrophic global warming are all, repeat ALL, wrong.
How the hell can you say that?
Well I believe that smokers pollute. smoking leads to premature death and smokers should be banned from the NHS.
nuclear power is dangerous when it goes wrong.
fossil fuel power can pollute and effects health.
At the end of the day you can believe what you like. but you could be killing people?
I can say that because it’s true.
You seem unaware that, right up into the 70’s, smoking was promoted as a fashinably cool thing to do, in the forties fifties and early sixties it was even advertised as being good for you. A lot of those elderly smokers grew up in those years, do you really want to stop their access to health care?
What about freedom of choice? I think that, as long as you stay within the laws of the land, you should be able to do what the hell you like. Do you really want this to be a world where you have to live your life according to somebody else’s dislikes and prejudices? I don’t.
Nuclear fuel is dangerous when it goes wrong, it hardly ever does. If you think nuclear is dangerous, ponder for a minute the consequences of no electricity at all if we go over to ludicrous wind turbines instead. That would be far more catastrophic.
Fossil fuel can pollute and does affect health, that is indisputable. Having cold homes with no power through the winter will kill tens of thousands every year.
This isn’t a case of belief, it’s a case of living in the real world.
Yes I also wish to outlaw smoking. I should never have to smell and breath that crap. ban smokers from the NHS.
What about non smokers freedom of choice even if you ask them not too they tell you to f off.
we already do its call government. it’s law and we can pass law to band it. simple.
Your right nuclear hardly ever goes wrong but when it does it’s game over.
Thats why we need to support CERN and green energy. get the green energy into many MW and faze out coal and nuclear.
Catching the Bus, I really can’t work out whether you’re a real person, or not. But, in case you are…
Three mile Island, Chernobyl, K-19, Fukishima. All nuclear accidents. We’re still here. No ‘game over’ scenarios for you to get angsty about.
I agree with you on the smoking, foul stinky habit but it is lawful for people to smoke and it is everybody’s right to do so if they wish. You say “…we can pass a law to band it”(sic) and that’s right too except that you are not ‘we’ and the ‘we’s” are not going to ban it anytime soon because it generates too much revenue. Before you go on about costs to the NHS, the revenue from tobacco dwarfs the costs in health care. Until that equation changes tobacco will remain lawful.
‘Green’ energy is a myth, I seriously recommend you broaden your reading on environmental issues instead of relying on the propaganda from the green lobby and the BBC etc. Look into the costs (both actual and environmental) of constructing and placing wind turbines, look into the actual amount of energy generated by said turbines instead of their advertised capabilities. You will see they are horrendously expensive and generate a very small amount of power, not enough to run a country by that’s for sure. Whether you like it or not, the only viable ways to maintain our energy supply are through fossil fuels and nuclear power, that’s it.
Yep we are still here pitty about living near them.
I am on about banning smoking, heck loads of things go through parliment without the support of the people.
thats what I am on about doing. I never said everyone agrees with me. I said about banning it. thats what I wish to do.
You are wrong the true costs of smoking related problems is still yet to be realized and you dam well know it.
How the hell you can use current wind turbines as a basis of what can be done is laughable. that completely ignores CERN and the research which is ongoing. I am not on about switching everything off tonight I am on about replacing them with reliable sources of energy that is not limited and can be done as decommisioning takes its toll. the sooner we can do this the better for the environment and our health.
I’ve never read such a load of BIASED garbage.
I use the bus and a pushbike and have done for many years, and find in general most people are considerate, and as for Lazing about–
I retired last May, and am now heavily involved in Environment Issues for Thurrock, belong to the University of the Third Age (U3A), Thurrock Over Fifties Forum (T.O.F.F.S) attend council meetings to have my say and are an active member of my local community Forum.
My leisure time–I see less TV than I have ever done, but I lead a better life.
Pollution- Go to the London Council website and look at the report for London to get Tilbury http://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/basicgraphs.asp?region=0&site=TK4&sitename=Thurrock_-_Calcutta_Road_Tilbury&period=Seven_day&graphdate=&zoom=9&lat=51.431751825946115&lon=-0.17578125&Species=All&laEdge=&WhoBulletin=
This is the real cause of your bad health, Don’t always blame smokers.- P.S. I have not smoked since I was 17, however it is a free world and if you want to kill yourself-who am I to object.
If you are not satisfied with your life or Thurrock- GET-OFF YOUR BACKSIDE and do something about it.
Terry
Fook me terry you oldies are a bit slow in replying
Well if you wannna go round Grays breathuig in smoke thats your problem. I ain’t gonna stand for it. because I dont have too, If you wanna kill yourself ok.
Great you are doing non paid stuff So do I but it don’t pay the bills and we need to slash the welfare bill so scrap the pension and kick those claiments out into the work place.
to your last point thats what Ive been doing is it not?
Catching the Bus
I do not go on the internet all the time and as you posted at 11.02pm, either you are on shift-work or no work
Do you actually work for a living or are you a scrounger only out for for what you can get for yourself?.
When you work, you have to pay a NATIONAL Insurance stamp, which is about 12% of your gross wage which pays for your health care and your pension. So the pension is not a freebee but something that those of us who have worked for 50 years have paid for are entitled to.!
Do you realise that if you could use some that hot air you keep spouting there would be no energy problem
Have you qualified for any benefits you are getting or do you think that life owes you a living?
Terry
First of all you are turning this into a personal attack. Yes I do work and Pay 40% which knocks out most of your hostile reply.
No NI does not cover the Welfare bill which is at such a rate and it is the pension bill that needs to be tackled.
We need to step up to the plate scrap the state pension and get those pensioners into jobs.