Key Seaton Museum meeting tomorrow – all welcome
Tomorrow (Wednesday 30th) sees the AGM of the Axe Valley Heritage Association, which runs Seaton Museum. This is the first AGM since the death of the Museum’s founder and curator, Ted Gosling, and so is an important moment in putting the Museum on a secure footing. The meeting is at 2 pm in the United Reform Church Hall, Cross Street.
I will lead tributes to Ted. Our Acting Curator, Laura Hewitt, who the Trustees are proposing should be confirmed as the new Curator, will give a report on her plans for the Museum going forward, and prehistorian Mark Farry will give a short talk on the archaeology of the local area. There will be tea and biscuits.
All are welcome – this is your chance to find out what is going on in your local Museum and decide if you would like to become a member or get involved.
Book launch, Old Picture House, 20 November
This is a rather unusual post. While I was campaigning for Seaton Hospital late last year (a campaign which has still to bear fruit, but we are working on it), I was also writing a book on a protest movement – The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
When our protest last November included the brilliant idea of ringing all the church bells, I thought of all the imaginative and daring ways that antinuclear campaigners used to highlight their issues. And when one of the bellringers joked that we needed to be making Molotov cocktails, I thought, no – but a peaceful obstruction of the bulldozers might be in order. (Non-Violent Direct Action is the technical term.)
Anyway, I am holding a launch event in the Old Picture House, Harbour Road, Seaton, on Wednesday 20th November at 5pm. All welcome!
I’ll be in conversation with Paul Arnott – himself a distinguished author – who will quiz me on why I wrote the book, what its lessons are amidst the growing world gloom, and all questions politics and protest. There will be ample opportunity to ask your own questions, and of course a bar.
If you want to learn more about The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the publishers’ website has all the details and you can buy it with 30% off, using the code ‘EM30’ at checkout. It will also be available for £15 on the night (cash or cheque), but no obligation to buy of course.
I hope to see you on the 20th November – do spread the word!
Vaccination fiasco shows NHS doesn’t understand Seaton
I’ve just had to abandon a Covid/flu vaccination appointment at the Tesco car park after waiting an hour, since I’d have to wait another hour before being done. This is despite having an appointment. The core reason for the fiasco is that the NHS grossly underestimated the walk-in demand in the morning, so that people who had waited hours were ahead of the people with timed appointments (there was also a medical emergency which apparently slowed things a little).
All a striking contrast with the orderly vaccination process in Seaton hospital during the pandemic. The NHS obviously just doesn’t understand that 45 per cent of Seaton’s population are over 65 and therefore eligible. They’re trying to do vaccination on the cheap and they are not taking into account that people are rightly still very concerned about catching Covid.
Big step forward for Seaton Wetlands
Well done, Paul Arnott and EDDC, bringing a new area of marshes into the Wetlands.
www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/24625233.east-devon-acquires-land-seaton-wetlands-expansion/
Seaton Museum – Facebook and JustGiving pages launched, tributes to Ted planned
Seaton Museum now has a Facebook page and also a JustGiving page – the Museum needs your support and all donations will be gratefully received.
The AGM of the Axe Valley Heritage Association, which runs the Museum, is on 30 October at 2pm in the United Reformed Church, Cross Street. The Acting curator, Laura Hewitt, will give a report on the future of the museum and I will be giving a tribute to Ted.
Laura has asked me to edit the Museum’s Newsletter and the first issue will be on the Museum’s history, including a full tribute to Ted. I should be very grateful for any anecdotes or suggestions on points to include.
Hugo Swire, who sabotaged Seaton Hospital, uses new perch in Lords to promote community hospitals
Swire obviously thinks we have forgotten. He is the man who, having been MP for Seaton until boundaries changed in 2005, spoke in Parliament in 2016 to say that if beds were kept anywhere, it should be in Sidmouth – leading the CCG to switch Seaton’s beds, which they had originally planned to keep, to our neighbouring town. A key moment in the Seaton Hospital crisis, whose effects we are still dealing with today.
Richard Foord calls debate on trying Putin for aggression in Ukraine
Richard used his position as MP and Lib Dem spokesman to call a special parliamentary debate on the need for a special international tribunal to try Vladimir Putin for the crime of aggression, which is a fundamental breach of the UN Charter. All the specific crimes that Russia has committed, and all the disruption to European and world stability that it has caused, come down to this basic crime.
It’s important that initiatives like this are made. You can watch Richard’s speech here.
RD&E: ‘some of our people do not feel safe coming to work’ after racist riots
The CEO and chair of the Royal Devon University Healthcare trust, which runs the RD&E, have felt it necessary to include this unprecedented statement in their latest newsletter:
“Last month saw deplorable violence and intimidation in towns and cities across the UK. We wholeheartedly condemn the deliberate acts of violence and racism that have taken place and we want to make a clear statement about our values and behaviours as an organisation.
“Inclusion is one of our core values and we take pride in having a diverse workforce and a culture that respects everybody. The values we hold, and the behaviours we expect from staff, students, patients and visitors, mean that we will not tolerate discrimination or abuse of any kind.
“Our workforce is made up of talented and committed people from all around the world. Their diversity, expertise and skill are our strength and enable us to provide truly world-class services for people in need in our local communities.
“It has been heartening to see many thousands of people come together to join protests against the violence and racism. But we know that some of our people do not feel safe coming to work and that is unacceptable.
“Our priority is to build a culture at work where our people feel safe, healthy and supported. Whilst we have a wide range of support in place for our people we ask for your help in ensuring that all of our colleagues feel safe and welcome.
“We expect people who use our services to treat those who are caring for them with courtesy, kindness and respect and vice versa. We will take action against those who do not.
“We pride ourselves on being an inclusive and respectful community where we can all live and work safely. We believe very strongly that there is no place for hate in our homes, on our streets, in our clinics, in our hospitals, in our NHS or in our country.”
Report damns Lansley ‘reforms’ as ‘calamity’ for the NHS – what does it mean for NHS Property Services and Seaton Hospital?
The government’s new report describes the 2012 Health and Social Care Act (the ‘Lansley reforms’) as ‘a calamity without international precedent’, and says that management systems and structures are ‘still reeling from the turbulent decade’ that it began. It involved a ‘costly and distracting process of almost constant reorganisation’ in the NHS.
Yet the report doesn’t specifically mention NHS Property Services, which was set up as a result of the Act, to which Seaton Hospital was then handed over – beginning all our problems. Richard Foord wrote to the new Health secretary, Wes Streeting, after the election, asking for him to look at the hospital problem – this is surely time for this issue to be looked at by the new government.
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 