In the news story header image

In the news: July 2020

Throughout each month I am posting links to media coverage where I have had active involvement in the story or have provided comment and a Labour Party perspective. As an elected County councillor I am often asked to provide local input on national stories and the socialist perspective on local issues.


Without more information I cannot assist those I represent

Isle of Thanet News clipping

This comprehensive reporting of the pandemic related statistics for East Kent shows alarming statistics for Thanet. As lockdown eases are we really out of the woods? I am still being contacted by residents looking for information and assurance but, despite being a county councillor on the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, I am often getting my updates from the news like everyone else.

In this piece I mention the letter I have written to Accountable Officer Wilf Williams in the NHS, asking for an urgent COVID update.

Read the story in The Isle of Thanet News.


Flight of fantasy is not the answer to Thanet’s plight

Seeing Red Story Banner

Despite the evidence and advice presented by the Government’s own advisors, the green light has been given for a freight hub at Manston Airport.

We are in the midst of a climate emergency, looking to build on our reviving tourism trade and still have to find land for 20,000 new homes in Thanet. So are polluting jumbo-jets thundering feet above the beaches and rooftops of Ramsgate the answer?

This opinion piece appeared in my regular Seeing Red column in The Isle of Thanet News. Read the full article here.


Baby deaths: we need a public inquiry

Kent Messenger news clipping

A recently published report says there is insufficient evidence that recommendations for improvements in East Kent Hospitals maternity care have been implemented.

As Kent Online reports here, I have requested that EKH Trust appears again before Kent County Council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC), on which I sit.

Avoidable baby deaths should never happen, but parents and families in Thanet have discovered that our hospitals appear to have frighteningly high numbers of baby mortality.

Beyond a reappearance at the HOSC, we really need a public inquiry.

Read the full story here