Let down by Labour - cancer services in Wales

As if we needed yet another example of how our health service under Labour is failing us, last month the Assembly’s Health Committee published a damning review on cancer services in Wales. It reported a shortfall in basic treatments (including radiotherapy), local health boards not working together and ‘confusion and lack of understanding’ in the NHS.

The good news is that yesteday it was announced that an extra £4.5 million is to be invested into cancer services in Wales.

Every year, 16,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in Wales. Therefore improving cancer services must be amongst the top priorities for the Assembly government in its third term. But there has been no indication on what and how this is going to be spent.

We have all heard the stories of our health ‘postcode lottery’ where the chance of surviving cancer is affected by where one lives, where one is treated and whether one has the necessary information. Every year thousands of people die unnecessarily from cancer because their treatment is below standard or is given too late.

And the reluctance of the Labour assembly government in providing brachnytherapy and herceptin shows that they are still not doing enough to address this problem.

As an MEP, I am a member of the MEP’s Against Cancer (MAC) Committee.

It is a cross-party committee with its aim to promote action on cancer as a priority in the EU. It calls upon Health ministers to:

1. Urgently to develop and, where existing, improve national plans, setting priorities and effectively allocating resources for improving cancer control and research across the European Union.

2. Firmly to tackle the socio-economic and geographic divide, which leads to inequalities in cancer control.

3. To make high quality and up to date prevention, treatment and care attainable for all cancer patients in each European Member State.

4. Vigorously to promote cancer awareness in the general public through the existing Europe against Cancer Code, making a special effort in new Member States.

5. To invest in cancer prevention in Member States through implementing the Council Recommendation on Cancer Screening of December 2003 and setting up national high quality screening programmes.

6. To oppose discrimination because of age, race, gender and domicile in respect of the latest cancer treatments.

7. To set up a Cancer Task Force at European level, to exchange best practice and to highlight once again that tackling cancer is a priority and sending a strong political signal that immediate and concerted action is needed now.

Printed by: Jill Evans, 45 Gelligaled Road, Ystrad, Rhondda, CF41 7RQ
Promoted by: Geraint Davies, 6 St. Mary’s Close, Treherbet, Rhondda, CF42 5RL
On behalf of: Jill Evans, 45 Gelligaled Road, Ystrad, Rhondda, CF41 7RQ

Good luck Wales!

Good luck to our national football team in the match with San Marino tonight.

When our national football and rugby teams win it certainly raises the national spirit. I was at the Wales v England rugby game two weeks ago (to take part in a ceremony to celebrate the EU’s 50th birthday) and the atmosphere was electrifying. The mood leaving the stadium and travelling back home on the train was really happy and friendly.

We might not be doing brilliantly at the moment but we should count ourselves lucky to have national sports teams. Countries like Catalonia and the Basque Country don’t have their own official teams despite having parliaments and more political powers than Wales currently holds.

I think it’s totally unimaginable that the Welsh rugby and football teams would be scrapped in favour of a UK Team.

That’s why I’ve put down an amendment to a report that the European Parliament is discussing today on the future of professional football, which emphasises that ‘member state’ is not always the same as footballing nations and that this should not be challenged.

I hope all Welsh and Scottish MEPs will support me in this so that we can look forward to success in Euro 2008, the Rugby World Cup in September and all future competitions.

Wales - a community of communities

When I’m asked to define Wales, I often say it’s a community of communities; and it’s our communities that give us character, soul and strength as a nation. As someone who represents the whole of Wales in the European Parliament I am well aware of this.

As I travel around Wales I meet people fighting to keep services in order to save their communities - people campaigning to keep schools and hospitals open, to have local jobs and housing for their children, to stop landfill sites, to get investment to strengthen the local economy. People living in rural areas, in the valleys, in the towns and cities fighting against the Labour government’s policies that want to centralise everything - centralisation plans which take away so much: post offices, schools, magistrates courts, tax offices, ambulance stations, fire stations.

When Blaenclydach Infants School in the Rhondda closed it left a huge gap in the community. The parents and children who had put everything into campaigning to keep the school and youth centre open were left desolate that the government hadn’t listened. And to add insult to the injury, not only did Labour fail to listen, the school was sold off by RCT council at auction in a 4 star London hotel, with lots of other Rhondda land, to make a bigger profit than selling it locally at local prices.

The purpose of government is to ensure high quality essential services for people, to ensure successful communities and enable people to reach their full potential.

Devolution did not mean devolving power to Cardiff but devolving power to people!

I’m supporting Llwyncelyn school bus bid

I recently met with Llwyncelyn parents to discuss their bid for a bus to take their children to Porth County School. The parents handed a petition to myself and Councillor Julie Williams which we’ll be forwarding on to the Council.

The parents say that the children have to walk a long way to reach Porth County School through busy traffic. In addition as Porth County School starts at 8.25am the children have to start walking at about 7.30am and in winter it is still dark then.They are quite willing to pay for their children to travel if a bus was provided. There are over 50 children walking from Llwyncelyn to Porth County School.

This is about the safety of the children. We hear so much today about safe routes to school. So, I am calling on the Council to assist these parents in getting their children to and from school safely.

Let down by Labour - this time its our nurses

We all know what a mess the health service is in under this government. We all know too the fantastic job done by doctors and nurses despite the problems. So I was disgusted to hear in my meeting with a Rhondda nurse this week that their pay is actually being cut by the government. A new pay system has been brought in and many will lose hundreds of pounds a year. Even the annual pay rise is being staggered between April and November which means it won’t be worth 2.5% but instead will go down to 1.9%. Inflation now is 4.6%.

But I also read this week that the Scottish Parliament decided to give nurses in Scotland their pay rise in one go on April 1st. The Assembly in Wales doen’t have the power to even do that!

It really is time for a change in the way the health service is run. It should be rooted in our local communities and be about promoting wellbeing as well as treating illness. A Plaid Cymru government would stop the hospital closure programme (delayed by Labour until after the elections in May) and create a new community health service for the people of Wales.

Welsh young people want more information, honesty and action

No-one can tell me that young people are not interested in politics! On Friday I was one of a panel of politicians listening to the views of over a hundred young people from all over Wales on climate change, immigration and poverty. Their messages came across loud and clear. They wanted more information about the real issues, more honesty and more action from politicians.

This European Youth Forum was organised by the European Parliament office in London and held in the Assembly. Since I was elected in 1999 I have campaigned (unsuccessfully so far) for a European Parliament office in Wales. If we had that, we could have so many more events like the one on Friday to really involve young people in the political process. They’ve got one in Scotland already. I suggested that it could have been built into the new Senedd, but no-one listened. I won’t give up!

I found the youth forum very interesting, challenging and inspiring. I promised to listen and I did listen.

I do believe that actions speak louder than words and that’s what guides my political work. I made a Friends of the Earth pledge last year that whenever I voted in the European Parliament I would put the environment first - in other words, put our future on this planet first. I’ve kept to that pledge although I’m often attacked for it by people who would put business and profits first. I think the students I met last Friday would be with me on this one.

Llongyfarchiadau i Gyngor Sir Gwynedd - Gwynedd Council against Trident

Llongyfarchiadau i Gyngor Sir Gwynedd, a reolir gan Blaid Cymru, am bleidleisio yn unfrydol yn erbyn Trident. Gobeithio bod cynghorau eraill yn dilyn ei esiampl.

Congratulations to Plaid Cymru controlled Gwynedd County Council for voting unanimously against Trident. I hope that other councils follow their example.

Cynghorwyr Gwynedd yn gwrthwynebu olynydd system arfau niwclear Trident

Yng nghyfarfod o Gyngor llawn Cyngor Gwynedd ar 1 Mawrth, pleidleisiodd Cynghorwyr Gwynedd yn unfrydol i wrtheynebu cynlluniau Llywodraeth Prydain i greu olynydd i system arfau niwclear Trident.

Wrth gyflwyno’r cynnig gerbron y Cyngor llawn, dywedodd y Cynghorydd Dyfed Edwards:

“Mae Cyngor Gwynedd yn datgan ein bod yn gwrthwynebu cynlluniau Llywodraeth San Steffan i greu olynydd i’r system arfau niwclear Trident.

“Mynnwn fod Llywodraeth Prydain yn rhoi terfyn ar y cynlluniau hyn ac yn hytrach na buddsoddi’r biliynau o bunnoedd mewn gwasanaethau cyhoeddus yma yng Ngwledydd Prydain ac mewn rhaglenni penodol i gynorthwyo gwledydd tlawd ein byd.”

Gan bleidleisio o blaid anfon llythyr at y Prif Weinidog ac at Aelodau Seneddol sy’n cynrychioli Gwynedd yn mynegi eu gwrthwynebiad, Cyngor Gwynedd yw’r Cyngor cyntaf ym Mhrydain i gyflwyno eu sylwadau i Lywodraeth Prydain.

Cefnogwyd y cynnig yn unfrydol gan Gyngorwyr Gwynedd.

Legally binding CSR would have helped Burberry workers

The long awaited report on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was discussed today in the European Parliament, with members voting tomorrow.

The recent example of Burberry in Treorci has quite plainly shown that voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility does not work. Their Corporate Social Responsibility policies which spoke of working closely with the community were worthless and have been ignored.

This demonstrates with absolute clarity the need for measures to be legally binding and this is what I will be calling for in the European Parliament report.

I urge all MEPs to vote responsibly on this issue in tomorrow’s vote and support the workers - not the disgraceful actions of Burberry. We must make companies accountable to their workforce and answerable for their actions.

Congratulations Parc & Dare Band

Congratulations to the Parc & Dare Band on being awarded nearly £50,000 from the Heritage Lotttery Fund to celebrate the unique history of one of Wales’s oldest brass bands and a Rhondda institution.

‘A Life Divine’ - the name of the project, named after music written by the Welsh composer Cyril Jenkins - will also be made in a unique way with not only the band members but people throughout the community talking part. I heard about the project through a friend, Avril Evans who together with Elaine Hawkins has written two books about Rhondda history, “A Dark Past”, and “Around Rhondda Fawr”. Avril and Elaine will be writing the book on the band’s history as part of the project. I look forward to seeing the end results of this exciting project.

Arriva trains promise to improve

My train journey back from Brussels to the Rhondda last week went without a hitch. I wish the same thing could be said for people travelling from Cardiff to Treherbert at the beginning of February whose journeys were disrupted by engineering work.

In response to my complaints, Arriva have agreed to make the departure points for buses in Porth clearer on the posters and on their publicity. The least we can expect is that when people have to leave the trains and go between stations by bus they are told where the buses will be waiting!