A letter to the Thurrock Gazette - Mental Health Services Are Doomed

I usually wait until the Thurrock Gazette either publishes my letter so I can include the usually edited version as a screen grab or, when they don’t publish it, the letter gets a viewing but this time I’m just posting it here now because the Thurrock Gazette haven’t been printing my letters and because Jackie Doyle-Price’s minions read my blog so it’ll get back to her one way or the other.

Jackie Doyle-Price has been made Minister for Care and Mental Health which means that mental health services are doomed given her attitude to people with mental health issues in the past.  It’s like hiring a paedophile to look after children – the worst thing you could do.

I arranged an appointment for JD-P to attend a MP Work Capability Assessment as part of a campaign by mental health organisations designed to show how unfit-for-purpose the WCA was for mental health sufferers.  She refused to attend.

I asked her to attend the debate on mental health in Parliament.  She didn't attend.

In neither case did she say that she had other work on that particular date.  She just didn't care (even though she had the option of rescheduling the MP WCA if the appointment coincided with something else she had to do).

Despite send her well-written, strongly worded but respectful letters, she decided to send me an Easy Read leaflet telling me what an MP does and highlighted what she thought were relevant sections that backed up her case for her inaction but, in fact, did the opposite.  I have mental health issues but I'm not stupid or have any learning difficulties so she obviously sent that leaflet as an attack on my intelligence, revealing her own discriminatory views on people with mental health problems and her own stupidity in the process.

As she now has responsibility for mental health services, the people who rely on them are screwed.

If it gets published I will post the screen grab here and will post any replies that I get from any other readers of the Thurrock Gazette.

The Tory knives are out and scapegoats have been chosen

It is in the Tory way to be sharpening knives to plunge into the back of a leader who has failed them but, at this time of impending delicate Brexit talks, it seems that from a strategic point of view to go after Theresa Mayhem in true Julius Caesar style violence would be to cause more instability in an already unstable situation.  New scapegoats have had to be found and, this time at least, the poor, sick and disabled can’t be blamed.

According to the BBC (and who else would know better than the Tory’s Biased Broadcasting Corporation), Theresa Mayhem was forced into sacking Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, two of her closest advisors, or face a leadership challenge.

This is, of course, the ‘official’ story.  I don’t believe for one minute that the Tories would mount a leadership challenge at this time as, if they do make the deal with the Democratic Unionist Party, on whatever basis it is, a leadership challenge would destabilise the party during Brexit negotiations.

The truth is closer to a scenario in which Theresa Mayhem wishes to pass the buck for the Tory failure to increase their majority or even maintain what they had so Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill were chosen as sacrificial lambs to placate the party and the UK’s Tory voters.  They go and carry the can for the significant failure in the General Election, leaving Theresa Mayhem’s hands clean of guilt.

It may well be true that Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill provided terrible advice with regards to holding a General Election in the first place and what should be in the Tory manifesto but the ultimate truth is…

And I don’t think your party will forget that beautiful truth and, when they do strike, their knives will be razor-sharp.

Tory junk mail – Team Jackie replies

I have to say that I didn’t expect a response, let alone such a prompt one, to my e-mail from Jackie Doyle-Price’s campaign team (she has spent the last four years ignoring me when I was being polite to her) so imagine my surprise when I received the following reply:

Love you too

Ben @ Team Jackie

Campaign to Re-Elect Jackie Doyle-Price

Don’t believe me?  Here’s a screen capture of the e-mail:

The e-mail gave me a much-needed laugh at a time when the UK is on the brink of apocalypse should the vote go terribly wrong today.  Well, if the Tories retain control and Jackie Doyle-Price retains her seat as well, I don’t have a lot to lose so in for a penny, in for a pound, I sent this reply:

Well I know you probably don't, Ben@ Team Jackie, but I know Jackie does.  Her constant flirting with me is plain to see.  She can't help herself even though she ignored me for the past four years.  On Monday, her naive and coquettish feelings for me rose to the surface again at the hustings but I'm afraid they are not reciprocated so if you could ask her to stop all the flirting I'd appreciate it.

I don’t know if I’ll get any more replies but at least I had some fun today.  I know if the Tories remain in power and she keeps her seat that I’ve just painted a huge target on my back but what the Hell?

If you haven’t seen the initial e-mail and my reply, you can find it here: http://valen1971.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/tory-junk-mail.html

Tory junk mail

Here’s the full text of an e-mail I found in my Junk Mail folder this morning from my local Tory Parliamentary candidate.

Dear ,

There is just 1 day to go now until the General Election.

Theresa May called this election for one reason; to enable the Government to deliver Brexit. 

We want to deliver on the instruction given by the British people.  At the moment, we can’t.  The House of Lords will block all plans to leave the EU.  Labour, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats are all threatening to block any deal.  So Theresa May is asking for the strong endorsement of the public so she can lead us out of the European Union.

In truth, if the Conservatives lose just 6 seats, our majority is lost.  Thurrock is one of those six.  Put simply, if I do not win there is every chance that Theresa May will not win this election. So, if you want us to leave the European Union with the best possible deal for Britain there is only one way to cast your vote, and that is for me.

We have taken a historically significant decision and it is important that we get it right.  I hope we have been able to persuade you that Theresa May is best placed to lead Britain this time.

I have never been shy about asking for money from Government. Over the last seven years as your Member of Parliament I have secured:

£5m for Purfleet regeneration

£11m for Grays town centre

£100m for 2 new schools and 5 more on the way

£800k fund a training facility in Tilbury for service veterans

£100m for junction 30 improvements

£80m A13 road widening

£10m to support Gurkha veterans

I am only person who can raise Thurrock’s demands- directly with Theresa May, and the people that matter to get the best for Grays and the UK as we leave the EU.

The risk of Jeremy Corbyn leading the Government is too great - vote Conservative tomorrow and show your support at www.pledgemyvote.com.

Best Wishes

Jackie Doyle-Price

The Conservative Party Candidate

As you can see, Ms Doyle-Price’s campaign team didn’t even bother to fill in the salutation properly and to prove I’m not making this up, here’s a screen capture of the e-mail:

Here’s my reply:

Fuck off!