Tom Brake (Guardian last week) is very good at saying he wants to fight for St Helier Hospital, but his voting record suggests his main loyalties lie elsewhere.
Clause 119, the highly centralist and undemocratic ‘Hospital closure clause’ which gives health secretary Jeremy Hunt the power to close any hospital in 40 days without local consultation, was supported by Tom Brake and all LibDem MPs. And remarkably, Paul Burstow who put down an amendment to give some balancing powers to the local community, ended up not voting for his own amendment!
Just as with last summer’s vote on government plans to gag charities and campaigners from working during elections, our local MPs have proved to be loyal supporters of a highly illiberal government who have steadily disempowered local communities; and it is, after all, this coalition government whose wider reforms are putting services at St Helier hospital at risk.
Bob Steel,
Green party
Carshalton
- Send your letters to: letters@suttonguardian.co.uk
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