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Prime
Minister Tony Blair made a special visit to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio Gloucestershire
to field questions from local people.
The
questions posed for the PM included:
The
future of the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment
The
loss of inpatient services in Cheltenham
Payment
by results in the NHS
The
£200 payment to pensioners
The
election campaign
Single
parent payments
The
loss of special schools in the county
Tony
Blair fielded questions on all the above topics and some of his
answers can be found below...
The
first question is from Mike in Tewkesbury. He asks:
In
the aftermath of the latest round of defence cuts, the future of
the Back Badge of the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire
Regiments is in doubt. The Back Badge is much more than a piece
of metal, it's the very core of the pride and integrity of this
county. Will you personally, please, intervene to save our Back
Badge?
Tony
Blair says:
I've just been answering some questions on this, Mike, and we are
going to do our best to preserve the Back Badge. We know that people
feel very strongly about the identity of the regiment. I just want
to explain one thing because, obviously, this is an issue in different
parts of the country. It isn't defence cuts that are driving this,
because the defence expenditure is actually going up. What it is
is the desire of the Army to have greater flexibility in the way
that they move people across the regimental structure and what we're
trying to do is to ensure that they get that flexibility while people
retain the identity that's very important in places like Gloucestershire
and elsewhere. Now I can't give a promise on the Back Badge but
we are looking at it very carefully and I hope we will have good
news on it.
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I would
just point out though that the restructuring that's been happening
with the Regiments has been going on for many, many years. Now the
Back Badge is, I know, what people consider the key identity for
the Regiment and I think there is a way of making sure you preserve
the identity whilst giving the Army the flexibility they want. I
should actually just say in fairness that this isn't being driven
by bureaucrats in Whitehall, it's being driven by people within
senior ranks of the Army who want to ensure that the Army is a flexible
and adaptable force for today's world but I totally understand the
point that's being made.
The
next question is from Carol in Bishop's Cleeve:
As
a mother I'm very concerned about the loss of Children's Inpatient
services in the Cheltenham General Hospital. Does the Prime Minister
make a habit of turning his back on areas which aren't a Labour
stronghold?
Tony
Blair replies:
First of all I should say that the reason I know a little bit about
this and why this is being done is because there is a huge investment
going into the Gloucester Hospital as you know. What is happening
is that, as a result of the local health trust deciding that it
was better to locate the inpatient specialist care on one site,
they decided to locate it at Gloucester. My understanding is that
at Cheltenham there will still be the paediatric assessment unit,
it will open from nine in the morning until ten at night, and they
will make provision for out of hours car as well. I should say to
you that it is not actually a Government decision, it's the local
trust that's doing this but in fairness to them I should say that
this type of reorganisation goes on in every part of the country
because sometimes people think - this is experts as well as bureaucrats
- it is better to have one very, very good quality specialist care
unit rather than have the specialist care divided in two sites.
To
listen to the full interview with Tony Blair, where he talks about
local topics like special schools, the election campaign and single
parent issues check out the audio below:
Click
below to see pictures of Tony Blair's visit to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio Gloucestershire.
(Pictures
1-10)
Take
a look at , a handy guide to key policies of
each political party.
If
you would like to comment on this story get in touch at gloucestershire@bbc.co.uk
or have your say on our
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Prime
Minister Tony Blair came to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Gloucestershire on Thursday 17th March
at 5.30pm for a special question and answer session...
