Labour’s claims that Tory Government is bad for your health have already been verified in the early days of the Con/Lib Government. The news that Surrey Heath has the highest level of road accidents for children in Surrey comes with the announcement that Runnymede and Chertsey MP Philip Hammond is cutting the Government grant for speed cameras. "There is now every chance that more children will be injured on our roads," says Labour County Councillor Victor Agarwal. As well as this Health Minister Andrew Lansley has just announced that NHS Direct will be cut. This service deals with 1400 inquiries every day. It is estimated that the saving to the NHS from NHS amounts to £162m every year due to people not having to use accident and emergency services or consult their doctor. As well as this Lansley is withdrawing support services for people seeking to quit smoking in Surrey.

• London’s Labour politicians forego allowance rise
  
  By London Assembly Labour
  Published 31 August 2010
• Why are Surrey based Ministers the focus of extreme policies?
  
  By Surrey Labour
  Published 31 August 2010

• Westminster Labour welcomes new Halfpenny Steps Health Centre
  
  By Westminster Labour
  Published 31 August 2010
• Six get the sack as Tory Westminster moves post room
  
  By Westminster Labour
  Published 31 August 2010

• Gordon Brown calls for action in flood-hit Pakistan
  Gordon Brown has written movingly in The Huffington Post of his support for a huge, co-ordinated response to the recent Pakistan floods: I have proposed a global reconstruction corps to offer civilian help - engineers, doctors, builders - to build homes, rebuild the schools, staff the hospitals and get agriculture and industry moving again. We have set up a British corps - and a global volunteer corps is more important and imperative than ever. To make it effective on the ground in Pakistan we need of course an agreement with all Pakistani parties that they will use and work with a Reconstruction Corps. But we do have to ask ourselves one big question: If we cannot be moved to do more when 20 million people are stranded, some under water, all homeless, then when will be do more? If we cannot the answer the summons of a global ethic that, no matter how distant we are all neighbors - if we cannot see that when we see people dying on our TV screens - when will we as a global community rise to our shared humanity? In words we have heard before, if not now, when? and where and how? Read the full article.
• Medway Tory councillor resigns after just 13 days
  The Conservative Party victor of the recent by-election in Medway's River Ward has resigned after just 13 days in office the local newspaper reports: "Yourmedway approached Mr Craggs for a comment and was told that a full statement detailing the reasons behind his resignation would be released later this afternoon. However, we are led to believe that Mr Craggs was told he must choose between serving as a special constable, a position he has held for 17 years, and a Medway councillor." Mr Craggs narrowly won the River ward by-election on Thursday, August 12, after polling 617 votes. The Labour candidate, John James, came a close second with 544 votes. Medway Council's Returning Officer Neil Davies said another by-election would be held within 35 days. Read the full article.
• Labour coffers boosted by donations and new members
  Former Deputy Leader Lord Prescott has said the party has forgotten how to organise and called for limits on party political spending, repeating claims he recently made to The Guardian that the Party is close to bankruptcy. Calling for a membership drive, John Prescott, who is campaigning to be elected Treasurer of the Party, told the Scottish Parliament's annual Festival of Politics: "We want a strong treasurer who's involved in the membership drive, putting a proper financial account into the party, and is an active political person in making that accountable to the constituencies. You can go on if you like and just have somebody doing what's always been the way. Well, we cannot continue to finance a political party in that way. "We have to do what I said when I was elected as deputy leader. The politics of organisation are equally as important as the politics of ideas. We forgot about the organisation bit," the Press Association reports. Whilst it may be helpful for Lord Prescott's bid to be Treasurer, there is a problem with his narrative of falling membership and near bankruptcy. 28,000 new members have joined Labour since the election, and increased income from donations and tight controls on spending by politicians meant that Labour emerged from the election with more money than before Gordon Brown went to the country. NEC member Ann Black told Labour Matters: "As the accounts will show, the loans from 2005 are still being repaid according to schedule, but at least we have not increased the debt. "Looking forward, the surge in membership is bringing in substantial sums over budget, so there are some reasons to be cheerful."
• David Blunkett will not advise the ConDems
  David Blunkett has responded to a story in the Mail on Sunday which today suggests that he might take a job in the coalition government, advising on welfare reform. Writing on his blog Mr Blunkett explained that he was happy to work with think tanks, but dismissed suggestions that he would advise the coalition government: "Now that Iain Duncan Smith is the Work and Pensions Secretary and has obviously severed his links with the Centre for Social Justice, the CSJ is seeking a greater degree of independence and has approached me to see if I would be prepared to act as an advisor. "I have asked the CSJ to come back with a proposition for a role for me, on an unpaid, informal basis. There is no question of paid work being involved. "The notion that I will 'advise' David Cameron, Nick Clegg or anyone in the Government is false. I have not sought, nor will I seek, to take up a coalition role." Read the full article.
• Labour’s legacy is fast growth and more jobs
  The current Chairman of the Conservative Party, Baroness Warsi, and and Lib Dem Chris Huhne held a joint press conference today to put the ConDem spin on the employment figures and accuse Labour of being "in denial" of the need for spending cuts. If it seems unusual for leading politicians to be trying to influence the media in the August 'silly season', when most are taking a break from politics, it's even more unusual because the employment figures showed the number of EMPLOYED people from April to June INCREASED sharply by 184,000 - the result of the previous Labour Government's economic policies. The Baroness Warsi repeated the lie that the cuts the ConDems are planning to make were "unavoidable" and claimed the deficit was "Labour's legacy". In fact, as the data gets published, Labour's legacy looks increasingly like a very strong economic recovery which is already being threatened by ConDem cuts being made too soon. Just as Labour's Alistair Darling warned. Alistair Darling, of course, had a plan to halve the deficit in four years, making much smaller cuts than the ConDems, and only starting once the recovery is secure. That was also what the Lib Dems backed, before putting Cameron in Number 10. It might be silly season, but the ConDem's crude attempt to rewrite immediate history is laughable in the face of 1.1% growth from April to June (the fastest growth in four years), today's surprisingly good employment figures, and the Governor of the Bank of England cutting the prospects for growth with the ConDems. So why did the Conservatives and their junior partners, the Liberal Democrats, hold a press conference today? Because it's silly season, and they think you're dumb.

Twitter updates