Our MP's maiden speech

Here you can read the text of John Woodcock's speech.

Thanks to the web site listed below.


A lot of flannel in my view. Not a strong point made anywhere.

John Woodcock has gone on the speak again concerning the recent outbreak of shootings starting near Whitehaven.

He raises matters of mental health.

Communicating with our new MP

He is , of course, John Woodcock, Labour

First , here's a way of tracking what he is saying.
This site also leads of other useful sites that help us assert ourselves with local government.

Second, you can contact him direct
I shall be using email mostly - john@johnwoodcock.org - followed up by phone if needs be.

I must admit, I was not impressed with John when compared to Chris Loyens when I listened to him at a public meeting. However now is the time to develop a relationship with the guy that represents us and try to get him to represent our views.

I am starting with wanting him to support a stand being taken by Britain against the aggressive behaviour of Israel towards Palestine. This in my view is the second most serious problem we have in the world and leads to a lot of the terrorism we experience here in this country.

(The first is Global Warming - and we get distracted by the World Cup , our financial situation and the finer workings of "The Coalition".)

Not only must Britain take a firm stand but the wishywashy USA must show more than "concern".

With so much going on we need to keep a clear head and at all times keep our priorities firmly established even when we let our hair down and enjoy ourselves.

My letter to John Woodcock MP, sent Wednesday, 2nd June:

John Woodcock,

I met you when you came to Ulverston to be interviewed by the Business Alliance upstairs in the Kings Arms Pub before the election.

It must be very exciting now that you have been elected with a lot to learn though your experience as a researcher/policy advisor for John Hutton will have enabled you to gain a lot of experience.

I hope to be in regular touch with you regarding issues that concern me and hope that you will find this helpful.

Today I'm writing about the UK response to the present Israel conflict with the relief being sent to Palestine by sea.

The UK government should in my opinion support the Flotilla and condemn Israel in the strongest possible terms.

It should also turn its criticism towards the USA who appear to condone the Israel behaviour.

Being very supportive of Palestine is the way forward of avoiding terrorism in this country.

The money, which must be in the region of a billion pounds, spent on surveillance and police action would be far better spent on alleviating the suffering of people on the Gaza strip andstanding up for their civil rights.

Second to Global warming , I believe that the Israel/Palestine conflict is the most important problem that we as bystanders face.

We must urge those representing our country to take a firm stand against a country who are totally out of control in their aggressive attitude to Palestine.

Could you tell me what you are able to do on my behalf?

I hope that the Labour party have formulated a policy of what they will do when subsequent flotillas approach Gaza. I trust that this involves very strong diplomatic pressure of the highest order in order to give Palestinians some hope that the rest of us care.

Geoff Dellow

Also sent to Tim Farron MP - with modifications!

Follow up email, titled "Reply" sent Monday 7th June :

John,

Could I have a reply to my previous email please.

At the same time as writing to you, I also wrote to Tim Farron.

I have received an answer from him but not you.

I have consistently found that he replies to my emails.

As you know he has set a high standard for the area.

It would be good if you attempted to follow his example.

When you talked to us in Ulverston , you promised a surgery here. Can you tell me when you plan to have this.

Geoff Dellow

Another pottery workshop this saturday

Five hundred of these leaflets have now been distributed to local houses. Sorry if you missed out this time. - Another time maybe - every time we leaflet different houses.

Watch out for the arrows around the town to the event this Saturday!

To view the coverage on this pottery project as recorded on this blog
click here!
.

Contact with my local councillors

Re: Mill Dam Park and Gill Banks

Councillor Jan Hancock (one of three town councillors representing me),

Should you want to be kept up to date or even take part in promoting the changes that are being made at these locations, you're very welcome.

One scheme where we have overlap is the Ulverston in Bloom project where I recently made a presentation on the theme of local people getting involved in taking care of their parks.

I am only too happy to share the credit for any work we do!

In the long term I am aiming to be elected for North Ward and would like to feel we are working together.

Geoff Dellow

The above was sent this last Thursday and checking by phone confirmed that that it arrived.

A reply is awaited.

Regular contact is being maintained with another of my town councillors, Colin Hodgson who is also my district councillor over repairs to a high wall in Union Lane. He replied immediately.

This correspondence will be published shortly.

My county councillor , James Airey, has been contacted but hasn't yet replied, even though the request was made by email to be contacted ASAP last Friday. He may well be away.

An email sent yesterday to Mayor Phil Lister regarding a public meeting regarding the Flooding in South Ulverston evoked an immediate response to say that such a meeting is being planned by the Ulverston Town Council for Monday June 28th in the Coronation Hall presumably in the evening.

Visit another world

And feel refreshed!

Motivation

Motivation is a subject that is fascinating me at the moment.

If we understood it, it would enlighten our approach to many subjects:

What motivates nations to fight?

What motivates us to get on with others. How much does passing laws help?

What motivates us to learn?

The Thinker, sculpture by Auguste Rodin Picture taken in Musee Rodin in Paris, France by wikipedian Pufacz who kindly grants us permission to use his photo

What motivates us to work hard?

To do things that we don't want to?

To eat cakes?

To be tenacious and do a job really well ?

To wake up in the morning?

To have another swig at the Whiskey bottle?

To watch yet more Tele?

What place does "ownership" have in motivation?

. _._._._._.

A discussion group I go to every fortnight is examining this subject!

We are asked:

"What motivates me to do what I'm doing now?"

And then to make a note of our answer.

"Dunno" is not a valid answer we are told !

"Fed up with asking the question" is, in my book.

If I go on like this, I'll be motivated to do nothing!

It's good to be made to stop and think - just now and again - but introspection is for Ostriches to use a cliche - poor maligned Ostriches.

Time to go and do 'stuff' and to hell with why?

"Because I want to" is my answer.

But wait a minute.

Perhaps that's the answer to the riddle.

Sounds like a better reason than "Dunno".

The next thing to check, it seems to me, is how do we feel after the event?

Five minutes fter eating a cake - how do we feel?

Five minutes after doing a job really well - how do we feel?

Five minutes after watching tele - again - how do we feel?

Now, how about comparing the results of "How do we feel ?" and deciding which we rate highest?

Having done a bit of analysis of what are we going to do about it?

F**k all, could well be the answer!

What do you think?

The Internet

I'm drawing my horns in from networking at a shallow level on the internet .

Trying instead to concentrate on relationships that are far richer - those involving day to day, eye to eye contact. Living, here, in a small town - 12,000 - there are so many opportunities for this around me.

I enjoy them perhaps because I'm good at them.

I had a lovely conversation with five year, Billy, who I've just got to know, teasing by watering his back as I carried a watering can past. It was hot! Lucky for me his Mom laughed.

Billy was not happy and couldn't be persuaded of the advatages of being coool if it also meant being wetted by a stranger taking liberties with water.

Later we both pensively watched a cat stretching out, tummy up, below us as we did our five bar gate routine: a lean, a look and a chat.

It got up and strolled off round the corner - out of sight.

He informed me with intensity that "cats don't talk" when I told him that the cat was saying it had had enough lying down and was off to explore.

I countered his argument with "Meeow" "Prrr" and " Hsssss" - he was not impressed.

Lots more encounters like this as I work again in the park 4 till 6 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Children are so easy to talk to and give you great eye contact - unlike adults. Have the latter lost their confidence in relating to other people, I wonder?

I'm having a very rich time with people - a group arrived the other morning for pottery.

There was a right babble, exchanging views as to whether a large dumpy pot should have five or six balls below to hold it up.

It's good to have serious controversial issues to discuss. It ended up with eight I think. The spacing of these was easiest!

I'll be finishing stacking my kiln around this pot this morning together with various people's creations from the weekend.

Then again I enjoy time by myself - exploring playing the piano in a somewhat random fashion - composing as I go. I do more and more of it as I gradually get better. Great to be learning new stuff at 75!

As I've said before - with contacts and activities like this - who needs the internet.

However this view needs examination ; it goes too far ; but assessing what place it does have, needs constant review.

Email and blog are working well for me at present.

Twitter, Facebook and Forums - a bit of a let down until I learn to use them!

What are your thoughts?

You obviously read blogs!

Views out the window

What a contrast!

Looking to the right on a hot day in May !



Who needs Picasso's concrete cows when we have the real thing. Friesian, milk cows aren't they?

By contrast :

Straight on in November !



I love the mist and sadness of a windless day with the whiff of a coal fire in the air!

Three activities I'm thoroughly enjoying

• "Pottery in the Park"
• The allotment
• Flowering plants in Mill Dam Park

The first, last Saturday was brilliant.

Yes, it was far too hot and this meant that relatively few people turned up.

But those who did gave a lot of enjoyment - some great conversations because there was time for this. Met some very talented people I've not come across before.

Perhaps the 'adverse' conditions meant that people with engaging characters came along!

The allotment is such a great place to go to. It's a very different environment to being in town.

Everyone is really friendly and helpful. Lots of advice if you want it but people hang back with their criticism.

There is total honesty. Nothing on your patch is touched by other people.

We're all struggling to deal with the soil and a large number of pests. Most of us are there because it's fun - the actual achievement of growing stuff is secondary.

However there are people who know exactly what they are doing and have great success for the amount of effort they expend. Some of them have techniques that allow them to achieve a lot in very little time - a lunch break from work or a quick visit on the way home from work.

I marvel at how responsive, in the right hands, the soil is to producing vegitation; already there are plants eighteen inches high and heading skywards at great speed. Some people with years of experience know the tricks of the trade.

Meanwhile I'm very much on the learning curve and still struggling to prepare the soil for planting - something that really needed doing by February. Never mind - do better next year.

If I come up with anything this year it will make me content!

Then Mill Dam is gradually getting planted out with all the plants that are bursting out of my greenhouse with the cry "Space, space, SPACE"

Flowers from these plants are just beginning to show and the two tons of compost we spread all over are bound to bear - flowers. Keeping up the watering is important.

Looking very promising. Just keep soldiering on palnting and watering every Monday, Wednesday and Friday 4 till 6 till the job is done. Sixty more plants in yesterday about four hundred still to go! - be done in less than three weeks!

Is The Green Party the new religion?

Some political parties come across as rational and others as an emotionally held set of beliefs.

I choose to recognise the difference by the way their members respond to rational questioning.

When it's a religion, all the members will regurgitate the same beliefs and there's no point arguing with them.

If they come to your doorstep they come across as Jehovah's Witnesses who will never give ground that they could possibly wrong.

More later - lunch calls.