Helen Morgan on the importance of external scrutiny of the NHS

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Helen Morgan has been interviewed by Healthcare Management about the Liberal Democrats' concern at government plans to reduce external scrutiny of the National Health Service.

She says:

"We know from polling back in 2024 there are people who feel their care has been poor, but they don't want to report that back into the NHS because they are dependent on that care, and they think it might impact on the care that they're receiving, and that's the value of Healthwatch because it's so independent of the NHS."

There are a number of changes involved, so it's all rather technical and involves a lot of acronyms, but this is certainly one of the most important current Lib Dem campaigns.

Helen Morgan makes the case for reopening the line from Oswestry to Gobowen

Helen Morgan was granted a Westminster Hall debate today on the reopening of the railway from Gobowen to Oswestry.

BBC News gives the background to it:

The restoration of the link was approved last year as part of the Restoring Your Railway fund, but the new government confirmed it was cancelling the scheme.

That initiative would have funded 38 railway projects in total.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said the cuts were needed to address a £21.9bn black hole in public finances and the Department for Transport would assess each individual project as part of a review.

The previous government had announced in October the Oswestry scheme would be fully funded to completion.

Helen, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, made the case for reopening in her debate:

Poor public transport removes opportunity. It hinders young people, limiting their options for further and higher education and restricting their access to culture and leisure. In short, barriers to mobility are barriers to social mobility. During a recent visit to the jobcentre in Oswestry, the brilliant staff there told me that the No. 1 barrier to people accessing work is poor public transport. 

Meanwhile, I have spoken to businesses in Oswestry that have reported real difficulties in recruiting. They need to be able to attract people to work from a much wider area than Oswestry and not just those who have access to a private car. That means we are in the ridiculous situation where employers cannot recruit and jobseekers cannot find jobs to match their skills because of the same problem of poor public transport.

In reply the transport minister Lillian Greenwood talked about the "£21.9bn black hole" and bus networks.

It's true the last government's Restoring Your Railway fund, which was talked up as a way of "undoing Beeching" by the ultras in a fit of nostalgic post-referendum euphoria, was never properly financed. But this government comes across as having little idea of how to achieve the growth it talks about beyond a promise of "stability".

And good public transport services look like a way of promoting growth rather than an obstacle to it.

Two to share leadership of Lib Dem group on Shropshire council

Shropshire Council's Liberal Democrat group is to have two leaders in the run up to next year's elections, reports the Shropshire Star before its paywall kicks in.

The current group leader Roger Evans, the councillor for Longden, is to share the leadership with Heather Kidd, who represents Chirbury and Worthen.

As well as scoring some remarkable local by-election victories in the last two years, the Lib Dems polled more votes across the county at the general election than any other party.

This saw them hold Helen Morgan's seat in North Shropshire and come close to winning South Shropshire, where Matthew Green was the candidate.

Shropshire Independent group leader joins the Lib Dems

David Minnery, who represents Market Drayton West on Shropshire Council,  has joined the Liberal Democrat group on the authority. 

Cllr Minnery, was leader of the Independent group on the council, previously served as the Conservative cabinet member for finance. He now feels that the Conservatives have "lost control" of the county finances.

He says his decision has been influenced by a desire to support Helen Morgan, the Lib Dem MP for North Shropshire, and his view that the Lib Dems need to win a majority and "get the change Shropshire needs" in next May’s council election.

At this month's general election, the Lib Dems polled more votes than any other party across the three Shropshire constituencies.

Thanks to Mark Pack for the story. As a former councillor for Market Harborough North, I feel some affinity with David Minnery.

The Conservatives should have worried more about the Lib Dems and less about Reform

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Even now, the Conservatives have not understood that Ed Davey is a far bigger danger to their majority than Nigel Farage.

So says Martin Kettle in today's Guardian, and he's right.

The Conservatives' obsession with the voters they have lost to Reform has always been bad politics. It's also bad arithmetic.

In seats where the Liberal Democrats are the challengers to the Tories, every voter they lose to us reduces their majority by two. A voter lost to Reform reduces it by only one.

The Reform obsession, I suspect, arises because most Tory members now have little idea what Conservatism is and tend to think it consists in the aggressive English nationalism espoused by Nigel Farage. So it really hurts them when one of their own changes to supporting Reform.

As to the bad politics, Kettle has been to the village of Myddle in Helen Morgan's North Shropshire constituency.

It's a village I know well, so when I first blogged about the North Shropshire by-election (and note my headline Lib Dems to fight North Shropshire by-election - and they are right - how far we have come!), it was natural that I should use a photo of it.

I couldn't resist using one of those Ed-with-a-halo photos at the head of this post, but you can find my photo of Myddle at the bottom.

Anyway, Kettle reports from Myddle:

Morgan is an exemplary local campaigner, and in Myddle an impressive number of people recognised her when she stopped by. By far their most common concern was the local NHS. Many had stories of long delays to recount. 

None of the 40 or so people I spoke to said they would vote Conservative. “It would be outrageous if she doesn’t retain the seat,” Michael, a Myddle resident, told me.

And he says of Lib Dem target seats more generally:

Terms such as "middle England" or "middle Britain" are inexact, but they capture something emotionally meaningful about what these target electorates represent. They are not partisan places, but they have a belief in community, a conviction that the country could do better, including in their area, and they mostly have generous values. 

They have little in common with Reform. They are the middle-ground voters that government parties ignore at their peril.

Looking forward to a possible Conservative collapse at the election, Kettle says:

The Lib Dems are in line to win 38 seats, according to Ipsos this week, or 56 seats, according to Survation.

An outcome like this would ... say something profound about the kind of country that this still is – just about. It would say the claim that the real England or the real Britain finds its voice in the Conservative party as it currently exists, let alone in Reform, is dangerously untrue. 

As the most disruptive 10 years in political memory come to an end, it would say that Labour and the Lib Dems, between them, are the truer voice of middle Britain today.

"Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad," as Enoch Powell was fond of quoting.

Well, the Tories have driven themselves mad through their obsession with voters lost to Reform, and that madness could yet destroy them.

Helen Morgan welcomes plans for new London to Shrewsbury and Wrexham rail service

The Shropshire Star reports:

The new Wrexham, Shropshire and Midlands Railway Company (WSMR) is proposing to bring back a direct service to and from London in 2025.

The plan would see new, daily train services between Wrexham General and London Euston, serving existing rail stations at Gobowen, Shrewsbury, Telford Central, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Coleshill Parkway, Nuneaton and Milton Keynes Central.

WSMR intends to be an ‘open access’ train operator which is wholly commercial and does not require government subsidy.

And Time Out quotes Helen Morgan, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, welcoming the proposed new service:

"One of the main issues on the doorstep here in north Shropshire is the lack of decent public transport links. A new link between Wrexham, Gobowen, Shrewsbury and London is very good news, and will bring an important improvement to our links with other areas.

"This is also an exciting prospect for Oswestry, which is set to be connected to Gobowen by rail in the coming years.

"They could see the benefits of additional services to Shrewsbury and Wrexham as well as to London Euston, making the case for reopening the line even stronger."

A similar open access service, the Wrexham and Shropshire, operated between 2008 and 2011. You can see one of their trains above and read the post I wrote after catching it.

Looking at the new service's proposed list of stops, I wonder if they plan to use the freight line through Sutton Park to get from Coleshill to Walsall.

Three Green town councillors join the Lib Dems in Helen Morgan's North Shropshire constituency

Helen Morgan's chances of holding North Shropshire, the seat she won in the 2021 by-election, have been boosted by the recruitment of three local Green councillors, reports the Border Counties Advertizer.

Oswestry Town Council members Jay Moore, Rosie Radford and Jonathan Upton have all announced they are to join the Liberal Democrats. Jay Moore was mayor of the town in 2022/3.

The Lib Dems will now have four councillors in Oswestry after James Owen won a by-election there last year.

You can see them in the photo above: from the left they are: Cllrs James Owen, Jonathan Upton, Rosie Radford and Jay Moore with Helen Morgan MP.

Jay Moore told the paper:

"Anyone paying any attention knows how much work Helen Morgan does for north Shropshire.

"I really think having more councillors with a direct link to our MP will be a huge benefit for Oswestry. 

"I'm really excited to be joining her team and standing up for Oswestry residents with a group of local, hardworking councillors like James, Rosie and Jonathan."

Conservative peer: There are no safe Tory seats in rural Britain

Shropshire Liberal Democrats have turned themselves into a mighty vote-winning machine. And there's not just Helen Morgan's victory in North Shropshire to prove it: look at the succession of council by-elections they have won.

The most recent of these was in the Worfield division, just to the east of Bridgnorth. And it's the subject of an article on Conservative Home by the hereditary peer Gavin Hamilton - Lord Hamilton of Dalzell - who is the president of Ludlow Conservatives:

The recent Worfield by-election in Shropshire serves as a sobering wake-up call for Conservative councils and formerly safe Shire seats. This division, previously a Conservative stronghold returning 75 per cent and 77 per cent of the votes for the Conservatives in the previous two elections, was lost to the Liberal Democrats by eight votes, a swing of 30 per cent against the party. This was despite a well-run campaign with an excellent candidate, no scandals with the previous councillor, and few issues with Shropshire Council. 

To avoid catastrophic defeats in future Council and General Elections, it is crucial to understand the malaise affecting the party and its supporters  - and the dearth of Conservative principles at national level which caused this unexpected result. The omens for the future of the Conservative Party are depressing.

I'm not sure the victory was so unexpected to Shropshire Lib Dems, but I take this to be a coded attack on the Tories' lurch to the right and preference for fighting culture wars rather than tackling the many real problems the country faces.

Do read the whole article, if only to be cheered by its conclusion:

The outcome of the Worfield by-election carries significant implications for the Conservative Party. It was one of the safest divisions in South Shropshire (formerly Ludlow). Losing there, with such a strong swing against and no impediments to the campaign goes further than the lessons from North Shropshire that there are no safe seats for the Conservatives in rural Britain.

Helen Morgan wants to see trains return to Oswestry

Tim Farron isn't the only Liberal Democrat MP supporting  a local railway reopening. Helen Morgan is backing the return of trains to the Gobowen to Oswestry Line.in her North Shropshire constituency.

She told the Border Counties Advertizer:

"There are few towns the size of Oswestry with such poor public transport links.

"Despite the obvious rail heritage you see around town, Oswestry Railway Station has not been open since 1966."

An outline business case for reopening the link to Gobowen have been with the government for over a year, and Helen said:

"I've already been in touch with the Secretary of State for Transport and Transport for Wales over making the plans viable.

"I will be campaigning to get residents involved and show our decision-makers how important a link to the mainline would be for Oswestrians."

Helen has already seen one railway reopening in North Shropshire since her by-election victory. In April of last year she took part in the ceremonial opening of Weston Wharf station.

From there you can take for a steam train for the one and three-quarter miles to Oswestry on the Cambrian Heritage Railways.

Alex Wagner will fight Shrewsbury and Atcham for the Lib Dems

The Liberal Democrats have selected Bowbrook councillor and NHS campaigner Alex Wagner to stand for Shrewsbury and Atcham at the next general election.

reports the Shropshire Star, whose readers will know that Bowbrook is a locale in the North West of Shrewsbury.

Shropshire Lib Dems have achieved wonders in local elections over the past few years, and that record of success had a lot to do with the party being able to come from third place to win the North Shropshire parliamentary by-election last December.

Shrewsbury is a seat that both the Lib Dems and Labour will have in their sites, not least because the sitting Conservative member is the egregious Daniel Kawczynski.

Alex told the Star:

"People here deserve the very best, yet often have the worst services in the country. Our NHS services are in the fourth-division, our roads are crumbling, and it feels like we don’t have a voice at Westminster.

"There needs to be a local choice on the ballot paper next election who is dedicated to banging the drum to get Shrewsbury a fair deal. I’m putting myself forward to do just that.

"North Shropshire has a fantastic, hard-working Lib Dem MP who has been tireless in fighting for our county - I want to follow in Helen Morgan’s footsteps and beat the Conservatives here too."

World War II munitions found on Pontesbury building site

Last time we visited Pontesbury this large village on the Shrewsbury to Bishop's Castle road there had been a snake on the lose.

This week Shropshire's snake problem has moved to the north of the county, with two boa constrictors being found near Baschurch.

If you live in North Shropshire and have snake problems, contact its Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan. I'm sure she'll be happy to handle them.

But that doesn't mean Pontesbury is in the clear. For the past two days military personnel have been in the village dealing with second world war munitions found on a building site there.

As far as I can make out from news reports, the site is at the very south of the village, across the road from the Horseshoe Inn.

A note on the pub's Facebook page assures us it is open as usual today. I'm delighted to see the Horseshoe is open at all. Last year it was up for sale and planning permission had been granted to replace it with houses.

But you will want to see some action...

@shropsfire crews from @SFRS_Minsterley assisting EOD with controlled explosion of munitions found in ground in Pontesbury today.🚒💥 pic.twitter.com/Ddaq64UE77

— Jim Barker (@SFRS_JimBarker) August 25, 2022

Second earthquake in six months strikes North Shropshire

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Last December there was a political earthquake in North Shropshire as Helen Morgan gained the seat for the Liberal Democrats with a 34 per cent swing from the Conservatives.

But there was nothing metaphorical about yesterday's earthquake. Centred on Wem, it measured 3.8 on the Richter scale.

The Shropshire Star says:

People across the north of the county, as well as parts of Telford, reported doors slamming and furniture moving for a few seconds when shocks were felt just after 3.30pm.

And the paper's photo caption adds that "homes in Whitchurch wobbled".