New Labour NOT running here

Last night Charlotte and I had the pleasure of attending the Edenfield Race Night at the Cricket Club.

Another brilliant night with lots of money raised for the Primary School. As with the race night we went to last week, we sponsored a race as did Cllr. Darryl Smith. I seem to have lost my lucky streak with race nights and came away having not won one race.

I am pleased to say the Cllr. Smith had more luck than we did winning £22 and a bottle of Champagne. I hope he carries on his winning from until May 1st.

As with the last race night I attended the Labour MP, did not attend. It seems the New Labour is not a runner in Rossendale!

New Labour MP’s Hypocrisy on Post Office Closures Revealed - Part II

Labour MPs should be ashamed after they failed to oppose the Government on the latest round of Post Office closures.


In East Lancashire, 24 branches face the axe. In the House of Commons yesterday the Conservatives called for the closures to be suspended and put the issue to a vote as part of an Opposition Day debate.


The vote to suspend closures was defeated by 268 to 288.

Despite recently opposing some of the closures within Rossendale and Darwen Janet Anderson towed the Government line and voted against the proposal.


The Labour MPs who voted with the Government have been slammed by opposition MPs and even Labour councillors. Labour MPs in Westminster have voted consistently for policies to close post offices and are then photographed outside them protesting about the closures.

Visit to Nairobi Street Children Orphanage

Just adding a couple more pics from my trip to Nairobi. When I was there I went to the Street Children Orphanage. This was one of the most harrowing visits of the trip. There were 10 children per bed with some new born babies who had been abandoned at birth. I hope the few hours we spent there brightened up the day for the children. They seemed more impressed with the sweets than my football skills though.

Health Check in Darwen

I went for a health check in Darwen on Saturday. There was a mobile health unit set up in the town encouraging people both young and old to have their blood pressure checked, plus taken and weight checked.

The unit was run by “let’s get healthy” with funding provided by the Conservative led Blackburn with Darwen Council. For anyone who is interested my plus was 65bpm (resting rate), Bp 123/80 but I am not prepared to disclose my weigh (I am working on it).

This was a fantastic initiative with over 200 people per day having a health check and one I hope will be taken up by other councils in the area.

Kikuyu Eye Hospital - Kenya

You may remember that at the start of this year I was due to visit Kenya to distribute spectacles that I had been collecting. Sadly, at the time of my trip the country was undergoing significant political upheaval and on the advice of the Foreign Office I cancelled the trip.

I am delighted to say that after the signing of the peace accord between the two major political parties (brokered by Kofi Annan) the country is now safe to visit. So on Saturday morning, I boarded a flight and flew to Nairobi with my Brother-in-Law.

The main purpose of our trip was a visit to the Kikuyu Eye Hospital. I was greeted by Doctor Walia, who gave me a full tour of the facilities. Dr. Walia was delighted with the spectacles we had collected. The glasses will be reconditioned; new lenses will be added and they will then be distributed free to patients of the hospital. To put things in perspective, a tailor whose sight becomes impaired cannot work. These free glasses will enable him to keep working and supporting his family.

Dr Walia also talked to me about the fantastic work the hospital is doing on juvenile cataracts. The hospital performs free operations at a clinic in the bush once a year. These clinics are funded through local business and charity. A cataract operation costs £40.00 and will restore a child’s eyesight permanently. I also had the opportunity to witness the pre-operative stages of the operations.

It seems amazing to me that for the price a meal for two in a restaurant in Britain, a child can have its sight restored. I hope to return to Kenya next year to continue to support the work of Dr. Walia and the Kikuyu Eye Hospital.

Conservative Future Action Day

We had a brilliant day on Saturday, after a late night on Friday at the Rossendale Rugby Club. We had our first Conservative Future (CF) Action Day.

CF is open to all under 30, who want to get involved with the Conservative Party (I am glad to say that I still qualify). Members from both Rossendale and Darwen CF attended and after a hard mornings work the team came back to my house in Helmshore for some lunch and a chat about the campaign. Charlotte had cooked a chilli for us. After several monster portions there is still some left. So it chilli jacket potatoes in the Berry household for the rest of the week.

Rossendale Shop Local Campaign – Design the Bag and win an I-Pod!

Rossendale Conservatives have teamed up with local community website http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/ to promote the Rossendale Shop Local Campaign.

As part of the campaign we will be producing re-usable shopping bags to promote Rossendale Shop Local. We are inviting readers of the this Blog and local schools to get involved by designing a logo for one side of the bag. The logo must be in no more than three colours and represent the Rossendale Valley.

I am delighted that we have formed a partnership with aboutmyarea.co.uk to promote the local shops in Rossendale. Christine Smith, Site Editor for aboutmyarea.co.uk has had some fantastic ideas with both the shopping bag and promoting our campaign.

I hope the campaign will catch the imagination of local people and this competition is their chance to get involved. I think the I Pod is a fantastic prize, but the real prize will be to see your design on thousands of reusable shopping bags across the Valley.

To enter the competition please send your design to rossendaleanddarwen@hotmail.co.uk or by post to 4 Mount Terrace, Rawtenstall, BB4 8SF
Designs must be submitted by Thursday 27th of March and the winner will be drawn on Friday 28th of March.

Designs must be in no more than 3 colours, and include the words “Rossendale Shop Local”

You Can Get it you Really Want

Today I launched the Conservatives new poster campaign in Rossendale.

I think this is a really positive campaign which is also running on Facebookand I hope it will catch the imagination of disillusioned voters fed up of the same old type of politics.

In changing society where people are not as ready to become “members” of political parties, it gives people the opportunity to become a “friend” of the Conservatives and show your support.

Let me know if you spot were the posters are. Free bottle of wine for the first person over 18 to get them all!!!