CARES & the Champion newspaper
We quote the following controversial comments from an unhelpful story by the Champion newspaper.
CARES response is included (to bypass general media monopoly) in blue text below Champion article
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'Dirty Politics'
Champion, Wednesday, September 29, 2004
SOUTHPORT Tory parliamentary hopeful Mark
Bigley was at the centre of a storm this week over claims he is using ‘dirty
politics’ to try and be the town’s next MP.
In a Conservative election leaflet currently being delivered door-to-door in the
resort, Mr Bigley refers to last year’s protest march against the closure of
children’s accident and emergency at Southport Hospital. He highlights his own
presence at the protest with a large photograph, and then asks: “Where was the
Liberal Democrat MP when the rest of Southport was marching through town to
demonstrate against the closure?”
This is despite the fact Mr Bigley himself, at the request of Sefton Council,
changed the date of the march to August 17 - a time when MP John Pugh was on
holiday with his family. But Mr Pugh did arrange to be represented at the
protest.
Mr Bigley also refers to the petition against the closure and states: “The MP
failed to show up for the handing in of the petition at Downing Street.”
In fact, Mr Pugh had not been invited to the handing in ceremony.
This week, MP Mr Pugh said: “Any fair-minded Conservative just looking at the
facts as presented would recognise that a new low has been reached and want to
disassociate themselves from this kind of disingenuous opportunism.”
He added: “I think it depresses us all in Southport to see a whole community
effort being soured in this way. I have been able in the past to work on
hospital campaigns with the previous Tory MP Matthew Banks and other leading
Conservatives without this collapse of trust.
“The date of the march was changed by the group at the very last minute to a
date I had already booked a family holiday in Germany. Having worked very hard
on the march preparations, I was not going to hold up proceedings and ask for a
later date just to be ‘on the photos’.”’
And Bill Givens, one of the CARES march organisers, said: “All of us understood
why Mr Pugh could not attend the march and there was no criticism whatsoever.
This is dirty politics, it is a distortion.”
Mr Givens added: “Mr Pugh’s representative on the day (Tony Dawson) did a lot to
organise the event - so to ask now where the MP was is a complete distortion of
the facts. In respect of the petition in Downing Street, Mr Pugh was not invited
by us to go. Yet again, this is a complete distortion of the truth by Mark
Bigley.”
Mr Bigley was unrepentant this week. He told The Champion: “Even though the
revised date of the march conflicted with our wedding, both Alison and I took
the decision that our wedding day should not come between participating in the
most significant demonstration of public outrage in recent memory. It is up to
Southport’s current MP why he chose not to join the march.”
He added: “I will not be sidetracked into political mudslinging.”
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We would like to make it clear that CARES fully stand by our fellow colleague Mr Mark Bigley for all the valuable work he has undertaken and continues to undertake on behalf of CARES for the children of this town.
CARES response as follows:
CARES was initially formed as a group of caring local people to fight for the full reinstatement of children's & maternity services at Southport Hospital. Since the formation of this group members have come and gone for various reasons some of which appears to have been based on religious bigotry, divergent political aims (which 'should' have been totally unrelated to the main goals of the group.)
Unfortunately, life is not that simple as to expect people to forget their own personal/political/religious agendas and loyalties and fight for a common yet noble cause.
The facts as they stand are that we had a most successful march with 3.000 disgusted people turning out into the streets. We had a fantastic response to petitions with nearly 20.000 people placing their signatures against the ridiculous NHS cuts. Moreover, CARES last protest WIND OF CHANGE saw over 600 families show support against hospital cuts and this latter victory was achieved (with very little support/coverage from the local media) 12 months 'after' the initial protests.
All these good people pledged their support for what they instinctively KNOW was a terribly wrong and dangerous health service decision for our local children. The vast majority of these concerned people did NOT come forward due to any political agenda or motivation, they did not march for religious reasons - THEY MARCHED BECAUSE THEY ACTUALLY 'CARE' ABOUT THEIR CHILDREN'S MEDICAL SERVICES!
From the very beginning, mud has been and continues to be sadly slung from every avenue including political, religious and personal angles at ordinary people that just 'happen' to be committed CARES members who are ordinary residents simply trying to gain nothing but the very best in child safety for our trusting children.
CARES will not be diverted by this ongoing, unhelpful and highly unproductive media hype which is clearly based on cold political spin against 'any' of its hard-working members.
CARES wish 'everybody' who works for the return of our services nothing but the best. We must however insist that press editors (looking for front page controversy) and self-promoting political activists should for goodness sake stop this appallingly immature behaviour because while you are doing so our children's services are NOT being reinstated and all you are doing is deflecting the main focus off our children's urgent medical needs and placing their lives in greater risk!
What comes first in a desperate 999 call - your children's health or your political bias?
Our children deserve better than this!