VIEWPOINT FOR 5 FEBRUARY 2009
FROM DR RICHARD TAYLOR

This month is Scams Awareness Month organised by the Office of Fair Trading and Trading Standards. 
It is part of an international initiative to raise awareness, particularly among vulnerable people, the elderly and those in financial trouble, of the plausible scams that can confront any of us by post, telephone or e-mail. 
I believe the best slogan remains: "If it's too good to be true, it is not true." This should be our watchword.
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There is welcome news from the Sita Trust. 
Through its Landfill Communities Fund it has recently awarded £15,000 to the Wolverley Memorial Hall Fund for the purchase and installation of play equipment. Since its creation in 2007 the Sita Trust has supported over 2000 projects allocating more than £66 million in total.
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A constituent raised the problem of compensation for patients with mesothelioma or for their relatives. 
Because there is such a long latent period between exposure to asbestos and the development of the disease there is a high chance that the firm responsible for the exposure and its insurer will no longer be trading. Firms that took over any such businesses deny responsibility for the exposure and their insurers are likely to be different also. 
I attended a useful meeting of the Asbestos Sub-Committee of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Occupational Safety and Health at which this difficulty was discussed. Although there is no quick answer the Group will raise the profile of the problem with Ministers and work towards Employers Liability Compulsory Insurance. 

Two relevant Private Members Bills are scheduled for March and April and although there is little chance of these being passed into law they will make Ministers take note of the concerns. 
I would be interested to hear from any other similarly affected patients or their families from within Wyre Forest by post to The House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA or by e-mail to phillipsa@parliament.uk 
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Two important Bills have had their Second Readings recently. 
The Coroners and Justice Bill was debated last week. The Government has combined necessary and largely agreed reforms of death and cremation certification with controversial changes in the law that will allow some inquests to be held in private without juries and sharing of information that may contravene the Data Protection Act. Because the Bill touches so many areas, front bench speeches took up three hours of just over the six hours available leaving little time for all the back bench members wishing to speak. As the only person in the debate who had ever signed death or cremation certificates I wanted to express my views and was frustrated only to be called to speak when time was limited.
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The Welfare Reform Bill passed its Second Reading last week unopposed.
Two areas interest me particularly. 

The rights of disabled people to control the provision of services to them and to give them individual budgets hopefully will enable them to have a greater say in how and what services and opportunities they obtain. Secondly measures to increase the powers of the Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission, the organisation formed after the abolition of the toothless Child Support Agency, are essential. 
Whether these will enable the Commission to be more effective at obtaining support from absent parents, particularly the self-employed, remains to be seen.
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My wife and I went to the Monday Night Group's performance of Goldilocks and the Three Bears last Friday. 
We have not laughed as much for a long time at the starring Dame, the ursine antics of the bears, the 'Allo 'allo Human Cannon Ball, the splendidly predictable foolery of the goodies and the suitably sinister baddies with the satisfying stupidity of their assistants. The glamour of Goldilocks and the Ringmaster and the brilliance of the young dancers from Crescents Ballet School all added to the spectacle which was crowned by enthusiastic audience participation skillfully milked by all the cast.

RT

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