21 June 2008.
The Editor [The Shuttle]
Dear Sir

I thank W Jones and Adrian Sewell for again keeping the name of Health Concern in the public eye in this week's letter page.

W Jones is of course former, recently retired, Tory Councillor for Wribbenhall, Bill Jones. Hardly surprising, therefore, that he writes a glowing piece in support of Stephen Clee whilst also engaging in the favourite Tory pastime of Health Concern bashing. All this whilst trying to give the impression of being an outraged ordinary member of the public. He then has the temerity to accuse Health Concern of trying to hoodwink the public?

His facts are also, as usual, sadly lacking in accuracy. We were never called "Save our Hospital – Health Concern" as he suggests as a main reason for criticising us. That phrase falls to the "Liberal Party – Save our Hospital – Focus," who have stood under that name since, I believe, 1999. Would Bill now suggest that the Liberal Party hoodwink the public at every election? Not a very clever letter, might I suggest. But then….!

Much more worthy of serious consideration and a considered response is Adrian Sewell's questioning of our local role and I thank him for starting this debate.

He is right that as a local campaign group in the late 1990's we had tremendous cross party support. However it was a period of "revolution" against the government's health policies and it was not sustainable at that level over a number of years. Politically, at that time, we had the support of the Labour MP and could make our case through him. Sadly the party machine bought him off and the rest is history. Consequently, since we could not trust politicians to act for the community before their party, we entered politics. We first had councillors elected in 1999 and Richard Taylor has been returned twice as our MP. Wyre Forest politics still has a high national profile and is constantly monitored by political commentators. Whether or not other local parties like it, those are the facts and we are consistently approached from outside the district for advice and support. To that extent we remain a campaign group as well as a political party.

To return to being just a campaign group, however, loses that high political profile for this area. We would still have to campaign through our local MP, but probably a Tory if Health Concern ceased to exist. Should the Tories form the next government we would have to hope that our Tory MP wasn't subsumed into the party machine at the expense of the needs of this community? It's a big risk and not one we want to take. Much of what Health Concern and Richard Taylor have achieved has been because we ARE a political party. Our success and sustainability is much greater than other health campaigns throughout the country who have been "a-political" and just campaigned though their local main party MP.

Our "revolution" has turned into evolution and we have developed in to a multi-issue community driven "bottom up" local alternative to traditional political parties, with solid core support. The credit for this rests not with us but with the people of Wyre Forest who broke the mould when they elected Richard Taylor, twice, as their MP. To leave local politics now would let them down and diminish the chance to achieve all the things we still want for the community on housing, regeneration, schools, social care, law and order and other issues that effect local health and well-being. We will not let the community down just to please our political opponents. We are here to stay.

Yours sincerely
Howard Martin
Leader – Independent Health Concern