Some of the good things in life are still important

While phone canvassing last night and talking to people about the County Council proposals for residents and on the street parking, the strength of feeling coming through really hit me. Some of the people I talked to did not have a car and always used public transport, however they still felt really strongly about what was happening to our town.

With yesterdays headline about some USA citizens trying to sell their votes on ebay, it would be easy to assume that people weren't interested in how things could improve. However, talking to people about the Conservative County Councils consideration of effectively allowing restrictions on visitors permits (no pay, no visit if it's more than 50 per year - not even one a week) the people I spoke to automatically thought about the impact the policy change would have on the most vulnerable in the community. Those needing district nurse or other health professionals attention.

However the Council is legally required to do an equalities impact assessment on the change in policy, and surely would have considered this in advance of publishing the policy change. For the people I spoke to last night the key issue was about fairness. Not about being politically correct. Just about being fair.

I can't speak for the rest of the world but I live in a place where the value of fairness still means something.