Yesterday, The VOAG re-published a story about John Butcher, a Conservative Surrey County Councillor for Cobham ward.

He has worked out a brilliant scheme for pushing up property values in the county by driving out everyone who is fat, takes recreational drugs, gorges on junk food or has self-inflicted health problems of any kind. As a member of the councils health committee, he has sent an email to staff suggesting a two-speed NHS in which "patients with self-inflicted morbidity, (mainly smoking, alcohol, narcotics or obesity) or an injury through dangerous activities are placed in a much slower-moving queue. http://suacs.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/john-butcher-surrey-heathtory-councillor-health-committee-nhs In a response to the Elmbridge Guardian, which first broke the story, John Butcher added: If sports can ban performance-enhancing drug use, then entertainment etc. should ban narcotics and alcohol abuse. Everyone in, or aspiring to, a position of public responsibility and everyone in a position to influence the public, including entertainers etc, should be asked to sign a voluntary pledge not to take illegal narcotics or consume excessive alcohol, or drive when so affected. Anyone who fails to sign that pledge, or who signs it and breaches it, should be excluded from positions of public responsibility and influence. All public organisations, including regulated broadcasters etc, should agree to impose this exclusion. Councillor Karen Randolph, chairman of the Save Our Surrey Community Hospitals campaign, said: The views expressed by Councillor Butcher challenge the very credibility of Surrey County Councils Health Overview Scrutiny Committee, of which he is a member. It is highly disturbing that the Conservative administration at SCC has deemed it appropriate to appoint to this committee a councillor who clearly does not support the NHS and who holds such extraordinary views about the responsibilities of the state to its citizens. Cllr John Butcher also sits on Elbridge Borough Council, where he lists his chief concerns as Challenging wishy-washiness and nebulous do-goodery. Simon Cook, a Conservative councillor in Cullingworth, Yorkshire called John Butcher a real deal health fascist and blogged yesterday: So if you smoke, drink, drive fast cars round a track or climb rocks (not sure whether Cllr Butcher's 'dangerous activities' includes horse riding and playing rugby) you'll be made to wait longer in the hope that you'll move away from Surrey. Indeed, it seems that Cllr Butcher thinks that, by doing this, all these people with "self-inflicted" illnesses will move to places where the authorities believe in equal treatment. The real question is: How would John butchers proposals push up house prices in Surrey. John Butchers argument is that people with illnesses will be repulsed from Surrey whilst healthy people

will be attracted to the better healthcare that Surrey could afford having been freed from the burden of treating sick people. What the councillor is really saying is drive out the poor and less affluent from Surrey (the sick, disabled, smokers obese et al, who are by-and large the less well off) to make lebensraum for his wealthy friends. Bring on the concentration camps. But lets give the councillor a chance. Lets take his comments on face value. There are 1.08 million residents in Surrey. According to Surrey County Council, one in four adults in Surrey are smokers. Surrey NHS estimates there are 455,000 hazardous, harmful or binge drinkers in Surrey. http://www.surreydaat.org.uk/pdf/Alcohol%20Needs%20Assessment.pdf The Obesity rate in Surrey, lower than the national average, is estimated by Surrey PCT to be at 20% of the population. http://www.guildford.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=569&p=0 As for drugs use, there are no statistics for Surrey, but in the South East, according to the ONS, 8.6% of the adult population took illegal drugs last year, with 3.3% of the population described as frequent drug users. http://data.gov.uk The councillor extended his attack on the unfit and unwell to people engaged in risky past-times and sports. Its plainly obvious that this is just a smoke screen to hide his real agenda, which is to chase the less affluent, who have a propensity to be less fit, out of Surrey. I cant believe the Councillor is thinking of his horse riding, rugby playing chums when he talks of dangerous sports. However, taking Cllr Butcher at his word again, we have to take account of horse riding, rugby, perhaps even motor cycling, and a host of other recreational pass-times that might be considered potentially hazardous. For example, according to Surrey County Councils 2007 Rights Of Way report, there are 20,000 horses in Surrey. A 1998 Gallop poll found 6% of Surrey residents had gone horse riding in that year. http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/176058/ROWIP-main-text.pdf Wheres all this going, whats the point of all these statistics? Well, by my reckoning, if the Councillor had his way, theyd be no-one left in Surrey. His policy certainly wouldnt produce the rise in property prices that he and his chums so desire. As an aside to these arguments; according to the ONS, Excise duty & VAT raised by the UK Drinks industry amounts to 22bn annually, whilst alcohol consumption costs the nation, through the health service, crime, lost production etc 20bn. Estimates of the costs to the NHS from smoking varies greatly, one study estimated an annual cost of 610m. Another study (Allender, S- The burden of smoking-related ill health in the UK) estimates the cost to be 2.7bn whilst the Centre for Health Economics estimates the cost to be between 1.4bn and 1.7bn. According to the HMRC (Revenue & Customs) Tobacco tax revenue last year amounted to 12.1bn. Another argument, developed by the University of Public Health, Rotterdam indicates that smoking may even save the NHS money. Their study shows that since smokers on average die younger, they do not incur the costs of a lengthy old age or the costly diseases that are associated with it. Their study concluded that the average health cost of a non-smoker was $83,400 whilst the average health cost of a smoker was $72,600. These fiscal arguments, which clearly show the tax payer incurs no cost from smoking and alcohol consumption, can be equally applied to the sporting activities Cllr Butcher appears so against. In each and every case revenue exceeds the costs.

Its not the first time John Butcher has hit the local headlines. A council employee lodged an official complaint against him in February 2010. Council proceedings start with a prayer during which no one is allowed to enter or leave the council chambers. Cllr Butcher arrived late to the 2010 February council meeting and finding that prayers had already begun, and the door to the chambers closed and guarded by an attendant, lost his temper. He aggressively forced his way in, thrusting the door in to the face of the attendant injuring him and bruising his face. An eye-witness told the Surrey Advertiser: During prayers I became aware of someone attempting to gain entry to the council chamber through the door being guarded [by the officer] using his body to keep the door shut. It quickly became apparent that this someone had not been deterred by the efforts and they again tried to enter the chamber in a more forceful manner. I then recall [the officer] turning his head towards the door as if to indicate through the frosted glass to the person on the other side that prayers were still ongoing. A very short time afterwards I recall hearing something of a thud as the door hit [the officer] on the side of the head and I witnessed John Butcher stumbling/forcing his way into the chamber through the partially opened door. After the incident John Butcher refused to apologise to the attendant and denied injuring him, even though there was a council chamber full of witnesses. John Butcher is a low-life. Not only are his views abhorrent, but as I hope Ive shown, they dont even make sense or stand up to any kind of reasonable scrutiny. Rather than exile the less-well-off, the sick and the disabled from Surrey, its time to kick John Butcher out of Surrey. Do not re-elect John Butcher to Surrey County Council or Elbridge Borough Council. John Butcher 18 Bramble Rise Cobham Surrey KT11 2HP Tel: 07899 891685 jbutcher@elmbridge.gov.uk