A UK Political Party: Dr Dick Rodgers
Welcome to the website of the Common Good Party.
I'm standing in the General Election where I live in Birmingham's Northfield Constituency.
You may have seen me standing by the roadside or in the street in Northfield with one of a variety of banners or you may have kindly signed a petition for me on the new road in Selly Oak needing 2 lanes instead of just the single lane they are building or for saving the NHS from commerce or not selling the port of Dover, etc etc.
So Hi! I want us to make the
world a better place and, in doing that, find ourselves again as a
nation. As you see, I'm passionate about it. I'm a keenie! I'd like
you to be too! Maybe you are anyway, in which case that's great and
thanks for being passionate about whatever good stuff you do and for
paying your taxes to keep the whole show on the road! My election leaflet
Window poster with RODGERS on it!
Print out or collect a big version from me in the street in Northfield
or call me on 07730 677511 for a big one
Window poster, reverse side with my
policies to read.
Invitation to presentations in libraries.
I have booked rooms
in libraries in the constituency (which is a welcome privilege given
to candidates). It would be lovely to meet you and to have a chance to
present what I stand for and to discuss what you think of it and to
hear about your concerns.
Saturday 1st May 2-3pm Northfield Library Church Road B31 2LB
Tuesday 4th May 9.30 -10.30 am Kings Norton Library Pershore Road South B30 3EU
Also meet me in the street in Northfield Town centre where I plan to spend much of the middle part of most days. I will try to make it so you can't miss me!
VOLUNTEERING: Northfield Constituency has 54 polling districts of around 800 homes each. Why not, very kindly, take on a district and work it for me: ie deliver a window poster (with policies printed on the back) to each house, knock on doors and enthuse about the vision, be a "teller" outside a polling station on polling day 6th May, wearing a rosette and checking off voters against the relevant bit of the electoral roll and at tea time going to invite people who haven't voted to vote - hopefully for me! Then go to the count at the NIA with a badge from me to check they count it properly and to see the result. And then get together afterwards to reflect on the experience and plan ahead.
Things I want to cracking on with after the election:
1. Still get 2 lanes for the Selly Oak New Road.
2. Get Selly Oak Hospital site used for the tax funded care of the elderly.
3. Stop bankers creating money out of nothing.
4. Save the non-commercial NHS.
5. Nationalise the railway.
6. Get Mr Liu Xiaobo democracy petitioner out of prison in China by asking shops to intercede.
Our main idea:
If we care about the world
........we'll be a happier nation.
Our national life needs a purpose...which should be to make the world a better place for everybody. For instance, let's work to make sure we reach the UN Millenium Development Goals by 2015:
to halve the number of people living on less than $1 a day,
to reduce to a third the children dying before their 5th birthday and
to reduce to a quarter the number of women dying in childbirth.
You may say,"What's this got to do with us? It's not our business. It's because they've got rotten leaders. It's their fault. We've got enough problems of our own. Charity begins at home!"
"Making the world a better place" matters a lot. It is a huge job. It
includes politics and economics and standing up to tyrants. We must
take world issues seriously and not bury our heads in the sand of our
own domestic problems (which are many!). As a trading nation with
world experience we simply cannot afford to neglect world issues.
If we all took world issues to heart, as a nation, we'd feel a lot better about ourselves. Our young people would say, "There's something great going on here! I want to be part of it. I'll pay attention in class and be useful when I grow up."
We will soon have the keen, skilled workers we need for a thriving economy and the means to create a good society here in Britain and to be a good influence in the world. Without a unifying purpose we will never achieve national happiness or harmony. Consumerism won't do it.
The world needs us but also we need a job to do in the world, that will challenge us, unite us and make us a happier society with a team spirit. Having something to live for is the answer to believing in yourself and to education and to solving our social problems such as drugs, crime, messing about at school, loneliness and listlessness.
I want to get this message through to my fellow citizens and to our leaders. I've kept a massive scrapbook of press cuttings relating to 20 specific areas of our national life and to our dealings in the wider world and in 19 specific regions of it. Each issue matters in itself and illustrates the vision as a whole. Please join in.
I need people to get this party organised and make it electable, and people to stand in elections and yet others to help them and others to take up issues they feel passionate about that we can agree on such as saving the NHS and the railways, stopping the Private Finance Initiative and stopping commercial banks creating money for their own benefit which is then their property but which we have to pay back in real earned money. Things like that.
Overseas, I have lots of specific campaigns ready to roll, about China, Iran, Afghanistan, Africa, etc etc. They keep occurring to me in the middle of the night! Let's talk.
Leaflet: Don't sell Dover Harbour: This is still relevant although the deadline is past and there may soon be a new Transport Secretary. After the volcano there's even more reason to hold Dover Harbour in national hands.
Paper petition: Don't sell Dover Harbour. I submitted this to the Minister for Ports personally with the MP for Dover. I hope it does some good. The decision on selling the ports is pending and may still be influenced.
Leaflet about our main idea: our political philosophy!
Selly Oak, Birmingham needs 2
lanes.pdf
Selly Oak New Road: more detail
10 page manifesto of 2007: new version
coming soon.
Northfield's shoppers shape the world.
I am concerned for Chinese poet Mr Liu Xiaobo (pictured) sentenced on Christmas Day 2009 to 11 years prison for organising with others a petition of 10,000 signatories calling for multi-party democracy in China. Please ask the Chinese Ambassador about him at 49/51 Portland Place London W1N 4JL.
I have asked many of the high street chains of shops represented in Northfield who sell Chinese goods to talk to the Chinese Ambassador about Mr Liu. They are decidedly un-keen!! They need a bit of persuading but we Northfielders can do it. We can change the world, starting right here!!
The Common Good is a UK political party, registered in 2004. I stood in the European and General Elections and Hartlepool (2004) Dunfermline (2006) and Henley-on-Thames (2008) By-Elections and Birmingham City Council elections 2007. And now the 2010 General Election.
email
me. If this link doesn't work - my email is dick@rodgers.org.uk