Geoff Jones

From Reuters – “Albertsons Inc. has received a preliminary takeover bid from larger grocery store rival Kroger Co. (KR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , while its drug store unit has attracted bids from three pharmacy chains, sources familiar with the situation said on Friday”.

So no mention of Tesco at all since Terry squashed the Albertson rumour and no speculation in the press about who else Tesco could be interested in.

Very interesting debate in the House of Commons on 18th October 2005 started by our MP David Howarth on the current state of Mental Health provision here in Cambridge (UK) and a reply by the government spokesperson Caroline Flint.

Some points –
Cambridge’s population is expanding but payments to trust are based on historical populations.

Poor mental health is associated with being a tenant as opposed to being an owner-occupier ( from nationmaster the German male suicide rate is 21.8 per 100,000 (43% Home ownership), USA19.8 (65% home ownership), UK is 11 (69% Home ownership),

Students are classified as rich because they are disqualified from claiming benefits.

Proximity of a mental health hospital should reduce costs but in fact costs increases due to migration of population to use facility (wonder how this is measured?).

Government replies indicate that Cambridge City PCT’s allocation will grow by 29.1 per cent.—£27.8 million—to £123.4 million which seems an awful lot for a population of say 120,000 people (that is £1000 per person!)

Postscript
Apparently David will be meeting Mrs Hewitt on Tuesday, October 25 from the CEN