MP for Wantage and Didcot
Spent part of Bank Holiday MOnday at the Lockinge point-to-point, the annual meeting which raises thousands of pounds for the local Old Berks Hunt. It snowed, and it was freezing, but there was still a very good turn out (including three MPs spotted). It last snowed there in 1985, when people tobogganed merrily down the lanes of the car park.
My attack on the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority’s spiralling costs earned me a stinging rebuke from the chief executive, Tim Jones. He sent me a letter denying that costs were out of control or 300 per cent over budget, and asking me for a meeting. To be fair, the article I quoted does not suggest running costs are out of control. What it does suggest, and is a rumour doing the rounds in pensions circles, is that the cost of building the systems has risen from £500 million to £2 billion. The analogy would be if your house cost four times more to build, but your costs to run the house remained the same…
I replied to Tim’s rebuke and demand for a meeting with four questions for PADA to answer:
My last blog was ten days ago, so Vaizey is guilty again of letting you down. I have a good excuse this time, though. Our daughter Martha, a sister for 18 month old Joseph, arrived on 12th March at 2.44pm. She is, as you would imagine, very beautiful and delightful. Her brother has astonished us by being as equally delighted with her as we are. Martha may well have a political career ahead of her. She was born on the same day as Viriginia Bottomley, Baroness Peta Buscombe and David Mellor. She also shares a birthday with the sculptor Anish Kapoor and the singer Liza Minelli.
Martha delayed her arrival from 29th February, so that I could vote for a referendum on the European Constitution, and started to arrive just as Alistair Darlimg got to his feet, thus ensuring I missed the most boring Budget in history. So she has acute political antennae.
Martha was born on the NHS, and the care we received was first-class during the delivery. (I’ll pass over the three hour waits every time we had an ante-natal appointment.) Thank you to every one involved in delivering her safely into the world, your care and diligence was wonderful.
Ok this probably isn’t newsworthy, because it is so common under this Government. If I had asked you twelve months ago of the Government’s new quango, the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority, would be able to run on budget, you would have said “pull the other one”. And you’d have been right! We learned today it is a whopping 300 per cent over Budget, with costs rising from £500 million to £2 billion. Read it HERE. Unbelievable. A friend of mine worked there and resigned in disgust - he said the building was full of consultants on four figure day rates who were doing bugger all - in fact some were working for other clients, they had so little to do. The waste and mismanagement of Government never ceases to amaze and shock.
My initial thoughts on Lord Goldsmith’s proposal that all school leavers should swear allegiance to the Crown was that it was little more than a gimmick. It is one suggestion in a 150 page report, but it ensured it got coverage. The irony about the current debate about Britishness is that everyone is falling back on Americanisms - swearing allegiance, flying the flag and so on. It’s not really part of our tradition, and it cannot necessarily be imposed from above.
And yet. Some of this stuff does work. I, for one, am delighted that Government buildings fly the Union Jack, and I would be delighted if all public buildings, from Job Centres to Council Offices, either flew the Union Jack or had one on a flagpole inside. Citizenship ceremonies are also a very good idea. I attended one at Wallingford School in my constituency the other day - apparently it is the first school in the country to host one. It was organised by Year 9’s. The school band played, “British” food was available (scones and cocktail sausages among other treats), and the High Sheriff turned up in full rig (I also wore the British national costume - the stuffed shirt). The forty or so people who were getting theri citizenship all swore their allegiance. They came from dozens of different countries, and all looked delighted by the ceremony and their new status as British citizens. All in all a wonderful occasion.
So I won’t dismiss any of these ideas as gimmicks just yet. And my wife definitely wants the extra bank holiday.
Hot on the heels of Prince Harry’s return from Afghanistan, comes the story that RAF personnel were advised not to wear their uniforms in Peterborough. Again, thanks to the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme (see previous post) I have some experience of the public’s reaction to uniform. Members of the scheme get their own fatigues and a nifty belt, specially designed for the “regiment”, and they are encouraged to wear it when visiting troops. So it was that at 4am I popped into an all night garage in Faringdon, on my to Brize Norton, where I was leaving for Afghanistan, wearing my fatigues. The chap behind the counter promptly gave me a free coffee and newspaper and wished me luck. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was an (his) MP. He probably would have charged me double!
At our Remembrance Day services, in Wallingford, Didcot, Faringdon, and Wantage, attendance has been going up every year. There is a huge pride in our troops and their efforts, regardless of people’s views of the rights and wrongs of the war. We have quite a local presence - RAF Benson, which has suffered sad losses; the bomb disposal team in Didcot, where a couple fo squadrosn have just left for a tour; and Dalton Barracks in Abingdon, where, to thank them for their almost constant presence in Iraq, the Government has decided to close their Post Office. You couldn’t make it up.
PS for those interested, no baby yet. Ten days late and counting!
The debate on whether Prince Harry’s curtailed tour of duty has been astonishing to watch. The coverage has made me realise how effective at least one Parliamentary programme is. The Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme was set up a few years ago to give MPs a taste of military life, bearing in mind that sixty years after the war, and forty years after the end of National Service, fewer and fewer MPs would have served in the military (although the Tory 2005 intake is quite havy on ex-military). I have been attached to the Royal Marines, and actually went to Afghanistan, visiting Camp Bastion (run by an ex-King Alfred’s Wantage boy, naturally) and a FOB. But most importantly, spending time with the military makes you realise not only how exceptional they are but what a separate culture they have. I can tell you that Harry comes across as an absolutely typical British officer, devoted to his task and his regiment. Every one who joins (and remember it is a volunteer army) hopes to see active service. This was no way a PR stunt - much more giving in to the intense desire of HArry to carry out the duties he was trained for.
The Lib Dems in Wantage are shameless. They have just put out a press release claiming credit for a new footpath, when in fact it was the excellent local Conservative district councillor Bill Melotti (www.billmelotti.me.uk) who first brought the issue to public attention. The Lib Dems are also trying to cut the subsidies available for all arts groups in Wantage. And now they are claiming an independent candidate in Wallingford, Lynda Atkins, is in fact a Lib Dem…
I have been deluged with mail on our threatened Post Offices. I have five under threat in my constituency - Childrey, Ardington, Fyfield, Upton and Long Wittenham. The two I know best - Childrey and Ardington - are thriving and very busy. Clearly “profit” is not an issue - the Post Office is simply pushing through a plan that means that all Post Offices will be three miles apart, and any in between get the bullet. I’ll be spending the week end putting together the case for each Post Office before my show down meeting next week.
I have just sat through the first few hours of the Northern Rock debate. It may seem a marginal issue, but PArliament is being treated with contempt - as per usual. The entire Bill will have been done and dusted by midnight - just 8 hours after it was first put before Parliament. It themn moves to the Lords, where the unelected representatives get twice as long! Why is the Government in such a hurry - after all they have been prepared to wait 5 months to avoid precisely this debacle. Surely they can wait a couple of weeks for Parliament to debate it. Or is this Thursday’s “topical debate” (and you can be sure it won’t be on Northern Rock!) too important to be passed over?
