22nd March 2010

The starting gun has yet to be fired, but the horses are off in the 2010 General Election race.

Unless Gordon Brown is planning some unprecedented emergency legislation to cancel General Elections (he wouldn’t, would he?), the country must go to the polls by early June of this year. Since there are already local elections on 6^th May, there is no real possibility of holding the General Election after this. So, by a slow, grinding, process of elimination it is becoming ever-clearer that Thursday 6^th May will be Polling Day.

By now, there will be a date in the PM’s diary for firing the starting gun. Mr. Brown will have to visit Her Majesty the Queen to ask her permission to dissolve Parliament, and you don’t just ring up the Queen with 10 minutes notice and ask whether you can drop round. Discrete inquiries will already have been made. Dates and times will be penciled in. And, respecting the way in which our “modern” constitution seems to work, the press have also been “prepared”, with widespread leaks suggesting that after an Easter rest, the Prime Minister will make his journey to Buckingham Palace (or could it be Balmoral?) on Tuesday 6^th April.

This week, the last major parliamentary event occurs before election day, with the delivery of the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s “Budget Statement”. I will not make a lot of forecasts about this, as you will know the results before you read this article. But if it is not a rather dull Budget, I shall be very surprised.

Meanwhile, the “election campaign” is starting in earnest, with or without the “nod” from the Prime Minister.

Last week I took part in four different Education debates, outside Parliament, with my opposite numbers – Ed Balls MP, the Schools Secretary, and Conservative Spokesman Michael Gove MP.

The “big debate” was in front of an audience of 450 education experts, and was arranged by the Times Educational Supplement. The next day, the three of us appeared in front of an audience of 100 children, from schools across England. We had to answer questions on a wide range of topics, from the voting age and school meals to child poverty and national tests.

My two opposite numbers in the other parties have very different styles. Ed Balls is like a Rottweiler, and he cannot see a political opponent (particularly a Tory) without wishing to bite him. Michael Gove is very different. He can almost seem semi-detached, but he occasionally drips sarcasm onto the head of Mr. Balls. This may work in the juvenile atmosphere of the House of Commons, but it is rather less effective in public debate with normal human beings.

We were asked by the children how they could trust the pledges we made as politicians, and Michael Gove’s quirky reply that he “wasn’t even sure if he kept his promises to his own children” left the audience looking rather stunned and unimpressed!

Later in the week, I met Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, and I raised with him my concerns about the plans by South West Trains to close the ticket office at Crewkerne Station for half the week. The Transport Secretary said he recognized the concerns and would look carefully at the issue. I shall step up my campaign on this.

I was back in our area on Thursday afternoon and on Friday I visited the Foyer in Yeovil, where they had a triple celebration under way – certificates were being awarded to some of the young people for recent work; there was the launch of a new project to offer music training to young people on an outreach basis; and Barclays Bank has invested another £35,000 in its “Money Skills” project, to help young people. This time the “Money Skills” project will be delivered through residential activities which will cater for some 100 young people. My thanks to Barclays for continuing to support these projects.

I also called in to Bucklers Mead School in Yeovil on Friday afternoon, and I met the children and staff in the “Flexible Learning Centre”. They had arranged a Tea Party to celebrate the completion of their “Flat Stanley” project, and I was impressed to see all the work that has gone in to this.

Ever,

David.