29th July 2010
Parliament has now finished for its summer recess. But this year there will be no repeat of the past lengthy “holiday”, which saw Parliament shut down until mid October.
Instead, MPs will return on 6th September, and the parliamentary business agenda is already bursting full with debates and new legislation.
On the very first day back, MPs will debate the new plans to cut the number of MPs and to hold a referendum on a new “Alternative Vote” electoral system. The reduction in the number of MPs will require a “Boundary Review” which will cut out about 60 MPs in areas where the population of the constituency is below the average number for the country as a whole.
Somerset is actually one of the few areas which could end up with an extra MP, as our seats have some of the largest populations of voters in the whole of the United Kingdom. Frankly, it would seem odd to be adding any new constituencies when we are trying to cut numbers, and I would favour Somerset keeping the existing 5 parliamentary seats. But this might need a little more “tolerance” of variance from the “average” seat. We shall see.
There will also be a debate in September on the deployment of UK Armed Forces in Afghanistan. I am pleased that there has recently been more talk from Ministers over the timetable for bringing our troops back from Afghanistan. We have already been in that country for a very long time, and the list of dead and wounded rises every week. It is now clear that we cannot expect to achieve every possible ambition in Afghanistan. Our aim must be to leave a country which has its own army and police force to ensure order, and where there is no safe haven for the Al Qaeda terrorists to re-establish themselves.
What all this could mean is UK force levels peaking in 2010, with a gradual reduction of our commitment from mid 2011 onwards, as the US troop surge is gradually unwound. The aim would then be to train the Afghan army and police (which will still take some time) so that withdrawal can be completed by around 2014-2015. No one can call that a rushed timetable, and many people will want to see a faster pace of troop reduction.
We also now know the business of the House of Commons for mid September. There will be a debate on the Government’s new plan to introduce Fixed Term Parliaments. This will mean General Elections being held on a regular, predictable, cycle in the same way that elections for councils and the devolved parliaments are. No longer will the Prime Minister have the chance to select the date of the next General Election based simply on a calculation of when he or she is most likely to wrong-foot his political opponents.
There will also, on 14th September, be an important debate on the Equitable Life Payments Bill. This will seek to frame the terms of the compensation for those who lost money in the badly regulated Equitable Life. The previous government did nothing to resolve this problem for years, but the Coalition Government is now trying to find a solution. The issue will be how much compensation to pay, not least as the Government currently has very little money to spend in any area!
This is an issue which affects quite a lot of people in our area, and I have already had many letters on the subject.
Last week I held three Advice Centres in our area – one was in Yeovil on Friday, and then there were two on Saturday, the first in Ilminster and the second in Crewkerne. The Ilminster and Crewkerne surgeries were both surprisingly busy, as we do not have a booking system for those two venues. It is therefore impossible to guess how many people will turn up. But I started in Ilminster at about 8.55am and we did not finish in Crewkerne until about 1.15pm.
Finally, I am grateful to many people for continuing kind words of encouragement, either in person or by card, letter or e-mail. This has meant a great deal to me.
Ever,
David.