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jgale | 
26 March 2010 at 11:23 | 235 views
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 6th 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 6th 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 6th 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.
jgale | 19 March 2010 at 11:46 | 182 views
Last Thursday evening I attended a Public Meeting in Swanmead School in Ilminster, organized by the South Somerset Climate Action Group.
There was a very thought-provoking presentation by the Chair, Joe Burlington, as well as a large number of questions on a range of environmental issues.
The youngest questioner of the evening, a student at Swanmead School, managed to catch me out on the toughest question of all – what is my own estimated annual carbon usage? No MP tends to have a very low personal carbon usage, because travelling backwards and forwards to Westminster, and all over the constituency, is pretty carbon intensive.
But one way I try to keep down my own carbon usage is by travelling by train whenever I can. I took the train to Birmingham this Saturday for the Liberal Democrat Conference, and most weeks I take the train up to Westminster.
On Friday evening, I took the train to Westminster, and then a BBC car met me to take me to Oxford for BBC TV’s “Any Questions” radio programme. The other guests were Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, Secretary of State for Transport Lord Adonis, and the Editor of the Economist magazine.
With Lord Adonis on the panel, there were a lot of questions on transport – one was on the threatened strike by British Airways cabin crew, and the other was on the new proposed High Speed Rail Link, up to northern England, and on to Scotland.
This would be an expensive project, but in my view it is much needed. It would help deter many people from short trips by air, which are very carbon intensive, and it would help bring levels of rail transport up to standards which other countries have long taken for granted. And although costs are large, spending would not really start until after 2018 – and by then the current public finances mess should have been sorted out.
There is, of course, a lot of controversy about the chosen route, and the environmental impact of this. There needs to be a full inquiry into whether the chosen route is the right one, and on any actions needed to ameliorate the impact on the landscape. But if we let such matters over-ride all other considerations, we would never even have the network which we do today.
I did use my time on the radio, however, to emphasise that the high speed rail link must not be allowed to crowd out all the other rail investment.
I mentioned in the debate that on my way up to Oxford from Yeovil Junction our train had to wait for 5 minutes or so for another train to pass on a single line stretch of track. That is a farce in this day and age, especially on the main rail route from London to Exeter. This is the kind of mickey-mouse level of transport infrastructure that you would expect from a third world country – not from Britain.
This week I am back up in Westminster, and I will have to take part in 4 election debates on education with the Secretary of State, Ed Balls MP, and his Conservative Shadow, Michael Gove MP.
On Wednesday, I will again be meeting Lord Adonis, and this time I will be talking to him in detail about South West Trains’ dotty plan to axe the opening times of 24 ticket offices – including that at Crewkerne. I am very angry that we are having to re-fight this battle, after SWT’s last plans to close the office for half the week were rejected a couple of years ago.
It seems clear that SWT doesn’t give a fig for passenger concerns about losing the access and advice that the ticket office gives, and presumably the management also couldn’t care less about people having to wait on freezing platforms, which would be the consequence if offices such as Crewkerne were to close.
SWT are determined to undermine the existing staffed ticket offices, and they and other rail companies are doing this by denying access to the cheapest fares to the ticket offices – which effectively forces people to purchase tickets on-line. This is a pretty shoddy and underhand strategy.
I shall fight again very hard to try to fight off this latest threat to ticket offices,
Best wishes,
David.
PS: My next Advice Centres are in: Yeovil (Saturday 20th March, Saturday 3rd April), Chard (Saturday 26th March), Ilminster and Crewkerne (27th March). All details from my Yeovil Office on 01935 423284.