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It has been another busy fortnight in Westminster and Stourbridge since my last newsletter. We have had the budget, the G20, a re-positioning of our strategy in Afghanistan, announcements on immigration, prisons and many more areas where our government is taking swift and decisive action.
Thank you to those of you who sent me your responses and views on my last newsletter.
The Budget
George Osborne introduced the budget with a masterful speech, decisive, confident, honest and both delivery and content were a marked change from the Labour budgets we have endured in the last thirteen years.
I was pleased to be called to speak in the budget debate on the first day and I welcomed the improvements for pensioners, the removal of 880,000 people on low pay from paying taxes, and noted that I was very pleased that the Chancellor had listened to the concerns of myself and many others about increases to Capital Gains Tax. It was also good to see a decisive start on the journey towards welfare reform, a re-balancing of the economy towards the private sector and the regions outside London and the South East.
The budget is debated over four days and I was in the Chamber listening to a good six or seven hours of that debate. Stripped of office the Labour Party is reverting to type. There were very few speeches from the other side that could be classified as ‘New Labour’ – backbench contributions evoked class war and zero responsibility for the terrible mess we are in.
Prisons
Post budget discussion has moved on to Prisons. Ken Clarke has said we send too many people to prison, that prison costs more than Eton and that we need tougher and properly enforced community sentencing. Michael Howard has restated his view that ‘prison works’ and Jack Straw has intervened to say that most types of crime have fallen in recent years because of the greater numbers being sent to prison.
Ken is right to challenge the revolving door of prison policy. Not enough is done to get prisoners off drugs, educate and rehabilitate them. Too many people (at least 15% which is some 12,000 prisoners) have serious and enduring mental health problems). These individuals are being made worse in a prison environment and should be in a smaller and secure mental health facility. There are also far too many foreign nationals in our prisons. We could significantly reduce our prison population by addressing these matters but proper reforms are unlikely to deliver much by way of savings in the first few years. But surely it is better to spend the money we are spending better and ultimately such reforms will lead to less crime being committed.
Finally I am delighted to have been elected by my colleagues to the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Select Committee which will give me another platform to represent Stourbridge in the crucial area of business and employment.Representing Stourbridge in Parliament - As mentioned above I spoke in the budget debate. Read Speech
- I asked the Home Secretary to honour our commitment to reduce immigration down to the tens of thousands – I started making the point that to achieve this she would need to stand firm in the face of lobbying from business but had to back down when the speaker rose and members opposite started calling that I was turning a question in to a speech. It takes a while to get the hang of parliamentary procedure! Read Question
- I asked the Home Secretary to make sure that the government’s proposed regulation of CCTV cameras did not deter their use. I was pleasantly surprised at how much support this got from my own side, many of whom are clearly as in favour of the use of cameras in the battle against crime as I am. Read more
- I lobbied health ministers for the confirmation of capital funding money, which had been put on hold like many other unfunded commitments made by the last government, for the Mary Stevens Hospice.
- I have started a lobbying process with the Housing Minister on two issues. First, as with the hospices, commitments to build social housing have been put on hold, this affects new housing in Quarry Bank that Dudley Council had funding agreed by the last government. Secondly on behalf of older people living in retirement flats and sheltered accommodation who buy flats on the understanding they have warden support but then see this support whittled away over the years.
- I spoke at a meeting of the Minhaj–ul–Quran organised by Mr Mursaleen from Lye. This is an organisation dedicated to educating young Muslims away from extremism, it was well attended and I was pleased to contribute.
- In preparation for my role on the BIS select committee I attended:
- A meeting with the Chinese ambassador and business representatives.
- ‘Engineering the future’ a meeting on the UK’s science and engineering base
- A reception by Britain’s Sub Sea Industry association (I am interested in tidal energy as a new market in renewable energy that Britain has the chance to lead)
Out and About in Stourbridge - It has been a real pleasure to attend a varied range of events and activities in Stourbridge over the last couple of weeks, most are on my website and you can click through if you would like more information:
- The launch of the St Thomas’s Church appeal in Market Street. Read more
- Prize Giving at Old Swinford Hospital School (this was wonderful and made me wish I had attended OSH – but now and not in the 60s and 70s when everything was so much more regimented!). It was lovely to see so many of our councillors at the event.
- I did a Q&A session at an Election Day special for Year 10 students at several schools organised by the brilliant Politics teacher at King Edward’s College, Matt Cole. Read more
- The annual Age Concern fete in the gardens of Mary Stevens.
- Overton’s recycling plant in Lye. Read more
It’s not all work...
I welcomed children from twelve Stourbridge Primary Schools to Parliament. They have all been elected to their school council and had lots of questions – including did I think I should be PM instead of David Cameron! They were all lovely and it was such an enjoyable event.
I met Lord Howe (Geoffrey) at the engineering and science meeting. Before the speeches we had a nice chat. He said his favourite role in government had been Foreign Secretary (although he is regarded by many as having been Britain’s best Chancellor, a close run with Ken Clarke perhaps, of the last thirty years). He also said that he had had a close working partnership with Margaret Thatcher for 15 years, longer than many marriages, and that it was a pity that so much comment focussed on the divorce rather than the partnership.
I had the great pleasure of a very nice lunch in the House of Lords to mark the introduction of Shireen Ritchie in to the Lords as Baroness Ritchie of Brompton. After lunch we watched Shireen’s ennoblement from the ornate galleries overlooking the chamber of the Lords. It was an unforgettable experience.
I was going to mention the World Cup – well I will any way, although it was terrible. I managed to watch every England game except the one we won! David Cameron was very funny though about having to endure the final game alongside Angela Merkel. Although he did say she apologised every time they put one past us! I am a big admirer of Mrs Merkel and am very sorry that her star seems to be on the turn in Germany now. Not another leader done for by the diabolical single currency I hope. Signing off
That is it until next time. I have succeeded in making my newsletter more frequent, but not at making it shorter, for which my apologies and thanks to you for your interest if you have managed to read this far.
Best wishes
Margot
www.margotjames.com
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