One of the purposes of this blog is to publicise our local MPs' contributions to Parliament raising issues of local and national importance. I have got a bit behind but this will be a regular feature from now on.
7 Feb - I watched Richard Spring's (MP for Suffolk West) (pictured above) response to the Govt position on NHS staffing. He gave an excellent speech scoring a couple of good uppercuts on the Health Minister Ann Keen by very effective use of a few killer statistics . Despite massive overall national increases in NHS funding (from £35Bn to £90Bn from 1997 to 2008) Suffolk has not fared so well. Over the same period the numbers of beds in the county has decreased from 1,501 to 1,194 (20.4%) and numbers of those aged over 65 has increased by 11%. The average spend per person on NHS in Britain is £1,388 but in West Suffolk it is a mere £1,156 and only about half for those in Gordon Brown's constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath of £2,019!
Andrew Mackinlay (Thurrock) raised a question to the Solicitor General (Vera Baird) regarding extending detention for terrorist subjects from current 28 days. He pointed out the previous Attorney General (Lord Goldsmith), ex-Justice Minister (Charlie Falconer) and current Director for public prosecutions (Sir Ken MacDonald) see no compelling evidence on increasing the current limit. The Govt faces impending defeat on this issue when it comes to a vote expected either side of Easter.
Bob Spink (Castle Point) has been very busy of late laying vast numbers of Parliamentary questions as varied as the issuing of Blackberrys to MPs to the recently announced review on Member's expenses. Bob attracted considerable coverage in the Sundays on 3 Feb regarding his employing his ex-wife which listed amongst other 'dubious' placements like Peter Hain employing his 80-year old mum. The papers failed to mention it was Bob himself who had volnteered the information in an attempt to stimulate some debate. He was able to make his point more clearly on Newsnight on 4 Feb where he argued the whole system for MPs should be taken from MPs. Although a new huge Parlimentary office sorting out secretarial placements is not a very attractive prospect and smacks of centralisation which our free- marketing Bob should abhor. His fellow guest was the slayer of sleeze, Martin Bell who felt sure no real progress could be made with the current speaker. Of course no current MP could repeat that point on the record and hope to speak in Parliament again. Is this the Speaker who claimed over £4,000 for his wife's taxis?
Feb 6 - Bob Russell (Colchester) just back from Helmand Province learnt the local 16th Air Assault Brigade were off to Afghanistan. He asked the PM whether our NATO allies should be contributing more troops. Naturally the PM heartily concurred, the reluctance of some countries (France, Italy, Germany, Spain) to send their share of troops is causing extreme anxiety amongst the other key NATO countries of US, Canada and UK. The U.S. Secretary of State for Defence, Robert Gates recently told Senators the alliance was at risk. It may be Afghanistan and Iraq over time are being considered as essentially the same conflict when they are quite distinct in terms of moral justification. In any event you can expect a show-down at next NATO summit on 27 April in Bucharest (the Romanians are doing their bit incidentally).
John Gummer (Suffolk Coast) made a long speech on the Lisbon Treaty, his views can be described as pragmatically pro-business EU supporter. This is not the sort of thing most of the Conservative Party wants to hear anymore. But in the late 70s and early 80s such views dominated the party, they were the European Party and Labour was deemed anti-EEC, as it was. The Europsceptic wing of the Tory party came to the fore ironically after Margaret Thatcher signed the Single European Act in 1986 peaking shortly after Maastricht Treaty in 1993.
Feb 5 - Andrew Rosindell's (Romford) patriotism is not in doubt, his website is awash with red, white and blue. This week he introduced a ten-minute rule Bill to set out in law what you can and can't do with the Union Jack. Many other countries such as US have strict laws on these matters, where you can be imprisoned for letting the flag drag in the dirt or taking it down after sunset. It's the kind of legislation we just never get round to doing in this country and there is always something more important to do. So unlikely Andy's Flag Bill will get very far. Second reading is set for October 17.
7 Feb - I watched Richard Spring's (MP for Suffolk West) (pictured above) response to the Govt position on NHS staffing. He gave an excellent speech scoring a couple of good uppercuts on the Health Minister Ann Keen by very effective use of a few killer statistics . Despite massive overall national increases in NHS funding (from £35Bn to £90Bn from 1997 to 2008) Suffolk has not fared so well. Over the same period the numbers of beds in the county has decreased from 1,501 to 1,194 (20.4%) and numbers of those aged over 65 has increased by 11%. The average spend per person on NHS in Britain is £1,388 but in West Suffolk it is a mere £1,156 and only about half for those in Gordon Brown's constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath of £2,019!
Andrew Mackinlay (Thurrock) raised a question to the Solicitor General (Vera Baird) regarding extending detention for terrorist subjects from current 28 days. He pointed out the previous Attorney General (Lord Goldsmith), ex-Justice Minister (Charlie Falconer) and current Director for public prosecutions (Sir Ken MacDonald) see no compelling evidence on increasing the current limit. The Govt faces impending defeat on this issue when it comes to a vote expected either side of Easter.
Bob Spink (Castle Point) has been very busy of late laying vast numbers of Parliamentary questions as varied as the issuing of Blackberrys to MPs to the recently announced review on Member's expenses. Bob attracted considerable coverage in the Sundays on 3 Feb regarding his employing his ex-wife which listed amongst other 'dubious' placements like Peter Hain employing his 80-year old mum. The papers failed to mention it was Bob himself who had volnteered the information in an attempt to stimulate some debate. He was able to make his point more clearly on Newsnight on 4 Feb where he argued the whole system for MPs should be taken from MPs. Although a new huge Parlimentary office sorting out secretarial placements is not a very attractive prospect and smacks of centralisation which our free- marketing Bob should abhor. His fellow guest was the slayer of sleeze, Martin Bell who felt sure no real progress could be made with the current speaker. Of course no current MP could repeat that point on the record and hope to speak in Parliament again. Is this the Speaker who claimed over £4,000 for his wife's taxis?
Feb 6 - Bob Russell (Colchester) just back from Helmand Province learnt the local 16th Air Assault Brigade were off to Afghanistan. He asked the PM whether our NATO allies should be contributing more troops. Naturally the PM heartily concurred, the reluctance of some countries (France, Italy, Germany, Spain) to send their share of troops is causing extreme anxiety amongst the other key NATO countries of US, Canada and UK. The U.S. Secretary of State for Defence, Robert Gates recently told Senators the alliance was at risk. It may be Afghanistan and Iraq over time are being considered as essentially the same conflict when they are quite distinct in terms of moral justification. In any event you can expect a show-down at next NATO summit on 27 April in Bucharest (the Romanians are doing their bit incidentally).
John Gummer (Suffolk Coast) made a long speech on the Lisbon Treaty, his views can be described as pragmatically pro-business EU supporter. This is not the sort of thing most of the Conservative Party wants to hear anymore. But in the late 70s and early 80s such views dominated the party, they were the European Party and Labour was deemed anti-EEC, as it was. The Europsceptic wing of the Tory party came to the fore ironically after Margaret Thatcher signed the Single European Act in 1986 peaking shortly after Maastricht Treaty in 1993.
Feb 5 - Andrew Rosindell's (Romford) patriotism is not in doubt, his website is awash with red, white and blue. This week he introduced a ten-minute rule Bill to set out in law what you can and can't do with the Union Jack. Many other countries such as US have strict laws on these matters, where you can be imprisoned for letting the flag drag in the dirt or taking it down after sunset. It's the kind of legislation we just never get round to doing in this country and there is always something more important to do. So unlikely Andy's Flag Bill will get very far. Second reading is set for October 17.
No comments:
Post a Comment