Richard Spring MP
Member of Parliament for West Suffolk

The public have a dim view of politicians’ promises on taxes. They either think that taxes will go up anyway, despite promises to the contrary, or that money raising wheezes like clusters of speed cameras that have precious little to do with road safety and when the original purpose has been lost.

Somehow I get the sense, from letters and constituents’ comments, that the weight of taxation is now really beginning to be felt. If green issues are simply a way for Gordon Brown to raise more by stealth, public support for combating climate change will evaporate.

David Cameron has led the charge, to great effect. Following the Stern Report, I suspect that businesses will be falling over themselves to provide market based solutions to environmental problems, and that is to be wholly welcomed. With this Government’s appalling record of NHS mismanagement, the wrong IT and micro-control of the economy, the public have every right to feel cautious. It is too important an issue to be left to this Government, which is less and less trusted each day. 

At the weekend in my constituency, a number of people came up to me to congratulate me on my frugality and my personal value for money.  Initially this puzzled me until discovering that my spending on Parliamentary allowances was less than other MPs in East Anglia.

Whilst working in the financial services industry before entering Parliament, there were times when I was in the office by 7.15am, and sometimes working until 10pm.   When politicians used to tell me they worked very hard, my reaction was “oh yes?”  Actually, it really is true.  There might be a notion that during the summer Parliamentary recess, MPs are reclining on some sun drenched chaise longue or sipping rum punches.   That is not true either.   In this context, I was amused to read that a distinguished journalist friend, who really is at the top of his profession and deserves to be rewarded as such, described our housing allowance as a “racket”.   We get around £3,000 each month after tax and various deductions, and without some help to run a second residence either in London or in one’s constituency, it would be, er, something of a challenge.

I make absolutely no complaint whatsoever.  We really are the servants of the people and should never forget it.  Also, I freely admit that Gordon Brown’s assault on people’s pensions have shone a fresh light on our own arrangements.

Throughout the ages politicians collectively have been held in low regard.   That will never change.  Nevertheless perhaps we can draw a bit of comfort from the fact that we are routinely bracketed, in the public’s generalised lack of affection, with estate agents and journalists.

Mercifully there is still a respectable margin between said MPs, estate agents and journalists, and those who are detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure!
 

Shortly after leaving university I travelled to Syria with a friend whose family were steam enthusiasts. On their farm, they have a collection ranging from a steam engine to a steam lorry and a traction engine. In those days, there was a steam train which left the Hejaz railway station in Damascus at 7.30 am for a journey up into the mountains. The driver was called Antoine. We shared the experience of heaving coal into the furnace with him. It is one of my abiding memories.

Syria is something of a closed book as a country and few British people have gone there. However, over the years I have gone back and have come to know the country quite well.

The Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Umayyads, the crusaders, and the Ottomans, were just some of those who forged the identity of Syria, and left behind an extraordinary architectural heritage.  The result is a culture of acceptance of religious and ethnic diversity extraordinary by international standards, let alone the Middle East.

I was for a period the Conservative spokesman for the Middle East which gave me an opportunity to look at the country from a more political viewpoint. I wrote an article about Syria in this morning’s Guardian, and its possible role in resolving some of the festering problems of the Middle East, a region where some radical re-thinking is required.

The article can be found on my website by following the link below:

http://www.richardspringmp.com/

During the past twelve months, I have gone to do political work in Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique. It is my practical way of doing my bit for the Third World. I try to help with democracy building, encourage transparency, improved Parliamentary procedures and accountability and encouraging civil society.

Last summer in the middle of Mozambique, I witnessed some sports displays – for example, three brilliant gymnasts who had no equipment to improve their standards on. There was a universal love of international football. The local MP, Manuel de Arajuo, handed out a few footballs and football shirts. The look of joy on the young recipients’ faces was indescribable.

It led to my Parliamentary colleague, Hugh Robertson, with whom I was travelling, securing for them many more footballs from the Football Association – they are now being despatched.

In amongst all the problems in the rural African community we saw – lack of education, health and transport facilities – there will soon be a group of young Mozambicans who will be ecstatic. It is a small gesture, but it will thrill and delight beyond description. 

Politicians, as a breed, get on pretty well together both across party and national divides. They enjoy each others’ company. I, for one, have no personal animosity towards my opponents; there are a few who suck up in a revolting way to Cabinet Ministers, but everybody holds them in contempt. There are many Labour MPs who are genuine and decent – Tom Watson was kind about me, which I wholeheartedly reciprocate. I cannot feel any personal dislike whatever for the affable Prisons Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, with whom I am in contact over the absconding (sorry – licence failure) Mark Ryder. Who would want to be a Minister in this Home Office — it is a foretaste of purgatory.

As we know from Charles Clarke, David Blunkett and others, the Government front bench strongly resembles the Addams family. Nobody exemplifies this more than Gordon Brown, who is like some oversized Chelsea tractor crashing through the undergrowth when speaking in the House of Commons.

Today, thanks to effective needling by George Osborne, he lost it – he hurled his notes across the despatch box in a rage. This hardly ever happens, because almost all Members of Parliament know the limits of personal tantrums.

Oh dear! Our view of Gordon will never be quite the same again. 

When I visited Romania, I was housed, much to the astonishment of the British Ambassador, in the suburban villa of the country’s late dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. Semi-disappointingly, we did not however see the ghosts of either Ceauşescu or his terrifying wife.

Yesterday, we had an announcement from our dysfunctional Home Office that gives both that Department and politicians in general a bad name (For now, let us put aside whether immigration is a good or bad thing). The simple truth is that in practice we shall not be able to stop Romanians and Bulgarians from coming to Britain. There are to be £1000 fines for illegally working here. We must revisit this in January 2008, a year on, to see how many have actually been fined! It will be impossible to deport transgressors.

The Home Office know all of this, but try to spin something different. And for those of us who observe the nuances of Parliamentary protocol, this announcement was sneaked out in a written statement and not on the floor of the Commons, where it could have been challenged.

It says it all. 

Nearly two weeks ago, Mark Ryder, from Highpoint Prison (Suffolk) in my constituency escaped — sorry, it is now called ‘licence failure’ by the Prison Service. When he last absconded in 1991, it took two years to recapture him and meanwhile he committed a murder.

Unhandcuffed, he apparently escaped from two female wardens whilst in Cambridge, allegedly with £150 in his pocket. Needless to say the family of the man he murdered in Sussex are terrified of a visit by him. This morning, I spoke to the Deputy Chief Constable of Suffolk, and he in turn spoke to the Acting Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire.

Is it really true that he absconded when he was allowed, unescorted, to go into a male lavatory in Cambridge?

I cannot get answers from anybody – I have been in constant touch with the office of the Prisons Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe MP, but no replies are forthcoming.

Licence failure could better be applied to a Home Office that would find it difficult to run a whelk — (sorry, crustacean) — stall. 

As a father, I have always tried with my children to wear my political life with a very light touch. I have seen too many politicians’ offspring land up hating the whole business.

Yet something is definitely happening out there to capture young peoples’ imaginations. Interest in the Conservative Party has grown enormously on university campuses. My daughter, having had a rather detached view of these things, met David Cameron this summer and is now a huge fan.

All I can say is that last night I helped to put together a reception in the House of Commons for young lawyers. It was a tremendous success. George Osborne spoke extremely well and the whole gathering had a very cheerful buzz about it.

Every generation has a fresh set of challenges to face up to, but it is important that the brightest and best young people think about politics, and that some actually get involved. 

If death and taxation are inevitable, I am afraid politics is as well…………..there is no escape! 

Driving around my constituency at the weekend, I reflected, as the sun broke from time to time through the clouds, how extraordinarily beautiful the countryside looked.

We may not have mountains or lakes, as in some parts of the country, but it is most of all our flintstone churches that stand out in the Suffolk landscape. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the wool trade made East Anglia so prosperous, each village acquired a church. Many are of breathtaking beauty.

In London, there are two exceptional exhibitions which I recently saw – the seventeenth century Spanish painter Velazquez and the sculptures of Rodin. 

We are heirs to a remarkable heritage from across so many parts of Europe. It created literature, buildings and objects of enduring quality. We are all their guardians through good times and bad. Politicians may come and go, but it is both humbling for those of us in public life, as well as a responsibility, to ensure that we cherish and pass on the visible legacy of our civilisation. 

“Zero risk is unachievable, unattainable and undesirable” is what the Better Regulation Task Force just reported. Our world is now so based on risk aversion that it is creating an army of inspectors and busybodies to achieve this, and a clear incentive to initiate litigation if something goes wrong. 

For politicians, this is very difficult. The self same commentators who criticise red tape and the nanny state will write for newspapers who produce a “something must be done” headline. 

The outside alarm box on my Suffolk cottage was playing up recently; it could not be fixed because a regulation said that it was too high for a ladder (my offer to climb the ladder was refused); a special platform would have to be hired at a vast cost. 

More unbelievable is the way my local council decided to “topple test” headstones in local cemeteries – a ridiculous, expensive, insensitive and hurtful exercise. When I protested volubly at a meeting in a local cemetery, one council official, boiling over with self-righteousness, screamed at me “How would you like to be responsible for the death of a child?” It was beyond absurdity. 

All of this is getting worse. Ultimately, if we do not have the courage to accept more risk in our lives, we shall damage innovation and reduce self-reliance. We really are creating an unvirtuous circle and will pay the price.