Richard Spring MP
Member of Parliament for West Suffolk

Poor old Gordon. He is not exactly good at taking criticism. He has been criticised at the very limited travel abroad, apart from to the United States, that he has undertaken. So he went off to India, of course thereby escaping any local questions here about rising interest rates, inflation, and his economic record.

He must welcome the Channel 4 Big Brother row like a hole in the head. It may have boosted the audience figures, but one cannot help but believe that this show has lost its appeal. I cannot imagine why a beautiful and sophisticated Bollywood actress could have been persuaded to incarcerate herself in the Big Brother house. It will undoubtedly put anybody similar off for good. She is in the company of one or two people who are not exactly shining products of educational attainment. The whole episode sheds light into a corner of British life that is deeply unattractive.

More and more MPs are turning into bloggers, it would seem, though the number is still very small. But then again it was once unusual to have a website, now it is very common amongst MPs of all parties.

The fact is that the electorate is getting more and more reluctant to vote because they think politicians do not listen to them. The massive regionalisation, centralisation and influence of Brussels have added to this perception. As services provided locally disappear, whether it is the magistrates’ courts or sub post offices, despite enormous and passionate campaigns, this negative view gains ground.

Blogging, at least at the level that I do it, is a way of communicating through to ones electors, and to the public at large. People are invited to respond, and we track the number of hits.

However the one person who has inspired me and others to write a blog is Iain Dale of 18 Doughty Street. His advice was: write it regularly, if possible daily, and be true to yourself about what you write.

Mine may not be filled with brilliant new gossip, or high wire political posturing, but I enjoy writing it, and I hope at least some may sometimes enjoy reading it.

Gordon must occasionally wake up having been terrorised by two nightmares: 1) a fresh faced public schoolboy stealing his crown (again), 2) that Scotland will sail off out of the United Kingdom.

Hence all this stuff about Britishness. Obviously he wants to overcome the notion that somehow Gordon’s Scottishness will weigh against him. However what will happen if the Scots support independence? – then there will be no seat for Gordon in the House of Commons. It is bad enough that he is voting in Parliament for matters in my constituency, but cannot vote on key issues like health in his own.

I suspect it will not come to that, inasmuch as the Scots will pull back from breaking away. However we may have a situation like Quebec when the desire for independence ebbs and flows, and can be very destabilising.

Meanwhile, with the atrocious current performance of this Government, we can look forward to some nasty surprises in the elections in May. This is not a cheerful time to be a Labour MP, especially from Scotland, and especially if you are Gordon. 

There probably never has been so much concern about developing countries, and Africa in particular. Many of us try to do our bit by giving to charities, buying fairtrade products or, as in my case, trying to do political development and democracy building work during Parliamentary breaks.

A year ago I was in Uganda, helping in the presidential election campaign. I was assisting a very brave man, Kizza Besigye, who whilst campaigning had to deal with trumped up rape charges. It was extraordinary to travel with him in this beautiful country, on the roughest of roads in pretty basic circumstances. However the warmth of the reception at the political rallies was amazing: they seemed positively to enjoy a few words from a foreign politician, and they certainly understood English very well.

At the end of a pretty gruelling and at times uncomfortable week, the owner of our hotel in Kampala asked us to go boating on Lake Victoria. One of the guests was Charles Steel, producer of the film The Last King of Scotland, about Idi Amin. The boat owner was a very successful Ugandan Asian businessman, who had returned after the expulsion of this community, and prospered. Charles told us about the film, so seeing it yesterday was particularly of interest – it is, by the way, tremendous cinema.

When the Uganda Asians were expelled I remember marching in to see my boss – it was my first job – and telling him that we really needed to employ at least one of the new arrivals. We did so, and it worked out very well indeed for all concerned.

Uganda has come a long way since then, but most of the Asian community have stayed here. Out of the horrors of Idi Amin’s rule, we acquired one of the most successful and dynamic immigrant groups who have ever settled here. What was Uganda’s loss has been our gain.

For all of us who want to see stability in Iraq, we can only hope that the deployment of more US troops there will be successful.  A wounded and defensive United States is the last thing we in Britain need.

However, there is a clear recommendation of the Iraq Study Group that Mr Bush has ignored – trying to establish some sort of dialogue with Iran and with Syria.  With Iran this is fraught with difficulty, but with Syria it is different.  The United States is most unwise to treat the country with such hostility.  This is a secular State opposed to the religious fundamentalism which is enveloping Iraq.  They have even offered to normalise relations with Israel.

The Spanish, Germans and others are trying to engage with Syria.  Given – at minimum – our troop commitment in Iraq, should we not more assertively be doing the same?

One of Labour’s myths is that there is a direct correlation between raising and spending taxpayers money, and improvement in public services. As we look at the state of the NHS, inter alia, the myth is exposed for what it is.

Perhaps the most unpopular tax is the council tax, which has soared away from any relationship to improved service provision. It is truly impressive that Conservative controlled Hammersmith and Fulham council is actually set to cut its council tax by 3%.

Our public sector is awash with hordes of bureaucrats who have special ways of spending our money unproductively. It is good to see a new and dynamic Conservative council seeking to tackle this head on.

Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is currently in Beijing, primarily to discuss Iran. China is of course a member of the UN Security Council, so any further UN action over Iran will come under their gaze.

All of this dramatically confirms the emergence of China on the world stage. Even three years ago the Chinese were declaring that their overwhelming objective was simply economic growth, not international involvement, but that has now changed. They have just published a White Paper on defence, which includes a huge expansion of their navy, at a time when our ships are being mothballed – a telling contrast.

In response to its economic dynamism, the Chinese are moving towards a flat tax rate, harmonising the local and foreign investment tax regime, and encouraging initial public offerings by Chinese companies on their booming Shanghai stock market. Meanwhile they are building relationships across the globe to secure the natural resources they lack.

So they are becoming increasingly involved in our world – they are even trying to agree their mutual history with the Japanese. More and more will we see politicians beating a path to Beijing.

They are not a democracy and they have huge challenges, but as Europe shrinks in world importance, and America reassesses its world role, China’s economic importance is being matched by its political weight and influence. This is at a time when Britain’s reputation abroad is at its lowest ebb for decades. 

The latest polls put the Conservatives clearly in the lead. It is hardly surprising. As I have seen for myself, once a Government gets into trouble, the problems  usually begin to accelerate – the Ruth Kelly saga seems to underline this point……….and it is Governments that lose elections. It is Oppositions that make that process even faster, particularly when the Leader of the Opposition is doing so well.

This morning two members of the House of Lords joined UKIP, just at a time when a Conservative government looks an increasing possibility. What is new in European affairs is that public opinion across the EU is becoming more hostile, whether to the EU itself or the Euro. The utterances of some European politicians reflect such an absurdly outdated and narrow view of the world that their views are increasingly irrelevant. So we can foresee fresh opportunities to build relationships amongst European countries, not frozen in the 1950s and 1960s mindset in which the EU has evolved.

There is a real opportunity now for a British Government to fill this intellectual and functional void, and forge something different. It will require leadership that has been wholly lacking by the Labour Government.

China seems an unlikely place to spend Christmas and New Year but that is what we as a family did. The Chinese have enthusiastically taken to Christmas, with parties and celebrations, carols being sung in hotels and shopping malls, and all the usual commercial trappings we have in England.

There are now over 60 million Christians in China, and the number is growing. I should add that interest in the Oriental religions, Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism is also more in evidence. In any event, on Xmas day, churches were packed.

It is currently a perfect time to visit China. Everything works very well and it is still inexpensive. Going when it is cold, and out of season means very few tourists. Preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics are everywhere in evidence.

After the extremely modern and well organised airports in China, it was something of a shock to return to a shoddy and chaotic Heathrow airport. What a terrible introduction to Britain our main air gateway has become.

Happy belated 2007 greetings.