Richard Spring MP
Member of Parliament for West Suffolk

Yemen is not a country very much on the tourist map, although if you have some sense of adventure, it should be. The protected old city of Sanaa is really an architectural marvel, as indeed are many other parts of the country. Many people in the South have surprisingly positive views of our colonial involvement in Aden.

The British Government puts a high priority on the country. Its geopolitical significance in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula is well recognised. The chaos in Somalia is sending boatloads of desperate people across dangerous waters to seek refuge in Yemen, itself a poor country. Whilst I was there last week, cholera had broken out in one of the refugee camps. There has been a sharp increase in cases of HIV/AIDS. With a soaring population and inadequate water supplies, there are huge challenges, not least some tribal insurrection in the North.

They do have, however, a very lively and critical press and are going through exactly the same debate as we are about the future construction of their upper house.

With one of the senior committee clerks in the House of Commons, I undertook a workshop in Sanaa on the Parliamentary committee system and the examination of the Budget. They seemed genuinely pleased and there are plans to take matters forward. With our reputation in the Middle East so low, and the backwash flowing, on to our own streets, it is one small way of building bridges.

Last Friday I went to talk to politics students at a school in my constituency.  The first half an hour was taken up talking about my life as a constituency MP, then the next discussion was about life in Parliament.  I deliberately was not party political but at the end of our meeting asked how they were going to vote.  Six out of the ten were firmly Conservative, and the other four quite likely to vote Conservative at the next General Election.  They then wrote a letter to David Cameron, the contents of which will undoubtedly please him.

As their class teacher observed, ten years ago the same group would very likely be voting Labour.  Today this is a distant prospect indeed …..

May I wish you a Happy Easter.  I am off to the Middle East to do political development work for the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.  The blog will resume when Parliament reassembles.
 

Seeing footage of the events surrounding the Falklands War 25 years ago, the sheer magnitude of the personality of Margaret Thatcher shines through.  She never wavered.  It was also reflected in domestic policy when she drove through trade union and tax reforms, and privatisations, which previously had been thought to have been impossible.

Last week my parliamentary colleague Gerald Howarth asked a few of us to have a cup of coffee with her.  She has not been too well lately, but she wanted to talk and hear about a whole range of current issues.  Of course she was at times a divisive figure but as has been said you have to break eggs to make an omelette.  One of my regrets is that I was not in parliament when she was.  She really is one of the great figures of our long political history. 

We now know why Gordon Brown was so tetchy and miserable-looking at Treasury questions on Thursday: he knew that the £5 billion pensions grab initiated in his first Budget was about to be put under the microscope.  Every attempt to block the warnings being made public about this pensions grab from the then Treasury officials at the time finally failed.  The impact has been devastating – so many people have lower pensions than they could have expected.  Younger people starting their careers increasingly can no longer look forward to a comfortable retirement pension.  In 1997 we had the most successful pension arrangements in Europe.

Poor Gordon.  It isn’t going very well for him.  Now Charles Clarke is apparently entering the leadership fray.  He is a fearless character.  The sparks will fly.