Richard Spring MP
Member of Parliament for West Suffolk

Being a regular blogger myself, I often read many other blogs on a range of different subjects. Many of the political sites such as Conservative Home and Iain Dale’s Diary (congratulations to Iain on winning Best Conservative Blog at the Conservative Home Blog awards yesterday) are worth reading for political news and developments, often tackling issues in a humorous yet incisive fashion.

As a local Suffolk MP, however, I am also pleased to see so many blogs written by people living in Suffolk, sharing their thoughts, views, and opinions. For example, the “Running in Suffolk” blog charts the travels of a long distance runner in Suffolk who photographs the scenic countryside in the county, or “The All Saints Gazette” which covers local political developments affecting people living in Forest Heath and Newmarket.

I really believe that blogging has built on the technological revolution begun by the internet. Anyone can now set up their own blog page for no cost and begin sharing their views on any topic of their choosing. It gives local communities the opportunity to highlight the issues that matter to them.

As Parliament is in recess from today for a week, I shall not be posting any blog entries. However, during that period, I would encourage you to look at some of national and local blogs, set out below. They really do make for interesting reading:

Running in Suffolk
A blog dedicated to running in Suffolk whilst taking photographs of some of our beautiful countryside.
http://runningburyblue.blogspot.com/ 

The All Saints’ Gazette
An excellent blog focusing on news and developments in Newmarket, Forest Heath and Westminster
http://allsaintsgazette.wordpress.com/tag/west-suffolk/ 

Iain Dale’s Diary
Award winning blog covering Conservative politics with a sense of wit, humour and insight.
http://iaindale.blogspot.com/

Yesterday normal service was resumed at Prime Minister’s Questions as Tony Blair stepped back into place, for one of his last few appearances, taking questions from the despatch box.

After John Prescott’s dismal performance last week, (see here http://richardspring.mpblogs.com/?cat=88) with his hot air and blustering, I was fortunate to have a chance to question Tony Blair. As Prime Minister for a decade, he has presided over a huge increase in public spending. However, much of this money has been disproportionately allocated to traditional Labour strongholds. I am thinking particularly of the urban city centres in the North and especially in Scotland.

Therefore, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the injustice felt by many of my constituents to see that in 2006/07 Scotland received 40% more in public funding per person than people in the East of England. That works out at £2500 more from the Government for a person living in Scotland.

Not only have we seen council tax rise by more than 120% since 1997, but NHS organisations in the East of England are facing deficits of £152 million this year due to below-average NHS funding from the Government. It is simply not fair that rural dwellers are discriminated in this way.

Here is the full text of question and answer:

Mr. Richard Spring (West Suffolk) (Con): Considering the massive health deficits and high council taxes in the east of England, may I tell the Prime Minister how interested my constituents would be to know that in Scotland public spending per head is higher by 40 per cent.?

In retrospect, does the Prime Minister consider that to have been a worthwhile investment?

The Prime Minister: I do support the Barnett formula, as a matter of fact. It is there for very specific reasons, and it has been there for almost 30 years. Let us be absolutely clear: as well as the extra investment that has gone into Scotland, with the Barnett formula applying there, there has been extra investment in education and health, not least in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency. He need only look around to see the massive amount of investment in, for example, new health care facilities in his constituency, schools in his constituency, and programmes such as Sure Start and the new deal. Of course, the Barnett formula will no doubt continue to be an issue of dispute, for the Conservative party at least, but I think that we have put a major amount of investment into our public services, and that investment is paying off.After hearing that typically Blairite evasive answer on the reasons for this stark inequality, I felt that it really was business as usual…

The Home Information Packs fiasco is again another example of the wheels coming off. The most enduring legacy of this Government, Iraq aside, is their sheer inability to manage issues competently. When eventually, we are told, HIPs come into being, it will only apply to four bedroom houses. What if there is a bedroom being used as a study? On what basis will inspections take place, etc, etc….

Now we discover that the Lord Chief Justice first heard about the new Ministry of Justice by reading about it in a Sunday paper. Joined up Government was one of the early, misplaced claims of New Labour…in the circumstances this announcement should have been made to the judiciary in advance.

The words whelks and stalls spring to mind.

In the spring when Gordon Brown announced his Budget, he announced private finance initiatives to the value of over £20 billion. On one level, everybody may appear as a winner – hospitals, schools and roads can be built, welcomed by the public. For the Government all this expenditure does not appear on the state balance sheet.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has been looking at whether this is all being well spent. Of the over £50 billion spent under PFI, the real long term cost may be nearly three times this amount. What has come to light is that backers of PFI schemes have been able to sell of their PFI stakes, where equity is involved, very profitably. All of this is very tempting to financial institutions.

With the huge demands on the public purse, PFI looks set to remain part of the infrastructure scheme of things. Somebody, in the future, will have to pick up the ultimate bill. Nothing ultimately costs nothing.

President Kennedy’s father Joe was a hugely successful investor.He once observed that in getting in and out of the stock market the final 10% up or down should be left to somebody else.

Most press attention has been devoted to the soaring cost of property. The London stock market is now quite close, however, to its all time high, and New York is now well above its all time high. However these pale into insignificance compared with many other stock markets, notably China.

The world is awash with liquidity which has driven up property prices, stock markets, and the art market. A sale at Christies in New York last week of modern art yielded an astronomical $354.6 million, largely on the back of Russian buying. Significantly, auction prices were for the first time displayed in roubles, and no doubt will be in the Chinese yuan before long.

Anthony Bolton, London’s most successful investment fund manager, warned against all this excess in his retirement speech last week. The securitisation of borrowing means that the normal direct relationship between a lending institution and a borrower has been lost, and private equity deals can fuel the market without the normal restraints.

Growth in the British economy has been largely driven by the consumer, on the back of rising asset prices. Any reversal would create a significant problem for any Chancellor of the Exchequer in the future.

Not long after I first became a Member of Parliament, the Single European Market was introduced, with particular reference to the treatment of VAT. For the horseracing industry this would have been calamitous. A £1million thoroughbred bought here at auction would incur VAT of £175,000 whilst in France and Ireland it would be much lower, because of a special EU VAT derogation. This would have resulted in the wholesale departure of the bloodstock sales business in Newmarket in my constituency. So battle commenced at every level. In the Commons, I chaired a committee of enquiry about this, and then after an intense campaign by MPs, the racing industry and others, the Government changed its mind. Racehorse ownership could now be properly registered for VAT purposes as a business.

It saved the day. The future of racing was secured, and there have been many helpful developments since then. Racing is thriving and Newmarket remains pre-eminently the historic capital of sales, breeding and all the associated ancillary acivities.

People in racing have remained generous supporters of mine since then. Today, I’m off to Newbury with the All Party Racing and Bloodstock Committee for our annual outing. Although it is not at Newmarket this year, nobody will enjoy it more than me!

John Prescott, soon to leave office, deputised for Tony Blair at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday. It was sheer pantomime.

Despite his excruciating syntax, many people view him as an unvarnished, real character. He once violently (verbally!) attacked me in the House of Commons tea room, much to my astonishment, until he realised that I was not a parliamentary colleague, Andrew Robathan. Some people think we look alike, although Andrew, now deputy Chief Whip, is actually younger, thinner and better looking than I am. On one occasion, as the deputy Prime Minister was walking past me in the division lobby, I jokingly said “Please don’t hit me”. He laughed and replied “It’s the other officer type I’m after”. So beware, Andrew.

I had the number one question slot yesterday to John Prescott. Here it is, and his reply.

Mr. Spring: May I quote two statements to the right hon. Gentleman? The first is from the Chancellor of the Exchequer and future Prime Minister, who said: 

“I think if you look back over the last 10 years, what happened over the Dome was a mistake.” 

The second is from the Deputy Prime Minister himself: 

“If we can’t make this work, we’re not much of a Government.” 

Who was right?

The Deputy Prime Minister: It was another terrible Tory mess that we inherited. I was supportive of the strategic necessity of building the Jubilee line under the previous Administration, as that was the right decision. It was also absolutely right to pay £350 million to bring back into use that poisonous bit of land in the middle of London. The target of 12 million people attending the Dome was set before we came into office. I disputed that at the time, but 7 million did attend, and 98 per cent. thought it was a good exhibition. I think that they were right, and I am not apologising for that.

Judge for yourself……..! 

Despite his new clothes, teeth and ties, Gordon Brown has been unable to shake off the misfortune that seems to have dogged him in his most recent quest for the premiership. Note his visit to India which was wholly sidetracked due to the race row which had flared up over Shilpa Shetty’s treatment on the Big Brother show. The local election results, and the vote in Scotland, were a blow, as have been a number of recent economic statistics.

Now, as reported on Iain Dale’s blog today, his first few weeks as Prime Minister could be overshadowed by the long-awaited publication of Alistair Campbell’s Downing Street Diaries on 9^th July. Campbell’s diaries are likely to be a revelation detailing the many skirmishes – if honestly written - between the Brownites and Blairites from someone who was as close to the centre as it is possible to be. After seeing the paralysis this often caused at the heart of Government, it will be very interesting.

For most of us, the diaries will be a good summer read. What we do know, much to the credit of George Osborne, is that the Chancellor attains the premiership with a much more controversial and diminished reputation than only a few months ago.

The pre-eminence of the financial services industry in this country has never been greater, and most of it is based in the City of London.

Last night we had a reception in the Square Mile at which the Shadow Chancellor George Osborne spoke. It is symptomatic of the change of attitude towards the Government and indeed ourselves that well over 1000 people accepted the invitation to attend. The Conservative City Circle, which I chair with the Group Chief Executive of ICAP, Michael Spencer, has over 6000 people on its database, which is growing rapidly. We are anxious to hear the City’s views on regulation, taxation and employment matters. By the time David Cameron reaches Downing Street we need to know exactly what policy prescriptions are required. That is what these events are all about.

The economic collapse of Zimbabwe continues apace, with millions of Zimbabweans having to go abroad.  The agricultural base of the country, once a major exporter in the region, has imploded.  Civil and human rights are under increasing threat.

We now have a Zimbabwean government minister elected to chair the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.  John Howard has banned, by contrast, Australian cricketers from travelling there.  It is a major difference in attitudes.  As for Africa recognising the full damage that Zimbabwe does to its citizens, it is a pity that the African countries’ private concerns could not have been made very clear publicly.  This appointment should never have been made.