Richard Spring MP
Member of Parliament for West Suffolk

Bill Bryson in his book ‘Notes from a Small Island’ amusingly detailed a whole series of national eccentricities, including curious sounding football teams (Partick Thistle) and also place names. Both Bury St Edmunds and Six Mile Bottom are just outside my constituency, but might well qualify. 

My father used to say that his home was his arcadia. House names I have seen like Blantyre, Rawalpindi and Isipingo suggest a colonial connection. In my own constituency, I always enjoy seeing shop names like Skin & Tonic (where you can get tanned) to En Thai Sing (for Thai food) or Tantastic (for the Peter Hain look). 

My favourite house name is, however, Erzanmyne. I think it beats Dunroamin and Mon Repos by a mile. I think Bill Bryson would approve. I certainly do.   

Our prison system is now in a genuine crisis. The number of prisoners has for the first time risen above total capacity. There are now over 82,000 inmates in England and Wales, almost 100 above the normal ceiling set by the Prison Service.

According to the chief inspector of prisons, Britain’s overfilled jails are now at ‘panic stations’ and she is unsure how long the system ‘can contain this kind of huge pressure’.  

This is the result of sheer incompetence by the government. It has ignored repeated warnings that extra cells were needed and failed to build adequate capacity. The government’s response so far has been to release over 16,000 criminals early and to seek to prevent magistrates from passing custodial sentences. 

Not only does this place the public at risk it also has negative consequences for the prisoners themselves. I know from dealings with Highpoint prison in my constituency that overcrowding often leads to easier access to drugs. With so many prisoners dependent or forced into drugs, this does little for their successful rehabilitation.

The catastrophic mismanagement of our prisons cannot continue, but if it does, it will make a mockery of the endless criminal justice legislation this Government has introduced without spending the money to house convicted individuals.

Harold Macmillan once said that Archbishop Makarios was too big for Cyprus, so skilled a cleric – cum - politician he was. As a boy I once saw him in Nicosia, and thought this hugely exciting.

I thought about the Macmillan comment last week at a memorial service for John Knight, a remarkably strong and forceful local government figure in Suffolk. He was the founding father of St Edmundsbury Borough Council, recently voted the best in England. He would have been a successful Government Minister had he chosen this route.

On the same day I met with the two district councils in my constituency, councillors and officers. Suffolk is under the spotlight for considerable possible reorganisation in local government, with all the uncertainty that brings. Having seen NHS reorganisations, it is very unclear to me that local government reorganisations ever really improve local services. The hidden costs of change are enormous, and people, in losing the familiar, become further alienated from voting at all.

There are always tensions between central and local government. Giving free bus passes across the country to over 60s is going to be expensive for local authorities who will essentially be picking up the bill for this government initiative. Also at times the relationship between MPs and local councils can be fraught, even if of the same party. MPs tend get local media coverage and local councillors activities are often unnoticed. Sometimes MPs feel that local councillors do not think through the political implications of decisions taken.

Having seen how disastrously the public sector manages reorganisations, and the considerable salaries and pay-offs involved, I dread what lies in store for us. We now have parish, district and county councils, regional assemblies, Westminster and Brussels. No wonder so many people feel alienated from the whole process.

It is not over. We will be hearing more about the Northern Rock debacle. Ron Sandler appointed McKinsey to give advice as to how to reconstitute Northern Rock. If I were being paid over £1,000,000 a year I think I would have done the job myself, without the need of the admirable McKinsey organisation. I thought that this was why he was appointed. 

However a number of over excited commentators have suggested that the Tories are disappointed, and have been embarrassed, by Northern Rock not being Labour’s equivalent of Black Wednesday. No Tory believed it ever would be. It simply is part of the process of the unwinding of Labour’s reputation for economic competence. And unlike Black Wednesday, which was actually economically liberating, if not ultimately politically hugely devastating, Northern Rock is part of a pattern of procrastination and misjudgement which are increasingly the hallmarks of a very tired looking Government. 

Just watch this space over the next few months. 

We are not generally speaking regarded as a particularly murder-prone society, except that violent knife and gun crime is now a feature of contemporary British society. However the convictions last week of two murderers has provoked considerable public interest. The young Ipswich prostitutes met their deaths because of their drug dependency, also another feature of our contemporary national life.

The point of real enduring interest is how public opinion has not reacted favourably to a considerable expansion of the DNA database. I suspect that two years ago the public view would have been different in the same circumstances. The way sensitive personal information has been lost, mislaid or misused has begun to change public perceptions. Personally I really do hope so. Big Brother Government is no longer viewed in benign terms.

Unnecessary intrusion, often simply for marketing purposes, now infects the private sector. I have just ordered something over the telephone: requests for an email address, daytime telephone number, date of birth etc were asked for on a voluntary basis. I declined. Information like this is now freely being shared. Of course it is not the same thing as seeking one’s DNA, but we go along with this culture of ever greater intrusion at our peril.
 

It is no wonder civil servants are restless, no wonder so many of them have rapidly declining morale, and it is not surprising that leaks are growing in number.

If you look at this week, the reasons are all too obvious. The GP sick note “get them back to work” announcement was a simple re-hash, and backfired. After five months of possible preparations, the Northern Rock nationalisation legislation proved to share the characteristics of gruyere cheese: some poor draughtsmanship and some policy elements that did not stand up to close scrutiny as a result.

Yes it did pass into legislation last night but it leaves behind an unpleasant taste of ill thought out incompetence. The words dogs and breakfasts spring to mind. Then databases seem to have a habit of disappearing all too frequently.

With the embarrassing reversal on non-domiciles and capital gains tax, civil servants’ faith in the judgment of their political bosses will have plummeted. There is now an air of drift and lack of focus - it is so palpable- all of which arises out of a lack of management by politicians of their respective departments.

This week this sorry state of affairs really did come into focus.  

Sitting in the Members’ tea room yesterday, a group of us were discussing who could fill the House of Commons today with the power of his or her oratory. 

Well before my time, Enoch Powell could do so. Michael Foot was clearly remarkable, as was Tony Benn in his own way. The most outstanding current orator is undoubtedly William Hague who again dissected the European non-Constitution Constitution so brilliantly yesterday. Also, some of Tony Blair’s speeches in the chamber were very memorable performances. 

The power of Barack Obama’s oratory is exceptional. He is a brilliant wordsmith, being able to inspire with the power of language. People respond to a sense of hope and optimism – something that David Cameron has also brilliantly captured. 

There is little difference in policy terms between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But somehow I suspect that if he does emerge as a Presidential candidate, and wins, it will be because he has been able to breathe life into the over used word ‘change,’ creating a sense of excitement which powerfully touches the emotions. 

As a footnote, poor old Gordon Brown – no orator he - must feel that nothing is going right. He must be ruing the day he declined the opportunity to meet Barack Obama. 

I spoke in the debate on the nationalisation of Northern Rock yesterday. Here are a few of my comments…

 Mr. Richard Spring (West Suffolk) (Con): This is called the Banking (Special Provisions) Bill, but it should really be called the Banking (Pig in a Poke) Bill. We do not know the price, or the cost, of the whole exercise. We do not know what we are buying into, or for how long.

The demise of Northern Rock arose out of the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States. However, it happened specifically in this country because of the national situation here. Of course there was managerial excess, but it was the asset-based, overspend economic policies pursued by this Government, and the regulatory system instituted by the Government, which failed. We did not see queues of people in Paris, New York, Sydney or Beijing concerned about their deposits. We were in a unique situation.

We have before us no clear business plan, either for our benefit or for that of the European Commission—it will have to wait another month—so we are being asked to sign a blank cheque. What on earth have Ministers been doing? Why did they not develop some sort of plan B over the past five months in case they had to go down the route of nationalisation, when such a huge sum of taxpayers’ money is clearly at risk? Now we understand that the very details of how the bank will be faring are to be denied to us through an exemption from the Freedom of Information Act 2000. That is an absolute disgrace.

The Chancellor has been tilting at City bonuses recently, yet a whole series of bankers and lawyers will be rejoicing at the opportunity that has now been presented to them. When will we know exactly when fees are being dispensed, and how much they will be?

My hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Mr. Osborne) has dealt with the crucial element in the Bill, which is the right being given to the Government to nationalise other financial institutions. The excuse for this has been hybridity. On a moment’s reflection, however, does it not become clear that to keep the power to nationalise in reserve, even if for supposedly technical reasons, sends out a truly incredible message to the outside world? It is no wonder that the Chancellor finds it impossible to say the word “nationalisation”. Now that depositors are fully protected by the state, will Northern Rock draw savings away from other financial institutions? How will the Financial Services Authority monitor this? The consequences for other financial institutions could be dire. What will they be able to do about it?

We have come full circle because of the failure of the regulatory system. We have heard much about the arm’s length relationship between the Government and the new management of Northern Rock, but that has come from a Prime Minister whose micro-management is famous. We leave the debate today with myriad questions about how Northern Rock will be run, and about what information will be made available to Parliament, when the situation is at present beyond opacity. Despite the dithering and delay, the fiscal excesses, the regulatory failure and the massive risk to the taxpayer, we can only hope that Ron Sandler and his team will salvage something of the impaired reputation of this country, which has been so brutally and incompetently tarnished by this Government.

Last week, new figures released by the Halifax revealed that homeownership rates are at their lowest level for a decade.

The opportunity to own your home is a matter of real aspiration. The Government has impacted ordinary families by making it harder to get on the housing ladder with higher Stamp Duty and additional costs like Home Information Packs.

It has also recently been revealed that the cost of living has been outstripping earnings growth for the past two years. As is evident from talking to people in my constituency, these figures confirm what ordinary people already feel in their wallets.

At a time when people are faced with soaring food and fuel costs, difficulties in buying a home and real take-home pay falling, ordinary families are more squeezed then ever.    

If it is the economy stupid, then there is much rumbling in the real world out there.

When one thinks of the Maldives one thinks of a tropical tourist destination of high repute, of turquoise seas and waving palm trees. That is of course true, but there is a different underlying reality.

The President of the Maldives has been in office for three decades, and under him the islands have indeed become a premier place to visit for their beauty and warm climate. However democracy and human rights have not been on his agenda. There is now a process underway to have local, parliamentary and presidential elections probably starting later this year. A new constitution will soon be unveiled. A vigorous and articulate opposition to the President, who plans to re-stand, has emerged. Many have been imprisoned and harassed, or had gone into exile. Now the word change is in the air, but also nervousness that the elections will not be free and fair.

The Conservative Party, through the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, has been assisting the main opposition party, the Maldivian Democratic Party, which will soon choose a presidential candidate. The islands are strategically located in the Indian Ocean, and a gateway to the emerging economic success stories in South and East Asia.

Francis Maude and I have just been there to assist. We were warmly received and had some pretty direct conversations with key Government personnel, as well as our sister party, who have every chance of winning.

The 300,000 population is exclusively Muslim, but abhors fundamentalism. Its leaders are extraordinarily Anglophile, have strong links to this country and want our help at this crucial time in their history. Today I have put down the following Parliamentary Questions to the Foreign Secretary;

1)     What assessment he has made of the constitutional and democratic reform process in the Maldives, and if he will make a statement
2)     What preparations are being made to ensure that forthcoming elections in the Maldives are free and fair
3)     What representations have been made to the Government of the Maldives about open charges against a substantial number of its citizens

We will assist them very willingly. They deserve our support and they will certainly get it. We want to keep a spotlight on events unfolding in the Maldives. We must not let them down.