Richard Spring MP
Member of Parliament for West Suffolk

Paddy Ashdown assembled a remarkable group of very well informed individuals to consider our continuing role in Iraq.   They rejected a specific timetable for withdrawal and placed considerable emphasis on training Iraqis for policing and military purposes.

On yesterday’s NewsMax internet site, run by Chris Ruddy, an article in one of the conservative billionaire Richard Scaife’s newspapers has called for the withdrawal of American troops.  This is hugely significant.  This internet site is one with considerable influence in Republican circles.  President Bush’s mental stability is questioned.  It really is astonishing stuff.

President Bush was regarded as a good governor of Texas, but the advice he received from his neo-conservative advisers and supporters was not exactly soundly based in retrospect.  Where are they now?  Iraq cost Tory Blair his job more than anything else, and it has cost President Bush his reputation.

We cannot let this blind us to the crucial importance of the constructive engagement of the United States in the world, and our country’s role in securing this.

At Gordon Brown’s instigation, Union flags are fluttering all over Westminster and Whitehall.  It is to define our Britishness.  It is curiously self-conscious.  Britishness is not so much about the impact of the extraordinary history of these islands, or our historic adventures abroad, but about openness and tolerance it would seem.

But fairness is also supposedly a distinguishing British characteristic.  The fact is that there are parts of the United Kingdom doing very well out of the Exchequer – namely Scotland.  My constituents see our Scottish compatriots getting 40% more per head in public spending.  Ask any doctor who moves south of the border.

Yet we are told by Jack Straw that even alluding to the Barnett formula, which now so favours the Scots, gets us into “dangerous territory”.  It is not clear to my constituents where fairness comes into this.  It may have more to do with all those Scottish MPs, like the Prime Minister.  They can set down policies for us; we cannot do the same for them.

I think as we watch those fluttering flags, we are entitled to make this point.

This was the line coined by John K Galbraith, and it is undoubtedly true that today people will not put up with this.  People want their creature comforts: if you go into a major supermarket it is immaculate and well presented, so the same expectations hold elsewhere.

I criticised BAA recently on this blog for squalid conditions at Heathrow.  They did write to me to their credit.  Yes, there are huge pressures, but there is no excuse for filthy carpeting on the top the luggage carousels, or Customs signs that are very grubby too.

By contrast I went to the Passport Office in Victoria this morning.  Despite being hugely busy, the staff were efficient and helpful, and the whole process was made as agreeable as possible.  What a contrast.

July is when most people would expect be getting out their sun-tan lotion, picnic baskets and heading out to soak up the summer sun. Whilst it has always been risky to plan outdoor events in Britain due to the capricious nature of the weather, holding a wedding or party outside from the end of June onwards was seen as a slightly safe bet. However, after experiencing the wettest June in history this year, with many parts of the country left with devastation from the floods resulting in a billion pounds worth of damage, most people have now rather given up on a glorious summer. Weather commentators are predicting that the rain could last well into August.

Once again, it brings us back to the issue of what is causing such stark changes in our weather patterns. It is not just a heavy shower these days, it is a torrential downpour of sometimes monsoon proportions. When the sun shines, it is not just warm, but rivals the temperatures in the Mediterranean. Everyone is now more aware of what they can do to help combat climate change and politicians are helping to raise the profile of the issue. Offsetting your carbon footprint is now relatively simple by looking on one of the many websites dedicating to reducing the level of carbon emissions. Most councils across the country have specific recycling policies to reduce reliance on environmentally damaging waste disposal sites. We can only hope this is enough to try to prevent further extremities in the future.

The advice to heed in terms of the weather in Britain for the foreseeable future seems to be “rely on the unreliable”.

When it comes to wasting public money, I wonder sometimes if it wouldn’t be easier for some Government departments to go down to the bank, withdraw millions, if not billions, of pounds in hard cash and then set fire to it in the car park.

I suspect one of the reasons they steer clear of this particular approach is because, with climate change constantly in the news, such a noxious cloud would do some serious environmental harm.

Instead, when they feel there is a little too much of the taxpayer’s money cluttering up the place, some clever special advisor decides it is probably time they implemented a new IT project. With one fell swoop the mountains of cash are disposed of quickly, efficiently, with no damage to the environment and little benefit to the country.

The reason for this train of thought are the reports this week that HM Revenue and Customs IT budget will soar to £8.5 billion – three times the original estimate. Typically, it started at £2.8 billion and then escalated rapidly, including £52 million in “transition” costs to the firms, including Capgenemi who are estimated to make a £1.1 billion profit on the deal.

Even if this was a one-off, it could not be excused, but it comes in the wake of a history of IT failures and overspends under this Government. The NHS IT projects have been billions of pounds over budget, the tax credits fiasco has caused widespread misery for claimants and the problems at the Department for Work and Pensions, which crashed 80,000 computers simultaneously in 2004, was the biggest computer crash in government history.

It really is a case of money to burn, and its ours.

When London won the bid for the 2012 Olympics, fighting off fierce competition from Paris, New York, Madrid and Moscow, there was a true sense of jubilation. The first time in nearly 60 years that one of the landmark sporting events in the world would be held in Britain.

Sadly, since the halcyon days of the announcement, the Olympics saga has been marred by controversy over the budgets, the huge overspends totalling nearly four times the original estimate of £2.5 billion and now another disaster. The new logo for the 2012 Olympics. The words that spring to mind include awful, tatty, garish, appalling and hideous. The papers have been full of scorn and ridicule for the logo since it was unveiled and quite rightly so.

London as a capital city has a reputation to live up to. Whilst there is a tendency to sneer at radical and modern designs in the arts, this has none of the redeeming qualities that one can belatedly see in parts of the British modern art renaissance of the past decade. It was designed by what is, by all accounts, a reputable advertising agency at a cost of £400,000. It is such a shame when modern British design talent is now arguably the best in the world.

David Cameron, speaking the day before yesterday at the ‘Islam and Muslims in the World Today’ rightly warned against cultural separation in Britain. We do need to inspire people coming to this country, and those ethnic minorities living here, to embrace the feeling of being British. The Government should help this process by shifting power away from the centre and back to local communities, helping to foster a sense of UK identity. However, David Cameron stated that the onus also lay with the Muslim community and faith leaders to lead actively the communities they represent in the direction of involvement with the wider local community.

The type of leadership and courage we need to see was recently shown by the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Dr Ali Gomaa, one of the world’s foremost experts in Islamic scholarship. He had the courage to state categorically that the ill-trained scholars who preach extremism have no authority to do so.

In Syria, the Grand Mufti openly talks about his Christian and Jewish brothers and sisters, all linked to Abraham. He invited me to speak in his mosque in Aleppo last Friday – there were 2000 people in the congregation. My fellow MPs and I were very well received. It was an extraordinarily moving and memorable occasion. This is what tolerance and mutual understanding is all about.

Yesterday morning in London, I saw a really extraordinary sight – hundreds and hundreds of French citizens patiently queuing up to vote at the Lycee Français.  How ethnically diverse, like Britain, France has become.

Personally I am a bit surprised that Sarkozy is so well ahead.  A huge proportion of the French population is either directly or indirectly dependent on the State, and I am not convinced are ready for the changes, however necessary, that Sarkozy is advocating.  Naturally, I hope he wins as we have every interest in successful and prosperous neighbours.

Isn’t it wonderful that so many voted?  I fear apathy will be strongly present, by way of contrast, in our own local elections next month.  Nevertheless, I think May 4 will not be a good day for Messrs Blair and Brown.

 

We now know that real disposable weekly earnings are being squeezed, most particularly for the lowest income earners, that child poverty has risen, and that 5.3 million have been hit by the recent tax changes. On top of that the savings ratio has fallen to the lowest level since the early 1960s, as people feel the spending pressures. Our trade balance is the worst on record.

On the surface, rising house prices do induce a feelgood factor, and has spurred on consumer spending, but underneath it all, our productivity and competitiveness are not matching the global economic and business challenge of the 21^st century. The overall tax burden level is at the highest level ever.

The Budget cheered up Labour backbenchers for 24 hours, but the reality now looks much different. The huge volume of increased taxation has not been matched by improvements in the public sector. The Budget did not enhance the reputation of the Chancellor, and the mutterings in the Commons about a stalking horse candidate against him have certainly increased. All you see is anxious small groups of Labour parliamentarians huddled together in intense conversation.

It almost hardly needs repeating that after a decade in power, this Government still has the urban-obsessed views borne of its inception in the trendier parts of Islington. Most Ministers have very little understanding of rural areas and this permeates their thinking in every Department.

Their lack of understanding has had devastating consequences for those who not only live in the countryside, but who depend on it for the livelihood. Even with the recent rise in land prices in Britain, many farmers are still struggling to make a living in the agricultural sector. Only last month, dairy farmers warned of a ‘meltdown’ in their sector, with three farmers leaving the industry every day.

Yesterday, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published their report examining the catastrophic handling of the Single Payment System which was supposed to distribute £1.5 billion of EU subsidies to farmers. The whole process was a disaster with 96% of farmers still not receiving their payments last June - seven months after it was set up.

The final cost to the taxpayer of this “serious and embarrassing failure” is in the region of £500 million with many farmers having their lives ruined, in some cases tragically, due to the mishandling. The warnings were clear that the system was “complex and very high risk”. They were ignored. The bitter irony is that the Cabinet Minister responsible for overseeing the process, Margaret Beckett, rewarded by being given one of the top offices of state as Foreign Secretary. What a bitter taste it must leave in the mouths of agricultural workers of the contempt and arrogance this Government has for them.