Richard Spring MP
Member of Parliament for West Suffolk

Last week I was in Mauritius, happily after its cyclone season which has been particularly bad this year.

Some Mauritians complain that nobody pays any attention to them. This is probably true, because the island – known for high end tourism – is so successful. It is prosperous, and has particularly excellent business and investment links with China and India. Community relationships are by and large good.

This week the Mauritian Prime Minister has hosted a South African Development Community conference on poverty. Nevertheless, despite being members of SADC and the African Union, they are quite detached from events in Africa. Yet between Africa and Mauritius lies a huge, potentially rich, ecologically unique, but underdeveloped island, namely Madagascar. Mauritius has an independent judiciary, low taxation, property rights protection and transparent investment codes. Apart from these, Madagascar needs a radically improved infrastructure, and considerable investment – the potential is huge. Mauritius could definitely assist. It could act as a link to Europe and Asia. Given Mauritius’ food security concerns, a closer relationship could be mutually advantageous.

Now nowhere is without problems. The island’s textile industry faces intense competition, and sugar is destined to decline in importance. Also it would like to reclaim the Chagos Islands, including Diego Garcia, the site of a huge and strategically important US airbase. And of course, given the island’s high propensity to import food, cost increases for Mauritians for food and fuel are being keenly felt.

However the island has been extremely well led and has made all the right strategic decisions. The leadership is often Anglophile, and of course they belong to the Commonwealth.

Curiously enough, there is no All Party Parliamentary grouping for this remarkable little place, so I intend doing something about it. There is always a risk that a country gets noticed only when it is a problem, rather than a success, and Mauritius is indisputably a real post-independence success story.     

Returning on Saturday evening to Heathrow, as we circled for about 15 minutes in the clouds, I reflected that every time I now return to the airport, stacking takes place. I wonder what the price of this congestion is, whether in fuel costs or environmental impact. Quite simply Heathrow cannot accommodate the sheer volume of flights. 

A matter of seconds before we touched down in the packed Boeing 747-400, we lurched upwards again, the landing having been aborted. Apparently the plane in front had not cleared the runway. When we did eventually land, we had to make our way to the terminal for some time, and had to cross an active runway as well. It really has become chaotic. 

I personally always try to fly British Airways, despite its recent bad press. I still laugh, however, at the ludicrous attempt of the airline to get into the post 1997 Labour election victory ‘Cool Britannia’ mode. Do you remember those hideous, confusing tail fins – no Union flag, oh so old fashioned! 

And afternoon tea, scones and cream, were abolished on transatlantic flights. How people hated it and what a terrible waste of money it was. Margaret Thatcher memorably tried to cover up a model of the new tail fin design. 

Recesses give one a useful chance to talk to many constituents about what they are thinking. The economic downturn, the weakness of sterling, lower house prices and rising prices all add up to a Government which is past its sell by date. 

Business people want to know that the Conservatives understand the pressures on them. I tell them about Conservative Business Relations. Below is something I recently wrote for the Conservative Home website which I hope will give reassurance.

When Labour came into office, they sought to portray themselves as replacing the Conservatives as the natural party of business.  Indeed we witnessed sections of the business and financial community transfer their support to the Labour Party.  In the past, business contact with the Conservative Party had been seen by some to be too diffuse.  To remedy this, a major listening exercise, Conservative Business Relations, was initiated by David Cameron and constructed to dissect the actual nature and extent of the problem and its implications for our economy, productivity and job creation. 

When Harold Macmillan said “Events, dear boy, events” as the determining factor in politics, he was not perhaps entirely correct. 

Nobody could have forecast that Gordon Brown would turn out to be so indecisive, a reputation arising in part through his unwillingness to call an election last autumn. Equally, last summer Conservatives went through a rather wobbly period, but now David Cameron is looking more prime ministerial each day that passes. Poor Ming Campbell was replaced for being too old by Nick Clegg, who has been a disappointment, and whose recent utterances on his sexual score card are just embarrassing. When Boris Johnson began his London mayoral campaign, many wrote him off; nobody today is doing so. So much of the conventional wisdom in the past nine months or so has been turned on its head. 

Quite frankly this is a brilliant time to be a Conservative Member of Parliament. After years toiling in the wilderness of opposition, winning at the next General Election is in sight. The Party is full of ideas, energy and fresh thinking, and so many outside Parliament want to be part of this process.

We go into recess from today, so blogging will be suspended! 

There have been frequent concerns expressed in Washington about the future of NATO, arising out of the short sighted and potentially dangerous unwillingness of many European NATO members to spend money on defence and/or deploy troops abroad. Rows over this have been brought to a head because of Afghanistan. 

Yet ironically there is a queue to join. France may well be reintegrated into the central command structure. This week in Bucharest, other countries will be seeking membership. Croatia seems the most likely candidate to be accepted; Greece may veto Macedonia’s application and Albania may be rejected in the backwash.