|
Back
to business
The joyful Jubilee was warm-hearted indeed. With the exception
of the two golden days themselves, the weather has been dreadful
- wet and windy. With no sign yet of Flaming June, the nights
will soon start drawing in towards the autumn!
South Wiltshire has, however, been a picture. The countryside
has never looked so lush, nor the greens so vivid. But have
you noticed the lack of flowers - wild as well as cultivated?
The geraniums in my window boxes have never been so far behind,
with hardly any scarlet blooms to complement the Union flag
I flew for the celebrations.
Looking at the fields, I anticipate a bumper harvest. Already
at their lowest for years, grain prices will go through the
floor. Alas, that is more bad news for hard-pressed farmers.
Meanwhile, back at Westminster, we are in for a grim time until
the summer recess at the end of July. Why grim? First, as a
countryman, London is not the place to be in mid-summer. It
will be hot. It will be sticky - except when it is blowing grit
in your eyes - and it will be overrun by great oceans of tourists
filling every open space just when you need to dash for it.
We are thankful for the tourists - I just wish more of them
would evacuate to Salisbury!
I have a personal problem with the capital in summer. London
plane trees look lovely - but their pollen is the only pollen
I know anywhere in the world that now gives me choking hay fever.
A short walk from the House to a TV studio leaves me choking
because the planes are unavoidable. Such is life - I can live
with that.
Grim, too, are the scratchy weeks ahead as the Government ducks
and weaves between Lords and Commons, determined to get its
legislation on the statute book before we rise for the summer.
We will have bad-tempered arguments about some very controversial
legislation. For example, the National Insurance Contributions
Bill - which is going to put up your taxes substantially from
next April. That legislation alone will put up your Council
Tax next year by about 3 per cent, and it will cost our NHS
at the District Hospital and at our GP surgeries hundreds of
thousands of pounds.
Then we will tackle the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum
Bill, and the so-called Enterprise Bill which will do some good
things for employees and pile on more regulations for business.
We will be debating European Affairs - and I will be on the
front bench for a whole-day debate entitled, 'Energy -Towards
2050'. I'll be pushing up the daisies by then - but let us not
be accused of short-termism in the House!
Locally, three issues are pressing. The Summer Solstice at
Stonehenge on Friday 21st June will be well policed. But where
will the revellers go until the Glastonbury Festival begins
the following Wednesday?
Secondly, there is a very serious problem with our mental health
services - which spills over into our alcohol and drugs advisory
service. Money - lack of it. Why should we believe a word the
Government says about more tax spent on the NHS when we are
seeing our services threatened with cuts, before our very eyes.
I await a response from the Health Minister responsible.
Finally, the parking crisis at our District Hospital is long
overdue for resolution. I'm all in favour of green transport
policies - but why pick on the sick, their relatives and the
carers? Watch this space.
ROBERT KEY MP
|