Smoke-filled rooms?

Thank goodness it is March at last! We have had a long, cold winter and we could all do with some warmth and some sunshine. February may be the shortest month of the year, but it was action-packed in terms of decisions taken by Parliament that will affect us all for a long time to come.

In just three days we decided to go ahead with hugely expensive, technologically unproven identity cards (I voted against), to outlaw smoking in all pubs and clubs (I voted in favour) and to support the Government’s Terrorism Bill (I supported the Lords amendments).

This was in the same week that on the Defence Select Committee we discussed the disclosure by a newspaper of two year-old footage which seemed to show British soldiers beating up Iraqi youths and in Salisbury we were coming to terms with the scandalous confirmation of closure of Amblescroft - our excellent local NHS facility that cares for older adults with enduring mental health needs.

I had also uncovered the £14m the Government has so far spent on the planned road past Stonehenge and unmasked the treacherous row between the National Trust and English Heritage over yet another secret road proposal.

Decisions, decisions
Those were just the headline issues. But they generated a great deal of public interest and lobbying. Most of the lobbying came with the smoking issue – which was also ‘unwhipped’ – a free vote for every MP, a decision each of us had to make based on our own judgment.

When I was a kid it was cool to smoke tobacco. Unfortunately, I gather it still is! Over the years, like you, I’ve seen at first hand the tragedy of death by cancer and the other tobacco-related illnesses that blight and cut short so many lives. In short, I’m now very anti-smoking.

But that is just my prejudice. My instinct tells me not to interfere in other people’s lives and not to ban things unless it harms others too. So, on the tobacco vote, I listened right up to the moment the Speaker cried, “Division”. I had canvassed opinions from pubs and clubs around Salisbury and from scores of individuals of all ages. By the time the voting started it was quite clear that the medical evidence was overwhelming and that the balance between individual liberty, the competing rights of smokers and non-smokers and the duty of care to workers and young people was clearly in favour, in my judgment, of clean air in pubs and clubs alike.

Safety in numbers?
Elected decision-makers are never short of advice. Sometimes it comes as a shock if it contradicts our preconceptions. A panel of local residents told the District Council that over 60% of them thought that the cost of collecting refuse from their home was £1 or more per week – it is 33p. Asked if the Council should cut funding to Arts Groups, 65% agreed. The Office for National Statistics told me that average weekly earnings in Salisbury are now £377 against £423 for the UK – but the average house costs £244,000 in Salisbury and £177,000 in the UK.

It takes more than statistics or even facts to make a good decision – but both are vital ingredients. In a democracy it also helps to know what citizens actually want rather than leaving it to ‘them’, as in ‘they always get it wrong’. So hats off to Amesbury Town Council, who have set up the Amesbury Market Town Partnership to find out what people like about living in Amesbury, what they don’t like and to ask for ideas for the future. Durrington will launch its community plan at the end of the month, too.

Two years ago, with the Commons Science Committee, I visited Atlanta in the USA to learn about the work of their National Centers for Disease Control. Deep underground in a vast cavern (not unlike ‘mission control’ of NASA fame) teams of scientists plot the advance of the world’s deadliest diseases, with the help of giant plasma screens showing real-time pictures and vital statistics from worldwide locations. It was bird ‘flu - then and it is bird ‘flu now.

Size matters…
Natural migration of birds, legal and illegal trade in birds and animals and travel by air of infected humans means disease travels fast. Gradually avian influenza creeps closer – Turkey, Greece, Italy. What happens when it reaches the UK is a constant concern in Parliament. The Government has its plans and large-scale producers of poultry and eggs are well-briefed, tuned into Government websites and with helpline numbers programmed in to their phones. So far so good.

What will happen to the thousands of families who keep a few hens in the garden or love their rare breeds of bantams, pheasants or ducks? Recently I visited the Salisbury Poultry Club’s Rare Breed Auction at the Salisbury Livestock Market. Hundreds of enthusiasts were there from right across the South of England. Sue and I found just two small Government posters from DEFRA advising what to do. You only need to register if you have 50 birds or more – otherwise bio-security is up to you. Just feed and water your birds indoors and keep all dishes and roosting places clean.

It is all very well telling people to go to the DEFRA website – but what if they are not on-line? And an exhausted bird flying in to the UK is not going to be too picky where to land. So where were the DEFRA people? Questions have been asked in Parliament!

Robert Key MP