Letter From Westminster

Published on Wed 19th Mar 2008

Letter from Westminster and Bristol 16th March 2008

This letter covers the last few weeks, with highlights of the big Parliamentary occasions and my activities in Bristol.

One of the big set piece Parliamentary events of the year is the Budget. For a mix of professional and political reasons I've watched or listened to pretty well all of them for the last twenty years. This year would be the first for over a decade not to be presented by Chancellor Brown, an opportunity for new Chancellor Darling to make his mark. But as I sat in the chamber I found my mind wandering. Alistair's voice was not seizing my attention. He was delivering a truly narcoleptic speech. In fact the only way to stay awake was count the Labour MPs who were nodding off. A place for an afternoon doze has long been a caricature of the House of Lords. I've never seen MPs' chins dropping to their chests before.

Some of the announcements are risible. Where Brown had scattered around billions, his successor was reduced to announcing a £26million home energy measure. That's about £1 for each household. Labour MPs must have been expecting a last minute flourish. Darling announced that as a response to escalating heating bills the winter fuel allowance was to be raised by £50. The cheering was half hearted and many didn't bother. This government appears to have lost its grip.

The night before the Budget the European Reform Treaty (the Treaty of Lisbon) was given final approval by the Commons. It now heads off for several weeks more detailed scrutiny by the House of Lords. The media have not really bothered to report the details of the treaty. They've just played the Tory game of calling for a referendum.

The majority view of my colleagues (and a view I shared) was that there was no need for a referendum on the treaty as it was simply not significant enough to merit such a big step. However, we recognised that debate on Europe remains polarised and poisonous and as a way of clearing the air we suggested a referendum on the fundamental question of whether Britain remains in the EU. But this doesn't suit the parliamentary establishment.

The government doesn't want any sort of referendum. The Tories are badly split on Britain's future in the EU and would rather distract attention onto the treaty. So they combine to frustrate our attempts event to get the issue discussed. It's not just in the Bristol council chamber that an unholy alliance exists between the two other parties.

The Lib Dem Spring Conference this year was in Liverpool. It was in the brand new Arena - a sore point for visiting Bristolians. Liverpool has now been led by a Lib Dem City Council for 10 years and the city has been transformed.

At the conference we update health and housing policies and Nick Clegg's speech was a great success. For the first time in 2 years we had an upbeat conference, with no mutterings about the leadership.

Back in Parliament, I hosted a visit by students from City of Bristol College. I gave them a tour and answered questions for an hour. I also hosted a reception for schools from around the country that had entered an engineering competition. They had designed models of medieval siege weapons, the 'trebuchets' that could sling missiles at besieged castles and towns. I presented the winning school (from London) with their glass trophy and £250.

At another reception, for deaf and hard of hearing children, a Bristolian was a winner. Doug Dunn from Redland had entered a National essay writing competition and was with his mother to collecthis prize.

At an event in Bristol it was my turn to receive a certificate. This was in thanks from the Bristol Filipino Association for speaking at their annual meeting and party. There are approximately 3,000 people from the Philippines in greater Bristol, many of them working in the health service. The evening's entertainment included children's choirs, solo performers and ballet. They certainly know how to put on a show!

I risked dancing in public with another Bristol group. Dance Voice uses dance as therapy for adults with a variety of learning difficulties and disabilities. Over the course of a couple of hours I watched people come alive through the sensual pleasure of dancing themselves or just watching others and listening to the music. This will go down as one of the most memorable and deeply affecting visits of my first three years as an MP.

Quite often my national role as shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills complements my local constituency role. There's a big fuss building up about cuts in the national science budget, in particular to astrophysics. This is an area where Britain has a world class reputation, something that astonishingly, the government is putting at risk, all for a rather small amount of money.

I'm soon meeting the head of the UK Science Technology Facilities Council and in preparation visited Bristol's physics department and the astrophysics professor. I'm accompanied by Cabot councillor Mark Wright, who has a PhD in astrophysics! Earlier in the week I'd been to a Research Councils UK event on the public understanding of science. One area where scientific research is very popular is space...

During the last three weeks I'd finished my work on the committee stage of the Education and Skills Bill. David Laws and I had covered 16 sittings of the committee. The government hadn't given an inch. We weren't able to discuss all the amendments that David and I proposed and will get another chance when the Bill completes its Commons stages back in the main chamber.

Also over the last few weeks I've attended many meetings and events in connection with my portfolio. They've covered the biotech industry, accountancy, skills for the long term unemployed, financial services, cancer research screening and student funding.

I've presented a petition to Parliament for the first time. A while ago I met some constituents at a lobby of Parliament concerned with Palestine. I was presented with a petition calling for an end to Israeli aggression in the West Bank and Gaza. The situation in Gaza has since deteriorated and presenting the petition formally to the House was a good opportunity to raise the issue.

There is a slot for MPs to present constituency petitions at the end of each day's business. You make a very brief speech and then walk behind the Speaker's chair and deposit the petition in a big green bag! I talk about the issue on Radio Salaam Shalom, which seeks to bridge Arab-Israeli understanding.

I also appeared on ITV's The West this Week, talking about shortsighted government cuts to some of Bristol's drug rehabilitation centres. When the majority of prisoners have a drug problem it seems completely mad to cut support for rehab on release, a sure way to raise re-offending.

Finally, I'll soon be presenting a second petition to the Commons. This one is on climate change. Among the things it calls for are reductions in aviation emissions. I opposed the construction of a third runway at Heathrow and am also opposed to a large unsustainable expansion of Bristol Airport. I went to the Airport to meet the new managing director for an update on their plans. They still plan for a doubling in passenger numbers by 2030. This cannot be right over the same period when other sectors of the economy are seeking to reduce their carbon footprint.