There is nothing like the first day back after the Christmas holidays - to work, to school, or even to the House of Commons, to bring you back down to earth with a bump! Our first day back on Tuesday was going to be sitting until 10pm (normal Monday schedule), but because the Speaker granted 4 statements from Departments, the business of the day, the third reading of the Housing & Planning Bill, didn't kick off until nearly 8pm, with 6 hours of debate ensuring our last vote of the evening at 2am!
The upside of these rather strange late night sittings is that you get the chance to have a proper discussion with colleagues on matters of importance, and the EU Referendum and my publicly declared position of supporting the Leave campaign (http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4655773.ece), because I don't believe we have asked for meaningful reform and therefore can't expect to get it, was the topic with colleagues. (Photo: my stall in Alnwick Market on Saturday chatting to local people about Referendum issues).
Away from the EU debate, a good deal of my week was then spent preparing for my debate in Westminster Hall on the Armed Forces Covenant Report - we had the opportunity to look at how the Government is doing to empower departmental change, but also a national consciousness, to "think Armed Forces Covenant" in all that we do in our daily lives. I hope very much that this has provided a starting point for the House to tackle this in the months and years ahead in a wide public discussion. You can watch the whole debate HERE.
The All Party Parliamentary Group on the Armed Forces Covenant, which we set up just before Christmas & I am chairing, will be reporting on areas such as the Corporate & Community Covenants, the Fighting Fit report and how well supported veterans and their families are in practise across the UK.
In my role as a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), we went to Oxford on Wednesday to visit the Major Projects Leadership Academy- this is where senior civil servants go to gain the right skills to manage some of our most complex Government projects, from HS2 to Hinckley Point. We had the chance to hear from some of the world's leading academics on how well the UK does, in terms of value for money as well as other outputs. It was fascinating to hear from them what their perfect project trajectory looked like... Not one which starts with politicians' vision without detailed work-up first!
Constituency day on Friday started with an excellent meeting with some of our farmers (this is a regular gathering so that we can keep in contact on key issues). The dreaded Single Farm Payment (SFP) system has proved it still doesn't work, with payments made in December only for very small holdings, and none of those at the meeting having received their SFP. I led a report on this with the PAC before Christmas, and I am appalled that all the warm words given to us by DEFRA officials that the vast majority would have received payments by Christmas have proved unfounded. Is it any wonder that farmers have no confidence in the department charged with supporting them? Much work to do here in raising expectations & pushing DEFRA to get effective computer systems up & running. But first to ensure that my Northumbrians farmers don't continue to be the "bank of Government" by picking up endless bank charges & interest payments on overdrafts caused by slow SFP payments. Stock has to be fed through the winter, equipment has to be serviced, and all those bills have to be paid.
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