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Rights, Respect, Responsibility

Do you remember the 3 ‘R’s which were drummed into us in our primary school days of yore – Readin’, Ritin’ and ‘rithmetic? Well, Allison Bucknell, the talented and committed deputy leader of North Wilts District Council gave me a new angle on it this week. She reckons- and I think she’s absolutely right – that the three Rs which we ought to be drumming into our youngsters these days are Rights, Respect and Responsibility.

We all have our rights. Of course we do, and one of the things we particularly pride ourselves on in this great British democracy are our Human Rights, our Civil Rights, our Right to be treated equally in the face of the law. My job as MP is to fight for those rights, and to a degree that’s what our forces are doing overseas too – fighting for the rights of people less fortunate than ourselves. But our individual rights must always be tempered by our responsibilities- to others, to society, to our institutions. I don’t have rights if those rights diminish your rights. Rights have to be collective, not just individual. That is what good and just society has always been based on. But neither Rights nor Responsibilities mean much unless we have Respect to go with them – respect for our planet, for each other, for authority,  for our rule of law, our forces, church, Parliament, dare I say politicians? Rights, Respect, Responsibility.

These rather philosophical thoughts were at the back of my mind during a busy, and in one respect a rather stressful constituency weekend. Wednesday saw me at the North Wilts Conservative Association Executive Council at Lea and the election of a new chairman and treasurer, the other officers to follow shortly. In a brief speech I commented on the dedication which these volunteers have. Responsibilities indeed. It was good to visit the Motorsports classes of Wiltshire College at the Castle Combe race track, although I declined the offer of a spin round the track at 100MPH in their Formula Fords. What mutual respect must lie behind race car drivers’ inherently competitive spirit.  A visit to the Breathe Easy Stand in Chippenham’s Emery Gate, a coffee morning at East Tytherton for Epilepsy reminded me of the fight which volunteers make for the Rights of disabled people and ill people of every sort. Rights, Responsibility, Respect.

All three emotions were at the front of my mind during Monday evening’s Special General Meeting of the North Wilts Conservative Association in Wootton Bassett, which, if the vote had gone the wrong way, could have signalled the end of my political career. I am glad that I secured a very healthy vote of confidence from the 300 or so activists, councillors and members assembled, and some humblingly complimentary remarks about my Constituency and Parliamentary record. Yet always at the back of my mind, in the warm afterglow of an obviously highly satisfactory meeting will be the question: what could I have done differently, what can I now do to build bridges with the disaffected? I was glad to pledge to the meeting that I would do all in my power to right whatever historic wrongs there may have been.

Rights, Responsibility, Respect. Keep those three things at the forefront of our political minds and we won’t go far wrong.

The Next Generation

“Ten times more people take part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme in Wiltshire than have any kind of contact with the police,” we were told by Chris Montacute the excellent head of Wootton Bassett Comprehensive at the Sixth Form Speech Night on Friday evening, and the astonishingly high calibre of the young people “graduating” that evening somehow confirmed in our minds how fortunate we are by and large with our younger generation.

And it was interesting to note at the larger than ever Remembrance services and parades which I attended on Sunday at Wootton Bassett, Chippenham and Malmesbury, what a large number of younger people had turned out to honour and remember our war dead. I can only imagine that the immediacy of Iraq and Afghanistan have brought it home to them that people of their age are so sadly once again risking their life in the service to Queen and Country. One young man told me that at least ten of his friends are now abroad with the Armed Services and it was with a heavy heart that I listened to him predict that at least one of them, statistically speaking, will come home injured or worse. We pray that none of them will, but it somehow brings the realities of the armed services home to you.

Reading the Air Cadet annual review last week I was simply astounded by the achievements of this young group who put on a very similar uniform to their Royal Air Force colleagues and do all kinds of wonderful civic deeds. I am lucky enough to be an Honorary Member of our local Air Cadet Squadron at RAF Lyneham and I would like to take this opportunity to commend that unit for the very great work they all did in contributing to their organisation’s hugely successful year.

So you can understand why I simply cannot abide the ‘Colonel Blimp’ attitude you often find today: “Things weren’t like this in my young day. We knew what hardship was all about. This younger generation are all soft, longhaired, drug-taking layabouts that need a good thrashing.” (A sentiment, incidentally which was prevalent in the writings of the Venerable Bede around the year 600AD, so not much changes!) My experience from visiting the sixth formers, talking to young service people in Lyneham, in Buckley Barracks in Hullavington where I enjoyed a curry lunch on Sunday between Remembrance Parades, and in speaking to young people on our High Streets, is exactly the opposite. My lot in the ‘sixties were the long haired druggy dropouts. Our younger generation today overall are well motivated, hard working and responsible members of society. We should count ourselves privileged in the high calibre of our young ‘moonrakers’ which gives us great hope for the future.

My own future hangs in the balance at a Special General Meeting of the North Wiltshire Conservative Association on the 19^th November, - a meeting called by a small group of less than 7% of the members of the Association - to consider a re-run of the secret ballot on my candidacy which was so amply aired last January. I very much hope that those attending will vote a resounding “NO” at the meeting, or at very least in any resulting ballot. And I am glad that Party Chairman, Caroline Spelman has made it plain that that will be an end to it.

All being well, I look forward to watching this talented younger generation grow up and serve the community as their MP for many years to come.

A positive attitude

There’s something nostalgic about this Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness, a looking back to the summer now gone, a wistful longing for dimly remembered happiness. Remembrance is very much in the air too - Hallow’een, the eve of the Feast of All Hallows remembering long dead saints; Remember Remember the Fifth of November just around the time that the Queen once again attended Parliament for our State Opening and read out the turgid New Labour prose which she is handed; Remembrance Sunday coming up, which will have a particular poignancy this year because of events in Iraq and Afghanistan, and perhaps particularly because the bodies of our dead servicemen are being brought back through RAF Lyneham and down Wootton Bassett High Street, a town in mourning this week for the three people so tragically killed in the Algarve.

I have had a week dominated by Multiple Sclerosis. I am the Chairman of the Parliamentary All Party Group for MS, and we had the AGM followed by a dinner hosted by the MS Society highlighting the tragic cases of MS among children, some of them as young as two. I was given the chance of an article in the weekly newspaper “Whitehall and Westminster World” in their regular series “Secretary of State for a Day.” I used it to highlight MS issues - the postcode lottery which still exists for some drugs, flaws in the Armed Services Pension Scheme for service people with MS (I am also Patron of Mutual Support, the armed services MS group), the declining number of specialist MS nurses, and the lamentably small amount of money which the Government spend every year on research into the causes of this most debilitating of diseases. I was glad to visit Swindon’s MS Therapy Centre on Friday, where amongst other things they offer Hyperbaric Oxygen for the relief of some of the symptoms. It’s the same kind of bell they use of decompress deep sea divers. As President of the Chippenham branch of the MS Society (currently dormant - we need a hyperactive chairman to revive it), and Patron of the Devizes branch, I was glad to see a good group of my own constituents there.

I have never been one for hair-shirted handwringing, and my experience of very many cheerful, brave and able people with MS is that one thing they don’t need is a lot of soulful sympathy, preferring a robustly cheerful approach to what can actually be done to help. But I do think that in this era of self-absorbed prosperity, when anyone without a car, two mobiles and a flat screen telly feels sorry for himself, I just feel that sometimes it can be healthy to spend some time doing something for people less fortunate than oneself. We all have problems. That’s life. But the great thing about many of my friends with MS is that they try to face their disease with courage, cheerfulness and pragmatism which seeks to ignore or overcome their problems by focussing on the good things in life which we all enjoy - human companionship coming pretty high on that list.

Misty nostalgia? Piffle. Let’s get on with finding the autumn sun filtering its way through the clouds; let’s appreciate the autumn colours in a beautiful area like this; let’s enjoy the colder weather, take an enthusiastic part in the winter activities which are now starting, look forward to Christmas, and just take pleasure in those little everyday things, like helping others less fortunate than ourselves, which after all is actually what make us human beings.

Prorogation

What was billed as a radical and action-packed final Parliamentary year for Tony Blair has rather fizzled out with Tuesday’s unusually early “Prorogation” of Parliament. It’s a fine old ceremony. Black Rod marches down to the Commons, has the door slammed in his face; we idly saunter up the corridor to the Lords to hear a clerk read out the titles of the bills passed during the year, two or three grand people on the Wool Sack wearing full bottomed wigs and tricorn hats raise their hats and bow, and another bewigged clerk intones “La Reine Le Veult,” – apparently the old French for “The Queen wishes it,” which quite demonstrably on a number of occasions she does not. There was precious little this year which she could either object to or applaud after a pretty thin legislative programme. Let’s now see what’s in the Queen Speech next week, about which more then.

Luckily with things being so dull in Parliament they were jollier and busier in the Constituency. It was wonderful to see the Duchess of Cornwall opening the new Pound Arts Centre on Friday, and in the course of her remarks both saying that she viewed Corsham as her home town (at risk of the ire of the people of Lacock or even Tetbury!) and to committing herself to coming back to visit soon. What a wonderful person she is, and what an asset to the Royal Family. By lunchtime, we were launching the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal with an open topped bus in Chippenham High Street, including a visit from the splendid Bikers Chapter of the Royal British Legion. This year I am attending Remembrance Services in Wootton Bassett, Chippenham and Malmesbury, interspersed with lunch at IX Regiment in Hullavington – its always a day I much look forward to, particularly sad this year because of the continuing casualties in both Iraq and Afganistan. By Friday evening I was at a farmer’s party in Lacock Abbey. They managed to be very cheerful despite Blue Tongue, Foot and Mouth and myriad other agricultural troubles.

On Saturday I was at the Opening Meet of the Avon Vale Hunt at the magnificent Neston Park. It was one of the biggest Opening Meets ever. It is good to see this little part of the traditions of Old England preserved – and all entirely within the Act to ban foxhunting. I followed for a time on foot and car, and was astonished to see the hooded paramilitaries around still trying to disrupt what is a perfectly legal and animal-friendly activity. Perhaps they were just enjoying the fresh air and exercise as much as I was! Saturday night saw me at the Chippenham Sailing Club’s Annual Dinner and Awards ceremony, at which I was glad to present the Westminster Trophy for the best helm of the year. I am proud of the fact that this most inland of constituencies boasts a sailing club, who manage some very jolly, and quite challenging times on the river. It was good to sit at dinner between my old friend and Club Chairman, Shirley Ritchens, and that nicest and most sensible of Socialists, Chippenham’s previous Mayor, Maureen Lloyd. I gave her a lift home afterwards- a good example of cross-party conviviality!

With the House now in Recess until Tuesday, I am looking forward to such diverse Constituency engagements as a visit to Swindon’s Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre ( I am Chairman of the Parliamentary Group for MS, President of the Chippenham Branch of the MS Society and Patron of the Devizes Branch, and Patron of Mutual Support , the armed services MS group, so that terrible disease is one of my special interests.); a supper club in Malmesbury, surgeries there and in  Wootton Bassett, and a dinner in Melksham amongst other things. It’s a Recess, not a holiday!

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