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Half Term Recess

I am very much in two minds about the “Half-term Recess” – the week off which Parliament has just enjoyed. My first and most obvious thought is that at a time like this, how can it be that Parliament is sent home for ten days? It lets the Government off the hook of Parliamentary scrutiny, effectively sidelining us so that the opposition to the Executive becomes the media. It gives Mr Brown a breathing space and prevents us from raising issues – the economy, international affairs- of currently overwhelming importance.

New Labour brought in this Recess in under the guise of being “family friendly.” And I guess those MPs with small children probably appreciate that. And for all of us there’s no doubt that after a pretty hectic session since Christmas, a bit of Rest and Recuperation is a good thing. The Christmas to Easter term is the longest parliamentary session, and 15/16 hours a day non-stop in Westminster takes it out of you a bit. But then again we’re paid good wages to represent our constituents in Westminster, and quite frankly if we can’t stand the pace we shouldn’t have volunteered in the first place.

They called it a “Constituency week,” slightly oblivious to the fact that our constituents don’t necessarily want us wandering around at 11am on a wet Tuesday! I have made quite good use of it, partly to accommodate my trip to Afghanistan, but also various meetings with local people, a Wootton Bassett repatriation, visiting businesses in Sherston and Malmesbury, speaking at events in Colerne and Gastard, doing a couple of radio and TV interviews, and assorted similar events. And just being at home – going down the high street to do the shopping – is of itself useful re-acclimatisation with the ways of North Wiltshire. But is it really a week’s work? I doubt it. I have long suspected that it’s mainly a Labour ruse to keep us out of their hair.

Anyhow, its back to work now with a vengeance – four sittings of the Coroners Bill Committee on which I am serving with a particular interest in military inquests as well as internet-assisted suicides; two meetings of the Defra Select Committee, the Parliamentary Reception for 7 Armoured Brigade to thank them for their service in Iraq; unusually a Friday’s debate in support of the private member’s bill on autism; and all of that alongside the normal daily events of question time, opposition debates Westminster Hall debates and the rest.

Rumours abound about leadership battles in the Labour Party, and a rumour from Peter Mandelson’s Business Department hath it that a successful G20 Summit in March followed by a much delayed “Giveaway Budget” on 22 April will be followed by a snap General Election, presumably on the same day as the Unitary and European Elections, June 4^th. Well” Bring it on” I’d say. And at all events continuing speculation of that sort will make the second half of this term even more exciting.

So justified or not, I have to admit that I have found the “ Half-Term/family friendly/ constituency/ send them home for some  R and R”  Recess very restorative, and if it was Mr Brown’s thinking that it would keep us quiet, then he may find that quite the opposite is the reality.

Helmand Visit

It will be with a particularly heavy heart that I attend today’s Repatriation of the body of 27 year old Marine Darren Smith through Wootton Bassett –especially poignant for me since it was only last Wednesday that I visited his unit, 45 Commando Royal Marines on operation in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Marine Smith may well have been one of the intelligent, well-mannered young men who so proudly told me of their operations and showed me their equipment.

It was my second visit to Afghanistan to visit our troops, especially as Chairman of the All Party Group for the Army. The 12 hour flight from RAF Brize Norton via Turkey to Kandahar was in a C-17 cargo plane, take off and landing strapped in to webbing seats alongside the huge containers of ammunition and stores, but most of the journey spent remarkably comfortably on the floor in my sleeping bag wedged between two pallets of military equipment. It’s a chilling moment flying into Kandahar airfield when the pilot extinguishes all lights internal and external (arrivals and departures only happen at night when the enemy cannot detect the planes) and everyone puts on their body armour and helmets. That’s the moment when the chill reality of flying into a theatre of high intensity warfare really comes home to you.

Having vacated our C-17, and the cargo very swiftly discharged, we were privileged to be able to see an RAF Lyneham-based Hercules fly in bearing six wounded soldiers. It reversed its ramp up to the C-17 which had swiftly been converted into a casualty carrying plane with the latest high technology, including an effective Intensive Care Unit, and the casualties were transferred across to be transported as swiftly as possible to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham. We then flew on in the Herc - across the desert under tactical conditions with all lights extinguished - to Camp Bastion, with me perched up on the flying deck behind my two constituents.

A couple of hours’ sleep, and it was into a round of meetings and visits – the Royal Marine Logistics unit, the superb hospital in which we watched a hyper-efficient Chinook helicopter casualty evacuation direct from the front line,45 Commando Royal Marines, 1 Rifles Brigade, which is descended amongst others from the Wiltshire Regiment, a visit to The Afghan National Army being trained up by us eventually to take over from us, and many other chances to meet up with and talk to our troops many of them en route to, or immediately returned from the very front line. Back in Kandahar we had a further round of meetings - the Joint Helicopter Command, of course the Hercules teams from Lyneham. A few hours’ sleep in a barracks room was interrupted by an air-raid siren and news of an incoming rocket attack. Brave or foolish, I felt that a bit of kip was more important and rolled over and went back to sleep!

One of my most enduring memories will be of our visit to 42 Commando Royal Marines who have taken part in some of the fiercest fighting of all, and who were off the following day to spend six weeks in the field in close contact with the enemy. One 19 year old sniper told me that he had “confirmed kills” of 28 enemy, plus many more which might have been. He told me all about it in the most well-balanced intelligent and unemotional sort of way. But what an immense burden to place on the shoulders of one so young. I will be thinking of him and of all his brave Royal Marine comrades as I watch the body of Marine Smith being carried through Wootton Bassett.

Clothed with Scarlet

I came across one of King Solomon’s most apt proverbs during the week. As he describes a virtuous woman, amongst many other things he says, “She is not afraid of the snow for her household; for all her household are clothed with scarlet.” 5000 years ago in Palestine, they were more ready for the snow than we were! I pay tribute nonetheless to all of those who have carried out their duties under very difficult conditions - our emergency services, county officials and road gritters, those who have struggled into work despite the temptation to roll over under the duvet. They were “clothed with scarlet” like King Solomon’s servants.

(I do have, however, to admit to a wickedly sneaking sympathy for the 50 students in a Wiltshire school who went on strike because theirs was the only school NOT to close! Why the Head teacher thought that an appropriate punishment for going on strike was to send them home rather eludes me!) A bit of tobogganing, robin redbreasts on the walls, rosy-cheeked children sipping hot chocolate. Nothing quite like it. Really very British.

Without agreeing with him, I similarly have some sympathy with the well-meaning gentleman from Northumberland who has opened up a petition on the No.10 website calling for the road from RAF Lyneham to the outskirts of Wootton Bassett to be renamed “Highway for Heroes” to mark the town’s repatriation ceremonies. I understand the idea, but have to admit that I don’t really go along with it.

By the time you read this, I will be in the air on my way back from a visit to the troops in Helmand Province, Afghanistan - one of a number of visits I have made in recent times as Chairman of the All Party Group for the Army - and will take some soundings from them about what they think of the idea. After all, their morale - and their feelings about what we at home are thinking about them - must be at least one reason why the people of Wootton Bassett do what they do. I have already had reaction from some men in 2 Para, who wholly support my opposition to what at first sight seemed like a good idea. It just seems to me that renaming the road – or as I heard from someone else, a move to award the town the George Cross rather like Malta, or similar honours - would tend to divert attention away from our true focus of honouring the dead. It would turn the attention on the town rather than on the servicemen. It’s just not very British.

After all, the whole point about the ceremonies is their solemn simplicity. There are no orders, no generals, no Royals nor politicians (except mingling with the crowds). No formalities, no pomposity. It’s just the people of the town and the surrounding area turning out in their own quiet way and with a myriad different thoughts and emotions to pay their respects to the brave soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of Queen and Country. They were truly “clothed with scarlet” but will sadly never see the snows of an English winter again. “If I should die, think only this of me: That there is some corner of a foreign field which is forever England.” Not for them the Pomp and Circumstance March. Just the quiet solemnity of the tolling of the old bell in St Bartholomew’s Church and the hush of the High Street. And having paid their respects in their own simple way, after the cortege has passed, the people of Wootton Bassett quietly slip away to their homes and workplaces with their thoughts and their sadness. So let’s just keep it like it is.

Debates

There are all sorts of debates in the House of Commons, and I took part in four of them in the last couple of weeks. To be called to speak, you have to write to Mister Speaker letting him know that you hope to “catch his eye” and laying out your credentials for the particular debate. He then puts together a (secret) list of those he intends to “call” to speak, based on how many times you have spoken recently, how good your credentials are, trying to balance up the main parties, some attempt to cover all parts of the Nation, even perhaps gender balance. On the day of the debate itself, the MP stands up and sits down until such time as he gets called, which, bearing in mind that some debates will last for 6 or 7 hours, can of itself be a debilitating experience, especially if, as happens all too often, time runs out before you get the chance to speak.

I spoke for 15 minutes, first of all, in an unusual Government debate in prime time on a Wednesday afternoon on our strategic relations with Iraq. It was designed, I think, to achieve “closure” on the whole unhappy Iraq adventure, and if possible achieve some kind of accolades for our beleaguered Prime Minister. If that was the plan, it failed. I particularly called for diplomatic, political and commercial links in the years ahead to try to establish Iraq as some kind of decent stable democracy in a troubled region.

Then there was a debate in the alternative chamber, Westminster Hall on Agriculture in the South West, which I tried to broaden into a wider discussion of “food security.” A friend of mine tells me he saw it broadcast on the Parliament Channel at 5am one morning. He needs to get a life, and stop watching the Parliament Channel at 5 in the morning! Westminster Hall debates get little coverage, but are good opportunities to raise particular matters of local concern. Rather the same applies to the debate on defence personnel matters which I took part in late one Thursday afternoon in the main chamber. Its a disgrace that a matter as important as that at a time like this should be given the lowest point of the week to be debated on a one line whip, almost certainly meaning that no-one but the defence aficionados actually turn up.

Last week I also took part in the Second Reading (the debate on the principle lying behind a bill) of the Coroners Bill. My particular interest in the bill is in military inquests, which of course mainly happen in Wiltshire because of the geographic coincidence of our fallen soldiers being “repatriated” through RAF Lyneham; and in the very sad business of suicides assisted by wicked internet sites, of which there have been two sad examples in the constituency. As a result I have been appointed to the Bill Committee, which will now sit for 6 hours or so each Tuesday and Thursday until mid-March to consider the detail of the bill, and amend it into decent legislation. It will then come back to the Chamber for “Report” Stage (when the Bill Committee reports back on what changes we have made) and Third Reading (at which the whole House expresses its opinion about the bill as amended), after which it goes to the Lords for much the same procedure.

Parliament is, I think, the old French for the “place where they speak”, and we certainly do plenty of that. Most of the words are lost forever, although they may play a part in influencing or perhaps flavouring the influences over the Government. Speeches in Committee may play a more important role, amending bills into decent legislation. I will report back on whether I was able to do so with the Coroners Bill.

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