I make no apology for returning to the hot topic of the moment - the proposed permanent gypsy encampments in North Wiltshire. Let me try to lay out my thoughts in as logical and concise a way as possible.

 

First, we really have no idea at all of what demand there is for permanent or temporary gypsy sites. Central Government has decreed that we need 4000 sites across England, but their logic is wholly bogus; as a result the unelected South West Regional Assembly (an organisation which an incoming Conservative Government will abolish), in its seriously flawed Regional Spatial Strategy came to the wholly unsupported conclusion that we in North Wilts need 48 extra pitches (2 caravans each, so 96 caravans) plus 12 transit pitches; and that Wiltshire as a whole, including Swindon needs to make provision for some 200 extra caravans. Says who? I argued in my Commons debate that there should be a duty on local authorities to make suitable provision for local people – both the homeless by providing social housing, and for local travellers by providing encampments. Wiltshire already have 6 under their management, with a population of some 200 people. Do we really need to more than double that? Only local councillors should decide, not Central Government, nor their puppet Regional Assemblies.

 

North Wilts District Council find themselves between a rock and a hard place. The Government are requiring them to find sites for an extra 48 pitches, despite the fact that they themselves really do not see any such necessity, and despite as has been amply proved in recent weeks, local people, in Calne, Wootton Bassett and Chippenham alike really do not want a site in their towns. And who can blame them?

 

Second, the removal of the illegally parked gypsies at Minety seems to have become dependent on NWDC finding an alternative site for them. (Thingley Junction apparently being unsuitable, because of the Irish people living there!) That seems to me quite wrong. Surely the Inspector should consider planning law, and nothing else, under which the Minety gypsies would be removed forthwith. How can it be that a local organic farmer is having her modest caravan removed from her 30 acre farm because it does not have planning, while down the road gypsies are so blatantly flouting planning laws? Maybe she should declare herself to be a gypsy, in which case she would presumably be allowed to keep her caravan on her farm! Anyhow, there is no evidence whatsoever that the Minety gypsies would move to one of the six proposed sites.

 

What all of this means is that a flawed central government dictat may require NWDC to announce an unneeded and unwanted gypsy encampment. Well I call on them to announce on 3 July that the consultation process has led them to the conclusion that there are no suitable sites and that in their view the whole process is flawed. An incoming Conservative Government in maximum 2 years time is committed to removing this unfair requirement. This should really be a decision for the whole of Wiltshire - in other words after the Unitary Council elections next year. I call on them to announce that they intend to do absolutely nothing at all about increasing gypsy provision in the area and that they resist the incessant Government interference that demands ever more sites. This will allow us all a collective sigh of relief!

What a week. There was sheer drama in the House for the vote over the Government’s disgraceful proposal that they could lock people up for 42 days without so much as a by your leave. Right up to the last minute we were hopeful that we might just win the vote, but of course in the end Gordon Brown scraped through with the help of Tory renegade Ann Widdecombe and UKIP odd-ball Bob Spink, and of course with the unprincipled support of the Democratic Unionists who showed themselves susceptible to straight-forward bribery (Rumoured to be £200 million for an MOD site being sold and some adjustment to water rates.) What a humiliation for Gordon Brown to achieve a key piece of legislation on which he had staked his career and reputation only with that kind of help and cajolery. And how illiberal and un-British that we can now face the prospect of detention without trial in this way.

 

One consequence of all of that, of course was the bombshell of David Davis’s resignation as Shadow Home Secretary and from the Commons, in favour of sparking a national debate not only on 42 days but also on the million other ways in which this Government have eroded our most basic freedoms. Now whatever you may think of his tactics, we should all be clear in saluting DD for his principled and courageous stand. Politicians are too often accused of “being in it for themselves” and lacking in principle. Well here’s one who is risking his livelihood, and virtually certainly sacrificing the hope he had of being Home Secretary in favour of his beliefs. Ten out of Ten, DD, even if it may look to some like a bit of a “Reggie Perrin” moment!

 

But if the Democratic Unionists north of the border are out of favour, well done to their near relations in the Republic of Ireland who courageously showed the Eurocrats what they think of their ghastly Constitution by voting “No.” How can the Euro enthusiasts now be discussing “how to take the Treaty forward”? Surely if we have any residual belief in democracy, the Irish vote must mean that the Constitution is dead and cannot ever be revived? David Milliband is apparently of the view that these matters are too complex for the common people to understand, which is why he intends to ignore the Irish vote, and presumably also why he still refuses to give the British people the Referendum on the matter which he promised in his Manifesto. What a disgrace the whole business is.

 

So Gordon Brown has bribed and bullied his way through to a positively Stalinist 42 day rule; he has refused to put up a candidate against David Davis, presumably because he could expect a bloody nose over the policy; he intends to ignore the opinion of the Irish people, and refuses to give his own people a proper say on their European future. On the day that we had the sad duty of paying our tributes to five fallen Paras as their bodies were carried through Wootton Bassett High Street, he announced further deployments to Afghanistan – a war on which Parliament never voted; and on the same day a huge and angry public meeting in Calne convened to try to stop a gypsy site in the town proposed by the unelected South West Regional Assembly, acting on behalf of the Government. (My debate in Parliament about which being reported elsewhere.)

 

Democracy? I despair of it. This Government has forgotten the meaning of the word at the same time as our troops are giving up their lives in defence of it. Mr Brown should be ashamed of himself.

A Constituent’s question in Corsham last Saturday highlights the constant often contrary pulls on an MP’s time and views and efforts. “Why doesn’t your Column tell us more about Parliament?” he asked, “I think you’re spending too much time in the Constituency.” A very pleasant challenge, indeed, especially coming from a leading Liberal Democrat! But it seems to me that only through unremitting efforts here can I hope properly to represent the people of North wilts in Parliament.

 

In the last week, for example, I have: visited the excellent Cedars Long-term care home in Purton, held a stimulating debate with 30 primary school children in Oaksey, handed over a petition in Corsham against the proposed polyclinic at Rudloe, attended the annual reception at RAF Lyneham and a business dinner in Castle Combe, attended the annual Regatta at the Chippenham Sailing Club, and a barn dance at Bulkington; I went to tea after the Civic Service in Malmesbury, having just missed the service itself; held surgeries in Wootton Bassett and Malmesbury, (Chippenham and Corsham next week) as a result of which just missed the gypsy protest march in Chippenham, attended a drinks party in Brokenborough, toured Badminton House gardens, visited Bristol Zoo, held a supper club in Malmesbury and attended a “Family Frolic” at Lea.

 

Now none of those things in themselves are essential parts of the legislator’s life; but each of them, and in particular the conversations and meetings at each of them help to inform what I do in Parliament. Again in the last week or so in Parliament I have: had meetings with Meat and Livestock Commission about food prices and security, with Defra Minister Jonathan Shaw about the forthcoming Marine Bill, with senior RAF officers about the Royal Auxiliary Air Force at Lyneham, with the Council of Mortgage Lenders about the crisis in the housing market, with Natural England about coastal access for walkers, with the Federation of Small Businesses, with Chatham House for a briefing on the international economy, with representatives of the British pig industry, the Food Standards Agency, with 4 Mechanised Brigade about their deployment to Afganistan, and the  British Horse Society about animal welfare; I have asked Parliamentary Questions or taken part in main chamber debates on most days, undergone perhaps a dozen radio and TV interviews, dealt with perhaps 500 constituency letters and enquiries, and enjoyed a variety of quasi-Parliamentary social events to boot.

 

Now while there is no obvious linkage between my precise engagements in the constituency and my activities in Parliament, the two are vitally if subtly inter-related. Only by soaking up views – from constituency, pressure groups, media, Parliamentary discussion and a host of other places – can an MP hope to act in Parliament both in as well informed a way as possible, and as accurately as possible reflecting the views of his constituents (which is very often not easy since there is never unanimity!)

 

These Columns are entitled “From Wiltshire to Westminster.” My life consists of a bit of both places. Getting the exact balance between the two (and leaving a bit of time for private life as well) is never easy. The achievement (or not) of that balance and of the resulting Parliamentary representation is finally only distilled in the ballot box. In the meantime, we can but do our best to please at least a decent majority of the people at least most of the time!

The “Whit Recess” is a great opportunity to get out and about in the constituency, and I made good use of it this year. Even so, you can’t please all of the people all of the time. I had two stroppy emails this week – one from a gentleman threatening all kinds of dire consequences because I was not able to meet the gypsy site protesters in Chippenham on Saturday morning (about which more later), ignoring the fact that I was at that time doing my surgeries in Wootton Bassett and Malmesbury; and from another lady who is cross because I was spending too much time in the constituency, and failing to attend the (largely useless) Private Members’ debates on a Friday morning in Westminster. Ah well…..

 

The fact is that I am strongly of the view that the Government does too much in this country. Too many laws, too much regulation, too much bureaucracy. Government should be getting out of people’s hair – letting them do their own thing in business, schools, hospitals, farming and the rest. Away with bossiness from Westminster and Whitehall; away with Health and Safety, Human Rights Acts and the rest. The fewer the laws and the less time we MPs spend in Westminster the better it will be. I have two good examples this week.

 

The gypsy site protestors on Saturday, whose outrage I wholly understand and support, were nonetheless getting the target for their ire slightly wrong. The District Council are being forced both by the planning inspector looking into the Minety gypsies and by general Government policy to find – we now discover-  a 48 pitch (ie 96 caravan) gypsy and traveller site and a further 12 “transit” pitches. The point is that NWDC don’t WANT to do it. They HAVE to under the law. That means that all six sites being considered should campaign TOGETHER against the overall requirement, and not allow themselves to be pitched one against the other. That’s why I launched my own Parliamentary petition on Saturday calling on the Government to repeal the Act which requires councils like North Wiltshire to have these sites at all. That’s what the last Conservative Government did, and we are pledged to do it again. So I urge everyone to get signing – download the petition on my website jamesgray.org if you can’t get it elsewhere and get it back to me by the end of the month. It should be up to local people to decide whether they want gypsy sites, and if so where, not up to central government.

 

Similarly, we strongly opposed the Government’s Planning Bill which was considered in Parliament on Monday. It would remove the right of local people to decide on so-called “strategic” planning matters – railways, motorways, airports. That kind of thing. So any say that we might have locally over, for example, the future of RAF Lyneham if the military were to move out, or over widening of railways or motorways through the constituency would be denied to us, those decisions being made by faceless bureaucrats in Whitehall.

 

“We know best “ is the mantra from this Government, (perhaps from all governments and the civil servants who run them) and I view it as a primary responsibility to fight that “top-down” approach from Westminster and Brussels alike. That is why I am seeking an emergency debate in Parliament to discuss the whole principle of gypsy site provision in North Wiltshire, and why it should be that the unelected South West Regional Assembly should be foisting them upon us.