They Blog For You

Douglas Hurd once said to me when he was Foreign Secretary that one of the  strongest reasons to support the British system of having one MP for each constituency (a lot of democracies use proportional systems with multi-member constituencies) is that it kept your feet on the ground. For him, [...]

I set off last Sunday afternoon for a three day visit to Washington and New York. My main purpose in going to Washington was to talk to people in the Obama administration and in Congress about the Balkans (the USA maintains a strong interest in countries like Bosnia & Herzegovina, [...]

You may recall from my post of 30 March, entitled ‘Stoke Mandeville: discrepancy in official HS2 maps’, that I recently wrote to Philip Hammond about the route of HS2 near Stoke Mandeville.  This was after Stoke Mandeville parish council made me aware that maps 9 and 10 published by HS2 Ltd show different versions of the impact [...]

The Chiltern Countryside Group has published its guidelines on responding to the public consultation on HS2, which can be viewed below.  This document is a useful resource for those writing a response to the consultation, although as the document states, it is important to remember that the most effective responses will [...]

A number of local people have contacted me about Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s ‘Fish Fight Campaign’, and so I thought it would be a good idea to set out my thoughts on the matter here. Throwing dead fish back into the sea is a terrible waste.  It is disruptive to marine ecosystems [...]

I recently wrote to Danny Alexander MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, regarding HS2, and have now received a response.  A copy of this can be seen below. [...]

The Department for Transport published a revised business case for HS2 alongside the consultation document that it isued a few weeks ago. The analysis of this case by the HS2 Action Alliance was presented to MPs and their staff today (thanks to Andrea Leadsom MP  for organising the meeting) and you [...]

Stoke Mandeville parish council has pointed out to me that maps 9 and 10 published by HS2 Ltd show different versions of the impact of HS2 on the village. I’ve written to Philip Hammond to ask which of these maps is the accurate one. I hope that he will give [...]

An email arrived from some constituents today drawing my attention to a website from a pro-HS2 organisation called Yes to HS2 or Campaign for High Speed Rail. It’s a free country so the supporters of HS2 are as entitled as its opponents to ount a campaign. But I was a bit [...]

Greengauge 21 is a company that has long supported High Speed Rail, and has weighed in behind the HS2 proposal. They’ve recently published a report in which they argue that it would be possible for the government to link HS2 to improvements to local rail services that would give people [...]

Apart from my regular constituency surgery to deal with problems brought to me by individual constituents, I had two important meetings this Friday. One was a further meeting with representatives from the local campaign groups and local authorities about HS2. You might recall that I convened a similar meeting earlier this [...]

Those of you who are already members of BBOWT (the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust) will already know of their concern about the impact of the HS2 plan on the natural environment. They’ve spelled out their concerns in detail on their web site which you can link to here. [...]

No, it’s not about HS2, but I was pleased to get a letter from Philip Hammond the other day which told me how much Buckinghamshire was going to get from George Osborne’s £200 million pot-hole repair fund that he announced as part of his Budget Statement last week.   Bucks will be [...]

You may be interested to see the noise maps for HS2, which can be found in an appendix to the ‘Appraisal of Sustainability’ document which was published alongside the public consultation on HS2.  I have provided a link to that document here - the relevant map can be found on page 65 (or page 73 if using Adobe reader). I [...]

As you can see from the letter below, I have written to the Secretary of State for Transport, Philip Hammond, to ask him about the alternative high speed rail route that was developed by the engineering, planning, and consultancy firm ’Arup’.  The letter asks why this route will not be considered in [...]

A colleague of mine in Parliament, Tony Baldry MP, recently tabled a Written Parliamentary Question asking the Secretary of State for Transport about the noise impact of HS2.  You may be interested to see a copy of the response that he received below: In the Secretary of State’s response you will notice that [...]

I have been informed that Transport for Buckinghamshire, working with the District Councils, has lifted the necessary temporary traffic regulation orders in order to permit street parties to celebrate the Royal Wedding. Applications for road closures will be accepted for 29 April (the day of the Royal Wedding), as well as the three days following it.  I hope that this decision will [...]

The House of Commons Transport Select Committee has announced that it will conduct an inquiry into the strategic case for High Speed Rail. The Committee will investigate the core arguments for and against High Speed Rail.  This will include a critical analysis of the business case for HS2 and the argument [...]

I have been in the Commons Chamber listening to the Prime Minister’s statement on Libya and the UN Security Council resolution.  A full text of what he said can be found here. [...]

I’ve finally had a reply from the Ombudsman to the letter that I sent her back in January asking if she would in principle be able to investigate claims of maladministration by the panel making decisions about the Exceptional Hardship Scheme. She has said that she does have that power, [...]