They Blog For You

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 [...]

                    I visited a public library recently. It was not in my constituency. It was housed in a great new building, in a large and well appointed room. I was told it was not about to close. It was run by friendly Council staff. Money had been found to set [...]

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. [...]

                 I have been looking into high speed trains. I have made three day  return journeys to Manchester and Leeds recently and decided to take the train.  I have been hoping to win some green plaudits!                On each occasion I have wished to be in those cities in time for [...]

Having come down from my Oldham constituency this morning, I joined the march in ‘Whitehall at at 1.15pm, about an hour and a half after the vanguard had begun the march to Hyde Park.   After hearing the speeches I returned along Piccadilly where people were still marching towards Hyde Park [...]

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 [...]

  The Guardian listed me as one of the only four MPs who are opposed to the UN decision on the 'no-fly zone.' They have been misinformed. I have made no comment either way, publicly or privately. I feel conflicted about the decision but on balance I am in favour. This is [...]

Alan Johnson gave his second major speech on the economy on 11 November 2010 at the Royal Society of Arts. You can read the full speech below: “The American writer, Tom Woolfe, once said “a Liberal is a Conservative who’s been arrested.” I suppose a modern inversion would be that a Conservative [...]

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As Gadaffi totters and Saudi Arabia, the Big One, comes into the Arab revolution’s sights, the hypocrisy that has long held the Arab states in bondage is coming home to roost.   The West’s deal with the Arab dictators is coming unstuck, big time.   Despite all the Western pretensions about democracy, [...]

As you can see, I have written to the Secretary of State for Transport, Philip Hammond MP, to take up a number of points regarding HS2. The points that I have raised include whether the DfT plans to publish the Arup high-speed rail route, how the DfT plans to conduct [...]

BRITAIN'S first ever Bangladeshi MP visited Cardiff West this week to meet members of one of the city's most multicultural wards.Rushanara Ali, the Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, was invited to Riverside by local MP, Kevin Brennan, to meet residents with Kevin and Labour's candidate in the Riverside [...]

      It's a seductive dream and worth a try. Pulses race at the thought that Newport best-loved icon could be listed as World Heritage Treasure. Unfortunately the local paper last night exposed the idea to mockery by claiming that the bridge compared with the Taj Mahal! Even I as the bridge's greatest [...]

It was good to visit Lloyd’s in Royston to learn about the services now being provided in pharmacies. The team there made me very welcome and it was good to have my blood pressure taken. It was exactly what it should be, which was reassuring. There is [...]

On Friday I visited Palazzo restaurant in Royston, to support National Apprenticeships Week. Palazzo has a good record of taking apprentices and the Manager, Laura Hadley-Charter, has herself undertaken an apprenticeship. I was able to meet Apprentice Chef Stephen Cook and talk to him about his apprenticeship, [...]

Please find below the letter that I received from Transport Scotland in response to my letter dated 7th December 2010, which I have included for your information. In addition, I have also received a response from the Secretary of State to my letter about concerns that the reasons for building [...]

Here are the follow-up letters talked about in my most recent HS2 update (please see below). As you can see, I have written to The National Trust, the Campaign to Protect Rural England and Natural England to investigate what action they have taken in response to HS2. In addition, I [...]