Happy New Year. I hope 2024 is a good year for you all. Politically, it has certainly got off to a rapid start with a lot on the agenda.
Breaking news as I write this is that the US and UK have bombed targets in Yemen to prevent any more attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
Four RAF Typhoon aircraft based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus flew to bomb two locations being used by the Houthis to launch drones and missiles. This escalation in the Middle East is unfortunate but it is right that the UK and US work together with our allies to stop the Houthis targeting global trade.
It is certainly going to be an interesting political year with apparently half the world holding elections in 2024. The Prime Minister has indicated that ours will be near the end of the year which gives the Government time to work on policies and gives me time to finish all my ambitions for the Meon Valley constituency before it disappears.
I am very pleased that Waterlooville town centre is now building a vision for the future as that was in my Plan for the area. I am still working on fast broadband for a couple of areas. Having to wait for an improvement is very frustrating particularly for those affected. As most of you know, I am moving with 26% of Meon Valley constituents to the new Winchester seat so will be developing my ideas for that area with residents.
Parliament started back this week and the focus was the huge injustice done to Post Office sub-postmasters because of the faulty Horizon software program. I had heard about this when I first became an MP in 2015 in Portsmouth South. I had not heard from any of my sub-postmasters until Wednesday this week when someone in Meon Valley got in contact to talk of their experience. I now wonder if others were too embarrassed to talk to me about this.
It is a total disgrace that these miscarriages of justice were not picked up early when the first sub-postmasters were finding problems way back in 1999. I think one of the worst issues was that the Post Office is claiming that no one else was affected but surely the alarm bells should have been flashing as soon as several sub-postmasters were finding discrepancies. I hope the Inquiry will get to the bottom of what happened and who was responsible.
The Energy Bill was also back in Parliament this week. I will be voting for it if the oil companies put the highest environmental standards on the extraction which means cutting methane emissions. We are going to need oil and gas long after 2050 but we can make sure that it is done with the minimum damage to the environment.
On Tuesday, the Education Select Committee continued the investigation into online learning and how to keep young people safe online. We heard about the advantages of online learning – pupils can learn at their own pace – but also quality control of online learning which can be patchy and how we can all learn to identify the source. I have always been concerned that we are all in our own echo chambers online as the algorithms push information that they know will be of interest.
It is going to be particularly worrying during elections as people are going to have to work hard to get information from all sources to make the decision on who to vote for. We also talked about the three pillars of social development, family, school and peer which is now becoming four with the internet and social media. Later in the week, I talked to the education lead at Pearson who provides educational assessment and we talked about enabling an English GCSE to be done online, they are trialling this in 2025.
At PMQs, Maria Miller, the MP for Basingstoke asked about the hospital and the fact that the Government is giving £900m to the new hospital and refurbishment for Winchester.
There was an audible gasp around my colleagues as to how we have achieved such a huge sum of money for our local NHS. Many others have not been so lucky. The Prime Minister responded that ‘We look forward to making sure we can deliver the project as quickly as possible, as part of the record capital investment in the NHS to deliver faster, better care to patients everywhere.’ I hope that people are responding to the consultation and we can start on the new hospital. You can see consultation on this link: https://www.hampshiretogether.nhs.uk/
I continue to talk out about Palestine and voted against the Government’s Economic Activity of Public Bodies Bill which included a clause on Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Golan Heights. I am also concerned that it opens public bodies and people to be investigated and then having to prove that they have invested in countries for financial reasons rather than moral or ethical reasons. A third party can accuse a public body of this. This is bad legislation in my view.
Last night I attended the St John’s charity in Winchester event to show off the six quilts that were part of a community project over the last few months. The squares were people’s memories of Winchester and they were excellent. I contributed a square but the standard was very high and I am not sure mine was quite up to scratch but I enjoyed doing it. They will now be used in the Winchester hospice and I hope that there will be further projects that I can get involved in.
Today, I have had a meeting with Portsmouth Hospital Trust and with farmers organised by the NFU.
I am also concerned about the potential closure of Andover Road in Winchester which will impact not only on residents in Harestock, Littleton and Weeke but anyone that wants to get into Winchester from the north. The proposal is to close Andover Road and put all traffic through the new Kings Barton estate. I don’t agree this is a good idea at all, especially now development will happen at Sir Jonh Moore barracks – meaning we need Andover Road and its capacity, not traffic squeezed through a residential area.
I am out talking to people tomorrow and will be at the installation of the new Bishop of Winchester.
Have a great weekend.
