I hope everyone enjoyed the Coronation as much as I did. It was a fabulous occasion and top marks to Penny for her sword carrying. I talked to her this week and she had done two weeks of practising so her muscles were in shape. Even so, it was a tough gig and she did incredibly well to keep so still.
I really enjoyed all the Coronation parties on Sunday in Shedfield, Bishops Waltham and Swanmore. They were all well attended because it was such a lovely day. On Monday I helped bury the capsule in Denmead I talked about last week and spent an hour looking at all the stalls for the street party.
A particular favourite was the boozy cup cakes made by www.boozybakers.co.uk which were delicious and had been baked earlier in the morning. They have got me out of a hole as I asked them to make a christening cake for my grandson which I had promised to make but just won’t have the time.
This week was a short one because of the bank holiday but we passed two important Bills without a vote. The National Security Bill came back from the Lords with some amendments. It will give our law enforcement and intelligence agencies the tools they need to protect us and contains important new measures to strengthen the UK against hostile activity from foreign states.
The Energy Bill – formerly the Energy Security Bill - went through second reading and will help ‘deliver a cleaner, more affordable and more secure energy system for the long term’. It will build on our commitments from our April 2022 Energy Security Strategy to invest in homegrown energy.
This is even more important in today’s world where we need to protect ourselves from energy shocks like the one created by the invasion of Ukraine. Wind power has just overtaken gas power this year with 350 new offshore wind power deployed in 2022. The figures now are: 32% wind as opposed to 31% gas. In 2010 80% of our energy came from fossil fuels, we are now at around 40% and moving quickly towards our aim of net zero. This is a huge achievement.
I had various meetings this week ranging from Palestine, school assessment, wine, broadband and an interesting meeting on carbon capture from the Solent Cluster that is working on this locally.
Another typical week included both the Education Select Committee, with the Minister responsible for childcare, and Public Accounts Committee where we looked at the Covid business grants, including fraud and lessons learned for the future.
I also had a meeting at No 10 to talk to the policy team about farming with some of my colleagues. The Prime Minister has a rural constituency and is very aware of the issues so we were looking at ways of improving our offer to farmers and it was a lively discussion. I also had a quick meeting with the leader of Havant Council and we hope to put a bid in soon for the Waterlooville regeneration.
On Wednesday I had the pleasure of meeting Helen and Chloe Horn at the Acquired Brain Injury event and heard about how Chloe, age 10, got meningitis which was not diagnosed for 3 weeks although her parents had continually contacted the doctor. There is not always a rash with meningitis but she had all the other symptoms, it was during covid which did not help. Chloe is recovering but gets very tired at school and I have promised to help raise awareness and do anything else I can to help
It was a busy three days but it does help that we didn’t finish until 10pm on as I was able to keep up with emails and prepare for the various meetings. I have my 10 Minute Rule Bill about a Register for home schooled children to present next Tuesday so I am working hard to put everything that I want to say into just 10 minutes. I will report back next week on whether I achieved that.
Today I visited Cowplain School to speak to the Head teacher about the latest issues, saw some constituents in Waterlooville and then to Durley to hear about the problems with flooding and Southern Water before my final meeting this evening in Hambledon to talk to local Conservatives.
Have a great weekend.
