Message from David Lidington MP
Posted by David Lidington, MP for Aylesbury, at 17:56, Wed 5 July 2006:
Welcome to my July e-mail for HearFromYourMP users. Please feel free to post comments about my thoughts, or on any other subject, on the website so that we can have an exchange of views. I would also encourage you to browse my website at www.davidlidington.co.uk for local news stories and information, and to fill out some of the short polls that I have written at www.telldavid.com.
The future of grammar schools is one of the most important subjects that I have debated in Westminster this month. Despite the fact that, during the passage of the Education Bill in May, every Minister in the Northern Ireland Office voted against an amendment that would have outlawed academic selection in England and Wales, they are intent on banning it in Northern Ireland. They seem quite happy to ignore the inconvenient fact that grammar schools in Northern Ireland are overwhelmingly backed by the local population. I spoke against the legislation last week but unfortunately the Government used its majority to pass the measure and it has now moved to the House of Lords for consideration. To read the debate, please go to http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmstand/deleg4/st060628/60628s01.htm.
In the House of Commons, there have also been had important debates on the NHS and on tax credits.
It emerged in a statement from Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of Health, that our three local Primary Care Trusts, which pay for health treatment in the county, overspent by over £17 million in 2005/6. Further job cuts and service restrictions are now likely as the trusts try to balance their books.
I met chiefs from the Vale of Aylesbury trust, who told me that half the problem is that the Government vastly underestimates the cost of its initiatives, such as the new GP contract, and expects the local NHS to pick up the difference. It is high time the Government stopped micro-managing the health service from Whitehall and instead placed a little more trust in the professionals on whom the local NHS relies.
At the beginning of the month, I found out that almost half of all tax credits payments to people in the Aylesbury constituency are wrong. Some people are not paid as much as they should be, which must play havoc with their spending plans, and others are paid too much, which causes problems when Revenue officials try to claw back the money. The whole tax credits system is a shambles and it is high time that Gordon Brown took the problem seriously and regained control over his policy.
A number of Saunderton residents have complained to me about Chiltern Railways' plans to stop fewer trains at the station from next year. I must admit that it seems a strange decision given the station's popularity - I opened a new waiting room there just last year - and I have written to bosses at the train company to try to find out what is happening.
I am also more worried than ever about the Government's huge housing targets, after a new report suggested that they may be looking to build even more houses than we realise. John Bercow and I are meeting the Minister for Housing this week and we will be pressing her to pay for the infrastructure of her current plans before extending them.
Around the constituency, in mid-June I opened the new Anglo Business Park on Coldharbour Way in Aylesbury, which is a fantastic opportunity for new jobs in the town. I have also been to a celebration of Abbeyfield's 50 year anniversary at its care home in Great Missenden and visited Stokenchurch Dog Rescue to discuss its plans for the future.
I hope that this note has updated you on some of my work. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions on any of these issues, or on other aspects of my work as an MP.
Please also let me know if you would like to receive e-mails that I send out from time to time about local campaigns that I work on.
David Lidington
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