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Newsletter March 2013

Posted by Margot James, MP for Stourbridge, at 14:22, Sat 2 March 2013:

Dear Subscriber,

Everyone involved in politics gets excited about by elections especially in marginal constituencies where the result is not a done deal. Eastleigh was one such and having been canvassing there myself earlier in the week I was really quite relieved that the Liberal Democrats held the seat. This was because the level of UKIP activity and support on the ground shocked me, and it more than crossed my mind that they could win. The irony is that under a proportional representation system they probably would have won; the first significant candidate to have been eliminated would have been Labour and you can bet that the majority of Labour second preference votes would have gone to UKIP. It is a great mistake to assume that UKIP only take votes from the Conservative Party.

Apart from the uniqueness of every by election, and the fact that people can vote how they like without having to calculate the risk of a change of government, one continuum running through every by election, and indeed the course of general elections over several decades, is the decline in the core vote of the two main parties. This underlines the need for MPs and candidates to reach beyond the traditional values and views of their own party. Some of my colleagues conclude that we therefore need to reach in to UKIP territory and they have a case. The combined votes for the Conservative and UKIP candidates in Eastleigh totalled more than 50% of the votes cast. However, the real lesson of the by election, under a first past the post voting system, is that the Liberal Democrats cannot be written off. They may do badly in opinion polls, and they suffer from a lacklustre media profile but they have proved that they can survive when it actually comes to votes cast.

Far from getting alongside UKIP the Conservative Party had better make the coalition work and overcome the attitude that so many colleagues have towards our Liberal Democrat partners. Difficult though it is to swallow the fact that as many see it, we were ‘done over’ by the Liberal Democrats over the constituency boundary changes (which was indeed outrageous) we need to put that behind us and improve relations as come 2015 the electorate might decide to give this government more time to sort out the public finances. The combined Conservative and Liberal Democrat votes in Eastleigh exceeded that of UKIP, a fact worth remembering and an omen perhaps for the next election.

---In Parliament---

I asked questions and I spoke in debates on:

• Civil marriage: to note that churches will not be forced to conduct same-sex marriage, and to support the Government’s move towards civil marriage or gay people. http://www.margotjames.com/content/margot-james-backs-marriage-same-sex-couples-bill

Video: http://youtu.be/qJZuNjj_1D0

• Social care funding: to support plans for capping care costs and increasing the threshold for state funding, but within a more realistic financial envelope than proposed by Dilnot. http://www.margotjames.com/content/margot-james-backs-government-proposals-funding-care-and-support-older-people

• European Council: to welcome the Prime Minister’s achievement in cutting the EU budget to less than 1 per cent of GDP. http://margotjames.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e6821a60875bf64c15def8683&id=6765ee5735&e=cdc7354d5f

• Sexual violence in conflict: to raise concerns about fundamentalist beliefs playing a role in sexual violence in conflict areas like North Africa. http://margotjames.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e6821a60875bf64c15def8683&id=4f194e2e17&e=cdc7354d5f

I wrote to Ministers on the following subjects:

• Matthew Hancock, Minister for Skills, about Skills Funding Agency funding for training providers.

• Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Justice, and Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of state for Health, on drugs policy in prisons.

• Edward Timpson, Education Minister, about the impact of CRB checks on people who have old, minor offences on their record.

• Sajid Javid, Treasury Minister, on behalf of a constituent concerned about ISA rates.

• David Gauke, Treasury Minister, about inheritance tax, and on behalf of a local business concerned about antidumping duty on Chinese hand pallet trucks.

• Earl Howe, Health Minister, to express concern about asthma care in schools.

• Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Sajid Javid, Treasury Minister, to raise concerns about Child Benefit being paid to non-UK resident children and proposing an alternative that would end the unfairness of this practice.

• Mark Prisk, Housing Minister, and Mark Harper, Immigration Minister, to suggest introducing requirements for landlords in the private rented sector to check the immigration status of potential tenants.

I attended various events and had meetings in and around Parliament:

• A lunch with Conservative Home journalist, Paul Goodman.

• The Local Government Association House of Commons reception, which I hosted.

• Campaigning for the Conservative candidate in the Eastleigh by-election.

• A meeting with Santander to discuss trade missions.

• The new APPG for Sixth Forms House of Commons reception. • Hosting Julie Wootton and Claire Hennessy from the Max Appeal for PMQs and the Rare Diseases Day reception in Parliament. http://www.margotjames.com/content/margot-james-marks-rare-disease-day • A manufacturing summit in Warwickshire organised by the Business Department with excellent speeches from executives at JLR, Siemens, various engineering organisations, and Ministers Cable, Green (my boss), Fallon and Willetts.

---Out and about in Stourbridge---

I took part in various visits and meetings:

• Meeting Ollie Cheney, Principal of Glasshouse College, to discuss special school funding changes.

• Meeting Dharminder Dhaliwal from the Castle & Crystal Credit Union to discuss their presence in Stourbridge.

• Visiting the Dudley Substance Misuse Service at Atlantic House in Lye to hear about drug rehabilitation and the problems associated with drugs in prisons.

• Visiting Stourbridge Cricket Club to see their new dressing rooms and shower area, for which I helped to acquire funding.

• Meeting with Denise Benton at Redhill School to discuss special educational needs provision (SEN) at the school in my capacity as governor with responsibility for children with SEN.

I was also delighted to host a university fair at Glasshouse College, which was very well attended by students from Stourbridge secondary schools, several top universities, the Lloyds Scholars Programme, UCAS and the Student Loans Company. I was pleased to be able to help students to make decisions on where to study and what courses to consider and grateful for the support of the Stourbridge Educational Trust, the Glasshouse College and all the Universities and related organisations that made the event possible.

---It wasn’t all work...---

Parliament did not sit for the third week of February so I enjoyed a week ski-ing in France with my nephew Rupert, his wife Laura and my great nieces. We were very lucky with the weather and although I hadn’t skied for five years (which was very evident on the first day) it all came back to me and we had a wonderful time.

Jay and I had a lovely day out doing a bit of window shopping, looking at spring fashions and having a very nice Valentine’s lunch which was all great.

The final highlight of the month was a very nice invitation to a birthday party for Ffion Hague given by the Foreign Secretary at his official residence in London. It was truly splendid, a Welsh Male Choir and a wonderful and witty speech from William Hague. And the icing on the cake was meeting HRH Prince Andrew who gave me some excellent advice for my forthcoming trade mission to Singapore and Indonesia.

Margot James MP