Westminster Week
Posted by Kitty Ussher, MP for Burnley, at 11:28, Mon 23 July 2007:
Dear Friend,
Last Thursday I faced my first ever time at the ministerial dispatch box of the House of Commons. The occasion was oral questions to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, similar in format to Prime Ministers Questions, but this time the people answering the questions were the five Treasury ministers of which I am one. I had secretly gone to practice standing at the wooden so-called dispatch box where ministers have to stand to answer questions when no-one was looking but even that didn’t seem help much with the first-time nerves. In the event I was lucky with the draw of questions, only having to answer one, but I was still glad when the hour was over. But like all things, no doubt it’ll get better with practice. I remember as a new MP a few years ago feeling very nervous at the very prospect of speaking in the House of Commons as a backbencher, but that got better with time, so I presume this will too.
Later that day I travelled to Brussels to represent the government at the annual negotiations on the EU budget. I had been to similar meetings in the past when I worked as an advisor to a minister but it was interesting to see how things worked from the top table, so to speak. Our aim at the negotiations was to bear down on some of the less efficient parts of the EU budget and try and make sure that taxpayers both in Britain and further afield got better value for money out of the European Union. In this, I’m pleased to say we were fairly successful; the amended proposals now go to the European Parliament for consideration.
On the Friday afternoon I flew from Brussels to Manchester and in a fit of highly organised co-ordination managed to drive from the airport to Stockport station in perfect time to pick up my husband and daughter who arrived on the train from London. We then spent a restful weekend in the constituency with nothing more onerous to do than attempt to restore some order to our small front garden that had got rather out of control in all the wet weather.
Back in Westminster on Monday, it was the turn of the Liberal Democrats to decide the subject for debate and they chose taxation policy. However the general view was that this backfired on them as a strategy because it was very unclear where the £18 billion required for their new headline promise of a 4p cut in the basic rate of income tax would come from. They had said it would come from green taxes but were rather vague about what that would mean - would it be a huge hike in petrol duty or in the cost of air travel for example? And their proposals also dont feel very fair: the richest ten per cent of households would gain 50 times as much as the poorest ten per cent. So we soon dispatched them on this issue.
Tuesday saw the publication by the government of a new approach to economic policy in the regions. Interesting things as far as our part of the world are concerned are the emphasis it puts on encouraging councils to work together on areas of joint interest, including transport policy. I would hope that this is something we can cooperate on in East Lancashire to fight for better rail links in particular to Manchester but also to Yorkshire. It also encourages the Regional Development Agencies to delegate economic issues down to local authorities where possible, and considers giving greater responsibilities to councils to improve their local economies. This can only be good news for jobs in the town.
Meanwhile back in the Treasury I chaired a meeting of government ministers from across Whitehall to look at how we could help people on low incomes have more access to good financial advice before going over to vote in parliament on some contentious amendments to the government’s pensions legislation. So all in all its been a busy but interesting week.
Kitty Ussher MP
6 ways to contact Kitty Ussher MP Write to: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA or 2 Victoria Street, Burnley, BB11 1DD
Phone: 01282 450840 Fax: 01282 839623 By email: ussherk@parliament.uk Web: www.kittyussher.com
In person: Office open 10am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Next surgeries are Friday 27th July 4.30pm – 6.30pm, Cliviger Village Hall, Burnley Road Cliviger; Saturday 28th July 10am- 12noon Open Hands Centre, Colne Road (corner of Hebrew St). No appointment needed.
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