HearFromYourMP

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I am now doing a weekly e-mail

Posted by Edward Vaizey, MP for Wantage, at 16:22, Wed 8 July 2009:

Here is my weekly up-date. Again, please feel free to circulate to friends, family and neighbours in the constituency, if you feel they would be interested. Parliament The Parliamentary Standards Bill dominated the week, with its second reading, committee stage and third reading all happening in just two days. It has now gone to the Lords. The Bill is designed to clean up politics, and creates a new quango and investigator to hold errant MPs to account. The Government dropped plans to make a code of conduct compulsory and subject to criminal conditions. It also lost a vote which would have allowed parliamentary proceedings to be used in court, thus undermining parliamentary privilege, after Labour MPs like John Reid and Margaret Beckett rebelled. Personally, I believe the Bill has been rushed through, and will make it harder and harder to do the job of an MP. As our councillors know, independent bodies meant to oversee the behaviour of politicians soon become the tools of politicians and journalists who use them to stir up allegations and controversy. Rushed legislation is also often bad legislation - remember dangerous dogs...? I spoke in a debate on forensic science. There are a number of independent forensic scientists running small firms in my constituency, and they have become increasingly concerned about how new procurement rules are shutting them out of Police work and threatening their business. I was glad to put their concerns on the record and will continue to support them with the forensic science regulator. The Royal Marines and their band came to Parliament, and I was part of a group of MPs and peers that welcomed - and clapped - them in. A wonderful sight and sound, marred by the shouting of the permanent demos that disfigure Parliament square. On the front bench, meetings with Fergal Sharkey of UK Music, Lucien Grainge from Universal, Tim Bevan from Working Title, speaking in a debate on the Arts Council at the New Culture Forum, a tour of threatened London heritage sites with the Heritage of London Trust, a meeting with David Cameron and the BBC Trust, and a speech on ITV. Constituency Another busy week. Wednesday I attended the 100th breakfast of the Wantage and Business Breakfast Club, which is run by our own Reg Waite, and Colin Wilkins. More than 100 people attended at the Williams Formula One Conference Centre, and we were addressed by Wesley Smith, the former Thames Valley ITV presenter. The breakfast club is a fantastic networking outfit, which goes from strength to strength. Our chairman, Yvonne Constance, came to lunch with me in the House of Commons. We plotted victory in the Vale elections in two years' time. On Friday I had a private meeting with a constituent to discuss her housing situation. I got a useful up-date on the local economy from Barclays, who tell me Oxfordshire is doing well, with business loans up 11 per cent year on year. I had a fascinating meeting with the Muslim Society of Didcot. I had no idea they existed until I saw a notice about them and got in touch. Many have lived in Didoct for decades, and work as scientists, teachers and engineers, and I hope to get to know them much better in the coming months and years. Then a meeting with a Didcot teacher to discuss e-learning, and Stewart Lilly and Reg Waite to discuss a housing issue in Harwell. Then on to an up-date with the South Oxfordshire Housing Association. I ended the day with my first ever part in a film - the Husband Obedience Trials, being filmed in Kingston Bagpuize. The director is local man Guy Browning, the budget is £150,000, the whole village is involved. I played myself, but unfortunately the house chosen to represent my home is a beautiful seventeenth century farmhouse near Longworth, which will re-ignite the expenses row. Supper was in Shellingford village hall, 45 people turned out to hear Richard Benyon speak, and a feast of salmon and strawberries was served up. Satruday was drinks at Matthew Barber's, the new leader of the Vale Conservatives, and then I spoke at Abingdon East's annual supper. Thanks to Didcot, Harwell and Chilton Conservatives who came to hear me speak! Super Sunday took me to Wallingford to launch the Wallingford Walk Against Cancer; to Brightwell to hand out prizes to donkeys at the Island Farm Donkey Sanctuary, which I helped save this year (their donkeys appear in Carmen at the Royal Opera House); to Wantage to open the Wantage Rejuvenated fair; to Grove to attend the Grove Challengers six a side tournament, one of the biggest kids' football tournaments in the south east, back to Wantage for the Climate change picnic and finally to Ardington for the Wantage Almhouses Appeal tea. Luckily Andy and Roger kept playing long enough for me to catch the end of the game, before going off the Sparsholt quiz...