Message from David Lidington MP
Posted by David Lidington, MP for Aylesbury, at 15:35, Wed 31 May 2006:
Thank you for signing up to HearFromYourMP. I hope that it will be a useful forum for us to exchange views. My initial aim is to post a new e-mail at the beginning of every month, with this post counting for June. Between e-mails, I shall read your comments and add my own when I feel it is appropriate. I would welcome your opinions on this and we can review its success after a few months.
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 last couple of weeks have been busy. I have been to Northern Ireland three times in my role as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, visiting the Balmoral Agricultural Show and meeting, amongst others, business representatives and the local media.
In Aylesbury, at the weekend, I visited the Aylesbury Mosque. The planned parade to Market Square was scrapped because of rain, so I, along with members of the clergy and civic leaders, said a few words at the Mosque itself. I also went to a special service to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Southcourt.
Last week, I visited a local farmer in Bledlow to talk to him about small-scale renewable electricity generation on his farm. He has taken a great initiative in planting willow as a carbon-neutral fuel for Didcot Power Station and is also hoping to install a miscanthus-driven micro-generator to power his farm and surrounding houses. I think that this kind of small-scale, local generation is a very good idea and one that needs to be carefully considered by all parties when they draw up their energy policies.
I try to help charities in the constituency as much as possible. Earlier this month, I visited Buckinghamshire Mind and have taken up some of the concerns they raised with local NHS chiefs. Tonight I am going to a reception at the Aylesbury-based Lymphoma Association to mark Lymphatic Cancer Awareness Week. Dozens of people in the UK are diagnosed with Lymphatic Cancer every day, but the diagnosis often comes too late. With an accurate, early diagnosis, treatment can be successful and I hope that the event, along with last year's Lymphoma Manifesto, will play its part in raising awareness of the problem.
In Westminster, I was delighted that Lord Joffe's Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill was defeated by 148 votes to 100 in the House of Lords on 12 May. I oppose euthanasia. I believe that many people who support any form of assisted dying do so with humane intentions but underestimate the risk that frail, sick or elderly people might be pressured by into a situation in which they consent to death for fear of becoming a burden on others. I think we need better palliative care and a culture in our country that respects the dignity and worth of every human being, irrespective of age or disability.
The current law is not perfect, but it does at least draw a clear distinction between the removal of treatment and allowing nature to take its course on the one hand, and the active commission of death on the other. Lord Joffe's Bill would have removed that clear line.
Last week saw the return of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill to the House of Commons for its Report Stage and Third Reading. A number of people have contacted me about the Bill, raising very important concerns. The Government originally claimed that it was designed to reduce regulation. This was a laudable aim but unfortunately the Bill failed to deliver, containing no reference to deregulation and granting Ministers a scarily wide ability to amend, repeal or introduce new law, using a fast track order making power.
Following pressure from my Conservative colleagues, the Government did amend the Bill to focus the fast track order-making power on deregulation measures only. This was a very significant and welcome climb-down. In addition, the Government added a clear veto for Select Committees over any order, although I feel that the drafting of this is too restrictive. These concessions helped allay my biggest concerns, but I would still like to see further safeguards built in to the Bill to make completely sure that it is not open to abuse.
Therefore, after voting in favour of a number of defeated amendments, I voted against the Bill's Third Reading. However, I am sorry to say that it passed by 259 votes to 213 and has now moved to the House of Lords.
I hope that this note has updated you briefly on some of my recent work. I look forward to reading your comments on either the subjects I have written about or other issues that you would like to raise.
David Lidington
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