Wipeout! The local election results were at the bottom end of our expectations. Two or three party politics is over, for now at least. Reform are a meaningful force in our national and local life.
Happy Easter! But what a sad day after. ‘Ha muerto el Papa’, I told our taxi driver (thanks to Google Translate) on the way out of Seville on Monday morning, after a very Catholic weekend.
The Government’s infrastructure bill, which we debated this week, offers a chance for speedier construction of new roads and energy installations, which is welcome; but not enough is being done to ensure protection of our precious chalk rivers.
More assisted dying bill committee this week, which I won’t trouble you with. In other news I spoke for the opposition in a debate about the Waspi Women (1950s-born women caught out by poor government communications when the state pension age rose without them knowing it) - see here.
Another week in the Assisted Dying Bill committee - well, it’s only two full days but a lot of the rest of the time is spent preparing for the sessions. The ‘Pro’ side has the Government, and a multi-million-pound campaign group, supporting it; my side has a handful of volunteers.
It sounds insincere when politicians say this but it really is a privilege to do this job, and not (or not only) for the glamorous bits. The ordinary stuff an MP does is actually more fulfilling than the ceremonial and public part of the role.
I have joined the Ecclesiastical Committee of both Houses of Parliament: 15 peers and 15 MPs, tasked with approving (‘declaring expedient’), or not, the measures passed by General Synod of the Church of England. It’s a reminder that we have a state Church, and ultimately Parliament is its lawmaker.
I spent most of this week in the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill Committee, hearing evidence from expert witnesses about the detail of this Bill. I am deeply worried by what we have heard.
During the last Parliament I used, snobbishly, to boast that there was no McDonald’s in the whole of my constituency. The worst you could do, if you wanted delicious unwholesome food, was Domino’s in Devizes.
