A sad last newsletter of 2020, which started so well with a clear Commons majority for getting Brexit done. We did that, but the much-wished-for, much-promised corollary, a new trade deal with the EU, hangs in the balance. I remain convinced that it’s better we leave properly, even without the Canada-style deal we hope for, and trade with Europe on WTO terms, than bind ourselves into the EU regime for years to come. But I earnestly hope for a deal.
The news this weekend of European countries, and other nations of the UK, putting up barriers to travellers from England is a grim portent. The new strain of Covid-19 is of course a big worry and, given the vertiginous increase in infections in London, I understand the rationale for locking down the South East. In Wiltshire we are perilously close - Berkshire next door is in Tier 4 - but have thankfully escaped the new system. Tier 2 is bad enough.
As I said yesterday, just as we asked Manchester and elsewhere to accept tighter restrictions when they had the highest rates of infection, now it is the turn of the South East. I am very sorry for everyone whose Christmas has been disrupted by the travel ban to and from Tier 4, and the new rules on household mixing in a ‘Christmas bubble’ (now just permitted on the 25th itself, not from 23rd-28th as previously planned, and no overnighting). We have to hunker down and ride out the last wave of attack before the vaccine can come to the rescue.
When this is over we need a proper audit of what has happened: the costs and benefits of policy, the process of gathering advice and making decisions, and the execution of decisions (including, for instance, how government procurement worked in the crisis). I hope the Government will not shy away from this audit. My personal belief is that while we have, understandably, focused on the heroism of front-line workers and the accomplishments and competence, or otherwise, of the politicians at the top, the real responsibility for the successes and failures of our Covid response lies with the systems of the state. For many decisions and implementations, no individual can take accountability for what has happened: the vast apparatus of government has just done its work, for good or ill - much good, and some ill. Coming out of this, we need better treatment of front line workers, proper accountability for politicians, and reform of the systems they all work in.
These days, instead of meetings with constituents and visits to schools, charities, businesses etc., I just zoom them all. I had the great pleasure of a meeting on Friday with a group of young residents, and the people who support them, from homes belonging to Alabare, a Wiltshire and Hampshire charity supporting homeless young people. They raised the questions of housing and employment opportunities in Wiltshire - vital issues if we are to keep young people in the county. This is a topic I want to address in 2021 with a summit on improving the ‘offer’ for school leavers in Wiltshire.
Speaking of summits, I am planning one on broadband coverage in our area, to take place early in the new year, and another on climate change in the run-up to COP26, the global warming conference the UK is hosting in 2021. Details on all of these to follow.
I also had the pleasure of an online meeting with Marlborough Kids Meals, run by a team of volunteers, mostly from St Mary’s Church, organised by the dynamic Kymee Cleasby. This is a brilliant project which provides dozens of families with two hot meals a week, and is now organising cooking lessons and peer support sessions. It has been supported by a great range of local businesses and individuals, from the Rotary Club and Waitrose to Nationwide and Sue Brady Catering.
I have such respect for all the charities and businesses that have stepped up this year to help others in the neighbourhood. We really have seen the best of us in action in 2021, and I am hugely proud to represent a place with such compassion and such strong civic spirit.
Speaking of which - I have set up a new, non-political charitable foundation, the Devizes Constituency Community Fund (DCCF), to support the work of organisations providing help to the most vulnerable in our area. The first beneficiary will be Love Devizes, the successor to the Devizes Covid-19 Support Group which operated with such success during the first big lockdown. We have many people living in isolation, poverty, mental ill health, or other trouble - and the neighbourhood model, bringing together volunteers and specialists to help, is a big part of the answer. Because it relies so much on volunteers and on existing assets (like church buildings), this model offers huge value for money - but money is needed. I’ll be in touch very shortly with more information about the DCCF, and an appeal for support.
I like to end my newsletters with some local history and this week I took a break from all our current troubles to join (online of course) the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes where my colleague Simon Baynes MP gave a fascinating talk about Roundway House (where his wife’s family once lived). Now almost totally demolished, this beautiful Georgian pile just outside Devizes was a centre of national and local political life in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It was a frequent haunt of Henry Addington, sometime Prime Minister during the Napoleonic Wars and, as Lord Sidmouth, a particularly ferocious Home Secretary (including during the Peterloo massacre in 1819). I recommend Simon’s book on the house, available here. You might just be able to get one in time for Christmas.
I hope you have a very merry Christmas in spite of everything. Here’s to a better 2021.
With all good wishes
Danny