Word from Westminster - March 2009

Word from Westminster, March 2009

Apart from the state of the banking sector and the economy, the main debate has been the issue of the Royal Mail and whether there should be a partial sale of the service while keeping the majority in public ownership. Now on the face of it there is a need for an injection of cash to modernise, but the Government has already given £1.2 billion in a loan for this. In the past two years there has been a turnaround in the fortunes of the Royal Mail by turning a £1 million per day loss into a £1 million per day profit now. In my mind there should be no sale of any section of the mail service and it is a huge dilemma for the Government which wants to protect the universal service obligation that we enjoy, i.e. whatever the distance you send your letter it costs the same. I would much rather see the Government help and once again secure this valuable public service and the “posties” who provide an important service to the community, not only by delivering our post but also by being the “eyes and ears” around our communities in all weathers. My other fear of a part sale is that it would give a green light to the Tories, who would no doubt sell off the remaining part of the postal services should they come into office. After all, they tried to do this back in 1996 and only just failed. Lets not give them any excuse to do it all again.

Whilst on the subject of the Post Office my Select Committee for Business and Enterprise is currently seeking the views of the concerned public as to the way forward for our Post Office network. On the back of the recent closure programme this is a good opportunity to give me your opinions as to the thoughts you have on the Post Office network. You can do this online by going to http://forums.parliament.uk/post-office-future or alternatively you can write to The Business and Enterprise Committee, 7 Millbank, London SWIP 3JA.

This has been publicised in the Post Office nationwide and no doubt many people are aware of the survey, but the closing date is next Tuesday so if you haven’t already submitted your views there is now only a little time left to do it.

It was pleasing to hear of the results of the comprehensive survey of local businesses in and around Great Yarmouth that was carried out by the Norwich Business School at the University of East Anglia on behalf of EnterpriseGY. Whilst the results of the survey clearly indicate that we are bucking the trend in Great Yarmouth, it remains a huge problem for many companies who are being faced with redundancies. However, the fact that many companies are looking to expand is encouraging in itself, but let’s hope that those that are not faring too well and the many individuals who have lost their jobs start to see an improvement in the short term situation.

I am extremely pleased to have orchestrated the campaign to make Great Yarmouth the first Fairtrade Borough in Norfolk, and our recent Fairtrade wine tasting event was a huge success. Now with an excellent steering committee under the chairmanship of Mark Llewellyn, I am sure that we will achieve the status very quickly. While on the note of Fairtrade it is also important to recognise the need to support out locally grown produce and there is no reason why we cannot support both the farmers in developing countries and the farmers and producers of our own home grown produce.

Finally the tragic circumstances surrounding the death of David Cameron’s son reverberated throughout Westminster on Wednesday last week and all our thoughts are with the family, and I am sure we all agree with the sentiment expressed in the Chamber of the House of Commons during the cancelled Prime Minister’s Questions.