For the avoidance of doubt had I been in Parliament I would have voted, as did almost all Conservative MP’s, to give the British public a vote in a referendum as to whether we should agree to the Lisbon Treaty. I agree the Lisbon Treaty is not absolutely identical to the draft European Constitution which all the three major parties promised to have a referendum on at the last General Election but no one is suggesting anything other than it is very similar indeed ( that is well over 90% of the content is the same). There is no wonder the general public are losing faith and confidence in politicians if Labour and the Liberal Democrats are not prepared to stick to their own Manifesto promises.
I believe we should be governed by Westminster not by Brussels. Europe should do less and interfere less in our lives. In my opinion the European Union should not have a flag or an anthem.
Archive for March, 2008
European Union Lisbon Treaty
Published March 30, 2008 Politics 1 CommentTags: European Union, Lisbon Treaty
On Wednesday evening I attended the last normal scheduled meeting of Bury Council. The main new major item that had to be considered was the referendum on whether Bury has an elected Mayor. Now that the required numbers of voters have signed a petition calling for a referendum on whether there should be an elected mayor Bury Council has no choice but to hold such a referendum and the referendum will take place on 3rd July. I am completely opposed to Bury having an elected mayor, we already have enough politicians in Bury and I can not see how having yet another elected politician will help solve any of the problems that Bury faces. I will cover this subject more in the weeks and months ahead.
Happy Easter
Published March 23, 2008 Local Organisations Leave a CommentTags: St.Anne's Church, Tottington
Can I take this opportunity of wishing everyone a Happy Easter, including of course, those for whatever reason do not personally celebrate the religious significance of Easter.
After taking part in a Good Friday walk on Friday morning when the conditions were cold and very windy Sue and I attended the Good Friday service at St. Anne’s Church which was a service of readings, music and quiet.
This morning we woke to find the countryside covered in a blanket of snow so we had to don our walking boots once more in order to safely walk down to the special Easter Day service at which was very well attended with both upstairs and downstairs. Lots of young families attended and we had a collection of Easter eggs which the church will distribute to children’s homes around the area.
Keep our Post Offices Open
Published March 20, 2008 Politics Leave a CommentTags: Post Office Closures
Yesterday, in the last major debate before Easter MP’s debated an issue chosen by the Conservatives. The chosen issue was the present closure programme of our post offices. The Labour Government is presently embarked on closing down over 2000 of our local post offices. This is on top of the thousands that have already been closed across the country. It seems to me that the Government which is responsible for running the post office network has done absolutely nothing to try and revive the fortunes of the post offices in the light of what I accept is difficult competitin from the new technologies of the email and the text message. But the internet has also brought new opportunities such as the millions of goods that are bought an dsold each year over the internet both through normal retailers selling online and through auction sites like ebay. All this could be more business for our post offices. Instead the Government has actually made it more difficult for post offices by removing sources of business from them for example you can no longer renew your television licence at a post office and pensioners have to have their pensions paid into a bank account now rather than being able to collect it in cash from the post office. The Conservatives proposed to call a halt to the closure programme but their motion was defeated by 20 votes even though several Labour MP’s who accepted the points the Conservatives were making voted with the Conservatives and against their own Labour Government.
Spring Forum
Published March 16, 2008 Politics Leave a CommentTags: Conservative Party, Spring Forum
I am back from the Party’s Spring Conference in Gateshead, which for some reason which is probably lost in the midst of time is officially called the Spring Forum.
Both Sue and I really enjoyed it, we had a smooth run up and found our way to the hotel where we had booked in without any difficulty.
The Conference itself was held in the Sage Music Centre in Gateshead which geographically meant that it was on the other side of the River Tyne from where our hotel was on the Newcastle side.
There were sessions featuring all of the principal Shadow Cabinet Members and the Conference finished with a speech from David Cameron which struck exactly the right note. the main focus of the Conference was on the family and the support we will give to families when in Government. We are a Party who care about the family and see the family as the basic building block of society.
