Have your Say!

Isn't it amazing that the scout movement has survived into the twenty first century, not just survived but is flourishing. I attended a packed meeting at Ivybridge Community Centre on Sunday to witness hundreds (it seemed) of scouts beavers and cubs renewing their promises in front of each other and their families. They entered proudly in neat formation behind their flags and paraded out again in slightly less order at the end.

Promising to do a good deed every day and to remember your duty to our Queen and to God, how old-fashioned is that? But how wonderful and these young people were sincere in their commitments.

The scout movement, started by one man's vision over 100 years ago in radically different days, has updated itself; new uniforms, opening its ranks to include girls, embracing some more modern language and rules, but the values and the traditions remain. Respect, duty, kindness, be prepared, the changeless principles roll on.

These young people will always benefit from the truths they learn whilst collecting their badges and singing around the campfire.

In chatting to some of them afterwards, it was obvious how much they enjoyed their involvement. The movement has a robust, healthy innocence about it. We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to the adults who give up their time - stacks of it in many cases - to lead and mould these fine young lives. I gather that there is in some parts of this area a waiting list of young people who wish to join, but not yet enough adult leaders, an opportunity for some of you who know how to light a fire by rubbing your knees together, or whatever they do.

It is easy to lose heart at the state of the world today, all that selfish, superficial, consumer-led stuff that fills our lives. But we need not. I am a great believer in the ability of the human spirit to adapt and overcome. There is still a yearning for traditional values - traditional because they are timeless and they work. And they can still be outworked in a modern context.

We do not need any more law in this country, or more money spent on welfare. How much more would we all benefit from a renewed emphasis at every level of society on the meaningful values that the scout movement embraces.

I was never a scout. On Sunday I began to wish that I had been.

posted by Gary Streeter M.P. on Thursday, April 24, 2008

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Pretty soon the Commons will be grappling with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. This will "modernise" the law on what scientists and doctors will be permitted to do in the controversial world of human reproduction.

I currently intend to vote against three measures in particular - but I thought I ought to consult you on this first!

I am nervous about allowing scientists to fuse animal embryos with human ones, the proposal dubbed a Frankenstein measure by some (probably unhelpfully - this debate deserves serious language.) Such hybrid creations would only be permitted to exist for 14 days, and experimentation on them could be helpful in pushing forward the battle against disease. Even so I do not believe we should tamper with nature in such a flagrant way. There has recently been significant progress in using adult stem cells for this important research and I would prefer to see this developed rather than specifically creating life, whether hybrid or not, just for experimentation.

Similarly, I am uneasy about the concept of saviour siblings. This is where a second child is created in a way that means he or she will have bone marrow or other tissue that can be used to help an older brother or sister. This is would be good for the sick child already alive, but I am concerned about the future impact on the specially manufactured child. Many people already struggle with their own identity. How would it be to know that you were born or crafted in a certain way to save a sibling? Would not that person always wonder - who would I be if I had just developed naturally in the womb?

Finally, I do not like the proposal to do away with any need of naming a father in the process of conception. With the obvious exception of human tragedy, I am against any process that brings a child into the world, already fatherless. I appreciate that many children grow up in that state, but we should not be designing children in this way. Law is both about practical impact and setting out our framework of values. We can hardly bring pressure to bear on parents of turbulent teenagers on the one hand and sanction fatherlessness at birth on the other. There are free votes on these issues, although my faith and instincts steer my conscience in this direction in any event. But I am keen to know what you think.

posted by Gary Streeter M.P. on Thursday, April 10, 2008

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In May of this year a battle Royal is set to commence. I refer not to local council elections which will come and go, as usual, without interfering in most people's lives, but to a fight of a much higher order. In May, the Post Office will be announcing which of Devon's post offices will be culled in the next instalment of the government's policy of closing 2,500 around the country. It will be unveiled as a consultation exercise, of course, but do not be fooled. Elsewhere in the country very few branches have escaped closure once initially on the hit list.
The criteria used in this massacre of yet more cherished institutions are: customer numbers, proximity to other branches, financial benefits to Post Office Limited of closure and relative size of the branch. In rural areas, the proximity test will be met if the post office in question is more than 3 miles from the nearest other branch. In suburban areas (and I can think of 3 or 4 branches in Plympton and Plymstock) which may well appear on the kill-list, the distance is one mile.
In many areas it will be the vulnerable who will suffer most, having to relocate elsewhere to draw their pension or buy their stamps or licences. The reason for this closure plan is to save money. This is the same reason why the railway branch lines faced Beeching's axe in the 1960's. How short-sighted. What would we give now to have back all of that local railway infrastructure so that we could have small trains chugging from village to town getting carbon heavy cars off the road and keeping our rural areas alive.
What can be done? When the list is announced it is my intention to support every community that organises itself in a campaign to keep its post office open. If you feel yours is under threat, you may want to be thinking about this now. We cannot do much to challenge geography - although we must make sure that the distances are measured in the way humans, not crows, have to travel - but the amount of business conducted over the counter is a crucial factor we can change. If you want to retain your post office as the hub of your community, please use it as often as you can in the next few weeks. Use it or lose it was never a more worrying maxim.

posted by Gary Streeter M.P. on Wednesday, March 12, 2008

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Amidst all of the media feeding frenzy about MP’s employing family members last week, I was glad to slip into one of the many receptions and events that take place in the mother of Parliaments every day and meet some real people. It was a celebration of the wonderful work done by heroic people all over the country mentoring others, young and old. We heard from those who had been mentored as well as the people, some of them still teenagers themselves, who had been mentoring others.

I met a fifteen year old girl from Plymstock School who was proud to tell me about the impact on her life that her wise mentor, also present, had made. She produced a computer print out of her behavioural record at school. Three years earlier there was a list as long as your arm of incidents of "disruptive behaviour" and detentions. This had shrivelled to three minor incidents in the current year. This bubbly young lady also told me that as a result of being mentored the relationship with her mother had improved dramatically and that she had lifted her horizons about what she might do with her life.

One meeting a week over a three year period with an experienced woman was all it had taken to bring about this change of heart.

What a powerful testimony of how well placed voluntary effort can make all of the difference to a young life. The state can help organise but does not have the resources to field a team of professional mentors. Besides it is important that the confidante is seen as being on the young person's side.

The mentoring scheme at Plymstock School is organised by Jane Brotherton who told me that they have more pupils suitable for this kind of help than volunteers.

Are you a good listener who has something to offer to the next generation? Can you put all of those excruciating years guiding your own teenagers in the vague direction of normality to good use? If you can help, why not offer your services, or find other avenues for mentoring people whose lives might be changed for ever. Jane would love to hear from you. In the end, most mentors tell me that they are the ones who benefit most. The rewards of seeing a young life blossom just by listening and offering the occasional word of advice are very real.

What do you think about this kind of scheme? Should the government be working harder to introduce this kind of help, or is it up to us as a commuinity to support the youth in this way?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Yours,
Gary

posted by Gary Streeter M.P. on Tuesday, February 12, 2008

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Of the campaigns I have fought and lost, the Langage power station still rankles. I remain convinced that placing a new gas fired power station right alongside 35,000 people, on the gateway to the moor and rolling beauty of the South Hams was a poor decision by the DTI. Given that they have had to move pylons and dig up half of Devon to install a new pipeline, I feel somewhat vindicated.

However, it is now being built and it is time to accept that it will shortly be part of our daily lives in south west Devon. I was shown around the construction site on Friday. Centrica Plc (British Gas to you and me) are spending 400 million GBP on this ultra-modern complex and currently there are over 500 people working on it - most of them British workers - a number that will rise to a massive 850 this summer. I have never seen so many cranes and tractor type vehicles in my life, with steel and concrete thrusting out of the ground at every turn. It is intended to open the station in late 2008/early 2009. The project is currently running to time and on budget.

Through the constant lobbying of many people, the design has been improved and the foundations lowered so that the impact on all of us locally will be diminished. We will see it from the Deep Lane junction, but probably not from the A38. We won't see it in Plympton until we drive through Langage and I am assured we will not hear or smell it. Time will tell.
It is an impressive feat of engineering. Already the firm are starting to employ the 50 or so people who will run it, several of them local people. I never bought into the idea that we will benefit in our power bills locally, and it seem that we will not. The main benefit will be security of supply.

My primary concern remains the energy park alongside the power station that would attract 2,000 new jobs to the region. This has nothing to do with Centrica, but is owned by Carlton Power Limited. Well, there is a posh sign on the entranceway and some swanky landscaping has been done. But there is not a sign of a building in which these new jobs can be created. Carlton Power - please get a move on. As the economy tightens we need those jobs.

Let me know how you you feel about the projects and what you make of the building work so far. Have you noticed any disruptions to your usual routine? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Yours,
Gary

posted by Gary Streeter M.P. on Monday, February 04, 2008

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What do you do when you join a club, are not very happy about its direction or some of its rules, but it is the best club in town and you don't fancy being out there on your own? Isn't that precisely where we are with the European Union? (Now that I have mentioned the E word, 70% of you have stopped reading while a trenchant minority have started swivelling your eyes.)
We are between a rock and a hard place. We joined the Common Market 35 years ago and really only wanted the trade advantages, not full blown integration. Most of us have never really agreed with the focus on ever closer union or some of the institution's barking mad rules. But other members of the club have successfully pushed an integrationist agenda which has taken us to a degree of shared decision making that would have horrified the British people in 1975. Of course, our membership of the club has brought many benefits; mainly economic, but also travel freedoms, opportunities as well as underpinning peace and stability in western Europe. So we like being in the club, (apart from a determined handful) even though the committee keeps making decisions that frustrate us!

Starting shortly, the House of Commons will be debating the new Treaty for 20 days. As we cannot amend the treaty, but only accept or reject it, the logic behind allocating so much time to debate it is beyond me, but others have so decided. There is only one vote during this long process that really matters and that is whether or not the people of this country get a say on ratifying this treaty.

I am not the world's greatest believer in referendums, but I do feel strongly that we should have one on this treaty. Every political party promised that the European Constitution would go to the people for formal approval in the run up to the last election. That Constitutional Treaty was stopped dead in its tracks by a vote of the French people, but most commentators privately agree that the revised treaty is substantially the same text as the one that was thrown out.
As this treaty does give more power to European institutions it would seem a good time to test British public opinion. So watch out for a close vote coming up soon in both the Commons and the Lords. It could give you the final say.

Any thoughts?
Gary

posted by Gary Streeter M.P. on Sunday, January 27, 2008

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I hope you all had a very good Christmas and New Year break and feel refreshed and ready for all that 2008 will throw at us. No predictions, except this: I know that I will make many mistakes this year. How? Because the only way to avoid making mistakes is to avoid making decisions.
One of the first issues on which the wisdom of Solomon is required is MP's pay. Not a great topic for the New Year you may think, but as the story of "snouts in trough politicians" is already running I thought I'd grasp the nettle.
First of all, I think it plain wrong that we should have a vote on our own pay and this must stop. Some years ago our pay was linked to a certain grade in the civil service, but one year the automatic upgrade suggested such a large uplift that the government felt inclined to oppose it. So the link was broken, big mistake.
Now we have an independent body that makes recommendations every three years or so. It always seems to recommend hefty increases which the government of the day tries to oppose, so it still comes back to the House to decide.
We need a major exercise, with full consultation, to decide where your elected representatives should rank in the public sector pecking order. There are few comparable jobs, so this has a measure of creativity about it. In my opinion, not many would complain if we were grouped in the same pool as secondary school head-teachers, General Practitioners and senior local government executives. After all, we are the only law-makers in the country and carry a measure of responsibility. So why not decide where we fit into the hierarchy and then peg us there with inflation only increases thereafter. That way we don't get to vote on our own pay.
The trouble with my analysis is that secondary heads get paid about 90,000 GBP these days, GPs over 100,000 GBP and top local government people well over 100,000 GBP. MPs get 60,000 GBP - still a lot of money for most people - but imagine the outcry if we suddenly jumped to the level of my suggested comparators. It can't be done.
So we are stuck with a system that involves the indignity of us voting on our own pay. There has to be a better way than this. Anybody out there got any wisdom? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Yours,
Gary

posted by Gary Streeter M.P. on Monday, January 14, 2008

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