Down to work
7th June 2005
New term
The longer I work in it, the more the House of Commons reminds me of a school. It has the same fusty smell – a combination of furniture polish and centuries of roast dinners. It also has the same sort of inhabitants – lots of rather loud boys.
Right now, Westminster is in a beginning-of-term mood. There are new teachers, new prefects and, in some cases, new desks. I am one of the lucky ones. For the first time in my Parliamentary career I have an office to myself. In Portcullis House, with a view of the river and the Millennium Eye. I cannot believe my luck.
Portcullis House is the large new building next to Parliament that cost so much to build. MPs call it the Crematorium because of the huge chimneys on the roof. These chimneys are also responsible for its other nickname. The Titanic.
Offices in this building are much prized because they are cool, spacious and equipped with a lot of very useful cupboards. My Parliamentary staffers are purring with pleasure. I am hoping that output will rise all round.
Respect and reform
We are certainly going to have enough to do. The Queen’s Speech contains thirty-three extremely complex bills on everything from Anti-Social Behaviour to the Voluntary Sector. It also mentions ten others that might need to be enacted. That makes forty-three bills in eighteen months. A very tall order for any Parliament.
This Queen’s Speech has two themes – respect and reform. On the respect side you have bills to prevent abuses of the immigration and asylum system; introduce identity cards; reduce violent crime; make our roads safer; manage offenders; safeguard employees; ban unfair lending and protect vulnerable groups.
On the reform side there are bills to modernise company law; make voting more secure; enforce tough hygiene standards in hospitals; reduce exposure to second-hand smoke in public places; simplify Housing Benefit; help NHS patients seeking redress and remove constraints on regulatory reform.
All, in all, a good term’s work.
Alarms and excursions
Most MPs and Peers will be too busy legislating to do much else over the next eighteen months. But that will not stop the Westminster rumour mill from churning out its usual quota of plot and counter-plot stories. The current one is about the delay in the formation of the powerful select, or scrutiny, committees of the House of Commons.
This delay, the official line goes, is the result of a power struggle between the government and the opposition about which party gets to chair which committee. This, given the increased number of Conservative MPs, is undoubtedly a problem. But, not enough of one to leave great swathes of European legislation unscrutinised between April and October.
The fact that this row coincides with elections to the powerful Labour Parliamentary Committee is, of course, not accidental. The various candidates are all expressing opinions, advancing solutions and generally stirring the pot.
Things should settle down in mid-June when the parliamentary elections are over. But, until then, expect ructions.
Costing the earth
Meanwhile, the Transport Secretary has been making headlines with his new road pricing pilots. These are designed to cut congestion by almost half by 2014.
Motorists would be charged to use certain roads and motorways. They would be compensated for these charges by a reduction in the fuel tax, which would, in turn, reduce the price of petrol. The Transport Secretary is also considering lowering road taxes.
Some of the money raised by road charging will be ploughed back into public transport. Just as part of the Congestion Charge has been used to improve London’s bus service. This helps to solve the chicken-and-egg nature of the transport problem.
The solution is to get more people on public transport. But, you will not do that until you improve public transport. Public transport will not improve unless more people use it. Road and congestion charging forces more people to use public transport whilst simultaneously helping to provide the capital needed to improve it.
A win, win solution which I am thoroughly in favour of.
Barbara Follett MP
