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THE opening of Parliament by the Queen yesterday had more than its usual constitutional significance.
LAST week, on Wednesday, October 1, a very significant public meeting took place at Powick Village Hall.
WE are now well into the consultation period on the post office’s proposals for closure of branches in Worcestershire.
I have always believed that Gordon Brown will stay until his day of reckoning with the electorate. I do not think it likely that 70 Labour MPs will sign his death warrant in time for the Labour Conference (if Parliament was sitting it might be different; for an open rebellion of this size you need everyone in the same room at the same time).
As a former Minister for Housing I take a special interest in the recent announcement by the Government of its plan to build 25,250 new houses in south Worcestershire by 2026.
Today could be one of those days which are marked out by historians as signifying a great change in the political landscape.
The aftermath of the severe floods experienced by the county, especially last July, is an administrative nightmare. The more I have looked into what is going on, the more appalled I am.
IT is now the 35th year in which I have represented a Worcestershire seat in Parliament. It is not a bad moment to make a few comparisons.
The recent flooding has been very bad, but not entirely without precedent. Peter Luff has shown me an old postcard he has found, dated August 1912, of the approaches to Tewkesbury completely submerged under water.
Last Tuesday I became 65 and, like many of my constituents, a pensioner. If I kept a diary I might have recorded something along the following lines:
IF he or she is lucky, there will occur once or twice in the political lifetime of a Member of Parliament an event which is of seismic proportions in his/her constituency.
Last week I asked the Prime Minister a question: “How were the public monies lent to Northern Rock funded? Where in particular did the Bank of England suddenly find a spare £25 billion?”
Taking into account two General Elections in 1974, this Tuesday marked my 34th Queen’s Speech.
Apparently Gordon Brown is contemplating holding a snap general election in the next few weeks.
Next week, we will have a new Government; or will we? All the major figures, the Prime Minister included, will be leftovers from the previous Government.
Next week, Saturday, June 2, marks the 150th anniversary of Sir Edward Elgar’s birth, though you would not have thought so by the actions of some of those in positions of authority.
This Tuesday I put down my oft-repeated question in Parliament to the Secretary of State for Health: “When does she expect to announce a decision on the Malvern Hospital?”
On Wednesday, January 24, I asked the Prime Minister: “Will the European Union take control of our criminal law?” The Prime Minister replied “No, it will not.”
NEXT Wednesday the House of Commons will vote on whether members of the House of Lords should be elected or be appointed, as most of them are now.
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