YOUR MP WRITES (From Worcester News)

YOUR MP WRITES

8:24am Thursday 12th June 2008 in

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I should be writing about the big political question of the week – 42 days. Where should the government strike the balance between taking away our historic liberties and introducing new powers to protect us from threats?
Questions don’t come bigger than that.
I sincerely believe that the Government has not made the case for further eroding our liberties and I hope they will have lost the vote when you read this.
There’s no point being secure if we have betrayed our own most important values in the process; that would be to give the terrorists an easy victory.
Fortunately, the other things that have kept me busy recently have been a little simpler.
First post office closures. I chair the Commons Business and Enterprise Committee that scrutinises policy in this area and we have just published a major report and taken further evidence from Post Office Ltd and the watchdog, Postwatch.
I am deeply sad about the closure programme which reaches Worcestershire at the end of August.
We can expect to lose about 10 or 12 offices across south Worcestershire – and there’s nothing we can do to stop that – all we can do is make sure that the closures do as little damage as possible.
Every post office we “save” will be replaced by another closure. I feel that my committee’s work has made the process better – but it’s still going to be painful.
Happier news for two of my longest running campaigns.
Work has begun on the re-opening of the Droitwich canals and it looks as if a long section of the Cotswold railway line to Oxford and London will be redoubled.
Whatever got into the head of the old nationalised British Rail when it decided to single the track, I just don’t know.
A decision taken under Harold Wilson’s government in the late 1960s has had serious consequences.
It now looks as if Network Rail will be allowed to go ahead with their plans.
That will be a huge step in the right direction, undoing an act of monumental vandalism nearly 40 years ago that all Worcestershire’s MPs since then have consistently attacked.
And as for the Droitwich canals, the diligence and vision of the volunteers in the Canals Trust has been magnificently rewarded.
My only slight sadness is that Worcester still hasn’t quite woken up to the huge advantages it will bring to the city itself as a long-weekend cruising ring brings new life to Diglis and the Worcester Birmingham canal thorough the city centre.