As winter begins to bite I am very relieved that communities across Wiltshire are stepping forward to organise ‘warm hubs’ for people who are at home in the daytime but cannot afford to keep the heating on. I asked a question in Parliament (see here) about the role of local churches in providing these spaces, and met with Graham Martin of Sustainable Devizes to hear what is happening in the town - a lot, is the answer, which you can see here.
Last week I was elected (unopposed, so no great triumph) to the Treasury Select Committee. This gives me the chance to question Treasury ministers in more detail than you can do in the House of Commons, as well as other economic policy-makers. Following the Chancellor’s autumn statement he spent two hours with us explaining the Government’s plans, and successfully achieved his objective of committing no news except an intended announcement (the intention for everyone to reduce energy consumption by 15%, which sounds sensible). I quizzed him on the Government’s plans to get on top of public spending, and he stressed their commitment to reform of the NHS.
More noteworthy was the session we had with the Office for Budget Responsibility, on whose forecasts the Chancellor’s statement - and our whole fiscal policy for the coming year - relies. My great concern is that we are assuming (‘betting the farm’, as I put it to the OBR chiefs) that energy costs are going to fall through the floor - into negative inflation, no less - next year. I asked them why they were so confident, and got the answer that they expect the Ukraine war will end, or we get more liquid gas, or there is ‘demand destruction’ (see here). I am also worried that they assume rising interest rates will mean people’s growing savings will balance the increase in mortgage payments; which they may do in aggregate, but not for a mortgage holder with no savings, which is a lot of people. I asked about the risk of a mortgage crisis and the OBR agreed it’s a concern (here).
Beneath these economic abstractions life goes on, with trouble all around. Huge respect and thanks to Caragh Booth and her friends organising another truckload of supplies, including 60 generators, for Ukraine this week (details here). I was proud to sign a manifesto organised by the Conservative Environment Network with policies to clean up our rivers (see here); I also met in Devizes with the steering group of the Morgan’s Hill Group, the gang of MPs representing the three rivers (two Avons and the Kennet) which flow from their headwaters around the eponymous hill in the Marlborough Downs. I popped into the 10 year anniversary party in London for Action Through Enterprise, a Ramsbury-based charity that supports people living in poverty in Ghana.
I was a guest on BBC’s Politics Live and discussed the role of faith in public life (as well as other matters, like local government finance); if interested (unlikely, I admit), it’s here. I attended the debate in Parliament for International Men’s Day and spoke briefly (here) in support of more services for men suffering eating disorders - a widespread and under-reported crisis. And I joined some hundreds of members of Save the Parish, including my constituent and friend (and churchwarden, the scourge of bishops) Clarissa Reilly, at a meeting in Parliament to protest against centralisation and waste in the Church of England.
On Friday evening Devizes was ablaze for the annual Lantern Parade, a spectacular community event marking the start of ‘the festive season’, or Advent we might call it, in style. Here I am (in the picture above) in front of some ‘tractors in tinsel’. From there I went to the golf club at Marlborough for the 50 year anniversary party for the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - the organisation that has quietly protected and promoted this most special piece of England for half a century. After the speeches and the cake-cutting we headed outside for a lesson in star-gazing, on a bright cold night over the Downs. Aged nearly 50 I finally learned how to locate the North Star (straight up from the two stars that form the end of the Big Dipper), and had a look through the telescope at Jupiter, hanging as it seemed like a small lantern over Tidworth.
