Budget
This week’s budget was a great blow to small businesses, to ordinary taxpayers, and to farmers in particular. It was also an insult to the democratic process, as the principal measures the Chancellor announced - an increase in VAT, new rules to allow more borrowing, and the imposition of inheritance tax on family farms - had all been explicitly ruled out by Labour in the election campaign. My thoughts on it here.
I wrote last week of my fears for pubs and churches. We still await news on the future of the VAT relief scheme for church repairs which I expect the Government will terminate to help fund their other spending commitments, such as the £10k payrise for well-paid train drivers. And while a penny off a draught ale pint will be (infinitesimally) welcome, duty on other drinks will increase with inflation and pubs are going to be hammered by the NICs raise, the increase in the minimum wage, and the cut in business rates relief.
Conservative leadership
I am personally disappointed that a majority of Conservative Party members did not vote for Robert Jenrick, whose campaign I supported. I felt he showed he had the ideas and the energy for the job. But I am very pleased Kemi Badenoch was chosen if he was not; she too has great ideas, great charisma, and a determination to take on this already failing government. I look forward to working with her.
Flooding
I spent Friday dealing with a lot of flooding problems in Wroughton, Chiseldon and Wanborough, where a mix of old and new mistakes - ancient inadequate drains plus misguided development and road construction - have conspired to threaten households and businesses with deluge. I will do what I can to persuade Swindon Borough Council, Thames Water and the Environment Agency - all adept buck-passers - to cooperate with residents to fix these risks.
Wanborough
Rev Steve Paynter showed me around St Andrew’s Church, Wanborough. It is, he said, only one of four churches in the country with both a tower and a spire; ‘a church one does not easily forget’, says Pevsner (‘Gargoyles and battlements. Doorway with traceried spandrels… good ogre tracery… and two-light bell-openings with perforated baffles.’) It sits on the Wanborough hilltop, austere and beautiful. Steve hopes to take out a few pews to make some space at the back, stick in a loo and a kitchen somewhere under the belfry, and kindle some community spirit.
