I have joined the Ecclesiastical Committee of both Houses of Parliament: 15 peers and 15 MPs, tasked with approving (‘declaring expedient’), or not, the measures passed by General Synod of the Church of England. It’s a reminder that we have a state Church, and ultimately Parliament is its lawmaker. The Committee met this week and declared expedient a handful of measures which, while abstruse, were not unimportant. Even bigger matters - concerning safeguarding, and the control of the £11bn assets of the church which are supposed to be used to support local parish ministry not to pay reparations for slavery or hire managers at diocesan HQ - will come before us this year.
My main job in Parliament is the shadow minister for welfare, trying to work out how to reduce our multiplying benefits bill (due to be £100bn on sickness benefits by the end of the decade) and help some of the 9 million working age adults who don’t work, into work. We have been waiting seven months for a plan from the Government, as I pointed out at Oral Questions on Monday; the minister blamed the delay on a court case that took place two weeks ago. Watch here.
The following day we had the annual debate when the Government increases pensions and benefits in line with inflation and earnings; I set out more fully our concerns about the rising welfare bill, and the Government’s failure to address it as we were doing when we left office. It was a courteous debate with the very decent Labour minister, Stephen Timms, though he and his colleagues couldn’t help having a dig at Kemi. Watch here.
I spent Friday and Saturday in and around Chiseldon, just south of Swindon, and indeed part of Swindon Borough Council rather than Wiltshire. It is a lovely place, though somewhat hemmed in by speeding traffic. The church was Norman, though the original tower fell down the cliff at the west end that drops away to the Washpool, common ground beside a tributary of the Cole, a tributary of the Thames which it joins at Lechlade (this is the Oxford-facing part of the constituency); the tower was rebuilt on the side of the church, and now forms its porch. I met the Rector and churchwardens - we’d fixed to meet to bemoan the anticipated imposition of VAT on church repairs, but this week I got a letter from the Government saying no, in fact they’re keeping the last government’s VAT relief scheme in place - for which we are very grateful, albeit there’s now a ceiling on it. But it might mean we get more ceilings, or roofs at least, on our churches. Here I am, jubilating with the Rector and churchwardens.
Here I am (above) with the volunteers who run the Wilts & Berks canal at Wichelstowe, near Swindon. Brunel chose this spot to create his railway town, at the highest point of the canal. It’s mostly abandoned now, but this team are slowly getting the money and the permissions together to reopen it, linking the Thames and the Kennet & Avon canal. It’s a glorious vision. For now, you can take an extremely short boat trip up and down the surviving section, next to Waitrose.
I popped in to see the Beavers at Larkhill at their weekly meeting on Thursday night in St Barbara’s Hall, where I last came in the autumn to join a ‘shura’ of Afghan elders. This was a different scene: a gaggle of children with their scarves nearly toggled around their necks, learning to be prepared. Larkhill now has the full complement of Scouts and pre-Scouts, packs of children and teenagers from 3 to 16, led and supported by local parents. This gives me hope.
