Erdington and Shrewsbury MPs under-fire for non-attendance
by jontandy on February 14, 2010
in Election, General, Labour Party, Parliamentary
Apr 9 2009 by Edward Chadwick, Birmingham Post
Two Midland MPs have been named as among the worst elected representatives in the country who have failed to show up for large numbers of Commons committees.
Sion Simon, the Labour MP for Erdington, managed to get to just 29.7 per cent of meetings of the treasury committee.
Although he became the Government’s Further Education Minister in October, figures released by Parliament show he attended only 11 of 37 meetings in the 12 months to November 2008.
Shrewsbury’s Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski is listed as present at just 12.5 per cent of the justice committee and 31.3 per cent of the international development committee.
He has claimed the figures are wrong.
At least 60 of 220 members on the most powerful committees examining public spending and services have missed at least half of all meetings in the last year.
The figure has sparked concern among select committee chairmen that MPs are shirking responsibilities and failing to properly hold government to account.
Phil Willis, chairman of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee, said: “I think it is the job of members to attend.”
Commons committees are cross-party groups responsible for scrutinising public expenditure and policies. They are made up of mainly back-bench MPs.
Mr Simon said: ‘‘It is a ridiculous non-story. It’s like saying every MP should be in the Chamber for every debate. Select committees do not work like that. They are just one of a range of tools MPs can use. There is no reason whatsoever to priorities select committee meetings above the other work of an MP.
“I pick my meetings and was an active and effective member of the committee. I work for the people of Erdington and the Labour Government; not the Treasury Select Committee.’’
Mr Kawczynski did not respond to calls to his office but told The Times the figure for his attendance at the international development committee was wrong and that he had not attended the justice committee because the two clashed.
Meanwhile, Birmingham MP Gisela Stuart defended foreign trips by Commons committee members to sunny climes which have cost taxpayers £1.3 million in the last year alone.
Committee members have jetted off to California, Bali, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands on overseas “fact-finding” trips.
One MP went on 11 foreign visits last year. The Taxpayer’s Alliance has said the amount of money lavished on foreign trips seemed “excessive and frivolous”.
Edgbaston MP Mrs Stuart’s foreign affairs committee spent £231,023 last year on foreign trips, including the Caribbean holiday island of Bermuda.
But the back-bench Labour MP said her visit to the Falkland Islands as part of the committee’s work last May was modest and involved little luxury.
“We flew most of the way by military plane and stayed in fairly basic bed and breakfast accommodation,” she said. “It was far from lavish or excessive.
“The trip to Bermuda led to the suspension of the government in the Turks and Caicos Islands because of corruption.
“These trips cost a lot of money but if you were to ask me whether the trips provided good value, then the answer would be yes.”
Other trips included a £48,000 junket to South Africa by the justice committee to look at the role of the prison officer abroad.
Matthew Elliott, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “Every parliamentary trip should be scrutinised to see if it is really worthwhile.”
Broken Britain – A Genuine Picture?
by jontandy on February 8, 2010
in Community, County Council, Election, General, Parliamentary
Sometimes when reading the letters pages of the local press, one can be given a rather depressing and nihilistic view of the world. Often, the same narrow band of correspondents are pushing an intolerant view of life, choosing to focus upon that which divides society rather than what brings us together.
Other times, those with a particular axe to grind will seek to make political capital out of isolated national tragedies far from Shrewsbury. A recent instance is David Cameron’s ‘Broken Britain’ claims following the child violence case in South Yorkshire.
Personally I prefer to concentrate on the facts, and recognise that not all was well in the good old days. For example the number of violent deaths among children in England and Wales fell by almost 40% in the past 30 years, or nearly 50% when taking into account growth in the child population, according to the recent report by Bournemouth University.
Improvements in social care systems, along with a greater focus on child poverty, had helped lower the death rate. Thirty years ago England and Wales were the third or fourth highest child killers in the western world, but we’re now fourth lowest.
These national tragedies are terrible and one violent death of a child is too many but this research clearly proves the way to protect children’s lives is to invest in our social care systems, fight child poverty and support those families who need it.
To consider cutting initiatives such as Labour’s Sure Start scheme, which provides health, education, parenting and employment services to pre-school children and parents, is in my opinion, bordering on the cruel.
I hope our Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski will confirm that he will back our four Shrewsbury Sure Start centres in Monkmoor, Crowmoor, Harlescott and Meole Brace, and not permit any cuts in their funding laid out nationally by his own party.
Free VAT Open Day for Businesses
by jontandy on February 7, 2010
in General, Local Council
Free VAT advice open day for businesses
Shropshire Council and HM Revenue & Customs will be holding a free advisory day in Shrewsbury on 11 March to help explain to newly-registered businesses the importance of filing their VAT returns online.
Under government proposals it will become compulsory from April 2010 for VAT registered business to complete VAT returns online and pay any VAT due electronically.
Shropshire businesses affected by this change are being invited to the exhibition and seminar programme at the Prostar Stadium on Thursday 11 March to meet experts from government department agencies, and to find out more about help and support to start, survive or grow in business today.
Jill Poole, from HM Revenue and Customs Business Liaison Team, said: “I am pleased to be able to invite businesses to this event which offers a wide range of advice for small and medium sized businesses. In addition, we will be offering assistance to VAT registered businesses for the VAT Online service.”
Councillor David Roberts, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for local environment and economy said: “I’m pleased that we are able to support this important event which I would urge businesses to attend. One of the main aims for the Shropshire Business Board is to work with partners and other organisations to simplify the information available to businesses and to make it easier for them to access existing support services. This event will help to meet this aim.”
For more information about the event, call 01682 755214 or 01743 252531
School Places Solution Vital
by jontandy on February 4, 2010
in Community, General, Labour Party, Local Council, Parliamentary
The problem of surplus school places in Shropshire is back on the front page (Shropshire Star 2nd Feb). Now the spotlight has moved on to our secondary schools, which are reported to be facing large reductions in pupil numbers over the next 5-6 years. This issue has been central to school funding in our County in recent years. To be fair to the controlling Tory group on the former County Council, they did recently attempt to tackle surplus numbers in the primary sector. Sadly, rank and file Tory Councillors when faced with the inevitable angry protests buckled under the pressure, and appeared more concerned with the approaching unitary elections than with making progress on the matter.
Well, the problem has not gone away. I fully appreciate, and sympathise, with village residents concerned about the risk of closure to their school. On top of the loss of the local shop, pub and bus service this can seem like the last straw. But we must all accept small rural schools cannot be considered in isolation. Surplus places kept open mean less funding for the rest of our schools, including those in both village and town.
In my opinion what is required is an approach that considers the whole of our school system, and whilst listening fully to the people, is not then derailed by narrow local electoral considerations. The issue is very emotive and inevitably supporters of some schools will be disappointed. The ruling Conservatives on Shropshire Council face some very tough decisions on the matter, but to do nothing is no longer an option.
What was not acceptable was the stance of certain prominent local Tories, who sought to blame the Labour Government for Shropshire’s surplus place problem. Spouting misleading and inaccurate claims will not solve the problem, and does nothing to foster the informed debate we all need to have on the subject. The funding figures per pupil are largely a product of past failures to tackle the surplus place problem. No Government, of whatever party, is going to pay us to maintain significant numbers of empty desks.
If the same people repeat these claims now, they will truly have exposed themselves to be unable to understand simple mathematics, or worse, to be total cynics.
MP Silent on Local Tory Turmoil
by jontandy on January 31, 2010
in Borough Council, General, Local Council
The very public spat between ousted former Tory Borough Council leader Peter Nutting and current Tory Shropshire Council leader Keith Barrow throws up several significant questions. Cllr Nutting has been ruthlessly stripped of his Deputy Leadership and sacked from all his other main committee posts on the unitary new authority. Yet only recently our Tory MP praised Cllr Nutting in the fullest possible terms.
In a Parliamentary debate on Local Government in March 2007 MP Daniel Kawczynski said of the Borough Council “It has an excellent chief executive and a formidable council leader, Peter Nutting.” Yet less than 3 years later Cllr Nutting has been ejected from power by his own Party, and Robin Hooper seems long gone.
As a Councillor on all of the Borough, County and Unitary Councils I always respected Peter Nutting as a hard working local representative. But I had deep differences with him over policy, particularly the spending spree the Tories indulged in with the sale proceeds of the Borough council houses. A recurring problem I found was getting information to scrutinise these spending decisions. The regular exclusion of the public under the exempt item rules, such as happened with the secret sale of the Barker Street car park, is just one example.
Sadly this is still going on. I have found great difficulty in getting details out of the Tory led Shropshire Council, to try and get to the bottom of of the huge Quantum Leap spending total. Yet both Peter Nutting and Keith Barrow are now publicly claiming they want more open and democratic local government. They can start by holding a full investigation into the huge sums spent on the Darwin celebrations, and why local residents seem to have got so little in return.
And what of our Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski, what has he got to say about this local Tory turmoil? When it comes to his own Party, he seems to go very, very, quiet.
