This week has seen what’s called ping pong in Parliament where a piece of legislation is sent between MPs and the House of Lords and various changes are debated, in this case to the Illegal Migrants Bill. In theory this should lead to what’s put into law being the best it can be, having drawn on as much advice as possible. As with so much though the effectiveness of the changes will be down to good implementation with a sensible and competent approach.
Stopping the small boat crossings is important but we also need to have a faster system in place to assess genuine asylum claims and make sure they are processed fairly. Many of the changes proposed by the House of Lords seem to make that less straightforward and are also very much against overwhelming public opinion on this issue.
Parliament adjourns for the summer recess at the end of next week and I am very much looking forward to that enabling me to be back in Somerset during the week as well as weekends. The machinery of Government keeps going throughout the summer however and issues can still be raised with Ministers. I am going to keep looking for ways to improve local healthcare and in particular access to NHS dentist appointments; I think the contract does need to change but in a way that is fair to the dentists themselves as well as patients.
It seems there may be some progress on the issue of phosphates which has led to almost indefinite delays in planning applications being assessed. This won’t wave through all applications but it is only right that builders and all the associated workers get more clarity on the issue which has largely been decided by Natural England in the past. Whilst we need to protect our wetlands there are better ways and we should be investing in technology rather than have the current impasse which I have been trying to help resolve for a long time now.
The BBC continues to be a source of great frustration. In some ways it continues to cover events brilliantly, does a great job with Wimbledon and remains a trusted source for many. However, it is very bad timing to have a scandal whilst at the same time publishing the salaries of the presenters. The licence fee is such a regressive form of tax, meaning that those with the least money to spare pay the same as the very wealthy for Gary Lineker’s £1,354,999 a year. Given how many people now use Netflix, Sky and other services, it is surely not sustainable to continue with the current funding model of the BBC.