It is good democracy in action when The House of Commons spends several days looking at a proposed piece of legislation, as is the case with the Internal Market Bill this week. There will be opportunities for all parties to table amendments to the Bill and a fair amount of time is being spent in the best effort to get it right. Thanks to everyone who has got in touch with their views about it.
The media has been full of strong opinions about this Bill and what it means but it is really a safeguarding measure and a responsible step for us to take. It reinforces the right of people and businesses to work and trade freely across the whole of the UK including Northern Ireland. The crucial point is about the customs status of goods in Northern Ireland and our Government hopes this will never become an issue as a Canada style free trade deal between us and the EU is such an attractive option for both sides.
Our chief negotiator in Brussels, David Frost, has made it clear that should the EU not become more cooperative this legislation will allow us to preserve the Good Friday Agreement and guarantee we can move food and goods to and from Northern Ireland. The Withdrawal Agreement contains a clause about negotiating in good faith and given the ongoing issues about fisheries and state aid it is easy to see why some legal experts feel the agreement has already been weakened on the EU side.
My final point on this would be to echo something that Andrew Neil said this week. When did we ever see an aggressive, forensic journalist like him or Kay Burley given an interview with Michel Barnier or Donald Tusk? Our news channels expect daily access to Government Ministers and pride themselves on holding them to account but that never happens with EU politicians.
Good news this week that the High Court has come to a judgement regarding insurance companies paying out in cases of business interruption caused by the coronavirus. I am working through the detail of the decision but it seems very positive. It is an issue I have been lobbying the Government hard on having been in touch with some local hospitality businesses losing out because of the technical wording in their contracts despite clearly losing income because of coronavirus restrictions and I really hope we will have a good outcome soon.
As we head into a less certain autumn than we hoped for, I am working to see what we can do to support sports clubs like Yeovil Town and also local smaller clubs in Somerset including squash and cricket. I know the new restrictions about six people are not what we would have liked but do please stay safe and protect others at this important time. As always, if I can be of any help please do email marcus.fysh.mp@parliament.uk or call my Yeovil office on 01935 314321.