This week has seen the release of something called the Westminster Accounts, by Sky News and
Tortoise Media. It doesn’t affect me other than that I do worry about the way some people view
MPs and their legitimate activities. For example the funding of All Party Parliamentary Groups and
campaign donations are not MP earnings, and conflating them as such for a story can put good
candidates off running for office. It is also staggering that good money is being splashed around to
hear some like David Lammy speak, but we live in a free country.
I am concerned though about the links between Just Stop Oil donors and senior Labour Party
members. Since 2019 a firm called Ecotricity has given £360,000 to the Labour Party and their
chairman also bankrolled Just Stop Oil which is the group who glue themselves to roads and carry
out acts of vandalism.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey also received nearly £60k from Next Energy Capital, a company
claiming to be leading the transition to clean energy. Often donations such as this are to fund
specialist research and it is not the case that it is simply cash paid to promote a cause but MPs’
guidelines and rules are vague and need to be updated.
Thank you to everyone who got in touch about Channel 4 and the possibility of putting the
organisation in the private sector. Clearly there are many groups doing very well in that sector and I
think C4 would have done also but I am pleased that the Government has listened to concerns. I
raised the issue too that a fully privatised station may not cover things like the Paralympics which is
so valuable and popular with the public but maybe not in a commercial way.
There is a lot of detail that needs to be checked but I think it is a good thing that the Government
has moved quickly to introduce legislation to maintain emergency services. I will certainly be looking
at what is involved and I fully respect the right of people to strike but we need to ensure that can
happen without lives being at risk and this would be in line with the law in many other countries.
It’s great news that there is finally movement on the Yeovil Refresh project. The delays have been
frustrating especially as I worked hard to secure the Future High Street finding over two years ago
but now is the time to work together to deliver for our town centre. Across the country shopping
areas are having a tough time and it needs creative thinking to make them a fun place to visit and
spend time in. I know views vary on what needs to be done but hopefully we can continue to make
progress in the coming months.