Steve Barclay’s Award

Steve Barclay’s Award

Total Politics continue to roll out their yearly awards and I was excited to see our own MP, Steve Barclay, has blasted up the MPs chart and come in EIGHTH!

This is a big deal actually.  Some of the best-known and most prolific MPs are in the top ten and its highly unusual for a new MP to jump straight above loads of others and clear into the top ten.  He’s in excellent company.  Whether or not you agree with their politics such well-known blogging MPs as Tom Harris, John Redwood, Douglas Carswell, Tom Watson and Kerry McCarthy are all in there alongside our man!

Anybody who doesn’t follow Steve’s blog should definitely check it out!  He’s been a bit too busy in the last couple of months to update it due to his new job as our representative, but if anything that makes it even more exciting that he’s shot straight into the top ten!

Here’s the full list:

1 (1) Tom Harris MP
2 (2) John Redwood MP
3 (3) Douglas Carswell MP
4 (6) Tom Watson MP
5 (5) Kerry McCarthy MP
6 (8) Lynne Featherstone MP
7 Glyn Davies MP
8 Steve Barclay MP
9 (26) Andrew Gwynne MP
10 John Leech MP
11 Mark Reckless MP
12 Eric Joyce MP
13 Caroline Lucas MP
14 (19) Michael Meacher MP
15 Rachel Reeves MP
16 (10) Paul Flynn MP
17 Toby Perkins MP
18 Graham Jones MP
19 Guy Opperman MP
20 Jonathan Edwards MP
21 (17) Steve Webb MP
22 Tracey Crouch MP
23 Robert Halfon MP
24 (20) Jeremy Hunt MP
25 (9) David Jones MP
26 (4) Nadine Dorries MP
27 (21) Austin Mitchell MP
28 (27) Ed Vaizey MP
29 (30) Richard Benyon MP
30 Oliver Heald MP

Good Odds

Good Odds

The betting company, Ladbrokes, have worked out the odds for different people being “the next Conservative leader.”  I was excited to see Steve Barclay MP getting 66/1.  This must be looked at in perspective.  Steve is a brand new MP, has never been a cabinet member, and has a low profile compared to the party members who’ve been around a long time.  Yet his 66/1 position is actually very high!

For instance, that is the same odds that Ladbrokes gives to the much-lauded Zak Goldsmith.  Also the same odds that Labrokes gives to Nick Clegg (though that seems a little generous to Clegg – how could he ever end up leading the Conservatives?  That’s just plain silly.)  And it is better odds than; Iain Duncan Smith, Damian Green, Dominic Grieve and Eric Pickles.

But its not what they say that is interesting – but rather what (or whom) is not mentioned.  The fact that Steve Barclay is on the list at all must mean something – because few (if any) other new MPs are.  The list is mostly for people with high media profiles (in order to attract gamblers.)  Clearly, our local MP has something which has got Ladbrokes interested enough to give him odds.  At 66/1 I would humbly suggest it is a value bet.  If you enjoy a flutter – put some money on it.

Steve Barclay’s Maiden Speech

Steve Barclay’s Maiden Speech

Those of us with a political interest have been looking forwards to our new MP, Steve Barclay’s maiden speech.  It has finally happened and in my opinion it was exceptional.  My thanks for the ConservativeHome website for the article, which I’ve taken the liberty of reposting here.

Steve began his maiden speech during yesterday’s debate on the Finance Bill by clearing up a potential element of confusion:

“If hon. Members googled my name as a new MP, the first website they would find is that of Steve Barclay, the comedian and cabaret entertainer. I can assure the House that that is not me in an unregistered second job. My speech sadly lacks the zany comedy and musical backing that his performances offer, and the current headline on his website, “Barclay storms the cabaret floor” is one that my local paper—the Cambs Times—will never ascribe to my performance in the House.”

Having talked about the drainage of the fens in the mid-17th century, he went on to talk about “a second drainage that is taking place in the fens”:

“This drainage leaves not fertile land, but barren areas, as more and more assets are centralised in our cities, paradoxically as houses are being built in rural communities. There is a misconception that all rural areas are rich. Eighteen of the 25 most deprived wards in Cambridgeshire are in fenland, and one in 10 people in my constituency have used the excellent services of the citizens advice bureau in the past 12 months alone, 43% of whom did so for advice on personal debt—the manager, Linda Hutchinson, does a formidable job. Prosperous areas mask pockets of deprivation in rural communities, and often float us above the aggregate score on which national funding is usually targeted.

“The drainage of our amenities continues at a frightening pace: we recently lost our driving test centre even though it cost only £11,000 a year in rent; our new further education college was scrapped a month before building work was due to begin; and local pubs are closing. There is a battle on to save them, not least Claire Hammond’s fight to save the Nag’s Head in Eastrea. We now face the risk of the closure of our magistrates court, adjacent to which is our police station, the cells of which have already been closed. I will discuss this closure with Ministers in the weeks ahead. As a community, we pay twice as much to the Exchequer in business rates as we receive back in the local settlement grant. It is time that the funding imbalance between the rural shires in England and elsewhere in the United Kingdom is looked at again.

“I want to resist the temptation today to focus on the previous Government’s legacy. Anyone in any doubt can look at that temple of waste, the regional fire headquarters in Cambridgeshire, which was built at a cost of £23 million and stands empty because the emergency phone lines cannot be made to work. Instead of large regional projects, we need to focus spending much more effectively to deliver the jobs and services that we need in rural communities such as mine.”

He concluded by addressing matters pertaining more closely to the Finance Bill:

“First, we need to target money more wisely. The Budget was painful but necessary. However, I still feel that there are areas where policy needs to catch up with the new reality. Constituents in North East Cambridgeshire are staggered that we borrow money simply to give it away to countries such as China and India, which can afford their own space programmes. Likewise, factory workers in my constituency in food packaging, who are on modest incomes, wonder why councils can put as much as 20% of their total income into staff pensions.

“Secondly, we need a clearer distinction between investment and spending—the lines have been deliberately blurred in recent years. The fens are only 100 miles from London, yet they are held back by the chronic lack of transport infrastructure. Wisbech, the capital of the fens, has no rail line when it used to have two train stations. There is a single-carriageway road, the A47, which has not been improved in decades. Its port—the only one in Cambridgeshire—was more used even in Roman times than today, and some of our villages around Wisbech get just one bus a week.

“Money needs to be focused on things that can deliver economic return, including transport and our further education college. We also need to use money where it will directly save lives. I commend the campaign of my constituent Graham Chappell, who has done so much work to highlight the issue of deep waterways adjacent to fen roads, where we have had so many fatalities.

“Thirdly, we need to empower our small business base far more. North East Cambridgeshire is not just about farming. We have many small and medium-sized businesses, such as the high-value engineering firm Metalcraft in Chatteris. I am delighted that we are expanded the apprenticeship scheme, but grants can also have a positive effect. In the commercial world, the aim is always to make it easier for customers to access products, and the public sector needs to do the same. It needs to cut the duplication and time-consuming paperwork so that small businesses that do not have specialised staff can access grants.”

Hat Tip: ConHome