11 minute read
Politics
Levelling Up in the south
Westminster policy has a habit of ignoring the less populated rural areas of the country, says MP Simon Hoare
For a little too long for comfort, the important policy initiative of Levelling Up has been translated in the media, by commentators and by much of the voting public as being solely reserved for towns and cities north of Birmingham. No one will doubt the desirability of making our former industrial towns attractive places to live, work and socialise; in so doing we better balance the national economy but also relieve pressures for house building and economic development south of Birmingham. However, to see it as Northernfacing only is a mistake and it is one where the Government needs to be doing more to demonstrate that there is something in Levelling Up for everyone, irrespective of where they live in the country.
Dorset musketeers
If buses come along in threes, then so do Dorset Tory MPs seeking to catch the eye of Mr Speaker in an important recent Commons debate on Levelling Up our rural areas. Messrs Drax, Hoare and Loder – the political equivalent of the Three Musketeers – spoke up for our county. I spent most of my time talking about the need to ruralise the rubric. This is not the sexiest of topics but it is vital. One could be forgiven for thinking that too many central government funding equations are still rooted in calculation methodology which specifically ignores the pressures of delivering public and other services in rural areas. Steps have been taken recently to recognise this in terms of school funding; I spoke up for such changes in Parliament on many occasions and we are now seeing the benefit of the rural location of schools being taken into account.
A Rural Tzar
Too many of our funding rules have been written in Whitehall for Whitehall by people who think that a country walk is a saunter round Hampstead Heath. In my speech I called for Government to appoint a Rural Tzar (or Rural Squire?) who would have a crossdepartmental brief to ensure that policies had been ‘rural proofed’. What do I mean by that? Well, that it has taken into account a sparser population, the fact that the age profile is older and that delivery of, for example, in-home adult social care is more difficult given that customers may live many miles apart. That our village school buildings are older and therefore more expensive to heat and maintain. That housing is less plentiful and therefore more costly, making it more expensive for youngsters starting out on their careers to get on the local housing ladder. That our police and ambulance services face geographic challenges – four policemen in central Manchester, for example, cover far more people per square mile than the same in rural Dorset. When it comes to flood prevention works carried out by the Environment Agency, they need to assess the bang they get for each buck per head of the population. £500k spent on a scheme that benefits 200k people meets the funding test but a (just as much needed) £500k scheme that benefits 1,000 people does not, simply because rural populations are smaller. If everyone is paying their taxes, there is clear merit in ensuring that there are urban hurdles for proposals to overcome and there are rural hurdles to overcome: they just cannot be the same hurdles. The Minister replying to the debate told us all that he understood the message. It wasn’t just the Three Dorset Musketeers making the case but every rural MP who spoke. . There was no doubting the passion and commitment we all felt on these important issues. The Prime Minister, representing a rural seat in North Yorkshire, gets it too. The message has been delivered. Pressure will be maintained. Watch this space.
Get me out of here!
Well, this 12 year bush tucker trial is beginning to come to a head. I am no celebrity but what with Royal Mail, nurses, ambulance and rail strikes, the cost of food, energy, services (you name it and it is up), the immigration mess, the ineptitude of Brexit implementation, water quality, social care misery… I am minded to get out of here! We won’t go, though. We will persist and adapt. We will listen and work with people with shared values to define a much better future. The thought leadership of the nation does not reside with the Conservative party. Time and again their focus, their whole strategy, is to cling on to the people who voted for them, a minority of the population. There are two hard years ahead, though. Despite having less than any mandate at all, this government will cling on until the last possible moment. It will continue to use the tactics we have already seen in the autumn statement of postponing the more acute funding pain until after the next election. Remember that note left by Labour in 2010, “There is no money”? We will continue to see swathes of Tory MPs, including the new crop, declining to fight again. In sum, they know they are losing so they are setting up
the next government to fail and meanwhile they are looking after their own. They are frail, fraught and full of fractious factions. Vote them off the show now, I say!
Doughnut economy
So, to the positives: at our Annual General Meeting we were delighted to welcome Sarah Dyke, Somerset Councillor and prospective parliamentary candidate for Somerton and Frome. It was inspiring to hear how our neighbours are bringing new, radical ideas to bear, including, for example, the principles of Doughnut Economics. We are familiar with economic models based on the flow of work and money between employers and employees which results in the supply of – and demand for – goods and services. Simple enough. The problem is that we are They are frail, fraught trashing our environment as we go and leaving a trail of inequality and want in our wake. and full of Doughnut economics seeks a fair social fractious factions. foundation for the economy whilst not breaking our planet’s ecological constraints. We need to maximise the re-use of goods and services and properly harness and recognise the value of the unpaid inputs we make as parents, in running our households, in helping others in our communities and at work. This isn’t the wokerati at work. This is the sustainable future of the human race at stake. Without thinking like this, the nationalists, the plutocrats, the factionalists get to win. They do not create, they destroy. Witness poor Ukraine. Mike Chapman Liberal Democrats Blackmore Vale
Does the UK need to be worrying about food production?
With Putin’s warmongering having further exposed the fragility of our food supply, it is worth reflecting on another Vladimir, Lenin, who wrote over a hundred years ago that ‘Every society is three meals away from chaos’. During the COVID pandemic people fought in shops over loo rolls – imagine the reaction if we were to run short of food. Some Tory politicians think the UK doesn’t need to worry about growing its own food, because we’re relatively wealthy and can buy what we need from other countries. North Dorset’s MP Simon Hoare recently wrote about the need to sustainably increase UK food production, but he focussed entirely on livestock farming and claimed there is no ‘argument to sustain’ a decline in the livestock sector. West Dorset MP Chris Loder has similarly written about how effective pastureland is as a carbon sink, and said that science does not support a plant-based diet. I respectfully suggest they both need to look more closely at the evidence, perhaps starting with DEFRA’s reports. Livestock is presently the major part of Dorset’s farming industry, but we can and must change that. At present we have to import so much else of what we eat. Animal farming is a hugely inefficient way of producing food, using large areas of land to produce relatively little food. Around 71 per cent of UK land is used for agriculture, and 72 per cent of that is grassland for grazing. Most
of UK-grown wheat, barley and oats is used for animal feed, while we import almost half our fresh vegetables and 84 per cent of our fruit. That cannot continue. With the changing climate we cannot rely on other countries to be able to grow what we need. We have to recognise that farming is the most important occupation, bar none. Farmers must be properly rewarded for their efforts, and we need to encourage younger people into the profession. We must incentivise Farming is the farming that produces more of most important the food varieties we need, and occupation, in organic ways that regenerate the health of our depleted soils, bar none make our waterways clean again, increase biodiversity and capture carbon. It can be done, and our healthy future depends on it. Ken Huggins, North Dorset Green Party
Love through football
It won’t have escaped anyone’s attention that there’s a World Cup going on in Qatar right now. The first World Cup I remember was Mexico ‘86 when Maradona’s ‘hand of God’ was etched into my memory forever. But, as a trade unionist and LGBTQ+ and feminist ally, this is the first World Cup since then that I actually considered not watching. Ever since I was a kid, football has formed an important part of my weekly ritual. When the old man was still alive, he would call every Sunday evening to talk about the football results. It’s often said that men – particularly those over a certain age – aren’t good at expressing their feelings. But through those exchanges, Dad and I would get a pretty good understanding if there was something bothering one of us, and I like to think that we always found a way to give one another the support we needed. Sometimes we find a different way to communicate: ours was football. For me and many other football fans, the beautiful game creates a prism through which we can project our own beliefs and values and put them to the test in a uniquely safe and public space. Perhaps that’s why some have condemned the actions of sportsmen wishing to express their own beliefs and values by shining a light on injustice. Perhaps they realise their own values are destined to fail the test when the lads on the pitch that carry the weight of their hopes on their shoulders make it abundantly clear that they stand against their bigotry and hatred and division. In the end, I decided to watch. I decided to support my country and the English values of solidarity and inclusion that our national team represents. I am proud that they continue to take the knee. I am proud of them for using their platform to shine a light on racism, sexism and homophobia and the rights of workers building stadiums. I am proud to be English. COME ON ENGLAND!
Pat Osborne, for North Dorset Labour
Don’t miss Sherborne’s Festive Shopping Day on 4th December
Sherborne will once again light up with a free Festive Shopping Day, including entertainers, a street market and a parade to the lighting of the Christmas tree
Sherborne will once again light up for Christmas with a free-entry Festive Shopping Day on Sunday 4th December 2022 from 10am until 4pm. The day will include: • Church services in The Abbey • Festive shops and stalls • Street entertainers • Sherborne Town Band • Other music and choirs. • Santa’s Grotto • Children’s competition • Dorset’s Farmers Market • Christmas tree festival • Parade and lighting of the tree at 4pm Organised by volunteers from Sherborne’s Chamber of Trade and Commerce, the event offers a great family day out. Sherborne’s Festive Shopping Day is always well supported with the main shopping area of Cheap Street closed to traffic. Visitors can take the opportunity to browse more than 80 street market stalls of local makers, producers and traders, as well as the range of independent shops for which Sherborne is known. All of them will of course be offering some great ideas for Christmas gifts, treats and pampering as well as countless places to enjoy something to eat or drink in the coffee shops, restaurants and pubs the town has to offer.
And while in the town, don’t forget to make the annual trip to see the award-winning Christmas display at Castle Gardens too (just five minutes drive from the town centre) There will be free parking in the following car parks: Acreman Street, Coldharbour, Culverhayes (short stay and long stay), Culverhayes (commercial), Newland North, Old Market Yard and The Digby Hall.
