I have posted some pictures of the Scillies on my picture site attached to this blog, just in case the gloom of the news is getting you down.

A local artist who captures the wonderful colours of the sea and landscape of the Scillies is Richard Pearce (www.rpearce.net) if you want to see more.

The scenes in 2001 of funeral pyres of cows were barbaric. They clearly made bad TV from the government’s point of view. I am glad this new Prime Minister is determined to do better.

The further deaths of our troops in Iraq are tragic.

Before the House was sent away on too long a summer break, I asked the Defence

We read today that UK troops are close to pulling back to the airport base at Basra, leaving the troubled streets of the centre. The indications are that the US wiuld like to be out of Iraq before the next Presidential election. If it is not, Presidential hopefuls are likely to tilt their rhetoric towards early withdrawal.

In both countries public opinion lacks the stomach for a longer fight. The US was keener on the invasion at the beginning, but the mid term elections showed how far opinion had changed during the occupation. The UK electorate

At the height of the flooding two weeks ago, John Redwood sent an eight point plan to the Prime Minister, urging him to consider various proposals for limiting flood damage in the future:

1) Better maintenance of the drains and flood defences in the ownership of the Environment Agency and higher standards of private sector flood defence maintenance.

2) Plans should be drawn up for culverts, ditches and alternative water courses to take surplus surface and river water away from buildings.

3) Riverbanks should be built up, permanently or temporarily, in built up areas so that water is deposited over farmland and fields instead of in built up areas. This should be combined with compensation for crops destroyed, which would be cheaper than repairing damaged buildings.

4) Water should be diverted onto fields from swollen rivers above towns and villages where otherwise it would burst the bank and cause flooding.

5) Planning approval of new building developments (whether approved at national or local level) should take full account of the flood defence impact and provision, assessed by the Environment Agency. Building plans on flood plains should be accompanied by proposals for water holding areas, better sewerage systems and surface water handling.

6) Comprehensive contingency plans in each local authority should make provision for people driven from their homes by water and sewerage flooding, as well as to make available temporary school facilities. Adequate sandbag stocks need to be ensured if necessary, householders most at risk might stockpile their own.

7) Transport network points most vulnerable to flooding should be identified, and responses targeted at these before the flooding starts. They should be supplied with pumps where water is most likely to collect. Weak points on river banks near roads should be bolstered as a priority, either by sandbags or other containment. As an immediate response to weather warnings all ditches and drains should be cleared to ensure their effective use.

I have clearance to launch the Conservative Economic Policy Review Report on Friday August 17th.

The background to the Review

Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn are to be praised for coming back from holiday and sitting down to supervise the work on containing and handling the Foot and Mouth crisis. Their memory will tell them that if mistakes are made it could escalate out of control as it did in 2001, doing great damage to the farming and rural industries, killing many cows and leaving us scenes of funeral pyres and closed

In answer to a Parliamentary Question, the Foreign Office has listed fifty different areas where member states will lose the veto if the new draft Treaty is passed by the IGC. The government says that special deals to protect the so-called “red lines” will reduce that to 37 areas in the case of the UK. The 37 unprotected areas include the loss of the veto over transport policy, energy policy, tourism, civil protection, space, research, and the common commercial policy.

These are all very important areas. In a case like energy where the UK is one of two oil and gas producers in the Union, it might be very difficult to protect our interests in a majority voting system. They also include the introduction of majority voting into some parts of defence and foreign policy. The four ways of defending the so-called red lines emergency brake, Protocol, Declaration and opt-in are all weaker than keeping the veto. In the case of the opt in, once a government has opted in you cannot get the power back to make your own decisions, in crucial areas like immigration, borders, policing and choice of criminal offences.

The case for a referendum on this wide ranging give away of powers is overwhelming. Labour promised one to avoid all debate of this at the last General Election, knowing their support for this Treaty was unpopular. They should now do the decent thing, honour their promise, and show us they are serious when they say they want to listen to the people.

You can read the Hansard text

In answer to a Parliamentary Question, the Foreign Office has listed fifty different areas where member stets will lose the veto if the new draft Treaty is passed by the IGC.

The government says that special deals to protect the so-called red lines

The government and its propoganda arm the BBC is busy again

Terrorism. Floods. Foot and Mouth. The crises have come thick and fast following the change of Prime Minister.

As someone once remarked, it’s “events dear boy” that can take over for the incumbent of 10 Downing Street. Gordon Brown arrived in office with many plans to change the tone and sometimes the policies, only to find the tone and the agenda were changed for him by three different attacks upon our way of life.

His first reaction in each case has been good. He has shown energy and interest in each crisis. He has supervised an effective communications strategy, he has spoken as a national rather than as a party politician, and he has included representatives of all the main parties in his response and briefings.

In the longer term what will matter is how effective he proves, with his team of Ministers and officials, in handling the aftermath and in taking action to prevent recurrence. He also has to handle the natural concern that the floods were made worse by the failure of the Environment Agency to clean its drains and ditches fully

I had been disturbed to see stories and gossip appearing, suggesting William Hague should take over the leadership

In the USA some pundits are now saying the mortgage blues will last longer and go deeper than at first thought. Meanwhile

I have been on holiday whilst a colleague posted my thoughts on the UK’s crumbling infrastructure which I wrote before I went.

I discovered on my journey that apparently there is a serious

Congestion is the enemy of the planet as well as of the traveller. Cars and lorries caught in traffic jams emit twice as much carbon per mile or more than if they were able to proceed at a sensible speed. Hydrocarbon engines work best in top gear at a steady cruising speed. They work inefficiently in stop start traffic.

The UK has only half as much motorway per vehicle as France or Germany. We would need to build a lot of extra road space to harmonise with Europe in this area, adjusted for population and

The government’s statement last week on the railways was Groundhog Day. It was deja vue all over again. I have lost count of how many times Crossrail and Thameslink have been announced. The funding for Crossrail remains delayed owing to the late arrival of the incoming banknotes. Crossrail is an expensive way of increasing capacity.

The main problem with the railways is lack of capacity. On that government and opposition are now agreed.

The main reason we have so little capacity on our very extensive track network is the technology. The combination of very heavy trains with the signals they use means you can only run around 20 trains an hour on a given piece of track. At peaks times this means we are chronically short of train slots, and therefore short of trains.

Ruth Kelly last week announced that the industry is going to order more carriages, to have longer trains. They will need to build longer platforms in many cases and passengers will have to walk further to find a seat.

If she changed the regulations surrounding the industry they might be more inclined to buy the much lighter trains that are deployed on some foreign networks. This would bring a win win. Firstly, lighter trains accelerate and brake much more rapidly than our heavy trains. This would permit them to run more trains per hour on the same track with suitable modification of the signals. Secondly, it would greatly reduce the energy used by the trains, making them