Radio blues
Yesterday I spoke at a Radio Centre Summit in Nottingham about DAB and the future of radio in the UK. At my house in Red Lion Lane the digital signal is poor and my DAB radio gets through batteries at a rate of knots. But at its best the quality is much better. What we have to be careful about is really annoying the public by telling them that from 2015 120 million analogue sets will not work anymore. Everyone agrees the future for radio is digital - but the industry needs to do much more to make this an appealing switchover for consumers, and not an annoying switch off.
Posted on 2 July 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Farnham station car park
Today I organised a meeting for the South Farnham Residents Association to meet the Managing Director of South West Trains and a representative of Railtrack regarding the vexed issue of parking at Farnham station. Basically until there is better parking at the station, Surrey County Council are reluctant to impose a residents parking scheme in the roads near the station which currently get very clogged up with commuter parking. The result was that South West Trains have agreed to relook into the feasibility of expanding the current car park, and the South Farnham Residents Association have agreed to make available their research on parking patterns around the station. These things always take a long time to sort out, but as they say in Japan the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.
Posted on 29 June 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Surrey Ad sees all
On Tuesday - at my invitation - a reporter from my local paper, the Surrey Advertiser, came up to Westminster and looked through every single page of my unredacted expense claims. I also allowed her to see the bank account statements for the account into which all expenses claims are paid, and out of which I draw the vast majority of the costs associated with being an MP. Read the full story and see what you think. Hopefully we can draw things to a close on the expenses issue now as there are lots of local issues that I want to turn my full attention to – not least the consultation into the future of Milford Hospital.
Posted on 25 June 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
1p claim and other expenses
Yes I did claim for a 1p phone bill. I am afraid it was an office expenses bill submitted amongst a number of other bills on an claim form prepared by a new member of my staff. However I take full responsibility as I signed it off. I am kicking myself for not spotting and removing such a ludicrous claim.
Other claims have also come to light. I overclaimed council tax by £635.48 during the period from May 2005 to March 2008 because I claimed for 12 months when council tax is only charged for 10. I have therefore refunded the parliamentary authorities. Other clerical mistakes meant I underclaimed £874.94 for mortgage interest and council tax in different period. I will not be submitting a late claim.
Too many mistakes? Yes and I should obviously have taken more trouble. None though were for personal gain and in most cases were clerical errors that occurred in the very busy period just after I was elected. Not only did I not have my excellent team in place then, but expenses were the last thing on my mind - in fact I didn't submit a single claim for the additional costs allowance for six months after I was elected.
None of this is any excuse for making mistakes with public money - something for which I unreservedly apologise to my constituents.
Posted on 19 June 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Farnham on foot?
“Farnham could be the most beautiful town in the South – if it wasn’t for the traffic.” That’s the sort of thing I regularly hear from Farnham residents and that’s why one of my main campaigns for the coming year is looking into the possibility of a trial pedestrianisation scheme in the town centre.
When done well, pedestrianisation schemes lead to significant increases in trade for local shops. For example, the footfall in Oxford increased by 9% when it was introduced there – with people on foot tending to buy four to five times more than other visitors. Even more significantly for Farnham, where The Borough is one of the most polluted streets in Waverley , pollution dropped by over 20%.
However, I am conscious that there can be transitional problems. Although many traders eventually see an increase in trade of 20-40%, it generally takes at least 2 years for this to happen. And in Farnham’s case, the key challenge is whether pedestrianising the town centre would just divert the traffic elsewhere, transferring rather than eliminating the problem.
I’ve been meeting with local traders and representatives of Farnham Chamber of Commerce, Farnham Society, Farnham Visitors’ Forum and the local councils and have got some useful feedback. I get the feeling there is much support for the idea of doing something in theory although some doubts as to whether a workable scheme could actually be implemented in practice.
The main thing is that any decision to go ahead with a pedestrianisation trial should be taken by the people of Farnham by a public referendum. So I am drawing together a set of proposals to be made public in the summer, which I will offer up to the people of Farnham to vote on, to establish once and for all whether some sort of pedestrianisation trial is what local people see as the right way forward for our almost perfect town.
Posted on 19 June 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Digital Dithering
I’ve spent the last couple of days responding to the Government’s Digital Britain report. Given the scale of what needed to happen I thought it was a “colossal disappointment”.
My biggest gripe with the 238 page document was that it managed to contain almost no concrete actions. Not unusual for a Government report but still deeply frustrating. Across the political spectrum others seem to agree -
More sketch than blueprint
– Guardian
Despite the hype, 'Digital Britain' plan offers little of substance – The Scotsman
The digital picture is still blurred – Telegraph
Emily Bell of the Guardian who said it spread an “underwhelming layer of digital varnish”.
One person not dithering is the report’s author, Lord Carter. Unfortunately he’s decided to leave Government before any of it can be implemented.
Posted on 18 June 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Police and hospitals latest
A busy constituency day. The morning
was spent talking to boys at Haslemere Prep School,
followed by two meetings to fight government plans to ratecap Surrey Police.
This mad idea would punish Surrey Police for an overspend of £1.6m by forcing
local councils to reissue council tax statements. The cost of doing this would
be £1.2m - and 50 redundancies. What is so crazy is that Surrey Police gets the
lowest support of any police force in the country, yet still manages to deliver
the second lowest crime rate. In other words it is an exemplary public service
- yet the government wants to penalise it, mainly I suspect because the Chief
Constable Mark Rowley has bravely said he is opting out of the Home Office
targets that do so much to distort policing activity. My concern is what would
happen to neighbourhood policing if there were 50 job cuts.
Then on to a meeting with
Chris Butler, Chief Executive of the Primary Care Trust, about Haslemere and
Milford Hospitals.
On
Haslemere
Hospital
I went
through the results of the survey I did of Haslemere residents which got a
staggering 1190 replies. The two issues I pressed Chris Butler on were the car
park extension – over 90% of visitors to the hospital said they found it a
nightmare to park. Planning permission has now been given, so why can’t they
get on with it? He said they had allocated budget for it, but needed to do some
surveys as the land went over some major sewers. Secondly I asked him about
extending the opening hours of the Minor Injuries Unit. This is incredibly
popular – but the PCT have rejected it in the past because when they did a trial
not many people took advantage of the longer hours. My survey explained why:
only 13% of people actually
knew
there
was a trial. He agreed to relook at the issue.
Regarding
Milford
Hospital
, Chris
Butler said he was "sure they could improve the care" for strokes. I
asked how. He said first of all making sure people were treated fast, then
transferring them to intensive rehabilitation as soon as possible. He also said
he thought it made sense to have one stroke coordinator overseeing the whole
process, not a different one inside and outside the Royal Surrey. I pressed him
hard on the vital importance of having a specialist rehabilitation centre,
something which has always been one of
Milford
’s
strengths, and felt I made some headway. The whole process is due to go to
“consultation” this summer, with a final decision probably early next year.
Posted on 13 June 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Local elections
Clean sweep in South West Surrey for the Conservatives in the County Elections: we won every single one of our 8 seats. We took Godalming North off the Liberal Democrats, and fought off threats from an Independent in Farnham North and UKIP in Godalming South.
Well done to a brilliant, hard-working set of candidates who I know will do their areas proud. They were knocking on doors in an incredibly difficult political climate - one which was not of their own making, but meant they had to bear the brunt of voters' anger with politicians in general.
Posted on 5 June 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Chinese wisdom
For some perspective on the current MP expenses issue I spoke to a Chinese friend. He said that he was astonished at the anger about MP's expenses: in China no one would be angry, they would have simply expected this kind of behaviour from their MPs. But then they don't get to vote for them. The act of choosing someone at the ballot box implies trust - and when that trust is broken people do get very angry.
He also said the shame was that people who don't live in democracies would look at what was happening in the UK and ask themselves whether democracy was really such a good system after all. This would be a tragedy. Democracy is not just about the right to choose your leaders - it is also about being able to effect change without bloodshed. This has happened - because we happen to have a free press (however brutal it can be) that is not afraid to take on the political establishment.
Democracy is also about people being able to get rid of their governments. Proportional representation makes this much harder - which is why it should be resisted at all costs.
People who do not take democracy for granted sometimes understand these things better than we do.
Posted on 1 June 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Surrey Ad writes up my public meeting
For an independent account of my public meeting last Friday, you might like to read this article in the Surrey Advertiser.
Posted on 1 June 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Public meeting -update 2
I notice that the Liberal Democrat candidate has been trying to spin the meeting as "stormy" on his blog. For his information I have been inundated since Friday with messages from non-Conservative voters saying how proud they were of me as their MP. And no one I saw there thought it was "stormy" at all - apart from the very start of the meeting when there was some (no doubt) LibDem inspired barracking. Anyway everyone can make up their own mind as we took a video of the whole meeting and hope to put it online soon.
One of the reasons that it was a good meeting, incidentally, was because it was so brilliantly chaired by the Revd David Adams, someone of impeccable integrity and totally politically independent.
There was one issue the Liberal Democrat candidate is trying to get traction on, regarding the room in my house in Red Lion Lane that I let my agent use. In the interests of transparency, here are the facts:
1. After I had been an MP for a few months I realised I was spending more nights every week in London so I changed the designation of my second home to my house in Farnham. Because the mortgage is lower there, it actually saved the taxpayer around £800 per month (or nearly £10,000 annually).
2. My agent, who is also a close friend, continued to stay there 3-4 nights per week as she had been doing since long before the election - from February 2004 in fact. She stayed there until she retired in June 2007 (longer I accept than the 7 months I said at the meeting - I thought she retired in 2006 but in fact it was 2007). It did not occur to me there was any issue as she paid me no rent and there was no additional cost to the taxpayer and I merely continued an arrangement that had been in place since long before I was an MP.
3. Taxpayer funds should not be used to fund party political activities. They were not. However I have written to the parliamentary registrar to find out if there is any issue over the arrangements which I made in good faith. If I have made a mistake, I will of course repay anything I should.
The point I think is that transparency works. I do not believe I have made a mistake, but the process of publishing all the details of what you have done means that mine is not the only judgement that counts. Political opponents and the people who give me my job can also have their say - leading in the end to a much more open, accountable and honest system.
I am one of only 11 MPs that have published all their expenses online. Some people have already noticed that expenses only go up until the financial year 2007-8. These are the only expenses for which the parliamentary authorities have released the paperwork and the only ones that are due to be published for all MPs in July under FOI. However as soon as I can get last year's expenses I will add them.
Posted on 31 May 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Public meeting - update
Yesterday evening I had my public meeting over expenses. About 400 people packed into the Great Hall at Farnham Maltings, including my Labour and Liberal Democrat opponents. There was also a lot of media interest - I think because only around 20 MPs have called public meetings so far and so they are still a relative novelty. There is also a slight assumption that people who call public meetings are doing so to confess something they have to hide - when actually the reverse is the case. People who have nothing to hide have most to gain from being open with their electorate.
The most difficult issue was whether I should have a second home at all. I do not think it is reasonable to say I should have one because of the long hours I work as an MP - many of my constituents work long hours and do commute. I made a judgement that saving 12 hours of commuting time would enable me to do more for the people of South West Surrey - but I recognise that decision involved costs to the taxpayer.
It is really hard to judge whether a decision you take like that represents good value for money or not, one of the reasons why it is important to have an open and transparent debate. I believe I made the right judgement - but if Sir Christopher Kelly's report says MPs within commuting distance should not have taxpayer funded second homes I will respect that. This is a time for embracing change across the board - including all aspects of the second homes debate.
I was probably more nervous last night than I have been for any political speech I have given - including my maiden speech. In the end I think my decision to bare all, answer any questions and trust the good sense of my electors was vindicated. Thank you to everyone who came and gave me a fair hearing.
PS My Liberal Democrat opponent made a suggestion that I should not have allowed my agent to stay free of charge in my Farnham home as it was partly taxpayer funded. I honestly do not know whether this is the case or not but have written to the parliamentary authorities for clarification and will let everyone know as soon as I get a response.
Posted on 30 May 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Politicians should be answerable to the people who give them their jobs
Yesterday I was campaigning for the European elections in Yorkshire. Reaction on the expenses issues still universally dire, but it is interesting that people are now asking about how to improve the way our democracy operates as much as feeling anger with MPs who have milked the system. This is what someone called John Craven from Nether Poppleton said to me:
What he says about politicians being answerable to the people who give them their jobs is spot on - and shows that the issue of expenses is a symptom of a much bigger problem.
Incidentally he is a lifelong Labour voter who says he will vote Green in the European elections and Conservative at the next general election, despite his views on the Iraq war.
Posted on 28 May 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Expenses - public meeting
Looking back at the chaos in Westminster over the last few weeks, I am reminded of Winston Churchill's saying that democracy is the worst possible system - apart from all the alternatives.
Trust in politics has sunk to an all time low and understandably. But that is because Freedom of Information has made politics more transparent than ever before. It is also because we have a free press not afraid to take on the establishment. One thing is clear: politics will change, and for the better. What has happened in Westminster should be a wake up call to all public sector organisations, including the BBC as we debated in parliament yesterday. The public rightly expects its money to be looked after very carefully indeed - and now has the weapons to make sure it is.
PS In the interests of total transparency I am having a public meeting for my own constituents to ask me directly about my owb expenses at 7 pm next Friday (29th May) in the Maltings in Farnham.
Posted on 21 May 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
MP expenses - the real damage
What I said on Any Questions last night was totally vindicated by two things that happened when I went out canvassing this morning in Farnham
I asked everyone I met what they thought about MP's expenses. At 3 house people said they were not the slightest bit angry - not because they didn't care, but because they had assumed all along that was what MPs were up to. Then I came across the first ever BNP leaflet I have seen in South West Surrey. Some connection?
UPDATE: My constituents can read an open letter I have written to them about my expenses.
Posted on 16 May 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
3 Peaks challenge
Just back from doing the 3 Peaks challenge, with very sore legs indeed. We did Ben Nevis on Saturday afternoon, then Scafell Pike and Snowdon yesterday. The idea was that it was non-stop, but in fact we had to wait a rather grim 3 hours in an M6 service station from 2 to 5 am on Sunday morning before starting Scafell Pike at dawn. Ben Nevis was amazing - sunshine at the bottom, snow on the top. Scafell Pike was a nightmare to climb, steep nearly all the way with a killer up down up at the very end. Snowdon was a nice gentle climb by comparison (we followed the railway route which is very gentle) and the views were breathtaking.
My team of 8 raised about £20k for the Hotcourses Primary School in Kenya. Good fun to do - and much much nicer than reading the papers right now.
See my You Tube from Scafell Pike:
Posted on 12 May 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Sign of the times
I get into a taxi to go to parliament this afternoon, and the taxi driver finds out I am an MP. When I ask for a receipt for £14, he gives it to me with an extra blank receipt and a knowing look...things are going to take a long, long time to repair.
Posted on 11 May 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Football rules
If you want to see why football is our national game, you could watch the Champion's League semi-finals (sorry Chelsea fans). But you could also visit the National Football Museum in Preston as I have just done.
OK so the first people to kick around balls and aim at goals were probably the Chinese in the 11th century. But it was first codified as a game in the UK, as were most major sports. That was back in 1863, with the first league set up in 1888. At the museum I met my namesake (but sadly no relation) the great Roger Hunt, top Liverpool striker and part of the England 1966 line up. I also saw a group of schoolchildren utterly thrilled by the chance to meet someone who was a legend for their grandparents - let alone for them.
FIFA recognises 207 nations, more than the United Nations. Schoolchildren are far more likely to have heard of David Beckham than Gordon Brown. Politicians will always try and jump on the football bandwagon. But in the country that invented the modern game as we know it, they should perhaps start with a degree of humility about the power of the game to reach people and places that politicians cannot even dream of connecting with.
Posted on 7 May 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Wrexham FC: promotion disappointment with a silver lining
Just visited Wrexham Football Club. It is a perfect example of the strange way the Football League works for smaller clubs. Wrexham was relegated last year so lost £90,000 of funding for their sports academy, which is recognised as being one of the best of its kind. They managed to raise the money privately through a huge fundraising effort but are unlikely to be able to do so on an ongoing basis.
This year they just failed to get into the play offs to give them a chance of promotion back into the 
League - and secure ongoing funding for their Academy. But because the Academy is so good, their youth team managed to win the North West Conference - despite being one of the only teams not to get funding from the League.
Everyone understands the principal that funding has to follow success. But success in the League is not the same as success in youth and community programmes - which are needed whether or not a town has a successful team.
Wrexham has come through administration and is now led by a dynamic and committed management team. They will probably find a way to get through this. But given the impact we know youth and community football has (reducing crime on estates in Wolverhampton by 36% for example), surely a more sustainable way can be found to organise funding?
Posted on 6 May 2009 by Jeremy Hunt