Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

‘Westminster Matters’ - Crispin’s First Surrey Mirror Column

Crispin Blunt yesterday saw the first of his new weekly columns published in the Surrey Mirror. You can find the text below.

In conjunction with the new Parliament the Surrey Mirror has acquired a new editor who in his wisdom has asked me to pen a weekly column, which I am delighted to do. I hope to use the column to highlight some of the local, nation and international issues that I get involved with on your behalf.

I returned to Westminster after the election buoyed up by the result locally, but very disappointed that the Conservatives had not done better nationally.  The campaign in Reigate was particularly marked by the friendliness between the rival candidates as we met on various different platforms. Jane Kulka, the Liberal Democrat candidate, had a typically generous letter published in last week's paper as had Labour's Sam Townend the previous week.  I think we have the approach to competitive party politics right in Reigate.  The public are not impressed by politicians attacking each other, and I could not help but notice that in the national results candidates in all parties who were noticeably aggressive seemed to do noticeably worse.

In Westminster my job as an Opposition Whip saw me taking part in the induction program of 54 new Conservative MPs.

It was a particular pleasure to welcome former Reigate Councillor, Anne Milton to the House of Commons as the new MP for Guildford.  Her opponent described her as Michael Howard's candidate from Reigate - it is nice to know that people in Guildford hold Reigatians in such high regard!

The Queen's Speech saw the government give notice of 45 bills (groan!) and I fear we will struggle to do our job as legislators properly in scrutinising the detail.

I returned to Reigate last Friday to join Barclays Bank celebrating the hundredth anniversary of its High Street bank in Banstead, where Fiona Brown and her staff had donned 100 year old costume for the occasion.  They also produced a beautifully turned out horse-drawn coach as when the bank first opened it only opened two half days a week, and this was how the money was taken to and fro. This nice public event was followed by a briefing from the Borough's environment portfolio holder, Councillor Philip Circus, on the still developing Surrey waste strategy.  Happily it now seems very unlikely we will again be faced by the prospect of a massive incinerator at the top of Redstone Hill.  However nothing is decided yet and I expect the plans for how we are to treat our waste in the future will be much clearer by the end of the year.  Whatever happens we will need to recycle an ever-increasing proportion of our waste and that will need the support and involvement of us all.