Foreign Affairs Committee Special Meeting
Last month I wrote about the situation in the Lebanon and the Middle East and explained why I had joined with other MPs in calling for a recall of Parliament. Parliament wasn’t recalled but there was a special meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee, of which I am a member, on 13 September. We heard evidence from Dr Kim Howells, the Minister of State, as well as other expert witnesses. Discussion covered the Lebanon, the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Village Surgeries
Apart from that one visit to Westminster, I was able to spend September working in the constituency and getting round the villages of South Ayrshire holding surgeries and knocking doors. All in all I will have held 23 surgeries since the beginning of September.
In Dailly I knocked doors to speak to people about the petition they had raised on Antisocial Behaviour making life a misery for local people. I was pleased to hear that MSP Cathy Jamieson and Councillor Paul Torrance had taken action to secure an increased Police presence and this has led to an improvement. However welcome this is, people also want to be kept informed of action taken and what results from it. I was also impressed by how the local community had rallied to do their bit to tackle the problem themselves, not just leaving it all to the Police.
I was grateful to the minister of Kirkoswald Church, Rev Arrick Wilkinson and his wife for making the church hall available for my surgery there. What a wonderful view as you look out beyond the only Robert Adam Church Building in the country.
South Ayrshire Council are about to embark on a review of school provision. I am told this will be a genuine consultation with all issues on the table. I hope this is true – particularly as it affects rural schools. In that regard it was depressing to learn at my Kirkmichael surgery that the falling birth rate has put nursery provision in the village at risk of being lost.
In other parts of South Ayrshire I heard of the difficulties local people are having accessing the housing market, unable to compete with the buying power of those wishing to move into the area from elsewhere. Of course we don’t want our villages to lose their character by excessive house building but a balance has to be struck if we are going to be able to keep local people living here and bringing up their families here.
Labour Party Conference in Manchester
In contrast to the South Ayrshire villages – I attended the Labour Party Conference in Manchester. I have attended the annual conference for over 25 years but this one will have a special memory for me. The Prime Minister gave his last Conference address as Leader. It was both emotional and inspirational as he reminded conference of the real achievements of the Labour Government and said that a fourth election victory ‘was the only legacy that has ever mattered to me’. Tony Blair doesn’t have many equals when it come to speaking, but one is his friend and former US President, Bill Clinton who spoke the following day. He warned that ‘one of the biggest problems right now is people take Labour’s achievements and ideas for the future for granted. We have produced prosperity and social progress for so long it is easy for people to believe its just part of the landscape’.
Accident and Emergency – The Final Decision
The Health Board will have reached its final decision on its proposals to centralise A & E at Crosshouse Hospital by the time you read this. The Board met on 4 October to make this decision which is of such significance to the people of South Ayrshire – and to show how much they have their finger on the pulse they made that decision where? The Magnum, in Irvine !
My Parliamentary Report
I publish a newsletter quarterly outlining some of the key issues I am involved in as MP. You can read the Summer Edition of my Parliamentary Report on my website epolitix.com/sandra-osborne or you can get a copy from my office (01292 262906)
