Barrett’s Blog
This blog aims to give an insight into the day to day life of an MP, rather than being a political soapbox.
27 June 2009
Dinosaur Discovered in Edinburgh West
While the rest of the country basked in bright sunshine, the coastline around Edinburgh was covered in Scotch Mist, that well known local condition. This did not deter a doughty band of volunteers organised by the Marine Conservation Society getting out on to a number of beaches for a beach clean this morning, including at Cramond. The find of the day was a dinosaur - even if it was only a small plastic one. Later in the day I was able to do home visits to people who could not make normal surgery times or who have mobility problems. One visit to a young ME sufferer, who needs help, reminded me exactly why it is worth doing what I do. The closing film of the film festival, Adam, featured the problems of another young man, this one with Asperger's Syndrome and the difficulties of life for him and those around him. It was moving film with a great leading performance by Hugh Dancy - he deserves an award for this. This was another example of the cinema playing its part in contemporary life - as described by David Puttnam last week. Hopefully people who see it will be more understanding of the condition and of those who suffer from it.
26 June 2009
Michael Jackson
The death of Michael Jackson has dominated today's news. The "King of Pop" is for many what Elvis; the "King" was to previous generations. Without doubt he was one of the most talented entertainers who has ever lived, and like royalty, he did not appear to have much control over his own life from a very young age. He has been performing for the public and working since the age of five. As a singer, dancer and song-writer, much of what he achieved will live on long after his death. His troubled life should not overshadow the pleasure he gave to millions. My own favourite was the Man in the Mirror original video, which features clips of everyone from JFK to Martin Luther King Jr. and many more and is on you tube. The words and images say it all. Also received a nice email from the father of the soldier I mentioned in Wednesday's blog, saying, "keep up the good work". That put everything else going on, into perspective.
25 June 2009
The EIFF
Normally, every year I attend the Royal Highland Show President's lunch at the RHS, which is the largest agricultural show in Scotland and held in my constituency. Unfortunately, today circumstances conspired against me in that my flight from London was delayed and as there was a Royal present at the lunch, so everyone had to be in early and go through tighter security, where ID was inspected. The protocol is that no late arrivals are admitted, so I had to miss out on the lunch - no bad thing for the waistline, as it always consists of the very best quality Scottish produce and no doubt today it would have been something extra special. In the evening, out at the Film Festival, to see The Crimson Wing, a Disney documentary about the life cycle of flamingos in Tanzania. It was excellent and I had a brief discussion with the film makers, after their Q & A session, about the making of the film. It took six years from start to finish, including one year of filming and a year in the edit suite. The score and the narration all welded together - it made me hark back to the days when I worked in the industry and how enjoyable it was. Met up with Ginnie Atkinson, the Festival Managing Director, at the Filmhouse later on. It ends on Saturday and looks like it will have been another successful year for the Edinburgh Internationa Film Featival.
24 June 2009
Why?
Sometimes MPs are surveyed by opinion poll organisations, to find out their views on a range of issues. In order to encourage them to participate, the organisation then sends a cheque of about £100 to the charity of the MPs choice. In the past I have chosen the local youth club and other Edinburgh based charities. This year I asked them to send a cheque to a charity which is raising funds to help build a hydrotherapy pool for disabled children in Edinburgh. Having never received a penny of this money, under the new rules from 1st July, I will either have to declare this as work and income and then keep a note of exactly what was done and declare exactly how much time was spent doing this and send in the appropriate declarations or not do the survey. While it makes sense to publish details of MPs second jobs and income from them, it looks like the new rules will be as inefficient as the old ones. In the survey, two of the boxes I ticked for best speakers in the House were for George Galloway and William Hague. They were both in action and united in the afternoon in their condemnation of what has been proposed for the Iraq inquiry. It was interesting to hear both in action and I was reminded of the parents of the 100th soldier who died in Iraq contacting me the following day to ask, "Why?" - Like many others, they deserve a truthful answer.
23 June 2009
Morgan Tsvangirai
Today it was a real pleasure to meet with the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai and to question him about what his plans and hopes for the future of his country.. He was in Westminster to update MPs about the current situation in Zimbabwe. I was able to ask him about when he thought there would be open and free access for the media and foreign correspondents. This will be necessary before anyone outside the country will be confident that what the Government there is saying to the rest of the world is actually being delivered on the ground. If Zimbabwe can begin its reconstruction it will not only be to the benefit of its own citizens, it will help the entire region of Africa and allow millions of Zimbabweans to return home. Years of struggling against Robert Mugabe's regime were etched on his face - it was an honour to meet him and shake his hand.
21 June 2009
David Puttnam
Without a doubt the highlight of today was listening to David Puttnam deliver a keynote lecture this morning as part of the Edinburgh Film Festival. As well as his history in film making, from Chariots of Fire and Bugsy Malone to the Killing Fields, he is one of the most socially aware individuals I have ever met, who is able to pinpoint the important issues of the day and what will be the dangers of sleepwalking into the future if we do not tackle them. He covered the Orange revolution in the Ukraine and why it did not descend into violence, the rise of the BNP in recent elections, the Cuban missile crisis and the day he and his wife brought their child into bed one night - because they honestly feared they would not wake up the next morning. He was brilliant and I felt fired up for the battles ahead. One minor skirmish will be with the Sunday Herald, who printed totally misleading information today, saying a printing and property firm had a room in my publicly funded office. The journalist who wrote the article knows this is not the case and when I spoke to him today he had little to say in his defence. Had he checked the basic facts he would have discovered they are not even at the same number in the street, far less in the same office.
20 June 2009
A Nice Day for Ducks
Two of today's events were outdoors, including a book sale and the Davidson's Mains Children's Gala. Both had bright sunshine early on and were then soaked by rain later in the day. One of the star attractions at the Gala was the exhibition of duck herding by two border collies and their master from Loch Lomond. In what he described as an, "adrenalin packed show", we were treated to ducks and dogs working as a team and involved in almost "death defying" challenges such as crossing the Bridge Over the River Quack facing duck eating crocodiles. As the show began, the heavens opened and it actually was nice weather for ducks. Meeting up with lots of locals, groups and supporting organisations at the heart of the local community every year, is what I always enjoy at these events. I am sure that it is because I have spent more than a decade supporting many such events, and in some cases two decades, that it is always nice to receive a very warm welcome - even in present circumstances. In the early evening had a long phone call from John Bercow who is keen to become the next speaker. Had to tell him to keep it short, as he never uses two words when twenty will do. He is a front runner for the job, but if elected we will have to place a time limit on him, or no speakers from the floor will ever get in on any debates. Half an hour later he was still going....
19 June 2009
Take That
Following the BBC News appearance last night, "Good Morning Scotland" the BBC radio programme asked if I could be in their Edinburgh studio early the next day. This meant setting the alarm for 6am to make sure I was there in plenty time. I was asked about Nick Clegg's view on these issues and was able to say I was seeing him later in the day as MPs and MSPs were having an away day together to discuss a wide range of issues. Both Tavish Scott and Nick Clegg were on good form and the entire day was really worthwhile. The evening provided a complete contrast as it was through to Hampden Park in Glasgow to see Take That in concert. There were 50,000 people there each paying £50 per head, £2.5 million pounds spent to see one of three shows in Scotland. It struck me that even in a recession some parts of the economy are thriving. It was a spectacular event and set as a circus - with trapeze artists, high wire walkers, clowns and even an "elephant". The band was also better for being older than during their first incarnation. The only problem was the traffic on the way home. Getting to bed at 2am was 20 hours after the alarm was set. I will need an early night soon.
18 June 2009
A Black Day for Parliament
The publication of the redacted, or censored, expense claim forms and associated receipts has been a complete disaster. A black day for Parliament, in more ways than one. Anyone could have seen that publishing over a million documents with large areas blacked out on most of them, was never going to do anything other than convince the public that the truth was being kept from them. Everyone accepts that bank and credit card details should not be made public, but months have been spent blanking out completely innocent information, which is already in the possession of the Daily Telegraph and some of it published. Originally I had also believed that publishing addresses of flats in London would be wrong, as this would be a burglar's charter, as most are empty for three days most weekends. The answer is to publish the street or part of postcode, which establishes where someone lives without giving the exact flat or street number. In my own case this would be SE1, which would confirm my London address is in Lambeth without confirming which address is normally empty on certain dates or times. Points which I was able to make when asked to appear on the BBC news in the evening.
16 June 2009
Tinchy on the Terrace
It is surprising who you can meet in the House of Commons. Today I was having lunch with my team when we met up with my colleague Norman Lamb MP, his son Archie and Tinchy Stryder. Archie is the manager of Tinchy, a young rap artist, who was recently at number one in the singles chart with the aptly name song "Number 1". Norman has been their great supporter and has been the only MP regularly spotted at urban grime events. Tinchy was being interviewed by the press and was happy to pose for this photograph with the team. It was all in a day's work for Venetia, who is on the right and is down from Edinburgh for a week on work experience. Later in the day at, an event related to launch of Digital Britain, we met Simon Bates, the former Radio 1 disk jockey, who is now with Classic FM. Simon was most famous for "our tune" on his radio show, which basically involved a listener detailing their love story, a following disaster or tragedy and the music which reminded them of the event. Many a tear jerker at the time. It was a sign of how times have changed from when every Radio 1 DJ would know who had been at number one, that he did not know who Tinchy was.