Brexit and my MP - Part 22

Ye Gods! Is there no end to this woman's capacity to produce anodyne garbage? Once again she has failed utterly to address any of the points I raised in my original. It is small wonder that MPs, in general, command such little respect. She is my representative in Parliament - surely I have some right to know why she is doing what she is doing?

   

Dear Richard

 

Thank you for contacting me about the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill and the amendments tabled by my colleague, Dominic Grieve MP.

This Bill is about respecting the referendum result and making sure that the UK has a functioning statute book after the UK leaves the EU. It is a complex piece of legislation and an unprecedented number of amendments have tabled on it.

I am looking very carefully into the amendments tabled by my colleague, Dominic Grieve MP. I have also been assured that my colleagues in Government are giving their utmost attention to all of the amendments. I have asked Ministers for the latest information on them so that we have a smooth and orderly exit from the EU.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me and please let me know if there is ever anything I can do to help on this or any other matter.

 

My best wishes,
Anne

 

The Rt Hon Anne Milton MP

Member of Parliament for Guildford

Minister of State for Apprenticeships and Skills, Minister for Women

   

Brexit and Science

As a scientist (or, perhaps more correctly, an ex-scientist) I do still spare a little time attempting to keep up with the scientific world. One of the many troubling aspects of the Brexit process is the apparent lack of any substantive plan for scientific collaboration with the EU when the "big stupid" finally happens.

The Government's position paper, published a couple of months ago, is long on warm words and woefully short of practical solutions. A lot of it is couched in the utterly facile "strong and stable" vein.

It is fine to call for "a more ambitious and close partnership with the EU than any yet agreed between the EU and a non-EU country" but this needs to be backed up with evidence of how this might be achieved.

Problems abound. Take, for instance, the Horizon 2020 programme. Currently the UK is a full member with voting rights on the future of the programme. After Brexit it is unlikely that the UK will have anything better than take-it-or-leave-it associate status. How is that "more ambitious and close"?

And that is a programme where third-party access is possible. What about all those EU-only schemes? The European Defence Research Programme is one such. The position paper feebly states that the UK would "welcome dialogue". And on Nuclear R&D there is a similarly pathetic hope "to find a way to continue to work with the EU". This is hardly inspirational stuff!

All this is symptomatic of the cack-handed approach HMG is taking to Brexit. We will all be the poorer as a result.

One More Thing to Worry About

Do you use a voice assistant to control any of your household devices? A recent hijack demonstration has shown that it's possible to take over an assistant using ultrasound signals - i.e. something that you and I cannot hear. The neatly-named DolphinAttack was not easy to achieve but never-the-less achieved it was. Furthermore, it's something that it should be relatively easy to guard against. However, it just shows that we need to be thinking widely about cyber-security at all times.

Brexit and My MP - Part 21

Fix the date and time of exit???? What an idiotic idea! Another missive to my MP

Dear Mrs Milton

 

In my recent perusals of the many proposed amendments to EU Withdrawal Bill I missed references to enshrining the exit date and time in law. I was alarmed and appalled, therefore, to read the following this morning:

 

"It will be there in black and white on the front page of this historic piece of legislation: the United Kingdom will be leaving the EU on March 29, 2019 at 11pm GMT."

 

I wrote to you some time ago about the folly of the premature triggering of Article 50, a warning that I believe has been borne out by subsequent events. To now fix the date of leaving in this way compounds that folly and would represent a move of negotiating suicide. I urge you to do everything in your power to exercise good judgement and ensure that such a step gets nowhere near the statute book.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Richard Bawden

Other parts of this sorry saga elsewhere in my blog.

At Last - Some Good News for Bees

The pressure that has been building for a ban on neonicotinoids appears to be having some effect with Mr Gove apparently "getting the message". Good. Better still that the man who said we'd had enough of experts finally seems to be listening to a few. Let's hope this new found common sense spreads to other areas. Brexit perhaps? Some hopes!

Another Brilliant Piece of Parking

'Nuff said!

Brexit and My MP - Part 20

Proposed amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill are thick on the ground. Some are more pertinent than others and a number drill right to the heart of the matter. The following is winging its way to my MP:

Dear Mrs Milton

I have written to you before about how the public cast their votes in the Brexit referendum in ignorance of the potential outcomes, the need for proper scrutiny of proposed deals, the proper exercise of our representative democracy, and the desirability for voters to have their say when there is more certainty about what Brexit would entail. Furthermore, I believe it is essential that in any deal the UK remains in the Single Market. Finally, there are overwhelming moral and practical arguments for the rights of EU citizens in the UK to be protected.

There are 4 particular amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill to which I urge you to add your name by tomorrow, November 9th.

These are:

• Amendment 7 designed to ensure that Parliament has a vote on the Deal;
• Amendment 120 which provides for a referendum on the Deal before the UK leaves the EU;
• Amendment 124 which ensures that any deal negotiated by the Government must keep the UK in the Single Market; and
• Amendment 131 to preserve the rights of EU Citizens after Brexit.

I would be very grateful if you would confirm that you have, indeed, signed these amendments. If you are unable, or unwilling, to do so I would be very interested in your reasons for taking such a position.

Yours sincerely

Richard Bawden

I'm not holding my breath - but, you never know ............................

Meanwhile, please do look at other parts of this saga elsewhere in my blog.

SSE and nPower

Gosh! What goes around, comes around. I recall many a meeting in Southern's offices in Maidenhead, and a lot  of spreadsheet bashing, in the 1990s when I was part of a National Power team looking at how the two companies might merge. It didn't come off, of course, and National Power went on to combine with other suppliers, and demerge to form Innogy/nPower.

This move, assuming it goes ahead, will reduce the "big six" to five which is hardly a boost to competition. This will increase an already unpleasant headache for the government where persistent meddling in an imperfect market has done nothing to promote certainty, nor competition.

Watch this space.

ULEVs - Good News/Bad News

This report from Edie trumpets a rise in ULEV registrations in the UK of 1864% over 5 years. All well and good but what really matters is the absolute number of vehicles on the road. That apparently spectacular increase is actually from 2129 to almost 100000. Let's put that into context. There are approximately 35M registered road vehicles in the UK. So that 100000 represents less 0.3% of all road vehicles. We all know that "mighty oaks from little acorns grow" so any increase in ULEV registrations must be welcomed. There is, however, a long way to go.