Good meeting with the Northern Farming and landowner group - broadband, forestry, jobs and farmers issues all discussed at recent meetingue

The NFLG does a great job representing a diverse community of farmers, food producers, foresters and more across Northumberland and the wider North East.

Their specific feedback and monthly updates are invaluable to anyone like myself who represents a diverse partly very rural community. I simply cannot meet every single farmer every single week and rely on organisations like the NFU and the NFLG to provide direct assistance and updates.

Two weeks ago I sat down and did a multitude of Any Questions with the group. As always I came away better informed and keen to help some more. The Journal came along to cover the event and their detailed report is here:
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/business/farming/mp-guy-opperman-tackles-rural-10320793

My conference diary in Manchester - events with Women2Win, Newcastle University, CSJ, and multiple meetings

The diary is packed for the next 3 days in Manchester but you will find me at various events:
- Sunday I will be at the Women2Win reception for all the female MPs, candidates and future leaders who W2W have guided in the past and will do more to assist in the future. I am passionately behind this project, as a trainer and mentor, which saw amazing women enter parliament at the last election: the event is at the Stanley Rooms in the Midland at 7.30-9
- for more details read here:  http://guyopperman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/working-with-women-2-win-is-one-of-best.html
- I am also chairing a Newcastle University discussion event between 5.45-6.45, when I will be listening to a number of academics, think tanks and specialists from Newcastle University and beyond debate energy security, climate change and more. It promises to be an entertaining hour, although as the chair I am impartial, and simply keen to get our experts being grilled by the public so come along. Later that evening I will be at the northern conservatives reception.

- Monday I will be up early for the Women2Win morning event at 8 in the Conservative Home Marquee. I then have 7 meetings that day with organisations as diverse as Newcastle Airport, Shelter, and Northumbrian Water. I will be at the Destination Full Employment debate at the Jurys Inn in the evening at 6, which promises to be a fascinating debate.
- Tuesday I am again going early to the breakfast event hosted by the Centre for Social Justice on reforms to reduce reoffending. Anyone who has read my book Doing Time knows that this is an issue I am passionate about: http://guyopperman.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/my-first-book-doing-time.html
I will then be going to the Membership of a political party in the 21st Century discussion hosted by Policy Exchange with Rob Halfon MP, who is both a mate and an able deputy party leader. I am then going to a Forestry lunch, before a series of meetings and events about the Northern Powerhouse, and dinner with local members who are attending conference.

It is National Parks week and today we are holding a rural economy conference in Hexham with Rory Stewart MP

Over 60 experts, interested parties, businesses and key stakeholders in the rural economy, are coming together today in Hexham to make their case to my good friend and neighbour Rory Stewart, who is the Rural Affairs Minister, the Forestry and National Parks Minister, the Water and Floods Minister, and also responsible for trying to help Defra create and stimulate a rural economy that is both vibrant and respectful of our land. As you can imagine his is a fascinating but difficult job. He is uniquely qualified, as he is a proper countryman, with a practical and realistic understanding of the realities of creating a working and respectful environment in his Cumbria seat and here in Northumberland. Between us Rory and I represent most of what I call the true North of England that runs roughly along Hadrian's Wall from the Newcastle border in the East to the Solway in the West. Rory is speaking and doing a short Q and A. The event is at the Beaumont Hotel in Hexham from 10.45-12.30. After the morning session Rory and I will be heading out west to visit specific sites in the Northumberland National Park near Walltown, and I will be finishing my day speaking to locals in Greenhead and the west.

Green Alliance meeting in the Commons - positive, and fascinating, as always

This week I met with Alastair Harper and Frieda Metternich of the Green Alliance to discuss everything from the Paris 2015 Climate Change summit to Air Pollution, shale gas extraction, community energy projects, and several of their more recent pamphlets, including their ideas for better resource productivity for a more resilient economy.

Going forward, if I had to recommend one pamphlet that assists, and which concerns myself, many members of my Hexham constituency and the wider world is their assessment of the UK Climate plan for 2015 leading up to the crucial Paris summit. I recommend it:  http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/a_uk_climate_plan_2015.php

I have worked with the Green Alliance for over 7 years. They are an outstanding organisation. I will be working with them more over the coming 6 months.

Success of Roots to Prosperity team bears fruit in Help for forestry in Budget & next Tuesdays conference

I am speaking at the Confor conference next week on the need for support for forestry and wood panel groups like local businesses from Egger downwards.
Building on the general good news from the Budget, and our long campaign to get support for commercial forestry, ie another Kielder, and the work of the Roots To Prosperity group, I was delighted to see this in Wednesday's Budget:

"2.257 Fund for Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) supported forestry schemes – The industry led initiative ‘Roots to Prosperity’ has demonstrated the value of collaboration between the forestry industry, Local Authorities and LEPs. To encourage this further, the government will launch a nationwide £1 million fund to support schemes that will promote the growth of the forestry industry in their region and which have the support of their local LEP."

Tuesdays conference will bring together all the key players in the Forestry world.

Pleased that Forestry Commission have agreed to 77 acres conifer planting north of Haltwhistle - building on Roots to Prosperity Report

http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk/news/farmer-gets-go-ahead-for-woodland-1.1182882
We need to plant more trees in this country, and that must include commercial timber. That is the strong message coming from businesses like Egger, our antique and wood panel businesses, and many more, or there will be no such businesses here in the UK in the near future. Kielder, for example, is fundamentally a commercial conifer forest.
It is wonderful.

I have strongly backed the Roots to Prosperity campaign [pictured at Egger with many of the business and local leaders], and support the farmer who sought to make his farm more viable, by planting a woodland of 77 acres of conifers, and 29 of broad leaf timber.

Northumberland National Park objected to the application. I have great respect for the Park officials, and their management team, but on this occasion I am against their approach and right behind the Forestry Commission. The simple lesson is that the Park cannot exist in isolation to its surrounding community. The UK, and in particular Northumberland, needs more Forestry - something wholeheartedly backed by the public.

For my part I would support the planting of a small forest the size of Wark or Slaley, and am right behind applications for further planting both locally, and with the pressure I am putting on government agencies and quangos.

The reasons why this is so necessary are well set out in this report: its conclusions are unanswerable if we wish forestry, timber products and businesses like Egger, and the smaller producers, to thrive and survive in this country: http://www.confor.org.uk/NewsAndEvents/News.aspx?pid=23&id=2641

We need commerical forests planted soon - my Q today at Farming / Environment Questions at 10.15 today HOC

What steps are being taken to increase planting of commercial forestry in the UK to alleviate the future lack of commercial or other timber for UK businesses?

I will vote for the Recall of MPs Bill tonight after listening to todays debate, but not the proposed Goldsmith amendments next week

Today the Commons has been debating the Recall Bill and we will vote on the second reading of the Bill tonight at 7. The Bill then has various committee days in the Commons next week before it goes to the House of Lords for their Lordships to consider the matter over the winter. I tried to speak today but was not able to. So I will try and set out some points here on the blog.

I stood on a manifesto to bring in a Recall Bill in 2010 following the expenses scandal when several MPs were rightly sent to prison. The Coalition Agreement included a commitment to bring forward legislation to introduce a power of recall, and there has been a draft bill and white paper considered and then assessed by a cross party committee under pre legislative scrutiny. The Government identified recall as a means of restoring faith in the political process, by increasing the accountability of Members of Parliament to the electorate between elections. However, it believed that a recall petition should only be triggered following a finding of serious wrongdoing; it should not be triggered for political reasons – perhaps because MPs had voted in a particular way that constituents opposed. The evolution of the Coalition Government's Draft Recall Bill is well set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/reforming-the-constitution-and-political-system/supporting-pages/recall-of-mps

The actual draft Bill is here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/2014-2015/0094/cbill_2014-20150094_en_1.htm
I have also received a campaign email doing the rounds from 38 Degrees to say that the planned recall proposals do not go far enough; as 38 Degrees often do, they have decided to draft their own Bill. As always, in these matters, the devil is in the detail, and having researched the 38 Degrees Bill and listened to the debate today I am going to support the Coalition Governments Recall Bill tonight and will not be supporting the 38 Degrees version. As always, I will try and explain why.
 
The first issue to sort out is what is recall for? In my view it should be a facility to be used if an MP has behaved badly in ways which damage their work as an MP. I don't think it should be a chance to re-run the election in any given seat, simply because a group of people did not like the result.  

The Bill addresses bad behaviour at clause 2 and looks at criminal offences in particular. Where I disagree most strongly with the 38 Degrees approach is that it encourages recall where an MP makes a decision on a political issue, a matter of conscience, or a local issue with which some constituents do not agree. Many of the examples have been cited in the debate today, whether it is the Iraq War vote in 2003, the same sex marriage vote in 2012, the hunting ban, or issues concerning divorce, abortion or death penalty decisions.  I voted for the same sex marriage bill and then led the campaign against the Coalitions proposed Forestry Bill. Both were highly contentious issues.  

More difficult still is political behaviour. Some constituents think an MP should face recall for breaking his or her word, or reneging on promises made before an election. Tempting though this is, it could prove difficult to enforce and would probably lead to parties and candidates declining to make any promises at all that could later force their resignation. This would be the import of the 38 Degrees / Goldsmith Bill.

Let us take the case of the Lib Dem promise to oppose tuition fees in the 2010 election. It was a clear promise. In the circumstances of the coalition it was subsequently a Lib Dem Secretary of State who then presided over the development and implementation of the tuition fee system. Should there have been 50+ by elections immediately that happened, with a possible change of government and a period of instability? Or is the change of circumstance, a realisation that some promises were unaffordable, given the financial disaster left behind by Labour and Gordon Brown, and the formation of coalition, sufficient reason to change a party’s stance? I, for one, would not support recall in such circumstances, but am certain some would have tried to make it a recall matter under the 38 Degrees / Goldsmith arrangements. The reality is that the Liberals, never having been in government for a century, made a rash promise thinking it would never have to then implement it. None of us also realised how broke the country was going to be after Brown's Boom and Bust. As we have discovered the reality of running a balanced budget is very difficult and very tough decisions have had to be taken. I do not shirk from this, albeit it has been very difficult and not every decision has been got right. But the reckoning in such a case is the General Election, not 57 by elections. 

The issue also arises of what proportion is required to justify recall? The Goldsmith / 38 Degrees proposal seeks only 5% of the electorate as a trigger. I would campaign strongly against such a figure - not least as in a marginal seat there will be at least 40% of the electors who feel very partisan in favour of the main losing candidate. Should they have the right to demand a re-run at the worst time for the incumbent MP? One of the parts of this job I admire most is the fact that we represent everyone, without fear or favour. I have had strong proponents of the BNP - some of whose behaviour was fairly feisty, to say the least, at the last election - come to me seeking my help as their MP: they are treated the same as any Coalition supporter. MPs help all of their constituents, whoever they are. This needs to be maintained.

38 Degrees no longer reply to my emails, or respond to my letters, even though I have gone to great lengths to engage with them, but I will happily set out their amendments to the Coalitions bill here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/38degrees.3cdn.net/5f6fde153d0e49a936_enm6bnzus.pdf
It may be that the Goldsmith / 38 Degrees approach will be carried next week but again this is what a parliamentary debate is about. The Bill will be assessed on several occasions by both Houses of Parliament. That is what parliamentary debate is for.

For the final word do not take my word for it - read the Guardian. The Guardian is not normally na supporter of the Coalition, but is a fairly robust critic of the 38 Degrees / Goldsmith approach: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/05/mp-recall-bill-not-meaningless

In his brilliant article Michael White, who cites the Andrew Mitchell MP example very powerfully, makes the wonderful point about the attempt to remove Winston Churchill as an MP in 1938:

"Unfashionable MPs and unpopular causes need to be defended from popular passions of the moment and from majoritarian bullying, orchestrated from tax havens. My favourite example remains Winston Churchill, who faced a campaign to remove him in his Epping constituency in 1938 because he was upsetting Neville Chamberlain's efforts to make lasting peace with Mr Hitler."
As always, on the blog, comments are welcome. But, as usual, I will make the usual point that we in the Commons debate the Bill line by line twice, as does the House of Lords, and that the Bill always evolves with the parliamentary process. Given the Churchill example, and the reasons set out above, I shall be voting for the Coalitions version of the Bill tonight, but not the future amendments.

Forestry has a future in the North

Egger in Hexham on Monday saw the brightest and best minds from forestry coming together to meet, listen and discuss the future of forestry; it is clear from the many experts present that there is great scope to expand the forestry and woodland in the north. There are realistic plans to increase the conifer capacity by
- planting in and around housing developments, enterprise and business parks
- mid hill forestry where the moorland meets the arable and low lying land or where land abuts forestry commission land
- possible new larger forests on sites to be identified and agreed by local councils and interested bodies.
No one is contemplating another Kielder Forest but a smaller forest on a scale of Slaley or Wark is not unrealistic or unattainable in my view. This may need a change in viewpoint by several people or public bodies and possible change in direction but that is what discussion and debate is about. The simple point is this - what are we prepared to do to ensure there is a forestry and timber business in the North well beyond 2030?
Fuller details here: http://www.confor.org.uk/NewsAndEvents/News.aspx?pid=23&id=2641
The event is also front page of todays Courant and reported at length in the Journal.

Forestry event tomorrow at Egger

Roots to Prosperity is an action plan for change and growth in the forestry and timber sectors, here in the north of England. It is well supported by all the local county councils and lays out an action plan for how the sector can expand and hopefully create more jobs. I am speaking tomorrow at the event in Hexham and keen to listen and learn from the many experts there as to how we can harness the local areas desire to grow the sector.

Our Forestry Needs are significant for our timber and biomass industries

I am an enthusiast for more forestry; this month we held a debate in the House, in which I was able to make a few short contributions. The full debate is here: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2014-07-02a.259.0&s=speaker%3A24962#g264.0
The short points are these:
- where are we going to plant more forests?
- is it agreed that such a forest has to be of commercial use - ie containing timber that can used by businesses as in Kielder Forest?
- and to what extent does government need to subsidise this planting, or can the market provide?
- do any constituents object to more forestry?
For my part I would welcome further forests in Northumberland.
There is a Forestry Summit to be hel;d at Egger in Hexham, on August 4th, and I shall be there.

We need to plant more forests

Last week I went once more to Egger and met with the team there, including Simon Hart of Egger Forestry Management. We discussed at length the need for more forests in the UK. My position on this is clear - I am big supporter of more forestry. The question is whether local people would be in favour of, for example, another significant forest being planted in North Northumberland? And the second issue is whether a forest would be the type that is commercial and there to be planted, cut down and replanted as Kielder is? I would welcome constituents thoughts and opinions  

Grown in Britain

Great meeting today celebrating our forests, woodland and trees and the products we can make from the wood they produce. Owen Patterson came along and was presented with the Grown in Britain report.  Check out the outstanding website:

http://www.growninbritain.org/

Grown in Britain celebrates the products we can make from the wood they produce. It is an incredibly positive movement that is bringing together:

•The environmentalists and woodland owners who contributed to the policy shaping work of the Independent Forestry Panel
•The contractors, builders and retailers who want to buy, use and sell more British timber and wood based products.
•Woodland managers, public and private agencies who want to see many more of our woods managed to produce sustainable and legal sources of wood.
Their aims are:
To create a new and stronger market pull for the array of products derived from our woodlands and forests.
To develop private sector funding that supports the planting and management of woodland and forests through funding from corporates as part of their corporate social responsibility
To connect together and harness the positive energy and feelings towards our woodlands and forests that many in our society share to create a strong wood culture. A wood culture that captures personal health and fitness, well-being, community and encourages the use of more wood and forest product.

Grown in Britain is tackling every barrier that gets in the way of these aims. It is building on and bringing together the great work that is already being done by so many individuals, businesses and groups and it is relentlessly seeking solutions that will make a real and sustained change to the whole sector.

I had the chance to talk to representatives of the timber businesses that affect us in Northumberland and to talk to Alastair Kerr, who does an outstanding job as the Director General of the Wood Panel Industries Federation. I am utterly committed to supporting our forestry, timber and chipboard businesses that make a massive difference to the British economy and Northumberland in particular.