My piece in todays Argus points out that every autumn, Parliament goes through a ridiculous business cycle opening up after a huge Summer break and then closing down after a few days to allow MPs and party members to attend conferences such as the Liberal Democrats one last week in Brighton and Labour this week in Liverpool where I was born. As I passed the Brighton Centre last week it was refreshing to see the extent to which the area was not surrounded by steel and concrete compared to conferences of previous years! If one was considering the cycle from the point of view of Westminster building maintenance, the summer break would be extended until all the conferences are over. If one was considering this from the point of view of a credible decision making body, the Summer break would last 2-3 weeks at most and rather than three parties each being given a dedicated week to hold their show case events, they would all hold them in the same week! In the few days before the first conference began several items that were raised in Westminster by Sussex Politicians deserve a mention.

Caroline Lucas asked the Health Secretary whether his Department had met with World Trade Organisation officials since the referendum over two years ago. This is of course a vital question that should be directed at every Government department as we may well be facing WTO arrangements in 6 months time. The answer was that no such meetings have taken place in that time! but “the Department works closely with the Department of International Trade to ensure that its positions and the United Kingdom’s health policy are considered in all discussions relating to this area.” This shows just how little real planning is taking place for a no deal Brexit in an area as important as our health provision!

Another couple of questions were asked by Steve Bassam which both clearly related to the behaviour of Boris Johnson. One was “how many, and which, enquiries into breaches of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) rules resulted in findings against former ministers since 2010; and on how many occasions ACOBA recommendations have not been adhered to since 2010.” The response from Lord Young whilst full of information about what ACOBA is, simply stated “The ACOBA is independent from Government” Of course the challenge for this is that not only was it set up by the Government, its website is part of the gov.uk website and it is described on that site as “an advisory non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Cabinet Office”. The nine members include a Tory Baroness as its chair, a Liberal Democratic Lord and a Labour Baroness. For those of us outside of Parliament it seems hard to understand why the Government can set up a committee without some level of scrutiny of how effective it is. Equally Steve Bassam probably knows via Baroness Helen Liddell what has gone on, perhaps he could explain?

Finally there was a question from Nicholas Soames which attracted my attention because this Summer in Pembrokeshire I spotted a Curlew on the River Nevern (hence the image above). Nicholas said “To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to introduce predator control as part of the work to secure the future of the Curlew.” The answer displays how vacant the Government Nicholas Soames supports really is. It came from Therese Coffey who firstly explained “As a signatory of the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement, we are taking a leading role in the implementation of an international plan to address the conservation status of the curlew.”  When Governments take a lead role, one expects them to have a meaningful response. However Therese went on “The plan includes a requirement for land management techniques that reduce levels of nest and chick predation to those associated with stable populations. Predator control already takes place to support conservation of curlew, including for example, as part of normal farming and gamekeeping practice.” So in effect we as a nation are doing nothing to justify claiming we take the lead role in protecting Curlews!