Views
More evasion from the Prime Minister - for The Inverness Courier
TEN days ago I crossed another small landmark in my time in Parliament - my first chance to ask a question at Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs). His answer offered little hope to post offices in the Highlands - but I will come to that.
There are two ways to get called to ask a question in Parliament. The first is to have your name on the order paper, the list of business for the day. This is done by a random ballot every week of all the MPs who have indicated that they would like to ask a question.
A number of constituents have said that they have seen me on TV recently standing up and sitting down and wondered what I was doing.
I was trying to catch the Speaker's eye, which is the other way to be called.
The speaker organises questions so the government and opposition MPs alternate. So if there are two Labour MPs in a row on the order paper then an opposition MP will be called.
I asked the Prime Minister if he recognised the value of post offices and realised the damage that would be done to them by the removal of the sale of TV licences and the ending of the post office card account.
The first has been decided - without ministers lifting a finger - the second is being fought tooth and nail in Parliament.
Not for the first time, Mr Blair gave an answer that was, to say the least, deeply disappointing.
He talked in purely financial terms, without any recognition of the immense value that post offices provide to the communities they serve.
The fact is that government money spent on post offices repays itself many times over in terms of social and economic benefit.
I was able to pursue this matter further in a debate last week on the future of rural post offices, called by my Lib Dem colleague Alastair Carmichael who represents Orkney and Shetland.
It is clear from the debate that the government intends to bring forward proposals soon for the future of the post office network.
It seems equally clear that this is going to focus on cutting spending - not investing. The bottom line is that we need a positive vision, backed up by investment and joined-up government.
Mr Blair has failed to give any of these and the idea that this problem will be solved by a Cabinet Committee chaired by John Prescott is frankly laughable.
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The news that the Competition Commission, which is currently investigating the supermarkets, will look explicitly into the causes and consequence of local market dominance is, I believe, good news for Inverness. This is something that I asked for in my evidence to the Commission.
It has been well-reported that one supermarket - Tesco - has more than half of the food retail market in Inverness.
The problems faced by small shops in Inverness's Old Town are also well-documented. I have suggested to the Commission that they should come to Inverness to see for themselves the situation here.
We need to ensure that there is a more level playing field between the different types of shop and that farmers and other suppliers get a fair deal too.
The National Farmers Union has compiled very powerful evidence of the pressure that supermarkets put on them but farmers are not willing to come forward because they fear reprisals.
We need a new system that allows complaints to be dealt with anonymously so that farmers can get a fairer deal from their biggest customers.
We all use supermarkets because they provide a good service, and in some cases because there is no choice. But no organisation, whether a big business or a political party, should have too much power so I hope the Competition Commission will recommend changes that can benefit consumers and smaller shops alike.
European co-operation
The North Sea Commission is a significant body promoting co-operation between local authorities in the different communities that share the North Sea.
I attended part of their conference in Aviemore, where they were discussing how they could further the European agenda for developing sustainable communities.
With specific funding increasingly available at European level, it seems to me that this sort of cooperation can bring benefit to the Highlands in areas such as renewable energy development.
Posted on: 20/06/2006
