Celebrating St Piran's Day

I was pleased to join Cornish MPs and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the Rt. Hon. Eric Pickles MP in raising the flag of St. Piran above Eland House, the home of the Department of Communities and Local Government in London last week.

The flag raising took place to celebrate St. Piran’s Day, and was followed by a Parliamentary reception featuring Cornish food and drink, tutorials on the Cornish language, and presentations on the history and traditions of the Cornish people.  I appreciate the effort that organisations such as the Cornish Language Partnership, London Cornish Association, Cornwall Tourist Board, Cornish Festivals and Sense of Place Project put into making this a well attended and impressive event.

Readers will know that I take a close interest in policy to secure our energy security. I regularly meet with a range of organisations that are doing excellent work in this vitally important endeavour and last week was no exception with a fruitful meeting with Transition Ladock.  I want to ensure that the lessons learned in their pioneering community work inform this Government’s policy work, especially in micro generation of electricity.

While each week, many constituents contact me with a wide-range of opinions and concerns, the most consistent issue last week was the impact of fuel prices.  From nurses who visit patients in the community, to volunteer car drivers, to ferry operators, haulers, people involved in tourism, small businesses and people who rely on their cars to get around the area, people are very worried about the impact of increased fuel prices.

The political events in the Middle East and the impact on oil prices are well understood.  I remember living through the ‘oil shocks’ of the 1970s and the impact on the economy in the aftermath.  I graduated from university into a tough job market like youngsters are faced with today.

While I believe that the faster we move to a low carbon economy, the more secure and stable our economy will be.  We have to respond to the situation we face today.  I have been taking up my constituents’ concerns with Treasury Ministers and urging them to recognise the problems of high fuel prices for the economy this year.  I have asked that the last Government’s plan to increase the fuel tax from April be scrapped.  I have also pushed for the introduction of the ‘Fair Fuel Stabiliser’ – something that was in the manifesto that I stood on.  It will of course be much harder to introduce with such political uncertainty in the countries of the world that produce so much oil but think it must be worked on.

It’s always a pleasure to highlight great examples of local charities in Westminster.  This week, the South West Lakes Trust outlined its sustainable programmes directly to MPs and Ministers.  The Trust manages and protects over 5000 hectares of land and inland lakes and waters throughout Devon, Cornwall and West Somerset including Stithians Lake in my constituency: a great example of the ‘Big Society’ in action.