I am delighted to be a co-signatory of the letter to the Home Secretary and support the campaign for the Government to abolish visa fees for Commonwealth servicemen and women for indefinite leave to remain in this country for which they have served.
The chaos doesn’t get any better. With the prospect of the UK facing a hard Brexit on Friday evening, we are no closer to any resolution of the political crisis.
The votes last night, seeking some sort of direction of travel, failed to achieve any clarity. But for the purposes of transparency, it might be helpful for people to see how I voted, and why.
Finally! The parliamentary Brexit tectonic plates have shifted just a little. A series of backbench amendments resulted in one defeat for the government, and one significant victory. All other amendments failed to make the grade.
The 15th of January saw the launch of the Year of Engineering. This is the start of a crucial initiative which will see the government work with hundreds of industry partners to raise the profile of engineering among young people aged 7-16, their parents and their teachers.
Mark Garnier supported the Government in the £12.6billion investment in policing for the year ahead and the approval for Police forces to increase their council tax by no more than £1 per month per household.
Thousands of people will have been waking up this week worried about their jobs. Hundreds of thousands, if not more, will have been waking up worrying about their public services. The collapse of Carillion has repercussions across the whole of the country and our society.
The bigger news of the week from Westminster has been the government reshuffle. Before I became involved in politics, I could never quite get my head around just how an individual could move into a new job, heading up a government department, and be able to run it from day one.
