The Romsey Advertiser 14 March 2008

Written by Sandra Gidley MP on Fri 14th Mar 2008

Last weekend was spent in Liverpool at the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference. It was a bit of a trek and I nearly stayed at home but our latest health paper was debated and I was also keen to hear the first speech by our new leader, Nick Clegg.

On the Friday evening the Health Team (I still seem to be a member!) organised a question and answer session on the paper and were pleased that the mood was mostly positive. We had been a little concerned that changing our policy on free personal care might prove controversial as it was a popular policy but people were very receptive towards our new universal entitlement.

On Saturday the health paper was passed without a hitch and we all breathed a sigh of relief and proceeded to enjoy the rest of conference. The weekend ended with a barnstorming speech by Nick Clegg and everybody went home feeling inspired.

The problem with a weekend away is that there is a lot of catch up so it was early to the office to deal with correspondence before heading off for a meeting at the hospital followed by attending the Southampton Pensioners Forum where they were debating various motions to put towards the national convention later in the year. The subjects under discussion were pensions, free personal care for the elderly and the poor Council Tax settlements in the south of the country.

Tuesday was mostly spent on health related matters but there was the small matter of a meeting with the Chief Whip to get through. Knuckles were rapped but we move on and I was pleased to be able to attend a meeting with the Royal College of Physicians knowing that I was still a member of the Health Team.

I am writing this column before the budget debate and all the predictions are that duty will not be increased on fuel but will be increased on high strength alcohol. The delay in the increase in fuel duty will please many of my constituents who have written to me telling me how hard it is to make ends meet because of the impact of recent price rises. An increase in alcohol duty on high strength lager is probably a good idea but it will be interesting to see whether Alistair Darling follows the example of his predecessor and refuses to increase duty on Scottish Whisky.

Published with kind permission of the Romsey Advertiser