Article for My News
7th October 2011
After Parliament returns in September for two weeks, we break up again for the party conference season. Obviously, I only attend the one conference but the weeks of the Labour and Lib Dem conferences tend to get filled up with a combination of Ministerial and constituency duties. Weekday evenings are a bit more flexible than usual, so there is a chance to arrange meetings with local groups, such as the Berkhamsted Rotary Club and the Rickmansworth Chamber of Commerce. But, wearing my Ministerial hat, it is a good chance to get out of Whitehall. As a consequence, I have been to Bootle to visit an HM Revenue & Customs office and to Edinburgh for meetings with the Scottish Government and a grilling from a Scottish Parliamentary Committee (who were friendlier than one might expect, given that I am an English Tory Treasury Minister!).
With both Ministerial and constituency work to be done, it has proved to be a fairly busy time. It has meant learning the quickest way to get from Bootle to the Feathers in Rickmansworth for the Chamber of Commerce event. It was the first time I have spoken to the Ricky Chamber of Commerce for a couple of years and, therefore, since the election. I remember speaking two years ago and saying that times would be tough and that we would have no choice but to cut public spending and, to some extent, the same points apply today. The economy is not growing strongly but the Government has to get borrowing under control. It was interesting to hear the views of local businesses on how things were going in our part of the world, although there was no clear consensus on the matter.
The economy dominated party conference, too. I went up on the Sunday afternoon, catching a train from Watford Junction. The temperature was unseasonably warm - welcome after a summer that was unseasonably cool. And then we got to Manchester which was cooler, greyer and wetter. Manchester Piccadilly station rather had the feel of Gatwick Airport with lots of people wandering around in shorts and T-shirts, dressed appropriately for the weather conditions for where they began their journey, but not somewhat out of place for the end point.
Conference doesn't last as long as it used to, but it is still very intense. Sunday evening is dinner with the South West Herts members (along with Mike Penning and the Hemel team), then a late evening meeting with the Treasury team to discuss the Chancellor's speech the next day. Monday is ferociously busy, including a brief stint onstage as part of a 'warm-up act' for the Chancellor (not sure we have quite the hang of this yet), then George Osborne's speech and then onto a fringe meeting.
The fringe meetings can be where much of the action happens. It is also where you can mess things up and people will notice, so have to be treated with care. The usual format is that you have a panel of three or four people; we each do a speech for ten minutes or so and then questions and answers. For a frontbencher, there are plenty of opportunities to speak at fringe events and the sensible approach is just to do the ones about which you know something and are interested in.
Interspersed with fringe events are various meetings which can provide a good opportunity to catch up with developments in a wide range of areas. For example, I normally meet up with the Vice Chancellors of the University of Hertfordshire in order to learn what the issues they are currently facing are. More meetings, more fringe events, the odd drinks reception, late to bed and up again early for the next round of meetings and fringe events. As it happened I needed to be back in the Treasury for an important meeting on the Wednesday, so was home on the Tuesday.
So now it is back to Parliament until Christmas. Before I do, the family and I are disappearing for the weekend to celebrate my birthday. At the time of writing, provisions have been brought (Ricky’s Waitrose on a Friday morning seems to contain mainly people I know– is that normal?) and the packing completed.
Rather gloomily, it has occurred to me that this will be my last article written in my 30s. Never mind – I will return next month older and, possibly, a little wiser. Life begins at 40, after all.
