Northampton Conservatives

Westminster Report from Brian Binley MP.

Greetings once again from Westminster, in a week when the most powerful man on earth - the President of the United States - has visted London, and our Prime Minister looked perpetually like the cat who had just got the cream.

First of all, the photo opportunities that the visit of Barack Obama offered before, during and after the G20 conference, were a God send to the beleagured Gordon Brown, giving us all the idea that he struts the world stage with the best of them. And then there was the glorious opportunity for him to chant out his now familiar mantra that the current economic mess is all a global problem...and so on, and so on, you haveheard it all before, I'm sure.

Yes, the global economy has been in meltdown, but what Brown always conveniently forgets to admit, is that other countries - most other countries, for that matter - are weathering the storm far better than we are, because they mended the roof when the sun shone and our Government did not. My grandmother could have told him that you cannot have what you cannot afford.

I suppose it's a global crisis that prompted the Government to inflict a 2p tax rise in a litre of fuel on Wednesday. How helpful is that? I'm sure haulage firms all over the country are chuffed to bits by this kind of help from the Government, as will be many other business men and women around the country. The mind boggles.

Talking of Wednesday, I sat in the House of Commons during Prime Ministers Questions thinking back to the 1990s, before Labour came to power, when they kept repeating daily falsehoods in the hope that the public and media would buy them: "48 hours to save the NHS", "Tory cuts", "Education, education, education", among others. This was not thought through political comment, just simple dishonest scaremongering.

Now they are at it again, and PMQs is starting to become predictable: whatever questions David Cameron asks, as Leader of the Opposition, Brown now just resorts to the usual nonsense: "global crisis", "the Tories will cut pensions, cut child benefit and cut the health service." All totally uninformed rubbish, but happily I do not beleive the public have any intention of buying it this time around.

President Obama's arrival in London was also a blessing for the Government, in that it knocked the beleaguered Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, off the front pages. To be honest, I don't think she's the best Home Secretary, though it is her expenses, rather than a lack lustre performance in one of the great offices of State, that threatens to be her undoing.

What films her husband watches in private is his affair, though the saga of the blue movies has made her a bit of a laughing stock. As it happens, I actually do think she made a genuine mistake on that one, but it is the business of claiming for a second home while staying at her sister's house that has not just damaged her reputation, but sullied the image of politicians, and that annoys me.

Of course there are the few who spoil it for the majority - including one or two from my own side. But I cannot stress enough that most elected representatives are decent, honourable, hard working people, who put in the kind of hours that would make many people break into a cold sweat at the thought of. Yes there are perks, as there are in many jobs, but it makes me so cross when I hear people saying all MPs are jumping aboard a Westminster gravy train. Nothing could be further from the truth.

And finally - let us all get behind our local football team, and make sure the nightmare prospect of relegation does not become a nightmare reality.

I hoped it was an April Fool on Wednesday morning, when I woke up and looked at the league table, which showed that Northampton Town's 1-0 defeat at Yeovil had dropped them into the bottom four. Alas it wasn't, and the climax to the season is going to be a nervous one for the club, and for its fans.

The Cobblers are a great club with a great set up, and we should be looking up, not down.