The House of Commons business is well underway. The Queen’s Speech Debates are over this week with the final votes on Thursday. Huge efforts are underway to allow new MPs to go through the nerve wracking process of Maiden Speeches.
Protocol says you say nice things about your constituency (generally not hard), nice things about you predecessor (difficult if you have been battling for months to defeat him or her as an opponent) then a little about the debate. All this is 6 minutes.
New comers get lots of help from the House Authorities through tours and teach-ins. The Whips also run teach-ins. Very different from when I came in to the House of Commons. Tradition also has it that you may shake hands on meeting but not after as one of you will lose at the next election. All rubbish but who is going to test it!
I and my office have had a hellish 2 weeks of moving offices around painters, builders, and lack of IT and computers. This has meant answering constituents let alone receiving emails has been a problem. This has also meant my normal thank you letters to all who helped in the campaign were delayed, names and addresses lost. If I have not yet written I will, especially if I have your names and addresses. Please, if you have not or worse do not get a “thank you letter”, the thought was there even if your name was not given to me!
As the only one left from the House of Commons Commission from the last session, apart from the Speaker, I had the task of answering questions on the floor of the House on behalf of the Commission. Not easy! As a minister in the past I had been quite forceful to difficult opposition members but as I had to represent the Commission this was toned down. Even so both the Labour MPs are renown for being difficult and one was not happy with a moderately - for me - robust response.
As a Conservative in Mole Valley the whole atmosphere has changed. Having done a number of events it is interesting how pleased Mole Valley residents are to see us and to let us know. We must use this to increase our hold to finally establish a True Blue hold on Mole Valley starting with the Holmwood council elections to return 2 more Conservatives to Mole Valley Council. You can be sure that the Liberals will pour all efforts in to try to save some face. Please help if you can.