15th November 2021: A Week in Parliament

Remembrance Sunday

It was good that this year the ceremony at the Kilmarnock Cenotaph was able to go ahead, following last year’s covid – cancellation. Poignant as ever and I was honoured to lay a wreath there. I also attended the event at Rugby Park which pays tribute to the eight service personnel from the club who lost their lives during the two World Wars. This was the first service at the new Memorial Garden which also serves as a place of reflection all year round.

I then headed to Newmilns War Memorial, to lay a wreath in memory of my great uncle, Hugh Wilson, who was killed serving the Royal Scots in 1918. It is now 10-years since the last serving personnel from World War One passed away. Sadly, this also means that there are fewer and fewer surviving personnel from World War Two. However, it is clear that their service and that of subsequent conflicts will still be remembered and paid tribute to.

Two Job MPs

I have been contacted by constituents concerned about MPs with additional jobs and calling for a ban on this. I am open to a ban as long as it protects MPs that do work that maintains their professional qualifications. Some MPs can spare a few hours to advise businesses but the key questions are always why businesses pay such premium rates for a few hours advice? You have to imagine they expect a bit more in quid pro quo. The Owen Patterson affair rightly makes people angry and question the system. When I was elected in2015, I was offered the chance to stay on as a civil engineering consultant in a part-time role. I dismissed the concept out of hand as I was clear I wanted to focus fully on my MP role.

The fact that Geoffrey Cox QC MP has declared earnings of £400,000 per year as a “second job” is shocking. In reality, his second job is being an MP. Worse, his additional earnings are a combination of advising companies on tax issues [ie how to pay less] and also the British Virgin Isles on the corruption investigations they are facing. It is utterly shameless.

COP26

I managed another day at COP26 and spoke at an event. I attended Transport Day and was able to take a trip on a hydrogen train which is being put into manufacture. Hydrogen trains will be needed for net-zero as it will be practically impossible to completely electrify the entire rail network. Interestingly, Scotland has electrified its lines at twice the rate of the rest of the Great Britain network since devolution. Even so, we still have a smaller percentage of the electrified network because of past underinvestment.

On hydrogen production and use in general, the UK Government talk of being world-leading. However, I established that several countries have far more advanced hydrogen production facilities. It means that the UK and Scotland are playing catch up and making the decision not to support the Scottish Carbon Capture Cluster even worse.