30th May 2022: A Week in Parliament

Cost of Living Crisis

Well, no one was surprised that the very day after the Sue Gray report into Partygate, the Tories announced measures to deal with the cost of living crisis. They are so shameful and transparent that it should be embarrassing but they don’t care. That said, as the scale of the measures announced was in reality bigger than expected, I do welcome the shift and the recognition that there is a proper crisis. Indeed, I would class it as a national emergency with the average capped cost of energy per household to increase to £2800 in October. If no action was taken, it was predicted that there will be 12-million fuel poor households in the UK or 40% of all households. This is staggering. Even the estimated 6.5million households in fuel poverty at present is a disgrace. The Chancellor’s new announcements will prioritise protecting pensioners and the most vulnerable, which is logical. However, as these make up the majority of the 6.5-million fuel poor households at present, then they will remain in fuel poverty, but just not pushed in further come October. That is the reality of their situation and I am waiting on updates from charitable organisations as to how many more households will become fuel poor in October, so I can challenge the Government further and suggest additional support mechanisms required.

Partygate

There is nothing much to say except again, this is proof that Boris Johnson has been lying all along about what he knew regarding rule-breaking. He should go, but won’t.

Bahrain

I had a very short trip to Bahrain with the Armed Forces personnel scheme to visit the UK naval base there. It was a fascinating visit and gave an insight into the operations undertaken there in conjunction with other countries. One of the main tasks is effectively being a deterrent to Iran laying mines which would affect the shipping lanes. So much oil and LNG is exported straight through the Gulf, therefore any disruption would have major worldwide consequences, especially with the Ukraine invasion by Russia as well.

Other key operations are counteracting piracy and drug smuggling. Very important, but the reality is that the drugs that are captured and destroyed probably don’t even account for 10% of the trade, in that area. This means we really do need much better ways of dealing with the drug trade and much better ways to try and prevent people from becoming dependent on them in the first place.

Darvel Juniors

It was disappointing that Darvel just fell at the final hurdle in their attempts at promotion to the Lowland League, which is just below the SPFL. It was still a great season winning the West of Scotland Premier Division at the first attempt. I also think it is slightly unfair that three teams from three regional leagues go into a playoff for just one promotion slot. That said, a pyramid system still represents progress and there will be a few East Ayrshire teams in the mix next season again, I would suggest.