Last Thursday I made my maiden speech in the House of Commons, during
a debate on the new Government’s policies on energy and the
environment. I was fortunate to be called on only the second full day
of parliament being back in session, as there are over 200 new MPs
looking to make their first speech. It is an incredible feeling to
stand up and address that historic chamber that you have watched so
often from the outside, and knowing that every word you say is being
recorded and preserved.
By tradition, a maiden speech is used to thank the previous Member of
Parliament, and to present the constituency to the House of Commons.
This debate also gave me the opportunity in front of the new Energy
Minister, Charles Hendry, to raise the issue of whether the Government
will reconsider Dungeness as a site for a new nuclear power station.
One of the key questions is whether the development would disturb the
integrity of the protected habitat sites. However, as the development
would be potentially less that 1% of the total area of the Dungeness
and Romney Marsh site of special scientific interest, I would hope
that they could minimise any impact on the habitats and preserve the
character of the whole site. This was the same conclusion that the
Minister of Power reached in 1959 when giving permission for the first
Dungeness power station to be built. Times have changed, and the
regulations are now a lot tougher. I would question though, when the
current regulations protecting habitats were introduced, whether
people believed that they could be used to stop any further
development of the nuclear site at Dungeness. Possibly neither the
Government nor the European Commission had thought of this. If they
had, presumably the Government would not have included Dungeness on
its original long list of potential sites. Also the European
Commission would not have listed the site at Dungeness as one that EDF
energy might have to sell following its take-over of British Energy,
to increase competition in the UK nuclear energy market. Why would
they do this if they believed that the site could never be developed?
Elsewhere, although we had mixed weather over the bank holiday
weekend, that didn’t stop the Romney Marsh Division of the Guides,
Brownies and Rainbows from enjoying their camp at St Nicholas School
in New Romney. Brown Owl, Irene Hills, gave me a tour of all of the
activities they had organised, and along with my wife Sarah and our
children, who are both a little young yet to join the Rainbows, we
briefly joined in some of the singing and dancing.
On Saturday, as well, I was pleased to support the opening day of an
excellent new farm shop just outside of Brookland village. Marsh
Produce at Old Hall Farm sources everything it sells locally,
including bread and cakes, eggs, fish, vegetables, and all of the meat
comes from the farm itself.