Page 31 - Phonebox Magazine July 2006

Out and About with Mark Lancaster
T 1 T
Our local MP
As I sit down to write this the Olney Floral Fiesta week is about to begin, so may I start by offering my congratulations to Sophie Day on having been crowned the Floral Fiesta Queen at the Olney First School fete last week and simply wish both her and her princesses, Anna Swindells, Sarah Gould and Abigail Hitchins every success for the coming year. The effort that goes in to organising this wonderful event is enormous and it seems to be becoming increasingly challenging every year. There is little doubt that without the efforts of the organising committee: Sheila Bull, Vanessa Bowyer, Elaine Barron, Lesley Garwood, Kevin Calder and Amanda Stanton it simply wouldn’t have happened, so it is only right that on behalf of all of us I offer an enormous thank you to them as well.
indeed next month I will also be visiting troops in Afghanistan.
mast at Blue Bridge which appe least, to have encouraged a ‘U’ had an interesting exchange ove at Sherington Bridge with Jack S concern that many residents of have over the sale of hundreds o there is little chance of them eve disappointed at the ‘off hand’ w a ‘consumer protection’ issue. H an adjournment debate on the s what I intend to do! I also found tax credit fiasco that seems to b people that contact me and I am campaign to save the Fraser Da the Primary Care Trust to revers ‘rationalise’ elements of the loca that topic, may I give enormous the great work she and others a needs of many who use the serv
Away from the fun of the Fiesta, my month couldn’t have started more differently as I found myself in Iraq visiting our troops in my role as a member of the Defence Committee. To be honest it would have been easy to have followed the lead of the majority of the committee members and not gone; it certainly would have been the safe option. Frankly, as a serving soldier who has seen my fair share of active service I understand how important it is for troops on the ground risking life and limb to feel that they have support back home and that people understand the reality of what they are enduring on a day-to-day basis. That is why I felt it so important that as a politician I should leave the (relative) safety of the green benches of Parliament and go, and why
Despite my initial opposition to the war, (I still feel that without a second UN resolution it was probably illegal), now that we are there I believe firmly that we must stay until a stable environment has been created that will allow the fledgling democracy to flourish. My trip has only reaffirmed this view. After several meetings with senior Iraqi politicians including the Prime Minister, (who I was actually with as the news of Al-Zaqawri’s death came through), it is a view they share. There is little doubt that the situation is deteriorating as provinces that once welcomed coalition troops barely now tolerate them. I left with a distinct feeling that whatever the public face of claiming that any withdrawal will be ‘conditions based’, privately it is a different matter. It is pretty clear that a political decision has been made by our Government to withdraw as soon as possible, not because of what is going on in Iraq, but because of the UK domestic situation. Not only does this appear to be causing great tension with the US, but in my eyes at least is completely unacceptable.
I view it as a great honour to rep and have always pledged to do organisation. It has a wonderful Betty Bothroyd and it was an ho present the prizes at the Postgr at the end of the month.
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It has been a busy month back at home as well, not least in Parliament where among other contributions I presented a petition opposing the construction of a 24m lattice tower