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20 Most Recent Press Articles
A pot-pourri of topics
New!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Fri 8th Aug 2008
Well, I just about got through the two weeks of my village tour without it raining on me, or at least not too vigorously. One hundred and five villages visited, and the heavens opened to tumultuous effect only as I stood by the village notice-board outside the church in Witham Friary, the one hundred and fifth. And as Witham Friary is where I actually live, it didn't really matter that much.
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Rural rides
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Thu 31st Jul 2008
Rural rides again. Every year I do a tour around all the villages in my constituency where I don't do one of my nine monthly advice surgeries. I reckon there are about one hundred and twenty altogether, and I try to visit at least a hundred each year over a two week period. Over recent years I've usually done the tour in September, but this year I thought I'd try to go round in July, as soon as Parliament rose for the summer recess, and so far it seems to have been working quite well.
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Thanks, Barry!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Thu 31st Jul 2008
Just over seventeen years ago, I was County Councillor for Frome North, and along with the College Governors we had an important job to do, to select a successor to John Fisher as Head of Frome College. The candidate we chose was the young and charismatic head of Stanchester School, Barry Bates. He seemed then an outstanding candidate for the job. He was.
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Read "Thanks, Barry!" in full (219 words).
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UnSATisfactory!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Thu 24th Jul 2008
On Tuesday we had a major row about SATS tests, which this year have descended into farce as a result of the contract to mark the tests going to an American company, ETS. Either ETS hugely under-estimated the task of marking the exam papers of a whole cohort of eleven and fourteen year olds, or else it has been monumentally incompetent. Possibly both.
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Read "UnSATisfactory!" in full (234 words).
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SATS - the whole process has been unSATisfactory!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Thu 24th Jul 2008
Parliament broke up on Tuesday for the long - over-long in my view - summer recess, but there was time for just one more major row before we left, this time on the subject of the Key Stage 2 Standard Assessment Tests, or SATS as they are known, which this year have descended into farce as a result of the contract to mark the tests having been given to an American company, ETS. It would appear that either ETS hugely under-estimated the task of marking the exam papers of a whole cohort of eleven and fourteen year olds, or else it has been monumentally incompetent. Possibly both.
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Read "SATS - the whole process has been unSATisfactory!" in full (932 words).
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"Jobsworth" is alive and well in Frome!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Fri 18th Jul 2008
What on earth is going on with disabled parking in Frome? That parents should be refused access to disabled parking spaces when picking up their children from school simply beggars belief. I'm not surprised there was a demonstration on Friday to protest.
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Read ""Jobsworth" is alive and well in Frome!" in full (216 words).
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Legislate in haste - repent at leisure!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Fri 18th Jul 2008
A few years back we went through a stage when you couldn't open a national newspaper without being confronted with a grizzly picture of some poor soul, normally a very sweet looking child, who had been savagely mauled by their family pet. It seemed as though there was an inexorable rise in the incidence of dangerous dogs, as though the canine world was finally taking its revenge for years of rolling over for doggy biscuits. A national furore ensued, something had to be done, and eventually ministers capitulated and passed a new law, the Dangerous Dogs Act. The bill passed through parliament with all-party support. It was, by common consent, one of the most poorly drafted, most useless pieces of legislation to have been passed. Curiously, the newspapers got bored with reporting stories about feral dogs, and so we moved on.
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Read "Legislate in haste - repent at leisure!" in full (973 words).
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Another daft idea from the government!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Thu 10th Jul 2008
Let's stick up for the taxman. Or at least the local version. Nobody, if they're honest, or perhaps even more so if they're not, is very keen on their dealings with the Inland Revenue, or her Majesty's Revenue & Customs as we must now learn to call them. But as many small businessmen and women will attest, it's an awful lot easier to deal properly with one's tax affairs if you can contact someone locally, perhaps see them face to face, and talk through any problems you may have. That was one of the great advantages of having local tax offices. So of course the government now want to close them.
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Frome's a special place!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Fri 27th Jun 2008
We had a bit of a do last week. It was my wife's fiftieth birthday (you'd never guess it), and we decided to celebrate, along with a friend who'd reached the same milestone, by throwing a party. Those with teenage children will know that the American high school tradition of the prom is now well embedded in the social life of the tertiary college student, but because our generation missed out, we thought it would be good to hold a "Fabulous at Fifty" Prom. And we held it at the Cheese & Grain.
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Wow! What a week in politics!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Fri 20th Jun 2008
Visiting America on holiday a couple of years ago I came across an official looking plaque on the wall of a building. "On this spot in 1877," it proclaimed in solid brass, "nothing happened". I later found that they were selling the plaques in a nearby novelty store. Many weeks in politics are pretty much like that. Nothing of any consequence happens, and we just go through the motions, literally in the case of parliamentary debate. Then, every now and again, you have a week where everything seems to happen. Last week was one of those.
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David Davis deserves congratulations for his stand
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Fri 20th Jun 2008
So the government won the vote on forty two days pre-charge detention by nine votes; co-incidentally nine Democratic Unionist MPs reversed their previous position and voted with the government after, it is rumoured, securing massive extra investment for their constituencies. I can only say that it saddens me if a government that can't win a vote on the arguments buys its way out of trouble.
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Read "David Davis deserves congratulations for his stand" in full (232 words).
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Tory rumours and Post office consultations - both a sham!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Thu 5th Jun 2008
I've now had three journalists ring me up over the last week or so asking me if it is true that I intend to step down at the next election. One even suggested that he had heard that I was about to go to the House of Lords, and I was probably being fitted for my ermine right now! When I asked who had been telling them this obvious untruth, one admitted that he had heard it from local Conservatives. Curiously enough, exactly the same thing happened about four years ago, at the same time before the last general election.
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Read "Tory rumours and Post office consultations - both a sham!" in full (955 words).
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Empty buildings are a problem
Written by David Heath MP and published in Frome Standard on Thu 5th Jun 2008
Events at the Mendip Lodge Hotel over recent weeks have underlined how important it is to make sure we don't have buildings empty and deteriorating around the town. Not only is it a risk in itself, from fire whether deliberate or otherwise, or simply from intruders getting up to no good, but an empty building becoming derelict can very quickly become an eyesore which does nothing for the town.
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Butler and Tanner closure is a blow to the town
Written by David Heath MP and published in Frome Standard on Thu 1st May 2008
The news over the weekend that Butler and Tanner is to close is very bad news for Frome. The firm is long-established and much-respected in the town, and many of the workforce have been with the company for many years. Now, abruptly, almost three hundred are to lose their jobs.
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Read "Butler and Tanner closure is a blow to the town" in full (233 words).
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Fighting terrorism, test centre closures and hospital-acquired infections!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Thu 1st May 2008
I spent last week taking evidence as a member of the committee looking in detail at the government's counter-terrorism bill. Sitting on a bill committee rapidly takes up any surplus time one might have, as it sits twice a day on Tuesdays and Thursdays and displaces a lot of other activity. It's also one of the most important tasks we perform as MPs, scrutinising new laws on a line by line basis and discussing possible amendments.
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Read "Fighting terrorism, test centre closures and hospital-acquired infections!" in full (893 words).
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Factory smells in Castle Cary - what I am doing on this issue
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Thu 24th Apr 2008
I knew that it was going to be a rather busier advice surgery than usual the moment I stepped through the door of the George at Castle Cary on Saturday. I was not disappointed. A couple of dozen local people had come to see me about what has become the issue of the day in the town; the smell which some do not appear to have a problem with, but many more do and describe as appalling, and which everyone accepts comes from the recently opened pet food factory.
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I now have a necker!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Frome Standard on Thu 24th Apr 2008
As an MP I quite often get given presentations. Probably my least favourite was the proverbial sheep's eye from an arab prince in Qatar. But up until Sunday I had never received a necker. Now not only I but the Mayor and the Town Crier are proud possessors of a friendship necker (which is, for those who don't know, the scarf worn around the neck) from the Frome and District Scouts.
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Oppose tax increases on the low-paid? I do - and I did!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Frome Standard on Fri 18th Apr 2008
I've had several letters and e-mails from local people over the last week or so asking me to oppose the abolition of the 10p income tax band. Of course I will, but then I did last year when it was announced, and I'm not sure why it's taken people a year to catch up.
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Read "Oppose tax increases on the low-paid? I do - and I did!" in full (228 words).
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Liberal Democrats - ahead of the rest!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Fri 18th Apr 2008
Almost certainly the hardest thing that leaders of opposition parties have to do in the House of Commons is to respond to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's budget statement each March. They do so having to absorb a large amount of complicated financial information, often presented in a form intended to obfuscate rather than inform, and then make what they hope is a sensible and economically literate response while, of course, seeking to get their own party political points across effectively.
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