After a turbulent year the Christmas holiday gives us a welcome break to reflect on 2016 and look on to the challenges ahead. It is also a time to appreciate the most important things in life – the family and friends who support us through the hard times and the good.
I am so grateful to be Tatton's MP and the support of my constituents is not something I will ever take for granted. Meeting them, listening to their concerns and doing all I can to help is the most fulfilling part of my job. It doesn't matter whether someone supports me politically or not. I'm here for everyone, working with my fellow MPs to make Cheshire a better place to live.
A major part of this plan is my new Northern Powerhouse Partnership. The North of England is brimming with talent but it needs the infrastructure to enable cities and counties to work together. Together, cities like Manchester and Leeds, counties like Cheshire and Lancashire, can be far greater than a sum of their parts and end the economy's reliance on London. We have to get this right and I am determined to make it happen. It will bring jobs and bright futures for our young people here in Wilmslow.
It has also been an eventful year for the Wilmslow area. Cheshire businesses are going from strength to strength and I was delighted to join Wilmslow software company Mobica to celebrate their prestigious Queen's Award for Enterprise. We also flew the flag for Cheshire in Westminster, celebrating local produce at Cheshire Food and Drink Day in Parliament. It was great to see local businesses Tatton Brewery and Burts Cheese showing their wares. Our local talent is making an impact on the national stage. Better broadband will help companies like his to grow and I was pleased to help many rural communities get connected.
Our local schools continue to provide the high quality education our children deserve. I was lucky enough to visit Wilmslow High twice, once to help Sale Sharks put on their award winning education programme to use rugby to teach young people about money management, and a second time to join the French Ambassador in a French lesson ahead of Year 8's school trip to France. I also joined local primary pupils when they were taught crucial first aid skills by North West Ambulance staff, a fantastic initiative that really saves lives.
I am always blown away by the community spirit of people I meet in our town, from the poppy sellers at Sainsburys to the volunteers at the Combined Charities Christmas Card shop. The team who steered Wilmslow to their third RHS in Bloom Gold Award also deserve a special mention. Presenting the Legion d'Honneur to local Wilmslow residents who took part in D-Day was a moving reminder of the sacrifices their generation made to allow us to live in safety and freedom today. It was also a great honour to join local campaigner Anthony Harrison at the new Handforth Community War Memorial to pay my respects to local men who died in both distant and recent conflicts.
I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Comments
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As he must surely be aware, in Cheshire East, our Clinical Commissioning Group and Local Authority have been left, denuded of funds, and forced away from their expected 24 hours per day support for those in health and care need, and have even been forced, by Government decision, to spent the miserable remains of our pooled funds, to pay profits into commercial enterprises and former charities.. denuding us even more of our aid, when need arrives. This is of no benefit to those who rely on such services.
Being all over the Constituency like a rash, with his photographer, for poses, is of no practical use to any member of his constituency - of any political persuasion - if the resources are removed from those with a right to help.
With people, across this country, forced to sleep on the streets; and with families in temporary accommodation; with housing trusts evicting people who have clear mental health problems (May Appleton - deceased whilst still evicted) and few resources to help them, George has little to crow about.
With George in office, we have had fracking forced upon this dairy county, which - from brine extraction and salt mining) has underground cavities like gorgonzola cheese.
We have HS2 which will further destroy our county, to no great public benefit, since our public will largely be unable to pay the high cost of using such a facility. It takes 2 hours and 32 minutes to get from Crewe to London. Apparently (according to thetrainline)there are 120 trains per day travelling from Crewe to London(?) Of course there are still none from Middlewich, in spite of the tracks still being used for freight.
A very sudden resignation/sacking from the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer followed by little more than photo opportunities to wish us all a Merry Christmas, is hardly 'serving the electorate', George.
Transferring the bulk of long distance passenger traffic to the HS2 spine will free up a great deal of capacity on the WCML for stopping trains to give places such as Tamworth, Rugby, and Milton Keynes more stopping trains, and allow much needed paths for freight, another fast-growing area currently hampered by insufficient capacity and leading to ever more HGVs on our overcrowded roads.
In Cheshire HS2 will follow the M6 / M56 corridor so the environmental impact will be minimal.
By the way, Crewe to London by fast train takes just 1 hour 36 minutes today. But unless HS2 is built you can expect it to take longer in future, even if you can get onto a train!