I have never  been able to work out how it happens that, on a certain day in a certain year, fashion for or against a particular type of clothing starts and then spreads like wildfire only to be replaced by another.  And, of course, it isn’t just a matter of [...]]]> Fashion is a very strange thing. 

I have never  been able to work out how it happens that, on a certain day in a certain year, fashion for or against a particular type of clothing starts and then spreads like wildfire only to be replaced by another.  And, of course, it isn’t just a matter of clothing. 

There are fashions in lifestyles, cars, music, architecture, and just about anything else you care to mention – like it or not, we are all fashion-conscious.

Last week, I was reminded of the strangest fashion of all – the fashion in disease.

The amazing fact is that, at any given time there are certain diseases that are fashionable, not of course in the sense that it becomes fashionable to acquire them, but in the sense that it becomes fashionable to think about them, invest in research to counteract them, talk about them, raise money for curing them, and so forth.

Not very long ago – certainly within my own lifetime – cancer of all sorts was very unfashionable.  We all dreaded it so much that we didn’t even want to talk about it.

In those days, if you got cancer you could just about bet on it that you wouldn’t admit the fact to anyone except your nearest and dearest; and you could just about bet also that no-one else would mention it to you.  Somehow, it seems indelicate to admit the gruesome reality of what was so often expected to be a rapidly approaching death.

Mercifully, as a result of massive advances in this part of medicine, it has now become much more fashionable to admit that you have cancer, and for other people to address the subject. 

I am sure this is a huge step forward, since it is vastly easier to deal with these challenges if you are not doing so in semi-secret. 

What is more, the change in fashion has, I am sure, hugely increased the ability and willingness of charities and foundations to raise money for cancer research and to ensure that cancer treatment is given the place it deserves within the NHS.

But cancer is not just one thing.  There are, as we all know, many different kinds of cancer – and they are not all equally fashionable subjects for conversation, debate and public attention.

I discovered recently that pancreatic cancer, which is still a real killer for the small number of people who are so unfortunate as to get it, doesn’t receive anything like as much attention as some other forms of cancer do.

I think it is right, therefore, for all of us to do our bit in raising its profile, so that the right amount of attention is focused on research, treatment and early diagnosis.

I hope that, in a small way, this column may contribute to that collective endeavour.

But George [...]]]> Events like the Queen’s Jubilee and the Olympics (not to mention last year’s Royal Wedding) serve to remind us all of the way that glamour can be life enhancing.  It would be a dull world indeed if we didn’t have these marvellous, enormous events to lift us out of ourselves and into special worlds.

But George Herbert was also right to remind us that noble motives can make drudgery divine – and we surely ought to reserve a particular place in our hearts for those silent heroes who make lives better without the slightest hint of glamour.

I reflected on this when I visited the Learning Centre in Sherborne recently.

There is definitely nothing glamorous about the idea of a learning centre.  This is where pupils go when they have been excluded from school or have difficulties which make it impossible for them to be at school – and there is nothing glamorous about that.

But the delicate and challenging business of helping a youngster back into the mainstream when they are in danger of falling by the wayside is about as important as anything gets.  If successful – and the Sherborne Learning Centre has a remarkable degree of success – this constitutes nothing less than the rescue of a young life and, while we are at it, a huge benefit to the rest of society.

All evidence suggests that what happens to people in their early years and in their school days has a profound and lasting impact on the kind of adults they grow up to be and hence not only on their own prospects but also on the prospects of everyone around them.  So bringing children back from the brink is a huge contribution to their well-being and to social welfare in general.

As I was talking to the remarkable man who runs the Learning Centre, I reflected on what it is that leads someone of his talent to devote their lives to such a cause.

Of course, in one sense, the job satisfaction must be immense.  No-one can do anything more evidently useful than this – and the sense of achievement must be huge each time one of the pupils make good.

But the sheer effort involved, allied to the emotional intensity and the complete lack of glamour all call for an exceptional cast of mind.  This is not a job which, in the immortal words of the wedding service is to be undertaken lightly or inadvisedly.

And yet there are people who do these jobs, day in day out, with enthusiasm and dedication – and we should raise a glass to them more frequently than we have a tendency to do.

We are lucky to have a much lower rate of unemployment here than almost anywhere else in the country. Nevertheless, I have found myself increasingly involved in helping young people find jobs, and others in the public, [...]]]> At the start of the New Year, I am reporting on my activities in 2011 as your constituency MP.

We are lucky to have a much lower rate of unemployment here than almost anywhere else in the country. Nevertheless, I have found myself increasingly involved in helping young people find jobs, and others in the public, private and voluntary sectors who are taking very welcome steps to provide the training and opportunities that young people need.

The foundation of the jobs club in Dorchester was a highlight – and I look forward to helping with the creation of further jobs clubs.  I have also been delighted to see the way in which our three colleges – Yeovil, Weymouth and Kingston Maurward – have been moving forward, and I am glad to have played a small part in helping BLAST (a remarkable local charity for young people) to found with Yeovil College a splendid new skills training centre in Bridport.

One theme that has been constant is the need for high speed rural broadband – and I am delighted that we are now moving firmly towards a full-scale roll out of high speed broadband in West Dorset on the basis of co-operation between the County Council and central government.

Next year, the Olympics at Weymouth offer the prospect of a boost for the businesses which depend in one way or another on tourism – but we are now engaged in a rearguard action to keep the Search and Rescue helicopter at Portland.  I am just about to have meetings jointly with the MP for South Dorset in order to lobby the Department for Transport about this.

Two similar topics have arisen in the second half of 2011 – preserving outpatient services at our community hospitals, and ensuring that there is proper inpatient provision for mental health.  I am optimistic that we will succeed in obtaining a new set of contracts to ensure that the outpatient services remain in our community hospitals.

Following a series of meetings with users of the mental health service and supporters, I am now engaged in ensuring that people can recuperate from mental illness in an appropriate environment without having to travel large distances.

As every year, I have had a large number of approaches from parish councils, community groups, schools and individual constituents – each raising particular problems.  I have been able to contribute to the solution of some of these – helping Thomas Hardye School to become an academy, helping to raise funds for a range of community groups, helping several parish councils with the preparations for neighbourhood planning, and helping individuals to deal with various bureaucracies.  One of the most satisfying aspects of constituency work is the moment when a particular bureaucracy unblocks a blockage and commonsense is allowed to prevail.

But local people do not just have problems.  I continue to be impressed by the remarkable range of enterprise, goodwill, neighbourliness and voluntary activity in West Dorset. This is a part of the world that continues to be blessed not only by its natural environment and architectural heritage but also by the energy and spirit of its people.

It only remains for me to wish all my constituents a happy Christmas and a successful New Year.

I was reminded of this when I was approached by the [...]]]> Over the years I’ve become accustomed to the ingenuity and determination shown by the people of Dorset and it never ceases to amaze me how many local heroes there are who are more than willing to roll up their sleeves and address problems head on.

I was reminded of this when I was approached by the charity ‘Clean Sheet’.

Clean Sheet is the brain child of the ever industrious Jane Gould, who also pioneered Job Clubs (of which ours in Dorchester now is thriving and doing great things to help unemployed people find work).

The aim of Clean Sheet is simple and complementary– to assist ex-offenders find work.

However, whilst the aim is simple, the implications of success are much broader.

Work is one of the essential building blocks of a normal life. Without it, anyone can struggle to support those things that are most important, such as family and a sense of belonging within wider society.

For ex-offenders, finding work is especially important if they are to successfully reintegrate in to society.

If we’re able to help them into the work place, it is much more likely that they won’t reoffend – a benefit not only to themselves but also to society and the taxpayer.

Such rehabilitation is crucial if we’re to reduce the overall cost of crime – emotionally, physically and financially.

But finding work is particularly difficult if you’re an ex-offender.

That’s where Clean Sheet steps in.

Clean Sheet engages with business in an effort to create job opportunities for ex-offenders. They establish links between businesses and ex-offenders looking for work and employers can sign up to the Clean Sheet Register, which signals that they would consider employing an ex-offender.

Of course, this is just one part of a huge national effort that is now, at last, going into rehabilitating ex-offenders.  But it is an enormously encouraging and important part of the jigsaw – both here in Dorchester and more widely.

So, if you’re an employer or ex-offender interested in the work of Clean Sheet, do get in touch via the website www.cleansheet.org or by emailing Jane: Jane@gbjobclubs.org

Three cheers for Clean Sheet!

Traditionally, even in difficult times, this produces a surge in high [...]]]> As Christmas approaches, shopkeepers in Sherborne and elsewhere in the country will be hoping that – despite the world’s economic problems – people will be taking out what money they have in order to buy presents and stock up the fridge for the festive season.

Traditionally, even in difficult times, this produces a surge in high street sales just before the end of the year.  And this, of course, is only one of the many seasonal effects that lead to changes in our national economic activity at different times of the year.  

Unsurprisingly, August regularly features as a month in which production and other activity is lower than at other times – for the straightforward reason that people are taking their holidays.  And there are other patterns of this sort which can easily be detected and explained.  Indeed, this is why the figures are usually presented on a “seasonally adjusted” basis.

But I noticed the other day that if you look closely at the figures over a run of years (to eliminate particular occurrences in any one year), there are persistent and marked differences in economic activity between one month and another which can’t be explained by any of the obvious causes.

It turns out, for example, that, in good times and bad alike, we as a nation produce more and sell more in the autumn months than we do in the spring and early summer – and by quite a large margin.  In fact, if we produced and sold as much in the spring and early summer as we do in the autumn, we would be a percent or two richer than we are – quite a surprising result when you think of the enormous importance we all, quite rightly, attach to whether the economy is growing or declining by 1%.

There may, of course, be some perfectly obvious explanation for this – for example, it could be that people are refreshed when they come back from their holidays in September and work harder as a result. But I have to admit that I can’t at the moment quite believe that this effect lasts through to the end of November. 

Having come across this strange corner of the economic statistics, my first inclination was to suppose that someone must already have studied this exhaustively, and it may yet turn out that there is a standard work on the subject.  But, as far as I can make out at present, this phenomenon just doesn’t happen to have come to anyone’s attention yet.

I am therefore commissioning some low-cost research in the hope that this may unearth the causes of relatively low production in the spring and early summer – and that there may turn out to be things which we could easily do to improve performance in that part of the year in order to make ourselves collectively better off.

I wonder how many more little (but potentially important) unnoticed items there are lurking in the statistics we all see before our eyes?

But this shouldn’t blind us to the disappointment and misery that long term unemployment causes – particularly for young people who are [...]]]> Even in these troubled times, West Dorset is very fortunate to have a very low rate of unemployment – one of the lowest in the country, and indeed one of the lowest in Europe.

But this shouldn’t blind us to the disappointment and misery that long term unemployment causes – particularly for young people who are just starting out on what should be their working lives.

As everyone knows, youth unemployment has been rising for many years now, and it is desperately important that we should strain every sinew to ensure that young people don’t end up losing hope – as this can blight the whole of their future.

Of course, part of the answer lies in ensuring that young people leave school in a condition that makes them highly eligible either for further education or for employment.  But this is a task that West Dorset schools perform very creditably.

What we also need is every kind of assistance to enable those young people looking for work to find something suitable – and that is what the Work Programme and the new Careers Services are aimed at doing.
But there is more to it than a good education and help in finding the right job.  There is also the question of how a young person crosses the threshold and acquires a first experience in the world of work – often enough, becoming in the process a much more attractive proposition to any employer.

This is something that the Germans have recognised for a long time – and their system of apprenticeships has been a tremendous success.  I gather that in Germany there are many people who regard an apprenticeship as something just as good as going to university – and the kind of practical training received on the job must surely be one of the things that has contributed to the strength of German manufacturing.

I am glad to say that we are now beginning to build up a really serious system of apprenticeships in this country, too.  There has been a huge expansion in the number of apprenticeships on offer, and there are some quite excellent examples locally.  Now there is to be a renewed push to improve the quality in places where it has been weak, and to ensure that all apprentices acquire not only a serious professional competence but also transferable skills of a sort that will make them attractive to employers of many different kinds.

Add to this, a much wider and deeper system of work experience – which early indications suggest can hugely improve the chances of future employment – and incentives for employers to focus their recruitment at this difficult time on young people, and you begin to build up an armoury that is capable of attacking this problem effectively.

Of course, in the end we need economic growth to create opportunities and jobs.  But, under current circumstances, we must do everything we can to ensure that global economic turmoil does not deprive our young people of that vital first step into the world of work.

The name of this series of lectures is not a coincidence. The lectures held each year to help raise money for the village of Poyntington. As someone who has spent a certain amount of time over the years in this lovely little village, [...]]]> Last week, I found myself giving what is called the Poyntington Lecture in Sherborne.

The name of this series of lectures is not a coincidence. The lectures held each year to help raise money for the village of Poyntington.
As someone who has spent a certain amount of time over the years in this lovely little village, I can testify to the need for investment in its wonderful but ancient infrastructure.

I gather that – perhaps partly because of this fund raising effort – the village has now invested in heating for its village hall. As I pointed out at the beginning of the lecture, this was very much needed, if my own experience of holding surgeries in that particular, charming and at that time very cold location is anything to go by.

So the villagers had a very clear motive for establishing the lecture series. But, as I surveyed the quite large audience of people who had made a financial contribution in order to come to the lecture, I reflected how extraordinary the whole thing really is.

If you were sitting in London or Paris and you were asked what kind of activities you would expect people in a small highly rural village in Dorset to be engaged in, I really wonder whether you would immediately spring to the idea of the villagers organising a series of rather serious-minded lectures and then taking the trouble to acquire an audience from the surrounding area in order to combine an element of intellectual activity with an element of infrastructure finance.

If one were looking for a definition of what it is to be civilised, one would find it pretty hard to beat this combination of community spirit and thirst for understanding of the world.

I felt really rather proud of West Dorset – as I did again 10 days ago when I took part in the Remembrance Sunday service at the Abbey in Sherborne.

As I speculated a few weeks ago in this column, the Remembrance service was remarkably touching.

In fact, I think this year’s service pulled at the heart strings even more than usual. It’s all so beautifully done. The hymns and anthem are wonderful. The playing of the bugle and of the Town Band, rising invisibly from the east end of the Abbey; the processions; the flags that unfurl and dip and rise; the sun as it breaks through the clouds and lights up the stained glass windows; above all, that magical moment when the young man and the old soldier join forces at the steps of the altar in their joint homage to the memory of the fallen – each of these contributes in its own way to the beauty and solemnity and meaning of this perfect service.

Sherborne and its surroundings are indeed blessed.

But it [...]]]> A visitor to Sherborne could be forgiven for thinking that this lovely town, tucked away in the Dorset countryside, is pretty much disconnected from the wider world.  And, of course, in many of the best senses, it is.  Sherborne doesn’t have a large number of problems that afflict many other parts of the world.

But it would be quite wrong to think of Sherborne as isolated or parochial.

I had a strong sense of the connections which the town maintains with a much wider world when I met a group of people from around Europe who had gathered under the umbrella of the “Douzelage” which links Sherborne with other European towns.

Over the years, the Douzelage has brought many interesting things to Sherborne – including, for example, a remarkable set of cultural events from around Europe.  It has also enabled young people in Sherborne to meet with counterparts from very different countries to discuss all sorts of interesting and important topics.  This can only have widened horizons and enlarged understanding – a gain for all those involved.

The meeting which I attended last week was another of this series.  It focused on volunteering – and it was clear that this is a topic of great interest to the young people from continental Europe who were gathered in Sherborne for the occasion.

To my surprise, one of the young people from a far-off land in central Europe ran after me as I walked down the street following the event and buttonholed me.

As he did so, I reflected on the surprise this would have caused in many quarters.

If you were sitting in, say, London or Liverpool, would you expect to be able to report that young people from central and eastern Europe are to be found buttonholing local MPs in the rural areas of England in order to discuss the finer points of volunteering and the Big Society?  I suspect I know the answer to this question.

I suppose, however, that we shouldn’t really be so surprised by all of this.  The truth is that, although there are many differences between one society and another, there are also huge similarities and overlaps.

Wittgenstein once remarked that if a lion could speak, we wouldn’t understand what he had to say – because the lion’s form of life is so different from our own that his perspectives would be incomprehensible to us.  By the same token, other human beings, despite the barriers of different cultures, different languages and different histories, actually have remarkably similar forms of life.

Whatever differentiates a town in central Europe from a town in the south west of England, the need for one set of human beings to be helped by another set of human beings remains a constant – and interest in volunteering, community self-help and social enterprise is as relevant in Hungary or Germany as it is in England.

This organisation has been strongly supported by the Church of England and is lucky enough to have the Archdeacon of Sherborne as its chairman. Its purpose is very simple. It exists to [...]]]> Amongst the many wonderful voluntary organisations in West Dorset, none is more admirable than the little charity which goes by the name of Footprints.

This organisation has been strongly supported by the Church of England and is lucky enough to have the Archdeacon of Sherborne as its chairman. Its purpose is very simple. It exists to help prisoners return to civilised society as good citizens.

With reconviction rates for prisoners still abysmally high, and with each convicted criminal costing the taxpayer a bomb (quite apart from the effects of crime on innocent victims), the work done by Footprints is a massive contribution not only to society but also to the nation’s overstretched fiscal accounts.

The bad news is that there are still so very many people who move into a life of crime, are eventually convicted and imprisoned, and then continue their criminal activity after leaving gaol.

But the good news is that the kind of rehabilitative work done by Footprints, which used to be regarded by many in the criminal justice system as at best an irrelevance, is now being taken really seriously.

There is an overdue but nevertheless immensely welcome recognition that reducing crime requires more than just effective policing and tough sentencing. It also needs real work to lead people away from drug and alcohol dependency, unemployment and vagrancy and into the mainstream of jobs, homes, abstinence, sobriety and stable relationships.

Of course, the roots of the problem almost always lie in the families in which the people concerned grow up. Early intervention to help sort out the tangle of disasters that we all too often see in “problem families” is an absolutely crucial component of any successful, long term strategy for reducing crime and recividism – as is the improvement of our schools in the hardest pressed inner city areas. But we can’t wait until these very fundamental interventions have changed the childhoods of those who would currently be drawn into a life of crime. We must also act now to draw people back from crime into mainstream society.

So, all credit to Footprints and to the marvellous work it is doing.