Oliver Letwin MP

Last week, I found myself acting as an auctioneer.

Surprisingly, this is a role that I have fairly frequently occupied over the years in West Dorset.

If I had been asked, before becoming the local MP, whether “auctioneer at charity auctions of promises” would form a part of the job-description, I am bound to say that I [...]

It is rather exciting to hear that the National Trust is excavating some of the historic Bronze Age burial mounds at Golden Cap.

I understand that the team will spend three weeks digging at the earthworks on the cliff top, which is the highest point on the Jurassic Coast.

It seems that three of the five barrows, [...]

Just occasionally, when you are sitting at a meeting about some worthy local subject in West Dorset, you hear something that, while apparently true, is almost unbelievable.

This very thing happened to me just last week.
I was sitting in a perfectly ordinary room at the County Council headquarters in Dorchester, talking to senior officers from councils [...]

Ten years ago, I went to see a man in his front room overlooking the sea. He was surrounded by tax papers.

He told me about the difficulty elderly people often have filling out their tax returns — particularly when they come to certain moments in their lives, like retirement or bereavement, that cause their tax [...]

One of the surprising things about government is that you come across things that have been going on in the undergrowth without anybody noticing for years and years.

Unfortunately, some of these things come as nasty surprises.

But, every so often, someone appears in your office with news of an amazingly good thing which has been going [...]

Just occasionally, something happens that makes you realise how community-minded most people are. 

Something of this sort happened to me last week, when I participated in the launch of the Dorchester Work Club.

This work club will become part of a national network of clubs that have been spreading, bit by bit, around the country.

The idea is [...]

The recent and ghastly events in Japan have engaged the sympathy and admiration of the whole word. We have all witnessed not only the astonishing courage of the heroic fire fighters at the nuclear plant but also the calm dignity with which the inhabitants of the afflicted area have conducted themselves in the face of [...]

To judge by my postbag, almost no local topic has caused so much interest recently as the question of the fate of our community libraries.

The Bridport area is rich in these libraries.  As well as the main library in South Street, Bridport (whose future is not in question), there are much treasured libraries at Burton [...]

I am able to use this column this week to focus on some good news. 

Lest this should seem too unlikely a claim amidst all the perturbations of the international scene, I should prepare you, dear reader, by prefacing the main cause for joy by mentioning a small but significant discovery that I have made during [...]

Regular readers of this column, if there are any, may recall an occasion about two years ago when I told the remarkable tale of the intrepid Brian Bean and his Chickerell litter project.

To recap: Brian Bean is one of those undaunted individuals who conceives an idea and then, against whatever obstacles may be laid in [...]