My apologies for the period of silence on this blog. Last week, Erika and I celebrated the arrival of our first child, Peter. Both mum and son are doing very well. I have taken some time off but normal service will be resumed shortly!

Throughout August, I have been dropping by on a range of Summer programmes for youngsters across the borough. It is good to see a lot of creative thinking going in to this kind of Summer holiday project.

Last week, I joined Elmbridge Housing Trust, Surrey Youth Services, Elmbridge Council and Surrey Police to celebrate the Stamp out Bordeom project. It keeps youngsters busy - and out of mischief - by getting them involved in a whole range of activities, including team-building exercises, graffiti art, football training, giving interviews on Brooklands Radio, and putting together a video explaining the scheme itself. The project has proved a real success, popular amongst both children and parents.

I joined them on their final day - pictured below - and took part in a team-building game, watched the film they recorded of the scheme, and handed out the awards to those who took part. It was a lot of fun, and a great credit to all the youngsters and local agencies involved.




Today, I was given a tour of Walton Fire and Rescue Depot. Les Dodd and Paul Kenny explained how the station operates, including the mix of fire response and water-based incidents they have to deal with, coupled with the preventative side of their work in the community. I met with local officers (pictured below), and we discussed a range of matters - from the implications of the Surrey Fire and Rescue review, to the practical impact of health and safety regulation. I was thoroughly impressed with their dedication and professionalism, and very grateful for the tour and feedback.

On Friday, I opened a new sensory room, at Mencap Elmbridge, for people with learning disabilities. The money for the facility was raised through a mix of fund-raising, including a generous contribution from Glaxo Smith Kline. Jean Rigden and Veronica Collins are part of a fantastic team, doing inspirational work. It was great to see such a wide range of people with various disabilities making good use of the center and enjoying its facilities. The new room will help with rehabilitation and sensory stimulation for those with longer term conditions.

Knee deep in boxes - Erika and I are moving house this weekend. We've enjoyed a wonderful year renting in Claygate, and have been looking for a place to buy here and around the area. Eventually, we found the right place for us in Thames Ditton - looking forward to getting settled in.

Every now and then the media pick up on the gruesome modern equivalent of the slave trade in Britain - Chinese cockle pickers drowning in Morecambe Bay, or squalid urban brothels enslaving young girls. The UK Human Trafficking Center (in Sheffield) report the referral of over 500 victims trafficked into Britain for forced labour or sexual exploitation, between April and December 2009. The overall number of victims here, on the basis of police and NGO estimates, is in the thousands. Human trafficking is a serious problem in Britain today.

In 2007, Home Secretary John Reid signed the European Convention on Human Trafficking - to mark the 200th anniversary of the banning of the slave trade - but the last government changed precious little in reality.

Britain needs to grip this problem, not brush it under the carpet. We need stronger border controls - a dedicated Border police force, and procedures for monitoring non-parental adults that enter the UK with a minor. We need a concerted attempt to prosecute the vicious gangs that slip between the cracks of our porous borders - the current conviction rate is pathetic, which sends a weak message to the perpetrators. And we need to help the victims, both as a matter of basic decency, but also to secure their cooperation in bringing prosecutions.

Today, I visited Body Shop in Walton who are teaming up with End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking (ECPAT UK), to raise awareness of this issue and promote a 'guardianship' scheme to help rehabilitate child victims of trafficking. I have raised the issue in the House of Commons - and will be trying to help build a cross-party consensus in favour of stamping out this modern equivalent of the slave trade.

(Joining ECPAT at Body Shop in Walton - to raise awareness of human trafficking in Britain)

MPs get hundreds of emails and letters from constituents. I try to answer every one in reasonable time. But, MPs have finite time and resources, and I also want to prioritise those in the greatest need.

It is a difficult balance. My approach is to ask those with a problem or issue they want me to take up to write in, so I have full details and can check they are constituents (it is a protocol that you do not take up the case of other MPs' constituents). I hold regular surgeries. I send out a monthly bulletin to anyone who signs up. I actively encourage constituents (on my blog and website) to write to me, comment on my blog, email my association, telephone my office or book a surgery appointment. I live and commute from the constituency, which helps me stay in touch. Every week, I meet businesses, charities and residents across the borough.

At the moment, I am on crutches (after hip surgery), but I am determined to use the August Parliamentary recess to hold six open public meetings across the constituency so I can hear direct from residents, starting next week (advertised on this blog and in the local press).

All of this takes time and energy. You have to prioritise. One of the things I found as an MP, is that every lobby group puts you on their email distribution list - or an automated system that sends out cloned messages from members of the public who access it. I ask for my email address to be removed from such systems and encourage constituents to contact me direct (as above). Otherwise, my email inbox gets deluged by lobby group emails - and that detracts time and effort from dealing with the many constituents who raise problems or issues.

One such lobby group is a company called 38 Degrees - campaigning for AV amongst a range of other lib-left causes. By asking them politely to remove me from their system, which allows its supporters to click and send an automated email, I have incurred their wrath. They have published a blog post on their website. People will be able to judge for themselves whether I am behaving reasonably or not. I believe campaign groups have their place, but I don't see why lobby groups should be able to bombard MPs (or anyone else for that matter) with emails, if they request their address to be removed.

Reasonable people may differ on all of this. Fair enough. But 38 Degrees are now resorting to slur, through the rather silly, false and malicious misrepresentation of what I have said. The headline of their blogpost reads: "DOMINIC RAAB MP TELLS CONSTITUENTS 'DON'T EMAIL ME ... IT'S BECOMING A REAL NUISANCE'." Whatever your political persuasion, that is clearly a total distortion of what I told them. I just don't want 38 Degrees using my email for their mass e-lobbying campaigns - any more than I do a commercial lobby group or trade association.

UPDATE I: A number of people have asked whether I reply to constituent emails to my HoC address. Yes, absolutely - and it is very easy to work out an MP's email address (surname, initial, @parliament.uk). For those in any doubt, there is a phone number on my contact pages, so people can obtain it (for major issues I still prefer a letter with full details and address). The reason I stopped formally advertising my actual email address is that the Information Commissioner's Office advised me that, if I do, I am putting it in the public domain and then cannot ask for it to be removed from mass e-distribution lists or automated systems.

UPDATE II: Thanks for the texts, emails and suggestions. I have adopted the best one - an E-contact form that maximises my accessibility to constituents, but does not advertise my email address to lobbyists. I would prefer to publish my email address, as I did until recently. So, I have also written to the Information Commissioner seeking clarification of the right to have an email address removed from the automated devices and distribution lists that lobby groups deploy to send clone emails.

It is a common myth that MPs have ludicrously long holidays. Parliament went into recess last week. With the exception of two weeks in September, MPs will not return for two and a half months.

But, Parliament not sitting is not the same thing as MPs not working.

I can't speak for others, but I'm not taking any time off in August. I will be cracking on with a range of things relating to my responsibilities outside of Westminster, including:

• Working on a paper to submit to the local government finance review relating to the funding formula - making the case for a fairer deal in Elmbridge and Surrey, given the level of taxes we pay.


• Liaising with councillors, GPs and schools about implementation of the government's NHS and schools reforms.


• Preparing a pamphlet on counter-terrorism strategy for a think-tank.


• Erika and I are liaising with local charities to see what we can do to help deliver the 'Big Society' agenda.


• And I will be speaking at six open, town-hall style, public meetings across the constituency - so residents have an opportunity to grill me on anything they like.

As the policy wonks, commentators and public digest the coalition programme for government, there will be a lot of carping. I was not enthusiastic about a full 5 year coalition. But having joined it, we must make it deliver. The programme is not perfect. It reflects compromise. But let’s not lose sight of the positives, including:

On the Economy …
• Recognising deficit reduction as ‘the most urgent issue facing Britain’, starting to cut it immediately, and prioritising spending cuts ahead of tax hikes.
• Creating an Office of Budgetary responsibility – an independent warning siren on government spending and debt.
• Publishing online government spending over £25k, salaries of senior civil servants and council spending over £500.
• Improving the flow of credit to small business.
• Bank of England control over debt bubbles.
• Staying out of the Euro.
• A ‘one in, one out’ rule for new business regulation, along with sunset clauses.
• Commitments to scrap the IR 35 and make business rate relief automatic, as part of a wider review of tax on small business.
• Reversing Labour’s NI hike (the jobs tax).
• Cutting corporation tax – to make Britain the most competitive regime in the G20.
• Part-privatisation of Royal Mail.
• Ending gold-plating of EU rules – so Britain is not the only country implementing EU regulations to the letter.
• Freezing council tax for 1 year, and aiming for a second.

Defending our freedoms …
• Scrapping ID cards.
• Outlawing the finger-printing of children in school without parental permission.
• Ending police retention of innocent people’s DNA.
• Strengthening jury trial.
• Restoring the right to non-violent protest and strengthening free speech.
• Limiting the use of RIPA (surveillance legislation) to serious crimes.
• Reviewing UK extradition rules

Strengthening local democracy …
• Reviewing local government funding, giving back more of the revenue raised locally.
• Scrapping the South East Plan (and its arbitrary housing targets), strengthening local conttrol over planning policy, and maintaining the Green Belt.
• Giving communities a greater say over decisions on frontline services (like our community hospitals).
• Putting directly elected representatives on the Boards of Primary Care Trusts – one Lib Dem policy I am delighted we are signing up for.
• Directly elected police commissioners.

The best of the rest …
• Schools reform – so parents, teachers and charities can set up new schools (with state funding, without the bureaucracy).
• A Lib Dem pledge not to block plans for nuclear power – to meet our energy needs, whilst protecting the environment.
• A re-affirmed commitment to welfare reform.
• A pledge to ‘stop foreign healthcare professionals working in the NHS unless they have passed robust language and competence tests.’
• A Cancer Drugs Fund and more dementia research.
• Protections for pensioners – including restoring the earnings link to the basic state pension, and compensating Equitable Life victims.

I undertook to publish the results of our local survey on your priorities, once we had at least 100 respondents. The results are set out below - and, beneath them, the Conservative policies to address the priorities you have identified.

Law and Order

7. Which of the following measures are most important in the fight against crime? Tick all that apply:


Greenbelt

8. How would you describe the balance between development and preservation of the greenbelt in Elmbridge? Select one of:

Your Priorities

9. Which are the most important issues for you and your family in Elmbridge? Tick all that apply:

Across the range of priorities you have highlighted, it is the Conservatives providing the answers, including:

• Cutting the bulk of the budget deficit within 5 years.
• Cutting wasteful and excessive state spending, to reverse Labour's NI tax on jobs.
• Cutting the main and small business rate of corporation tax - to promote job-creation.
• Giving local authorities a greater share of the revenue from business rates, to invest in local business growth.
• Freezing Council Tax for 2 years.
• Scrapping stamp duty for first-time buyers on homes up to £250k.
• Changing the 'funding formula', so Elmbridge's taxpayers get a fairer deal back from the Treasury to fund local public services.
• Cutting Whitehall targets and NHS managers, to make local health services more accountable to local communities.
• Freeing parents, faith groups and community organisations to set up good new local schools - with state funding, but not all the bureaucracy.
• Cutting police red-tape, so officers spend more time on the street.
• Supporting local community groups - like Hersham Youth center, and Sunbury and Walton Sea Cadets - providing positive activities for youngsters.
• Scrapping top-down housing targets, and strengthening local democracy, to preserve our greenbelt.
• Opposing a 3rd runway at Heathrow.

(Sample survey size: 101 respondents.)

The Guardian have published an election review for South East England, including highlighting Esher and Walton. You can read it here.

Today, The Guardian runs a piece on the class of 2010 Tories, and profiles 18 of the new Conservative candidates - including (brief) online interviews here (with mine at 8mins, 7secs).

We are holding a series of local events in the run up to the election, so I can meet and hear from local residents. The first two are on Friday 26 March (8pm at Christophers Church Hall, Hinchley Wood) and Friday 9 April (8pm at Claygate Village Hall, Claygate). Further details here. All are welcome!

By invitation, and in commemoration of International Women's Day (8 March), Christine Jesman has kindly contributed the following post on women in local government, highlighting the public service in Elmbridge of Helen Rowley Lambert (1836-1900):

The Municipal Housekeeper

Local government rarely generates the same amount of interest as parliamentary affairs and whilst efforts to redress gender imbalance in parliament, through Labour’s Emily’s List and the Conservative’s Women2Win, are well recognised, the work of the Women’s Local Government Society, who held their AGM in London last Friday, remains relatively unknown. The organisation had its origins in the 1880s when it campaigned for women to be allowed to sit on local boards, existing in various forms until 1925. It was reformed in 2007 to mark the centenary of women winning the right to stand as councillors. With the number of women councillors in the UK remaining stubbornly at around 27% for almost three decades, this cross-party society has resumed its campaigning for greater female participation in local government.

As March is Women’s History Month, with its theme for 2010 of ‘writing women back into history’ it seems appropriate to raise the profile of a long forgotten ‘municipal housekeeper’, as the early women pioneers of local government were often called. In doing so we highlight the little known fact that for almost half a century before women gained the parliamentary vote, some women could vote, and be elected, in local government elections.

Few women chose to undergo the ordeal of standing as a candidate for the school boards, Parish and Rural District Councils or as Poor Law guardians and after 1907, as Town Councillors. Of those that did, historians have linked many with networks of temperance, social purity, liberalism and the women’s suffrage campaign. In Surrey the picture was slightly different with a Conservative woman from Thames Ditton achieving greater electoral success than almost any other woman in the nineteenth century.

Helen Rowley Lambert (1836-1900) was motivated by a sense of personal duty and deep religious commitment, compounded by the grief of sudden widowhood and childlessness. Her public life began in 1880 following the death of her husband. She eschewed a political identity but occasionally attended Conservative meetings. She was a member of Thames Ditton School Board from 1881 until her death. She became a Poor Law guardian in 1891 and continued this work as a Rural District Councillor from 1894 onwards. In 1896 she was elected to Esher and the Dittons Urban District Councillor, a position held by few women at the time. As a local newspaper reported towards the end of her life, when it was widely known that she was suffering from terminal cancer, yet continued her public service:



Christine Jesman lives in Esher, and holds a D.Phil from Sussex University on Conservative Women in the Late Nineteenth Century

Today, Conservative Home praises Elmbridge Borough Council for its efforts in managing to freeze council tax despite the tight financial situation. It is a significant achievement, and credit goes to the officers and councillors for taking the tough decisions required. If only we had such rigour and discipline in central government!

Yesterday, David Cameron gave a cast-iron pledge to end this government's dithering and give Equitable Life policy-holders the compensation they deserve. He said: 'If we win the election, we're going to sort out Equitable Life very early on.'

In 2008, the Parliamentary Ombudsman blamed the collapse of Equitable Life on a decade of regulatory failure - attributing responsibility to both ministers and officials - and recommended an apology and compensation. Nearly two years on, the government has failed to act. The Equitable Members Action Group estimate that 15 policy holders die every day whilst the government delays. The government has buried the issue in the long grass - in a truly reprehensible manner.

Ian Taylor has pressed hard for action for policy-holders in Elmbridge. If elected, I will build on that momentum, and campaign relentlessly for swift and just compensation for the victims of this long drawn out fiasco.

My thanks to all those from Stoke d'Abernon and District Residents Association who came along for a drink and a chat at the Old Plough, last Thursday evening. I learnt a great deal about local issues - from anti-social behaviour to daffodil planting!

A particular thanks to Ian Nelson for organising, and landlord Bob Ketley for putting up with us.