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17 Most Recent Press Articles
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Written by Paul Holmes and published in View from Parliament on Fri 4th Jul 2008
Last Saturday I attended the Old Whittington Gala, a vibrant and well attended annual event which is a credit to its local organisers. Napoleonic soldiers paraded outside the Revolution House, a superb brass brand played, children climbed in and out of the police van and the wide variety of stalls did a roaring trade. A newcomer this year was the RAAW stall (Residents Against Asbestos Waste), a local group who are doing an outstanding job of campaigning against the application to put an asbestos waste transfer site smack in the middle of a densely populated urban area.
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Fri 20th Apr 2007
The way in which a national mood spreads across the whole of the UK is fascinating to observe. In 1995 a wave of revulsion against harsh Thatcherite policies and Tory sleaze swept the country. The Conservatives were first thrown out of thousands of Council seats around 1995 and then out of national office in 1997.
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Fri 6th Apr 2007
A few weeks ago Parliament voted to privatise key parts of the probation service and Labour MP's sitting opposite me cheered because they had narrowly forced this controversial measure through. More recently still Conservative and New Labour MP's - including all but Dennis Skinner here in Derbyshire - combined to ensure that Britain took a premature decision to renew the UK's nuclear deterrent for another 40 years.
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Sun 25th Mar 2007
I have now sat through six Gordon Brown Budgets and the pattern is the same every time. Gordon mumbles through a complex list of technical detail - burying the bad news in boredom. Then he pulls a 'rabbit' or two out of the hat, the press say what a wonderful budget it is and then a week or two later when the details have been analysed they start - too late - to point out the various stealth taxes.
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Sun 11th Mar 2007
Last November at the end of the Queens Speech, and again on the 4th March, I voted for a Referendum to be held on the simple 'In or Out of the EU' question.
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Sat 10th Feb 2007
Sometimes an MP's job combines business with pleasure. Recently, on 2nd February, I attended the launch of the CAMRA Festival at the Winding Wheel - first on the Friday afternoon for the 'official' opening and then in the evening for pleasure.
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Mon 1st Jan 2007
Tony Blair's New Years message to other countries seems to be very clear. "Do as we say but not as we do" and "any suggestion of corruption is unacceptable and will be vigorously investigated - unless it involves a medieval style monarchy who are 'mates' of ours."
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Mon 20th Nov 2006
Regrettably many MP's still talk like public school boys of the new term as if they were coming back to boarding school whenever Parliament begins a new session. Wednesday 15th of November saw the State Opening of Parliament and the Queens Speech (written of course by the Prime Minister), telling us what the Government plans to do for the next year. This is a 'top secret' document until read out by the Monarch- the details of which you could read in that mornings papers because Government spin doctors had been hard at work with journalists the night before!
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Mon 20th Nov 2006
On Saturday 18th November, as last year, I attended the launch event of this year's Santa Special on Chesterfield Canal at Tapton Lock. Great fun for children who in the run up to Christmas can meet Santa while having a canal boat trip. But also a good fund raiser for the fantastic team of volunteers who have given up so much of their time to reopen the canal.
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Wed 1st Nov 2006
"Should he stay or should he go" is the dominant topic of conversation recently. One recent opinion poll has revealed that Blair is now even less popular than Thatcher was just before her downfall - and incidentally that Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell is twice as popular as David Cameron.
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Mon 23rd Oct 2006
Over 6,000 Post Offices, including one in every three in Chesterfield and Staveley, have already been closed down - mostly by the policies of Brown and Blair. Now the future of the remaining 14,000 is in grave danger.
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Sun 1st Oct 2006
Local people are familiar with the disgraceful story of how the Labour Government has dealt with those who have lost their Occupational Pensions between 1997 and 5th April 2005. Those for example who worked at Chesterfield Cylinders, Dema Glass and Coalite, who along with at least 60,000 others around the UK saw their savings for retirement 'stolen' away.
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Sun 1st Oct 2006
With the majority of Britain's nuclear power stations due to close in the next 20 years, the debate about our nuclear future is heating up once again. Arguments deployed by the nuclear lobby are, however, very easily cooled.
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in House magazine on Fri 15th Sep 2006
This autumn conference could be the last before the next General Election. If Tony Blair finally goes, voluntarily or otherwise, then his successor is likely to 'cut and run' in an attempt to cash in on any honeymoon factor before political reality reasserts itself. Especially if that successor is Gordon Brown.
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Fri 25th Aug 2006
The final scale of Labour's NHS cuts, this year, is starting to become clear. Across the country over 20,000 jobs are being lost, including doctors, nurses, midwives and radiographers.
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Tue 18th Jul 2006
The week from Monday 10th to Saturday July 16th was another typical varied working week in and out of Parliament - for this MP at least!
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Written by Paul Holmes MP and published in View from Parliament on Wed 15th Mar 2006
In Parliament we have recently voted on a series of major pieces of legislation that will have a significant impact upon the way in which we all live our lives. In line with my personal principles and the manifesto you re-elected me on as your Liberal Democrat MP last year, I have sought to protect the British people from harm while safeguarding our civil liberties.
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