Richard Benyon

Much Parliamentary business is done away from the Commons Chamber on the Committee corridor. Here techy matters are decided in mini debates which are carried out in the same style as happens in the Commons. Often they have cross party support but do offer bored MPs the chance to duff up an over confident or under prepared Minister. My first such outing was to put in place something the last Government had mooted which changed the bureaucratic method fishing boat skippers were required to use to register their catches. Fascinating stuff, I am sure you will agree. Despite the fact that it was a universally popular move for fishermen and had cross party support, Labour MPs put me through the mill with interventions about the “Big Society” and trying to catch me out on geeky technical points. I was also blind-sided by a Conservative who used the occasion to vilify the EU and the Common Fisheries Policy. We got the measure through and it was a good experience for times when measures before us will be more contentious.

Its clear that Labour MPs are adjusting to Opposition in different ways. Former Ministers are clearly bored with the amount of time they have on their hands. They snipe at the coalition and use weird Parliamentary procedures to keep us there late arguing footling points in hour long rambling speeches. Such tactics are not only being used by Labour MPs. A hardy few of what one might call the more robust element of Conservative MPs kept us up until late deciding whether or not members of the youth Parliament could use the Chamber for their annual debate. I can’t see the problem with this and was happy it went through.

I have a great job in Government. Last week I went to see the Avon Gorge near Bristol. I was being shown a highly successful project to protect this unique landscape. I sat in the sun with people from the local authority and the Government body Natural England, watching two peregrine falcons flying around sometimes not 30’ from us. They have successfully bred for many years close to where half a million people live. Truly breathtaking. More importantly it showed me how almost impossible challenges can be overcome to manage the natural environment. Local knowledge and enthusiasm is the real reason such places thrive.