A new year always brings new challenges. It offers a new start – a determination to diet, giving up smoking or taking up an impossibly difficult new activity! New Year draws a line in the sand, one that many relish for the chance to start afresh.
Last week I watched a screening of the Iron Lady & realised that what any New Year never brings is an excuse to avoid hard work if we want to take on those new challenges. Love her or hate her, Lady Thatcher never shied away from doing what she thought was right, doing it with all her heart & soul, and to the very best of her ability and judgement.
Watching this extraordinary (in good & bad ways) film made me pause for a moment to catch up on what we have achieved in our campaigns in 2011, and think about where we want to go in the coming year.
In so many ways 2011 was not the easiest of years. Internationally we had to send troops to help Libya, we have faced (and continue to face) the Euro crisis and we are battling to find effective ways to get the UK back onto a financially even keel. I lost my 35 year old beloved cousin to cancer, and have struggled to help family members overcome various illnesses. But my kids bring me joy and pride every day, as they grow into passionate young adults.
2012 brings new horizons and possibilities: Boris's re-election in May if we all campaign really hard for him, The Golden Jubilee in June, the Olympics in August, government reforms to transform the way we go about our daily lives, and the year that my son goes to secondary school! When did I get to be the mother of a teenager?
Locally 2011 proved to be a good campaigning year. Northumberland is one of the most beautiful places in the world,but its topography has made it the subject of seemingly endless wind farm applications. These industrial monsters are inefficient, uneconomic and destroyers of our unique unspoilt landscapes. But 2011 brought a Big Society response to these (mostly foreign) investor applications looking to guarantee themselves 25 year cash cows on the back of trashing our landscape. Applications at Elsdon, Wingates, Belford, Whittingham and the rural countryside around Morpeth have been met with rising voices of dissent from local people. We can be proud of our small communities, of individuals willing to give up their precious family time to lead groups which will present the case against industrialisation of our countryside for no meaningful benefit.
These battles have not been easy – it required a collective and hard working approach but we are ready to tackle any application that threatens Northumberland's future or the long-term health of its small villages, their residents & wildlife.
I promise that as we go into 2012 I will continue do all I can to change Government policy for onshore wind turbines. This cash cow for investors leaves our poorest citizens across the country picking up the bill in electricity price hikes.
Many of our rural population feel alienated and unconnected to the fast-moving urban world. It is for this reason that I know that getting superfast rural broadband is so important in the next year. In 2011 I met with a huge number of people, including Jeremy Hunt (the Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport in charge of broadband roll-out), and we gathered substantial survey results on local views. Getting effective fast broadband is vital - it allows businesses to thrive, children to work online and everyone to live the life that 2012 can offer. I will be continuing to push for 100% cover across the county as our Council starts to roll out their plans. I don’t just think this as important, it is imperative.
As 2011 came to an end I looked back and saw too many serious and fatal accidents on our stretch of the A1. This is a dangerous road, both in safety terms, and to our future of our region. This stretch of farm track is preventing us from reaching our economic potential. In 2011 I made the case to Ministers, and brought the new Secretary of State for Transport Justine Greening (photo) up to Northumberland to see for herself how shocking a state our road is in. As a result of our campaigning, 2012 will bring the opportunity for detailed discussions with civil servants to progress the business case review we need to be prepared for funding when it is available.
There is no shortage of campaigning to be done in 2012, and I hope that we shall be able to look back and see real progress in these key infrastructure issues by this time next year.
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