Saville

For those of us who have followed the history of Northern Ireland (and in my case have close family links) last week’s publication of the Saville Report and the Prime Minister’s House of Commons statement was momentous.

Like many others, I have been horrified by the time and money spent by the Inquiry, but the clarity of his conclusions and the Prime Minister’s statesmanlike comments made it worth while. I hope the families affected and the people of Derry can take some comfort after 38 years of anguish and injustice. I was very proud of David Cameron’s response and the honesty of his comments. At last justice has been done.

Good progress

It’s been a few weeks since I last blogged and in that time the coalition government has made impressive progress facing up to the huge economic problems left by Labour. The Government has shown that you can be honest and transparent about the size of our nation's problems without talking down our country. It has also shown (and will again in Tuesday’s budget) that it will take the tough decisions needed to clean up Labour’s mess. The coalition is showing it really means business.

I was also delighted to see the launch last week of the ‘free schools’ policy, which will promote higher standards in education through competition and choice. This is a policy which has the potential to make a huge difference to the lives of children all over Britain; I was proud to campaign on it during the election and will be prouder still when it starts to improve the life chance of thousands.