Off the Fence with Caroline Dinenage, MP for Gosport

The General Election was definitely an almighty effort, but adapting to life in opposition under a Labour Government has also come with its highs and lows.

Especially for pensioners, many of whom will have had second thoughts about heating their homes at just the time when minds should have been focussed on the main event - Christmas Dinner.

Although considering the Government’s attack on farmers and in turn food prices, perhaps not even that is sacred to Labour anymore!

I was so thrilled that in spite of those challenges, our community in Gosport continues to amaze me. With the sad news of the closure of FirstLight Trust last month, the team at the Boathouse, Gosport Marina, decided to step in to host and fund Christmas lunch for around 20 of our veterans. I dropped in and was so proud of all their efforts.

In that spirit I wanted to look back on some of the really positive achievements of the last year.

In February the Conservative Government launched the Children and Young People’s Cancer Taskforce after a tireless campaign alongside Stubbington resident Charlotte Fairall in memory of her daughter Sophie. The Labour Government has since paused this work, but we continue lobbying Ministers to get it back up and running to continue the work to meaningfully change how we detect, treat and care for children with cancer.

In May I launched the Culture, Media, and Sport’s Grassroots Music Venues report from the Pray Inn on Forton Road. A big thank you to Quay West Studios for letting me use the space to launch a report which has so far caught the attention of Governments across the world, but is yet to be fully welcomed by our own!

Around the same time, we celebrated £600,000 investment at Priddy’s Hard from Arts Council England, funding which is slowly but surely realising my vision to use our unique maritime history and heritage to bring investment, jobs, and prosperity to the Gosport peninsula.

The small matter of a General Election was ultimately an opportunity for the Electorate to punish the Conservative Party for lack of togetherness, despite many now discovering that the grass is not always greener. I have been holding the Government to account from the Opposition benches on Winter Fuel Payments, the de-prioritisation of veterans’ affairs, Britain’s Overseas Territories, and the rise in National Insurance Contributions.

It only remains to wish you all a happy and healthy New Year. Here’s to another productive year as Gosport’s champion in Westminster, and, as ever, you can keep up with all my activities across Gosport, Lee on the Solent, Stubbington, and Hill Head via my newsletter: https://www.caroline4gosport.co.uk/newsletters.