Looking into my crystal ball, the economy and the Euro will continue to dominate the agenda as we start 2012. The Diamond Jubilee and Olympics  provide some good news this year, but it will still feel like a slog.

Locally, I have enjoyed celebrating Amnesty International's 50th anniversary and judging Rydens Enterprise School's The Apprentice final. With pressure on places in secondary schools a regular issue, at this time of year, I have also been in and out of local schools and Surrey County Council to try to chart a way forward.

Best wishes,


MP for Esher and Walton

Dom opens Ashley School's new Orchard

With the economy in the doldrums, it is good to see local businesses showing considerable resilience. We are even seeing new businesses being set up.  In Oxshott, I recently opened the Center for Sight  (for details click here) and have spoken at a number of local business groups.  

I was thoroughly impressed with our budding entrepreneurs of the future, on show at Rydens Enterprise School's The Apprentice Final. I couldn't quite muster Lord Sugar's snarling boardroom manner, but I joined the Mayor and Mayoress at this brilliant event hosted by Hersham Technology Park, as reported here. Meanwhile, up at Westminster, Esher student  Andrew Wood won a national space science award organised by Queen Mary University, as blogged here, a really first class achievement. In terms of local schools policy, I joined schools in the Cobham area for a meeting at Surrey County council to discusss a coordinated approach to local provision of primary places.

Outside the classroom, I've enjoyed attending the Choral Concert at Weston Green All Saints Church just before Christmas, the re-opening of  the refurbished Cecil Hepworth Playhouse in Walton (courtesy of Cllr Jan Fuller) and a wonderful performance of the Beowulf panto at the Vera Fletcher Hall in Thames Ditton to raise money for Thames Ditton hospital. Looking forward, I am delighted Culture and Sport Secretary Jeremy Hunt has agreed to open the new clubhouse on Claygate recreation ground in May, as reported here.

In Parliament, I have been asking questions about corruption at FIFA. Keeping with sport, I joined  the Us Girls project sponsored by Sport England to launch a calendar celebrating the fantastic achievements of women in sports, organised by dynamic local Cobhamite Paul Reynolds, as blogged here.

Like many, I am increasingly worried by the authoritarian drift in Russia, so I have been raising the issue of human rights abuses and the Sergei Magnitsky case in particular, here and here.

My cross-party campaign for reform of our blunt extradition regime (with the US and under the European Arrest Warrant) culminated in a unanimous vote of the House of Commons in favour of reform. I blogged about the debate here, and made the case for reform on the BBC here. We now await the government's legislative proposals.

Finally, I have been asking the Department for Energy and Climate Change to release the economic impact assessment that Ed Miliband commissioned on Britain's emission cuts, when he ran the department back in 2009, as reported by Sky News here and the Telegraph here. Deafening silence has been the response so far!