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Still campaigning for new hospital
WELL that's all over - it is now anyway!
We had an election but then no government - and then there was one, or was there? But now there definitely is; and the first peacetime coalition government for 80 years.
It's exciting to be part of it; and to be at its heart, as Minister for the Cabinet Office. There's a real sentimental reason for pleasure in my appointment as Paymaster General in the Cabinet Office.
Thirty-one years ago my father was appointed to the exact same role in Margaret Thatcher's first government. And I think the office I'm now occupying is the very same that he had!
It's going to be pretty hectic. We've inherited a really dire situation, with the government spending 4 for every 3 in revenue.
That means that of every 4 it spends we have to borrow 1 just to be able to pay the pensions, keep the hospitals running, and the lights on in the schools.
We can't carry on like this.
One of my key tasks will be to drive much greater productivity through the provision of public services, so that as we make the spending cuts that are so plainly needed as little damage as possible is caused to the frontline services on which people depend.
It'll need a completely new way of working as well. People are asking, 'How come the party who were your bitter opponents only last week are suddenly your close working colleagues?'
Good question.
I suppose one answer is that we're not the individuals who were personally pitted against each other in our own constituencies; we're serious people who care more about the urgent needs of our country than our narrow partisan interests.
The second is that the new generation of Liberal Democrats overlap hugely in policy terms than has ever been the case.
So we really can do something very special here, with a government for whose combined parties nearly six out of every ten voters cast their votes last Thursday. That's quite a prize!
And finally: a huge thank you to the nearly 30,000 people who voted for me.
I'm thrilled to have been given the chance to serve once more as Horsham's MP.
Of course, I will represent every single resident, not just those who voted for me – even if I knew which was which!
And my driving priority remains: a new acute local hospital for NHS patients.
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Weather for Horsham
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -7 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: East
