News

the countryside alliance awards

  THE COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE AWARDS ‘CELEBRATING RURAL BRITAIN’   The Countryside Alliance Awards, nicknamed the ‘Rural Oscars’, were borne of a need to support and promote rural communities. They celebrate people going the extra mile to ensure that rural Britain’s food and farming industry, small businesses, traditional skills, forward-thinking enterprises and, most of all, its people, […]

farming

   YOUNG FARMERS’ ADVISORY COMMITTEE   Rory has announced that he is to set up an advisory committee of young farmers from across the constituency. Rory has, during his campaign and since election as a member of parliament, been a staunch supporter of Cumbrian Young Farmers and has been working closely with Jan Davinson, secretary of […]

CrosbyRhousing

innovia and wigton

When I ran last week from parliamentary meetings about the Cumbrian sewage system; to the Olympics; the Forestry Commission; army reforms; and rural planning guidelines, I found myself struggling to keep up with it all. Learning about new policy areas can be bewildering and dispiriting. Officials scatter jargon: yesterday, SME didn’t mean Small and Medium […]

remembrance sunday, 2010

“That at the hour when the Armistice came into force, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, there may be for the brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of all our normal activities … so that in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance […]

the csr and cumbria

At seven o’clock the morning after the spending review, I was on Radio Cumbria with Jamie Reid, the Labour MP from Copeland. Jamie was angry. He predicted disaster. When I said that coalition had committed, unlike Labour, to increasing NHS spending, he snapped, ‘That’s not true. I don’t know how you can sleep at night.’ […]

THE INVENTORY: RORY STEWART

Article first published in The Financial Times by Hester Lacey on 22 October 2010. Rory Stewart, 37, left the British Diplomatic Service to walk 6,000 miles from Turkey to Bangladesh. He has served as a coalition deputy governor in Iraq and has lived in Kabul, where he founded a charity. He was elected MP for […]

super-fast broadband for cumbria

I am delighted that Cumbria was one of the surprise beneficiaries of today’s Comprehensive Spending Review. Among the many cuts announced by the Chancellor, George Osborne, was a commitment to invest in bringing Next Generation Access (NGA) broadband to Carlisle and Eden Districts. Cumbria has been selected as the location for one of four NGA […]

ON THE ROLE OF AN MP

On Friday morning I discussed the role of an MP with a roomful of eleven and twelve year olds. A girl from Patterdale suggested I was there to improve rural services. A boy from Skelton focused on the cost of fuel. They explained the difficulty of making a profit in a village shop. And they […]

the crosby mask

First published in The Herald on 18 September 2010. Parliament has begun again: the Prime Minister brought us back for an extra two-week session. A number of my male colleagues have returned on crutches and in plaster casts. I have sat in debates on everything from the constitution (fixed term parliaments) to Equitable Life. I […]

Rory’s speech on the UK armed forces in Afghanistan

Transcript I find this a very powerful, very troubling and very worrying motion. It states: “That this House supports the continued deployment of UK armed forces in Afghanistan.” If one were to remove the word “continued”, there is nobody in this House who would oppose the motion. Every Member, day by day, feels more admiration […]