Instead, the rain clearly fell on Saturday instead, meaning the groundsman at Bloomfield Road were out with the forks trying to aid drainage so the pitch was not waterlogged and the game called off. This was my first time seeing Blackpool in the Championship, and from my seat in the stands, it was clear Cardiff were no Man Utd or Chelsea! Blackpool battled hard, and endured an onslaught on goal times, to get a well-deserved point. Cliched as it is, ‘they all add up’ – and what we would not have given for an extra point or two last season!

The week has been a busy one – but then I always say that, so it is becoming rather unnecessary. Monday’s big event for most MPs was the release of the new parliamentary boundaries. I have tried to keep this in perspective, so will not embark on a massive expostulation of the micro-psephological impact of ward X moving to constituency Y. But I do want to make clear to all my existing constituents that nothing will change until the next General Election, and that we just at the start of a long process. I was elected to represent Blackpool North & Cleveleys, and if I am your MP, I will remain so until you get the chance to vote again! So don’t feel confused, or think you need to now write elsewhere. If I have been your MP, I still am.

One big issue that came to the fore for me this week (again) was community transport and the future of Dial-a-Ride here in Blackpool. I am a great fan of both ideas, and it was disappointing that diary clashes meant I couldn’t attend the AGM. But I took the opportunity offered to have a letter read out where I expressed my disappointment that the Council was once again looking at whether to renew their funding. To me, this is a vital service which we simply can’t afford to dispense with. Indeed, I would go further, and make the point that I believe all demand-responsive community transport services should be covered by the concessionary fare card scheme. If you are affluent, and can use a bus, you can use your pensioner’s free bus pass. If you’re infirm, and can’t use a normal bus but need Dial-a-Ride, you can’t. That just doesn’t seem fair – in the full meaning of the word – to me, and I think the Government needs to tidy up that unfairness. Parliamentary opportunities to raise this are on the horizon, so I shall be speaking out.

Another Blackpool highlight was the publication of the Equalities & Human Rights Commission’s report into disability hate crime, which local campaigner Stephen Brookes had such a hand in, and where Bispham High School is the only school to get a mention!  It is a real issue, and a very complex one. I’m not always the EHRC’s biggest fan – but in terms of ensuring equality for those with disabilities in a society that often finds it easier to do the opposite, I think they are on the right path. Stephen is an excellent campaigner, and I am sure he will continue his efforts! Stephen spoke at the All-Party Disability Group on Wednesday of last week, and we had an excellent discussion about the practicalities of hate crime. Blackpool’s Third-Party Reporting Centre opens next month – so another milestone on the way.

Local business Ai Claims Solutions took the opportunity to drop by Westminster last week to see me and discuss the ongoing issue of sky-high car insurance prices, and the Transport Select Committee’s investigations. We had a fascinating discussion about how the insurance market will change, and the impact of telematics on an insurance industry often suspicious of change. Ai have never been afraid of challenging the established consensus (glad to hear it) and there are also other firms like Young Marmalade (www.youngmarmalade.co.uk) that have innovative solutions for bringing the cost of motor insurance for new drivers down sharply. Telematics is a way of monitoring driving habits, and bad drivers will find their premiums going up!

Other highlights included attending the inaugural Open Europe meeting for Conservative backbenchers who want to see a tougher line on our relations with Europe in this time of instability. I also had a good few speaking engagements in Battersea, Manchester, as well as addressing the Canal Zoners Reunion here in Blackpool, who have a successful partnership with Bispham High School.

The team in the office are friendly and very helpful in aiding me with work and tasks that I am set for the day. Not only this but they make the working environment very pleasant and make me feel as part of the team. Sometimes I feel the work we receive throughout the day may never end but when working with the team; the worries disappear due to the interesting topics of conversation we have whilst aiming to reach our goals and objectives.

The type of work on which I have started on, is basic filing, and typing up letters to be sent off to whom they concern. This may seem like an easy task to complete but it is important to ensure that the files go into the right place in case they are called upon again, and as for typing up the letters, it is most important to input the correct information to be sent to the correct correspondent. When there is a very important issue raised within the office I feel that my input is just as important as another member of the teams. However I feel that within a few weeks of training I feel that I could help out more with trying to work out how to solve any cases we receive.

I feel I will gain lots of new experience and skills from this role in the office and will gain a wider understanding of politics and how the processes of making a change happen. This also helps me understand the time it takes to make sure everything possible can be done to help. I think what I have learned in my first few days is that it’s important to keep a fresh mind on things and don’t get over worked as you can and will be likely to make mistakes, which in any case is never a good thing. My overall view of this new opportunity is that I will gain lots more knowledge and skills on many different areas throughout a business and will become a better team member by working in the office of Paul Maynard MP.

David Cameron says: “There’s a huge amount more to do if we want to rebuild trust. So let’s try and make this election year the moment to start fixing our broken politics. Let’s bring real change to Westminster and the whole political system.”

Over two-thirds of voters rejected Gordon Brown’s handling of MPs’expenses and most say that David Cameron has dealt with it well, according to a Guardian survey.

As part of Conservative action to change the system, we will cut the cost of it by scrapping taxpayer subsidies for MPs lifestyles, cutting the number of MPs, reducing and freezing government ministers’ salaries and scrapping the £10,000 taxpayer subsidy used by each of Blackpool’s MPs to send out party propaganda. By cutting out the excess, Conservatives can save the taxpayer up to £120 million per year and start to restore trust in politics.

Restoring power to local people by giving them a greater say over things that affect them are also part of the measures that will be introduced by us.

We promise to give people a voice by enabling direct democracy – the right to veto excessive council tax rises here in Blackpool and Wyre and the right to elect publicly-accountable police chiefs for Lancashire.

As well as restoring power locally, Conservatives will give the British people a right to have issues debated in Parliament by automatically putting petitions with over 1 million signatures before the House of Commons.

As most are pointing out, the revelations that have done the damage would never have emerged had we just waited. 180 MPs have paid back money though. Would they have done so had we not had all this to-do?

And still we wait to see just what the new rules will be. Can I make one suggestion – all MPs must demonstrate how any expense claimed actually relates to them carrying out their official duties as an MP.

Just a thought.

So here are my key thoughts:
• This isn’t just about the Labour Party. MPs of all colours are being implicated. So far, I have seen no coverage of Joan Humble’s expense claims and have no intention of impugning Joan individually unless there is specific reason to. Nonetheless, the Party she represents seems to have participated most in the ‘free for all’ that Parliament’s expenses culture seems to have created. My fear is that many Labour MPs know they are staring down the barrel of defeat, and are in the trough whilst they still have the chance.

• If you want to be an MP, don’t do it because you want to be rich. Public service is a privilege. If you want to ‘make a difference’ as so many say they do, that should be a difference to people’s lives rather than your own bank balance. If you behave otherwise, you deserve everything you get. Merely saying it was ‘in good faith’ or ‘within the rules’ is not good enough. What does that mean? Whose faith? And if the rules aren’t good enough in the first place, that is no defence either.

• Priests, monks and nuns take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. That might be pushing it a bit far. But being an MP means – or at least it should mean – that you expect ( even want!) to be held to the very highest ethical standards. That is the price you should pay for the privilege of representing your constituents.

• I am gobsmacked at the way in which some have used the ability to switch the designation of their second homes to make sizeable amounts of money playing the housing market. That is an abuse of a system which is supposed only to enable MPs to work in both London and their constituency as effectively as possible.

You have to have some sympathy for MPs. Job security is non-existent since you can be dumped at any time. General elections are a pretty brutal form of job appraisal. But surely that reinforces why you have to operate to higher standards than in other careers? Pay is not high when compared to – say – local government departmental directors on six-figure salaries – but you know that when you put yourself up in the first place.

Very many MPs operate according to the highest standards of probity, but they too are smeared by these findings. Even poor humble candidates such as myself are assumed to be devoting themselves to the cause for the basest of reasons. Yet politics should be, and needs to be, an honourable occupation. A discredited parliamentary democracy is in no-one’s interests. It may not be perfect, but it is the least worst version of governance that civilisation has developed.

Blackpool and Cleveleys needs an MP who can provide community and civic leadership. Not someone – whoever that someone is – who is so compromised by the very fact of having the letters ‘MP’ after their name that they are rendered discredited and ineffective. Parliamentarians debate very serious issues – abortion, euthanasia, social care for the elderly, poverty reduction and so on and on – and need to do so with a degree of moral authority, because like it or not, it is their votes that decide the laws which shape our lives. Yet the curent fiasco has robbed Parliament of moral authority. It will take time to rebuild.

The next generation of MP – amongst whom I hope to find myself – will have to ensure that they honour those who place their trust in them by behaving with equal honour in return.

• The £12,000 payouts in Northern Ireland. Truth and reconciliation was the watchword of healing South Africa’s divisions. In Northern Ireland, truth is certainly needed. But reconciliation cannot just be announced from a podium or in a report, it has to occur down the generations in people’s hearts. But as for moral equivalence betwen the victims of a terrorist outrage and a terrorist - as the payments of £12,000 imply – there can be no such thing.  The sum itself is derisory, but the insult lies in the implication of moral equivalence.
• The recession in the UK will amongst the deepest in the world according to the IMF. House prices have shrunk 16% in a year – suddenly my property is worth less than I paid for it. A sobering thought. Thanks, Gordon. Shame you can’t admit to the fact that this is now a ‘bust’.
• Barack Obama is a leftie. Maybe that isn’t a surprise – he is a liberal after all. But I am a leftie too. By this, I mean left-handed. I was amazed to read that 5 of the last 7 presidents were left-handed. Does this mean we’re all destined for greatness. I’m also amazed that some 10% of the UK population is left-handed, but only 4% of the Japanese.
• I am pleased the Arts Council has finally pulled the plug on the £63m The Public arts centre in West Bromwich. This is not because I dislike the building – I’m a great defender of modern architecture, and enthusiastic supporter of the Twentieth Century Society. But the whole project has been mismanaged, and a complete waste of public money as it has failed to do what it was intended to do. Investment in the arts is fine, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be held to the same degree of account as other spending programmes.
• The first of 6 Type-45 destroyers was launched yesterday, the same day as Vosper Thorneycroft, who made her, finally gave up making ships. Six are planned altogether, but I wonder how many will survive the defence cuts?
• Can’t wait to see the filmed version of Revolutionary Road, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio. It’s one of my favourite novels (published in 1961 and written by Richard Yates) so I am almost scared that the film will let me down. Let’s hope not, as it has two quality actors.
• Why can’t we just have an elected upper chamber?  That is the option I would vote for. I would like to see two Senators elected for each historic county for a total of 8 years, with fixed elections every 4 years for 1 of the 2 senate seats. The American Founding Fathers picked on a Senate model to ensure that the equal distribution of seats in the House of Representatives was balanced by a Senate which, whilst democratically elected, had an unequal mandate so it could not overshadow or claim superior legitimacy to the lower house. That is why California has 2 senators but 53 congressmen, and Wyoming 2 Senators but only 1 in Congress. And on that model we would have an upper chamber that was democratically accountable and need not include such clowns as Lord Taylor from Knott End. I suspect he’ll be spending a lot more time in Knott End from now on.

So what should we give honours for? I am not sure I know the answer. It is far easier to say wat we should not dish out honours for. It amazes me how many public servants are rewarded for doing their jobs. I am sure that the former head of the radioactive substances division at DEFRA is a good, kind and conscientious man. But why get an OBE for having done his job to the best of his ability? Indeed why do we have a radioactive substances division at DEFRA. Is this something I should be worried about? Do I need to buy a Geiger counter?

Many awards are opaque. One name is followed merely by “Grade B1, MoD”. What does this mean? A touch of Spooks, perhaps?

Honours were meant to reward public service in the days when jobs in the public sector were less well-paid than the private. This is no longer the case, removing one justification for the preponderance of the public sector in the list. Just the other day, Eric Pickles highlighted the obscene levels of pay some council chief executives get – yet I see a few council chief executives picking up honours.

There are too many chief executives of this public agency, that quango and the other being honoured. And I am – perhaps controversially – going to include some charities’ chief executives in this. Many get private-sector levels of pay as that is the only way to attract candidates of sufficient calibre. Many charities have also become campaigning bodies rather than focused on service provision. Many would argue the chief executive is getting their gong on behalf of all who work for the charity – but can the volunteers themselves not fulfil that criteria? A volunteer at SSAFA, which works with service families, has deservedly won an award, as has the Chairman of St Dunstan’s, who care for blinded servicemen and women. Why can’t those who give their spare time for no pay be considered as representative of a charity’s work as the chief executive? That is not to say that no charity chief executives should be considered – long-standing pre-eminence in a field must remain a consideration.

I would rather see a slimmed down honours list which focused on fewer people, but which allowed the stories behind the awards to be told. I was fascinated to see that Lui On Lee received an MBE for services to the Chinese community in the Forth Valley, Stirlingshire. I didn’t know such a community existed? I wonder what drew them there in the first place, what they have done since, and what work Lui On Lee has done?

Honours should be for long-standing pre-eminence in a field which has enhanced civil society in this country, or for exceptional voluntary service in a specific field. It should not be akin to a Strictly Come Dancing popularity contest. Fewer honours mean more attention for those worthy recipients who are honoured. Our national story is contained in these lists in the life histories of exceptional individuals, and to build up our sense of national cohesion, those individual stories need articulating,