A MEANINGFUL threat to the safety of the country is currently waging war in eastern Europe, and threatening to attack NATO.
This is a lament. As the MP for a big part of Salisbury Plain, with at least four major shoots operating in my constituency - the Royal Artillery, the Netheravon, the Infantry, and the Tidworth and Bulford Garrison Shoots - I had hoped to be able to avert a Defra-inflicted disaster on the rural community here.
Parliament returned this month from the Christmas recess and the expectation is that politics in 2023 will be less lurid than in 2022.
30,000 soldiers - more than a third of the British Army - are based here in Wiltshire, many of them recently returned from Germany. I had a very productive meeting this month with Colonel Gary McDade, Army Commander South West, in Jellalabad Barracks in Tidworth, discussing the welfare of soldiers and, crucially, their families.
It has been a busy month, as MPs returned from recess.
One of the consolations of lockdown for me has been the opportunity to watch a whole season pass. For you long-term Wiltshire-men and -women this will seem perfectly normal, but I don’t think I have spent two uninterrupted months in the countryside since I was a child.
On Monday the Prime Minister announced the closure of all places where people can gather. This is a deep blow but a necessary one.
