Back in Blighty

LONG haul back from Brussels yesterday. It was a nine hour trip in total, taking in the clock change, and we left the European Parliament at two o'clock and had the key in the door of our home in Cumbria at midnight.

It was a very interesting week and you couldn't help but be impressed by the whole set up. It was a pleasure to work there because you have everything at your finger tips. Civil servants to help guide you with regard to procedures. A massive library to help you access all the information you might require. IT technicians to help you set up all your equipment and then rooms full of bureaucrats to help explain all the red tape.

It was a week of committee meetings and I was disappointed not to see either Nick or Andrew in action, but I was kept in the office on more mundane, but essential, allowance and expenditure work.

I came back to a full inbox and one of the emails that is worth passing on came from John Mills who has an online petition on the Downing Street website.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Reduce the amount of time and red tape it takes to remove immigrants from the United Kingdom

This places a vast cost and burden on our social resources such as health care, housing and the benefit system not to mention the social unrest this problem is causing among all communities.

We respectfully ask that the processes and systems in place to be drastically reviewed and reduced to remove illegal immigrants far more effectively than the current system.

We also ask that no more amnesty be given to illegal immigrants and that any Illegal immigrant found guilty of a crime be removed without delay.

The petition came be found here