Holden Up Well

Good stuff from Richard Holden at Prime Minister's Questions, and the right answer from Boris Johnson.

The first major campaign in which I was ever involved, including my first ever appearance on television, was in defence of Shotley Bridge Hospital. Well over 20 years later, my view remains fundamentally unchanged. 

That site is coming to the end of its natural life. These things happen. But the proximity of the Lanchester and Langley Park areas to Dryburn, and the relative proximity of the Stanley area both to Dryburn and to Chester-le-Street, mean that at least the same range of services must be relocated within the Consett area.

Fresh from his successes on the taxation of motorhomes (the manufacture of which is a major employer in this constituency), and on the bizarre levying of business rates on public conveniences, Richard is clearly determined to make that happen. 

Of course, come 2024, then he must be judged on whether or not he had done so, and on whether or not he had made good his promise to bring the Metro to Consett, to which it should have gone in the first place. But he is obviously getting on with it.