Excellent news - the government mobile operators have just agreed a £1 billion package to extend mobile phone coverage to rural ‘not-spots’ – we certainly have a few around here!
Culture Secretary Nick Morgan announced the government had agreed with the four main mobile providers EE, O2, Three and Vodaphone to create a ‘Shared Rural Network’. The phone companies will invest £530 million sharing masts to increase rural coverage, while the government has pledged a further £500 million for new phone masts in rural areas that still lack them.
This is excellent news. Two things I have argued for to improve rural not spots are shared masts and rural roaming – whereby mobile providers are forced to connect customers to another service when theirs does not cover a location. As mobile operators would charge each other for this it would provide an economic incentive for mobile phone companies to invest in more infrastructure in rural areas. The agreement was reached after the government warned mobile operators that they would impose rural roaming if they did not agree to Shared Rural Network. That’s a direction the House of Commons DEFRA Select Committee recently suggested we should go in.
have just agreed a £1 billion package to extend mobile phone coverage to rural ‘not-spots’ – we certainly have a few around here!
Culture Secretary Nick Morgan announced the government had agreed with the four main mobile providers EE, O2, Three and Vodaphone to create a ‘Shared Rural Network’. The phone companies will invest £530 million sharing masts to increase rural coverage, while the government has pledged a further £500 million for new phone masts in rural areas that still lack them.
This is excellent news. Two things I have argued for to improve rural not spots are shared masts and rural roaming – whereby mobile providers are forced to connect customers to another service when theirs does not cover a location. As mobile operators would charge each other for this it would provide an economic incentive for mobile phone companies to invest in more infrastructure in rural areas. The agreement was reached after the government warned mobile operators that they would impose rural roaming if they did not agree to Shared Rural Network. That’s a direction the House of Commons DEFRA Select Committee recently suggested we should go in.

It is completely unacceptable for GWR to double some morning fares to London from Bedwyn and Pewsey stations. The fare for new 8.17am from Pewsey which will replace the 8.10 will more than double to a whopping £120 from the current  £53.50. The fare for 8.41 from Bedwyn will increase from £30-80 to £63-10. 
Of course all train companies use cheaper fares to try to spread passenger numbers away form peak commuter hours - but the 8.41 from Bedwyn doesn't get into Paddington until nearly 10am. These are trains which are used by small business people who need to go to London for the occasional meeting, patients going to London hospitals and parents taking their children on a half term day out in London - if they can afford it.
The only justification GWR have given for this is to say that the early trains are too overcrowded. There's a simple answer to that -any business that finds it has too many customers invests to increase its capacity, That's how you stay in business!. GWR need to do their passenger number sums better and plan for more carriages!

On Tuesday last week we should have had a general election. However, last month Labour and Lib-Dem MPs twice voted against it - just in case the way people voted allowed the UK to leave the EU without a withdrawal deal. The Conservative manifesto having promised that we would leave with or without a deal.
At the same time Labour, Lib-Dem and SNP MPs passed the Benn Act making it illegal for the UK to leave the EU unless we accept whatever terms the EU offer us. Yet on Saturday they even refused to vote for that deal. Instead they legally required the Prime Minister to ask the EU to let us remain EU members until at least next year.
If you make a ‘no deal brexit’ illegal, then block the only deal the EU will offer us –  the only logical conclusion is that they wish to block Brexit. This is despite the UK population having voted simply to ‘leave the European Union’ by a majority of more than one a quarter million in the largest democratic vote in UK history.
Across the world people look up to England as the birthplace of parliamentary democracy, which gradually developed after our first parliament was called more than 750 years ago. Over the last two months Labour and Lib-Dem MPs have repeatedly sought to frustrate the clearly expressed will of the British people that we leave the EU - and in order to hold on to their power – they have also twice blocked a general election.
The British people must be allowed to have a general election.
Dr Martin Parsons
Devizes
 

Gazette and Herald Thursday 3 October 2019
This week ordinary people, complete strangers came up to me shopping saying how appalled they are at MP’s behaviour, particularly those seeking to block Brexit and we should just get on with it and support Boris.
The sole reason we have a constitutional crisis is MPs who want to stay in the EU are defying ordinary people who three years ago voted by a majority of one and quarter million to leave.
A few weeks ago Labour, Lib Dem and Green MPs passed a law making it illegal for the government to leave the EU unless we accept whatever terms the EU offer us. These include permanently obeying thousands of EU rules after Brexit, but with no vote and no right to ever leave that arrangement unless the EU give us permission. This is why the Prime Minister called it ‘the Surrender Act’.
The Lib-Dems now say they will simply revoke Brexit – not even a second referendum – just stay in the EU.
The Labour Party now say they will hold a second referendum – presumably because people didn’t vote the ‘right’ way in the 2016 referendum. However, now the only options will be 1. remain in the EU – or 2. accept the EU’s terms – as leaving without a deal has been made illegal. Not content with that, this week Labour announced they will give 3 million EU citizens the right to vote in that referendum. Not since the Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator has there been such a blatant attempt at rigging a ballot.  To add insult to injury Labour and Lib Dem MPs continue to vote against holding a general election. What are they afraid of?
Dr Martin Parsons 
Devizes

Liberal Democrat and other Euro devotees now seem to fill these pages every week trying to come up with the most extraordinary claims as to why the government should not respect the referendum result, despite it being the largest democratic vote in UK history.
If they continue to scrape the barrel in this fashion they will be in danger of getting splinters under their fingernails!
​
Dr Martin Parsons, Devizes

John Boaler (Letters, August 8) rather imaginatively claims my letter implied that the Prime Minister has no democratic mandate for a no deal Brexit.
In fact, the exact opposite is true. The referendum asked a simple question: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”
It did not say “should we leave if the EU offers us a good deal when we leave?” anymore than it said “should we remain if the EU reduces our £9 billion a year membership costs?!”
What the Conservative manifesto (https://www.conservatives.com/manifesto) Mr Boaler refers to actually said is: “We will get on with the job and take Britain out of the European Union” (p7).
We will try to agree a free trade deal with the EU “We will pursue free trade with European markets, and secure new trade agreements with other countries.” (p36). However, as I pointed out in my 1 August letter – The EU are refusing to even discuss a free trade deal unless Northern Ireland is subjected to the EU single market rules after Brexit and we pay them £39 billion.
The manifesto also clearly recognised that the negotiations would be tough and stated “but we continue to believe that no deal is better than a bad deal for the UK” (p35-36).
In other words, if people voted Conservative then the Conservative manifesto promised we would leave the EU with, or without a deal.
Just in case, anyone missed it, it says that we are leaving the European Union no less than 17 times. That is exactly what the Prime Minister has stated that we must now do.
The suggestions in last week’s letters column that local Conservative MPs should not support this, would be a serious betrayal of local voters.
I appreciate that Euro enthusiasts do not like this. However, the challenge for them is whether or not they are prepared to respect the referendum result, which was the largest democratic vote in UK history.
Dr Martin Parsons, Devizes

​Those who have recently written letters to the Gazette supporting attempts to stop Brexit need to think very carefully about whether they really believe in democracy.
In the June 2016 referendum a majority of the UK population voted leave.
In the June 2017 general election 83% of the UK population voted for the two main parties (Conservative and Labour) who promised to respect the result of the referendum.
In the May 2019 Euro elections the newly formed Brexit Party gained more votes than any other UK party.
Democracy means accepting the result of an election, not just when your side wins – but however the public vote. Anything less is treating voters with contempt. I didn’t vote for the Brexit Party – but I accept the result because I believe in democracy.
The suggestion by Devizes for EU that Claire Perry MP has betrayed the voters of Devizes by saying she would not vote against a no deal Brexit is in fact, almost the exact opposite of the truth. She, along with every other Conservative MP, was elected by us on the basis of a manifesto which made five very specific promises about Brexit:
1. We would try to negotiate a withdrawal agreement with the EU (no one can say we didn’t try!)
2. We will seek to negotiate a comprehensive free trade agreement (The EU are refusing to even discuss this unless we agree to Northern Ireland being subject to the EU single market rules after Brexit and pay them £39 billion).
3. We are leaving the EU single market and customs union.
4. We are leaving the common fisheries policy.
5. And we will leave with or without a deal as “we continue to believe that no deal is better than a bad deal”.
Any Conservative MP who refused to positively vote for these very specific promises would be betraying the people who voted for them.
Dr Martin Parsons, Devizes

During the years I was an aid worker in Afghanistan (a failed state) and Pakistan (a semi failed state) I learned to value democracy. Democracy is the safety valve which prevents mob violence, as people expect the result of an election to be implemented.
That is why prospective Liberal Democrat MP Dr Brian Matthew is so very wrong. In 2016 we had a referendum and people fairly expect its result to be implemented. We then had a general election in 2017 where the Conservative Party manifesto promised to leave the EU with or without a deal, while the Labour Party promised to respect the result of the referendum. Together these represented more than 82% of all votes cast.
If we fail to implement this decision we set the most appalling example, not merely to our children, but to states around the world which do not respect democracy and human rights. To give just one example, at this very moment there are an estimated one million people on the streets of Algeria protesting against President Bouteflika who has ruled the country for the past 20 years.
A month ago he promised not to stand in next month’s presidential election. However, now he has cancelled that election. The crowds, which so far have been peaceful, are shouting one simple message: ‘Leave means Leave’. Clearly, whatever the British government says to President Bouteflika’s government, they will now simply reply “but people are also saying ‘Leave means Leave’ in your country”.
It is therefore essential the UK leaves the EU with or without a withdrawal agreement on April 12 and THEN after leaving seeks to negotiate a free trade deal. It is vital that local MPs do not block this as the consequences of doing so will not simply undermine democracy in the UK but also across the world.
DR MARTIN PARSONS, Devizes