Two important matters may be clearer by the time this piece is published but need highlighting as they will dominate this week in Parliament and beyond.
The first is the Budget whose purpose is to continue to stabilise our national finances. This is important to enable people to get on by allowing them to keep more of the money they earn and encouraging private investment in facilities and jobs, and for public investment to be made in the infrastructure, health care, education and services safely into the future.
I continue to push ahead with the plan for our area and the South West that is part of this, and last week had further meetings regarding delivery of infrastructure and services with the Local Enterprise Partnership and the Leader and CEO of Somerset County Council.
The second major issue is the future of Greece and the Eurozone in the EU.
At time of writing the Greek people have voted No to proposals put to them by the Euro group as conditions for release of debt repayment funds. It is uncertain whether a new bailout deal that involves actual debt relief can be agreed in time to save the Greek banking system and nation, or indeed whether key countries like Germany would rather force Greece out of the Euro.
This is important on several fronts.
First we have an economic interest in the financial stability of our trading partners in Europe. In particular the political and financial impact on Italy and Spain could be large, and I will work hard to assist our international partners in navigating this situation.
Second we have strategic interests in attempting to ensure that the EU does not have an unstable country on its border with Turkey. We already have some challenging problems with migration and asylum in Europe, with several countries beginning to question the Schengen arrangements and tensions rising, and I don't want them to get worse.
Third our future relationship with the EU may depend on what happens over the next weeks and months and whether the Eurozone shows integrity. Unlike in the UK, where we have retrieved public value from the banks that were bailed because of the tough decisions made that have got our economy on the mend, Eurozone taxpayers have not retrieved any value from the Greek bailouts and will lose substantial amounts under any scenario.
This is a time for frank and friendly discussions and I am pressing Ministers to make sure we are the critical friend that EU nations need now.
The reality is that Eurozone taxpayers were put on the hook for bailing out weaker Eurozone banking system debts to the stronger Euro nations' banks. These debts built up because of the creation of the Euro that masked lending risk, and the desire in stronger nations' banks to make money and in weaker nations to have a better standard of life. Banks which should have privately absorbed these losses or been restructured were allowed to survive and encouraged to load up on even more weak country debt.
While it has suited national politics in the Eurozone for the situation to be presented as a national morality play, this is unfair and has to stop, because the point of the EU was to set aside national differences in pursuit of common goals and interests. I wish I could tell readers that it will stop soon, but I am not sure we are there yet.