My Ministerial Role and My Constituency  

  I have been made the Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries. This is a long title, possibly one of the longest in Government. It also includes in effect two jobs. One is to cover the arts, libraries, broadcasting and the creative industries over at the Department for Culture Media and Sport (known as DCMS). The other is to cover broadband roll out, telecoms, and illegal filesharing over at the Department of Business (known as BIS). Phew. As a local MP, it is interesting to consider how these responsibilities affect people in the constituency. The first and most obvious is broadband rollout. About ten per cent of all homes do not have broadband at all, and about one in 3 have very poor broadband, mainly in rural areas. There are some parts of the constituency that remain...