Weekly Column: Danny Kruger, MP for Devizes

First, it would be good for the economy - reducing disruption as we leave the single market on December 31 and avoiding tariffs that would hurt our exporters and our consumers.

And second, it would be good for our politics and our culture. We badly need to heal the divisions that have been exposed and exacerbated by the 2016 Referendum and its aftermath.

Striking a friendly deal with the EU would show that Brexit does not mean isolation from our neighbours. We would all like a peaceful end to the tumults of the last four years.

But neither of these reasons for a trade agreement - the economic or the political - outweighs the fundamental imperative of completing the Brexit process that the Withdrawal Agreement initiated, on the terms that that Agreement set out.

The 11-month transition period that kicked in on January 31 must end with a complete resumption of sovereignty. If it does not, the political harm, and consequent economic harm, that will follow will make any temporary relief irrelevant.

The fundamental imperative is best put like this. We must not trade our sovereignty for market access to the EU. That is what countries of the EU have done, and good for them - they have (so far) concluded that friction-free borders for goods and people is worth some loss of national sovereignty.

Our desire is for an agreement between independent states, as we already have with Japan and as the EU has with Canada. There is a vital but subtle difference here. An agreement between independent states does not have to entail a loss of sovereignty. We want a trade deal, not imperial preference as the British colonies’ trade benefits with the mother country was called.

I will deeply regret the failure of statecraft - not ours but the EU’s - if a deal is not agreed this week. If Brussels, or more accurately, Paris, can only conceive of the UK as a colony or a stranger, we have no option but to take the latter status.

Our partnership on domestic security and international action - especially on climate change - will be weaker. But if we take the colony option we will be sowing the seeds of a far more profound destruction: the trust of the British people in the democratic system. No immediate economic or political advantage is worth that.

Here endeth the lesson. On to the parish notices.

This week Wiltshire left the national lockdown and entered a set of local restrictions harsher than those preceding the lockdown. I have set out my views on the tiering system here.

I spent part of yesterday in Pewsey popping in on business owners. I am glad to say most were phlegmatic about the restrictions - even the iconic Little Lunch Box cafe, which seemed to be doing brisk trade.

I found the Moonrakers Pub closed, sadly - I’d hoped for a pint and a scotch egg with the landlord Jerry Kunkler. Pubs are, of course, the businesses hardest hit by the new rules.

The Little Lunch Box was where Pewsey’s spontaneous Covid support system operated from during the first lockdown, with volunteers organising hundreds of shopping trips and prescription pick-ups for isolating households. Now they are collecting Christmas presents and food for struggling families - do drop something in if you’re passing through Pewsey.

I spoke in the Commons this week on youth employment, arguing for more support for young people through the Kickstart scheme, a great government initiative that supports firms taking on unemployed young people.

I also made a short speech (also well covered in the Wiltshire Times) about broadband coverage in Wiltshire. A lot of progress has been made in recent years, not least through the Government’s rural voucher scheme, but rural homes and businesses are still disadvantaged and we need to be more creative in closing the gap. I am planning a broadband summit early in the new year to address this, to which all are welcome.

On Monday the Government announced the outlines of the new subsidy scheme for farmers to replace the payments received under the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy. I asked the Environment Secretary whether farmers would still be paid for food production, rather than solely for environmental stewardship, and was pleased with his answer.

On Wednesday I followed up with a longer speech welcoming the new system but challenging Defra to stand up to the Department for International Trade in ensuring British farmers are not disadvantaged in any trade deals.

I also stuck up for our farmers plagued by the crime of illegal hare coursing. This is an outrageous and highly lucrative practice - performed for the pleasure of gamblers around the world who bet on live-streamed hunts - that the police are unable, and not always very willing, to stop.

In my speech I supported the call for tougher powers and more resources to stamp out this totally unacceptable crime, and for compensation for the farmers who are forced to erect defences against the coursers’ cars driving into their fields.

In recent weeks I have been trying to help the residents, and their families, of the home for adults with learning disabilities in Furlong Close in Rowde.

The home’s owner had decided, unilaterally and without any consultation with residents or families, to close Furlong Close next summer. This would force some dozens of mostly elderly vulnerable people to leave the home they thought they would end their days in.

For some, a new home would be welcome, but not for all. Under pressure from families, supported by local councillor Anna Cuthbert and the leadership of Wiltshire Council, the owners have abandoned the planned closure and now want a proper consultation with residents and families. I am very pleased with this outcome.

I spoke this morning at the jolly online Christmas party of the Marlborough and District Link scheme, presided over by the redoubtable Vicky Sullivan. The Link is a network of volunteer drivers who ferry people without their own transport to and from doctor appointments.

It’s a lifeline for many isolated older people and a great example of the kind of caring, neighbourly society that Wiltshire boasts (not that Wiltshire actually boasts). However, many of their drivers are somewhat advanced in years and Covid is keeping them off the road.

If you or someone you know has a few hours a week to spare, and a car, do get in touch with Vicky at vickysullivan101@gmail.com.

‘The shape of the thing is this’, begins William Cobbett’s description of the Pewsey Vale in Rural Rides (1826): ‘on each side downs, very lofty and steep…’. He writes of the ‘capital arable fields’, ‘the farm-houses, mansions, villages and hamlets’.

He describes not a perfect community but a prosperous one, that looked after itself - it was a great age of improved roads and irrigation and buildings in the village (not a town: don’t call Pewsey that, she resents it for some reason).

We, too, need an era of investment in our local infrastructure (physical and social), so we grow our national wealth from the prosperity of our small towns and villages, founded on a thriving rural economy. That’s the plan.