Nigel Evans MP: Milk is cheaper than water in certain supermarkets and it's killing the dairy industry

Nigel Evans is MP for Ribble Valley and he is one of three Deputy Speakers of the House of Commons.

I have represented a rural constituency for over twenty years and I enjoy nothing more than showing people around my beautiful green and lush constituency and explaining to them that this does not happen naturally, and that farming in my area is largely responsible for our green and pleasant land.

This amazing surroundings though are just a by-product of what farmers do, and in my area we have rather a large number of dairy farmers.

I have spoken to many farmers over the years and learnt that their job is almost like no other. It is more than a labour of love, it is about being at one with nature and producing something that most of us consume every day of our lives. We are weaned on milk from birth and it is with us till the end.

What is clear though is that their industry is under attack. The losers will be the dairy men in the first instance, and then all of us. I, for one, am not going to sit idly by. They are being held to ransom by those buying their milk, and in many cases the amount of money being paid for the product is below the price of production. I wasn’t brilliant at maths at school, but I see it like this - farmers lose money for every pint they sell. It is totally unsustainable and it must be reversed now.

Nigel Evans MP: Everyone must rise to the challenge of doubling the rate of plastic packaging recycling by 2020

Nigel Evans has been MP for Ribble Valley since 1992

Margaret Thatcher, a chemistry graduate, started her career in plastics. Her first job was at an Essex-based firm called BX Plastics. “I love argument, I love debate,” she once said. “I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job.”

Now more than ever is the time for a debate on the future of plastics; not just within the industry, but more widely. How do we use our natural resources more efficiently and avoid waste as much as we can? We must be brave and begin an open and honest conversation, challenging ourselves and others. Yes, our materials are used to protect, preserve, package and prevent. But what about all our responsibilities to the four R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle and recover? That is why I have launched the Plastics 2020 Challenge with Labour MP Lindsay Hoyle.

Plastics are essential to our everyday lives, and if anything are becoming more so. It is a £19 billion industry, with £4.6 billion exports, and employs 186,000 people across every parliamentary constituency in the land. The plastics industry is bigger than the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors combined. The country would come to a standstill if we truly, literally, dispensed with plastics.

Nigel Evans: Why I'm supporting the Save the Pub Campaign

Nigel Evans has been MP for Ribble Valley since 1992, is a member of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee and lives next door to a pub.

Today sees the launch of the Save the Pub Campaign to halt plans to increase beer tax and as Vice-Chair of the All Party Beer Group, I could not agree with the sentiment more.

I recently co-chaired the Community Pub Inquiry which started taking evidence almost three years ago before publishing its findings last month. Pubs are now closing at an astonishing and worrying rate of 36 per week, up from 27 in 2007 and more than 44,000 jobs have been lost as a consequence between 2000 and 2005. In order to stop these closures, we must understand the pressures that the pub industry is under.

There is the impact of the smoking ban (a blanket piece of legislation whose unintended consequences have been felt severely by pubs), higher council tax and businesses rates and higher levels of duty on beer.

It is the latter that I which to concentrate on because, combined with supermarkets selling beer at prices that are cheaper than water, beer tax is having a crippling effect on the industry. Sales of beer are at their lowest for 40 years but still nothing is being to done to protect a wonderful part of our heritage despite the fact that the pub is a Great British tradition for so many reasons.

Nigel Evans MP on Quentin Davies' defection: A lesson in betrayal

Nigel Evans is MP for Ribble Valley and was Shadow Secretary of State for Wales under Iain Duncan Smith.

To say I was stunned by Quentin Davies’s defection is somewhat an understatement. I have been in the Commons for 15 years and have worked alongside Quentin in the shadow cabinet during Iain Duncan Smith’s leadership. Like him I have been in the Party for over 30 years.

What propelled his motives will at some stage become all too apparent, but what we do know is that his vicious, poison pen letter to David Cameron is nothing more than part of Davies hideously ingratiating himself to the Brown leadership.

When Davies was dumped from his position in the Shadow Cabinet by new leader Michael Howard he clearly felt his greatness was being overlooked. I was dumped too and I felt somewhat equally peeved- the only difference is that I got over it.

As I read Davies’s insulting resignation letter I was open mouthed at its incredulity.