The new chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is correct by setting out the true extent of public finances. The last Conservative government had clearly been pursuing a scorched earth policy as electoral Armageddon loomed - promising largess to all, whilst implausibly promising tax cuts. Sums never added up then. Now the true extent of their fantasy budgeting has been exposed. Lessons must be learned. Prudence should be brought back into the Treasury.

I was pleased to receive a constructive reply from Rachel Reeves in the Commons this week. I made the point that it would be better to spend £500-million addressing the housing needs of the local population in Cornwall, than giving that amount of taxpayers’ money to holiday home owners in Cornwall, as the Conservatives did during the last 10 years.

If we are to achieve housing justice, we also need the constructive engagement of ministers responsible for holding the purse strings. This and other measures are important to combat inequality which widened so significantly in the last decade.

I’ve now secured a Commons debate on Housing in Cornwall and Scilly on September 9 when I’ll be able to raise these and further concerns with a Minister and to receive a substantial reply.

We took an important first step on the road to injecting a real sense of real urgency in our efforts to combat climate change and to restore nature. Along with fellow MPs we delivered a note of our determination to succeed.

The last Conservative government talked the talk – produced impressive-sounding slogans and had lots of greenwashing photo opportunities – but the UK went backwards.

We’re a Cross-party coalition of MPs. We want to seize the agenda; to achieve real change. The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world; we’ve missed all of our climate targets. It’ll be a real challenge to get things back on track . This is the first step on the road to turning this ship around.

I enjoyed meeting the new culture secretary - Lisa Nandy - in her department this week. Lisa and I were co-authors of a book with Caroline Lucas in 2016, pressing the case for cross-party cooperation.

I like her approach and the values she brings to her job. Seeing culture, creativity, music, sport, art as routes to narrow inequality across our country.

I want to hear about projects from our communities which inspire young people, open new horizons for those who would otherwise feel left out, widen opportunities, promote creativity and personal ambition in art, sport, music.

Cornwall and Scilly must be part of this encouraging new approach - “talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not”, as Lisa correctly puts it.

And, of course, as the national chair of the British Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, I commenced a conversation about putting right a 200 year wrong when Britain helped itself to half of the remarkable artefacts from the Acropolis in the then Ottoman/Turkish occupied Athens.

More work to do…

Andrew George, Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives