Browse content similar to 20/12/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
The former Speaker knew that already I think with the length of time but | :00:17. | :00:24. | |
not to worry. Thank you, I will not require the full ten minutes. It is | :00:25. | :00:28. | |
a pleasure to take part in this wide-ranging and popular debate and | :00:29. | :00:32. | |
I'm grateful to the backbench business committee for making the | :00:33. | :00:36. | |
opportunity possible. Among the many issues that have graced my casework | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
over recent months, one of the most interesting has been the protocol to | :00:41. | :00:59. | |
the -- illicit trade protocol. The problem on illicit tobacco was | :01:00. | :01:04. | |
thought to be so severe, a new treaty has been required, which is | :01:05. | :01:09. | |
the protocol aforementioned. It was concluded in 2012 and currently has | :01:10. | :01:15. | |
24 states parties plus the EU. 40 parties are for the protocol to come | :01:16. | :01:22. | |
into force. It was signed by the Government but so far has not been | :01:23. | :01:27. | |
ratified by the UK. The subject is one I have raised a number of times | :01:28. | :01:31. | |
through Parliamentary questions in both oral and written ages and I'm | :01:32. | :01:37. | |
grateful to the financial Secretary to the Treasury for her replies. | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
Those who have raised this issue with me feel the Government is | :01:42. | :01:44. | |
setting a poor example on dragging its feet and as a consequence | :01:45. | :01:52. | |
costing the Treasury millions of pounds in lost revenue. The latest | :01:53. | :01:59. | |
HMRC figures for 2015/16 estimates the illicit market share for | :02:00. | :02:09. | |
cigarettes is 32% for hand-rolling tobacco. There has been a | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
significant improvement over the last decade but it remains a key | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
public health concern. I say that not because illicit tobacco is more | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
harmful than that in the shops, but by passing through measures to | :02:24. | :02:33. | |
increase prices. I hope the answer is received go some way to | :02:34. | :02:37. | |
addressing these concerns and I look forward to the text of the protocol | :02:38. | :02:41. | |
being laid before Parliament as a command paper, and I would be | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
grateful to the ministers if we can have an indication of a likely | :02:46. | :02:49. | |
timescale. I press this point because I believe the ITP will be | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
helpful in tackling the illicit trade problems. There is a worldwide | :02:55. | :03:00. | |
tracking and tracing scheme for tobacco products. The ITP requires | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
governments to take responsibility for control measures and not rely on | :03:06. | :03:10. | |
industry self-regulation which has failed to deliver. This scheme is | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
intended to prevent the tobacco industry from participating in or | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
turning a blind eye to smuggling. This scheme is dependent on the | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
industry for it to be effective will stop earlier this year the big | :03:24. | :03:37. | |
Tobacco companies identified... It has been claimed the new owner is a | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
front company and the system is still under the effective control of | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
the tobacco firms. If so this would not fulfil the requirements of the | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
ITP for independence. Some industry insiders highlighted it could | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
identify ineffective as a track and trace system as it uses a | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
combination of unique encrypted codes along with other codes which | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
are easy to forge. I trust this is something ministers will have on | :04:06. | :04:11. | |
their radar. In conclusion, the protocol to eliminate the illicit | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
trade in tobacco products is a global problem. It's important we | :04:16. | :04:20. | |
play our full part in it, and I welcome that the Government is | :04:21. | :04:24. | |
committed to ratification. I am however impatient and keen to see | :04:25. | :04:39. | |
progress. At this time of Christmas and goodwill towards all, it seems a | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
bit churlish to bring to the attention of the House facade that | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
my constituents have had over the last few weeks travelling by rail | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
down from Chelmsford to Liverpool Street to work and back again. About | :04:55. | :05:01. | |
9000 of my constituents commute to London to work each day, others | :05:02. | :05:07. | |
during the day travel down to London and back to Chelmsford for a variety | :05:08. | :05:10. | |
of other reasons but we have been struck over the last three weeks by | :05:11. | :05:17. | |
one after another problem that has brought the network to a grinding | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
halt, which has caused so much disruption and frustration for those | :05:23. | :05:29. | |
travelling members. The fact is that in my part of six, the line is only | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
two lines, one down and one up from London so there is little scope if a | :05:36. | :05:40. | |
train breaks down or if there's problems with the track, except to | :05:41. | :05:47. | |
sort that problem out immediately to get the network morning. When a | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
problem occurs, you see all the trains behind banking up, waiting | :05:52. | :05:56. | |
for a solution to that problem. If that's during the rush hour, you can | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
imagine the frustration and the problems because people are wanting | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
to get to work. They don't want to be late, it causes problems with | :06:08. | :06:11. | |
their employers and they have to put up with that. It has happened too | :06:12. | :06:20. | |
much in the immediate recent past. We have seen a freight train | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
breakdown, which brought everything to a standstill, we have seen other | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
engines pulling the commuter trains breaking down with all the | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
disturbance and problems that causes. The fact is that in the | :06:34. | :06:41. | |
future, things will be considerably better. Firstly there has been, and | :06:42. | :06:45. | |
I give credit to the last government as well as to this one, and when I | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
say last government I mean the last Labour government, the investment | :06:52. | :06:54. | |
that has been poured in to improving and upgrading the track and | :06:55. | :06:59. | |
replacing the overhead cables from Liverpool Street up to Chelmsford | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
and then it will go beyond to Colchester and up to Norwich. That | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
is bringing some improvements when it is completely done it will bring | :07:08. | :07:13. | |
considerable improvements because we won't have so many faults occurring. | :07:14. | :07:20. | |
But it is investment that no one ever sees. If you get new carriages, | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
you immediately notice it obviously because they will be very different | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
and a vast improvement on the last ones. But the improvement on | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
infrastructure on the track people don't notice because it isn't in | :07:35. | :07:40. | |
their face, but it is going on. The franchise that was awarded in the | :07:41. | :07:48. | |
summer is extremely good news for my constituents insofar as the | :07:49. | :07:54. | |
commitment is there that in 2019/20, every single train will be replaced | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
by brand-new ones. The engines that we have at the moment, the carriages | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
we have our 30 years old. It is no wonder they will break down because | :08:06. | :08:10. | |
they are rather different generation, different technology, | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
they are old and susceptible to faults and the that causes. So when | :08:15. | :08:21. | |
we get the brand-new engines, we will see a significant improvement | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
in the performance. We also will see the investment. There is a new | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
station going to be built just the north-east of the city limits of | :08:31. | :08:39. | |
Chelmsford are the Park will help to unclog congestion in the town -- at | :08:40. | :08:53. | |
Bewley Park. By the mid 2020s, there will be a loop track to the north of | :08:54. | :08:59. | |
Witham which will allow them to be able to increase capacity of the | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
trains down to Liverpool Street because the fast trains will be able | :09:03. | :09:05. | |
to overtake the slower trains using the loop. Jam tomorrow is great, but | :09:06. | :09:14. | |
what we need is more jam today because my constituents are having | :09:15. | :09:16. | |
to put up with too much disruption to their lives. And without wanting | :09:17. | :09:24. | |
to rub it in, they are paying quite a lot of their taxed income for the | :09:25. | :09:31. | |
pleasure, if that is the right word, to travel down to London to work. I | :09:32. | :09:39. | |
want to see a number of things. Firstly, whenever there is | :09:40. | :09:43. | |
engineering works and there are considerable works at the moment | :09:44. | :09:49. | |
simply because they are investing in upgrading the infrastructure, | :09:50. | :09:52. | |
particularly at the weekends, I want an end to the practice or | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
inefficiencies of Network Rail that see engineering works over running | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
into the rush hour on a Monday morning which causes considerable | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
grief to people and is totally avoidable with better planning and | :10:06. | :10:11. | |
organisation. I want to see more information given by the provider of | :10:12. | :10:19. | |
the service when there is a breakdown, or when there is a | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
disruption so that customers know exactly what the problem is, why | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
they cannot get on the train or they are stuck on the train, and if it is | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
possible roughly how long it is going to take for them to have the | :10:33. | :10:38. | |
problem resolved so they can continue or start their journey. | :10:39. | :10:44. | |
That's not asking a lot. Better communications is quite | :10:45. | :10:47. | |
straightforward in this era of social media and other | :10:48. | :10:52. | |
communications systems. I would also like to see more work done to ensure | :10:53. | :11:04. | |
that the current engines of the trains are best maintained to | :11:05. | :11:08. | |
minimise the possibility of breakdowns and I would like to see | :11:09. | :11:12. | |
less freight trains operating during the rush hour when they might | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
breakdown and cause utter chaos during the rush hour. That is the | :11:18. | :11:25. | |
challenge for now. The challenge for the future as I've explained is | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
looking good and there is one thing this Government could do to help the | :11:30. | :11:37. | |
network, and that is my right honourable friend the Secretary of | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
State for Transport is shortly going to use a ?450 million fund to be | :11:43. | :11:51. | |
spent on trials of digital signalling for the railways and they | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
will need some pilot areas to test this. I know that Essex County | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
Council and myself and other honourable members are most anxious | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
that one of the sites where this digital signalling is tested is | :12:05. | :12:12. | |
Liverpool Street, Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Norwich line | :12:13. | :12:15. | |
and I would urge my honourable friend the Minister who will be | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
responding to this debate to make the Secretary of State for Transport | :12:21. | :12:24. | |
aware, as I have done, how important it would be and what a signal it | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
would be to the confidence in the system if the Department for | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
Transport were to be prepared to use that line and that rail network as | :12:34. | :12:42. | |
part of the trials for digital signalling because that is yet again | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
another investment that will improve rail travel in this country over the | :12:47. | :12:49. | |
coming years. The thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. By | :12:50. | :13:05. | |
now, honourable members will have seen my break into the music | :13:06. | :13:14. | |
industry with the National Living Rage, a Christmas song I recorded | :13:15. | :13:19. | |
with other members of the bench. I'm delighted it has had the desired | :13:20. | :13:31. | |
effect. Full stop it has got 40,000 hits on YouTube, and laugh that on | :13:32. | :13:38. | |
everything and getting a serious message out in the public domain by | :13:39. | :13:49. | |
humorous means. I want to take a moment to consider the tens of | :13:50. | :13:57. | |
thousands of workers who face a pay cut, and have to bear the pressure | :13:58. | :14:03. | |
of selling the house. Christmas should be a time of goodwill. A | :14:04. | :14:10. | |
disappointing amount are being Scrooge is, instead of delivering | :14:11. | :14:18. | |
presents they are... From B to Marks Spencer is, to Waitrose, | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
Cathy Nero, good employers are getting it wrong. Using the | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
introduction of a higher statutory introduction of a higher statutory | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
minimum wage to cut total staff pay. Nobody in this house should be under | :14:34. | :14:36. | |
any illusion that this is some sort of niche issue. This is affecting | :14:37. | :14:42. | |
residents in every single constituency right across the | :14:43. | :14:50. | |
country. At Marks Spencer is it was estimated 11,000 of their | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
workforce would be negatively impacted by pay cuts. | :14:57. | :15:08. | |
2700 workers will lose them. Approximately half a million people | :15:09. | :15:21. | |
in the retail, restaurant and manufacturing industry will receive | :15:22. | :15:27. | |
a pay cut. Around 13% of the workers in these industries. They've made | :15:28. | :15:36. | |
some terrible errors in judgment. It is not too late for them to change | :15:37. | :15:42. | |
their minds. I'm asking all these companies to reverse their decision | :15:43. | :15:50. | |
to cut staff pay. Should these companies not change their minds I | :15:51. | :15:54. | |
hope the government will step in and salvage the policy of a pay rise for | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
all workers. I've seen evidence that proves there are many other | :15:59. | :16:02. | |
companies planning the same sort of pay cuts in the coming year. Take | :16:03. | :16:09. | |
John Lewis for example. The chairman stated in a private meeting earlier | :16:10. | :16:14. | |
this year the intention to review the partnership's historic pay | :16:15. | :16:16. | |
arrangements. He said they were not arrangements. He said they were not | :16:17. | :16:23. | |
in keeping with the competitors. We know what they are doing so clearly | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
the review of legacy payments is just a euphemism. We have seen clear | :16:30. | :16:38. | |
evidence of this at Waitrose, with a decision to take away paid breaks | :16:39. | :16:47. | |
from staff. You can appreciate my frustration when Sir Charlie | :16:48. | :16:50. | |
e-mailed me to say he had no longer any intention of meeting with me | :16:51. | :16:58. | |
today. Me and Buster, the boxer from John Lewis's advert, are very sad to | :16:59. | :17:04. | |
not have the opportunity to discuss John Lewis's plans for pay cuts. Can | :17:05. | :17:10. | |
we assume it is an admission of guilt? I guess we will not know for | :17:11. | :17:16. | |
sure until those pay cuts are announced in the coming year. If I'm | :17:17. | :17:26. | |
wrong I will happily apologise. I would be delighted to be wrong about | :17:27. | :17:30. | |
John Lewis, it is a great British business that got great by great | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
customer service from well treated staff. The sort of people the Prime | :17:36. | :17:39. | |
Minister describes as those giving up their best and putting in the | :17:40. | :17:46. | |
effort. I'm happy to apologise if I am wrong and I would like to | :17:47. | :17:52. | |
reiterate to Sir Charlie that I would be happy to meet with him and | :17:53. | :17:59. | |
to discuss this important issue wherever and whenever he would like. | :18:00. | :18:04. | |
Having concentrated on unscrupulous employment practices I know that | :18:05. | :18:08. | |
corporate executives are watching every move in Parliament. Through | :18:09. | :18:14. | |
you I would like to deliver a message to all those company CEOs. | :18:15. | :18:24. | |
The campaign to ensure nobody loses money will continue well into the | :18:25. | :18:29. | |
year until every worker gets the pay that they richly deserve. Myself and | :18:30. | :18:36. | |
my colleagues will be writing to chairman this week to ask for | :18:37. | :18:42. | |
contracts to be reversed. I would like to use these last few minutes | :18:43. | :18:46. | |
to express my deep concern for the Muslim community in Pakistan and | :18:47. | :18:55. | |
this country. I thank my honourable friend for giving way and I think we | :18:56. | :19:00. | |
all stand in solidarity with the community wherever they are in the | :19:01. | :19:03. | |
world. Does the honourable member agree that we should always speak | :19:04. | :19:07. | |
out against religious persecution wherever it occurs and whoever it | :19:08. | :19:11. | |
falls on? I would agree with the honourable lady, whatever the | :19:12. | :19:17. | |
religion, we must stand up for tolerance. There have been two very | :19:18. | :19:28. | |
worrying developments overseas, 16 armed policeman and 12 plain clothes | :19:29. | :19:31. | |
officers forced entry to an office officers forced entry to an office | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
without a warrant, wounding and arresting four innocent men. This | :19:38. | :19:44. | |
raid was unlawful and most likely ordered by the highest | :19:45. | :19:45. | |
officials in the province. The officials in the province. The | :19:46. | :19:53. | |
second was destruction of the mosque which was one week ago, stones were | :19:54. | :19:59. | |
pelted and the property was burned to bring it under the influence of | :20:00. | :20:03. | |
Islam. I need not remind honourable members that they are not allowed to | :20:04. | :20:08. | |
define themselves as Muslim in Pakistan. I hope all honourable | :20:09. | :20:14. | |
members will stand together to express this and to ask the Foreign | :20:15. | :20:19. | |
Secretary to do all he can to stand Secretary to do all he can to stand | :20:20. | :20:30. | |
with the oppressed. I would like to wish all honourable members are very | :20:31. | :20:42. | |
peaceful New Year. After this season of goodwill... I am going to relate | :20:43. | :20:48. | |
something important in this house and everywhere else. One part of | :20:49. | :20:54. | |
rural Somerset, there is a determined effort to hijack public | :20:55. | :20:57. | |
opinion and kill off local democracy. It is gerrymandering, and | :20:58. | :21:11. | |
strong suspicion of corruption. I am sorry the honourable man for Taunton | :21:12. | :21:15. | |
Deane is not here. It is a murder most foul. The real motive is money. | :21:16. | :21:23. | |
I am going to give you the background to this sorry saga. | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
Somerset District Council is the smallest authority in England, | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
35,000 people. It is a very beautiful part of the world. The | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
local council is perilously close to going bankrupt, unfortunately. | :21:39. | :21:40. | |
Partly because there are not enough people to pay the bills. The council | :21:41. | :21:45. | |
years and unfortunately it has years and unfortunately it has | :21:46. | :21:50. | |
failed. Three years ago, it was lowered, rather like a prostitute | :21:51. | :21:53. | |
into a strange house, to do a deal with Taunton Deane. For reasons I do | :21:54. | :22:01. | |
not totally understand. They will not consider taking help. One of | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
their labours is the best one counsel in the UK. It would have | :22:08. | :22:17. | |
a deal with Taunton and I really a deal with Taunton and I really | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
don't know why. Taunton Deane is desperately short of money. Why | :22:23. | :22:25. | |
would they want to bail out a bankrupt neighbour when the heading | :22:26. | :22:33. | |
to bankruptcy themselves? Dude to failing councils make a successful | :22:34. | :22:37. | |
council? You do the maths. I believe Taunton want to get its hand on the | :22:38. | :22:41. | |
business rate that will come from Hinkley point. You are getting the | :22:42. | :22:47. | |
point here. My little council may be on the verge of bankruptcy, 20 years | :22:48. | :22:56. | |
now, it will become seriously rich. There is nothing like the prospect | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
of gold, Judas would say, in bringing out the green streak of | :23:02. | :23:05. | |
counsel town halls. Taunton is consumed with envy. When the plans | :23:06. | :23:12. | |
were developing, they put in a formal objection. A bit of an irony | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
here, I know. They did it out of jealousy and on the orders of their | :23:18. | :23:21. | |
leader, I will come back to him. He is a builder by trade and sharp and | :23:22. | :23:27. | |
slightly interesting operator. John Williams is his name. Does look like | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
Santa Claus but please do not be fooled in this time of goodwill. He | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
is more like Rudolph who has been garrotted. I cannot see him | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
laughing. He rules Taunton Deane with the grip of irony and likes to | :23:42. | :23:49. | |
get his way mostly by foul means. His henchmen moved on by the Mafia | :23:50. | :23:51. | |
-- like the Mafia. They took over -- like the Mafia. They took over | :23:52. | :23:56. | |
the local council, pensioned off the staff and started running everything | :23:57. | :24:02. | |
from Taunton. Since West Somerset's 28 councillors have unfortunately, | :24:03. | :24:08. | |
and I say this against myself as anyone, become more like a glorified | :24:09. | :24:14. | |
talking shop. The good people of West Somerset realise the levers of | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
power are being manipulative elsewhere. You think Scotland has a | :24:20. | :24:23. | |
problem! It would make matters worse if Taunton Deane was a well oiled | :24:24. | :24:29. | |
machine. But it is run by an autocrat. The chief executive has | :24:30. | :24:33. | |
been off for six months. We think it's lit a bad back but we are not | :24:34. | :24:39. | |
entirely sure. She has a ?80,000 in sick pay and nobody knows what is | :24:40. | :24:46. | |
wrong. She will be coming back soon, seven months, is going to be phased | :24:47. | :24:54. | |
in in January. What is phased in? The penny has finally dropped. She | :24:55. | :25:01. | |
has a long and undisputed record forgetting the thing wrong. The | :25:02. | :25:07. | |
council worker undisputed supporters of Southwest one. It is an appalling | :25:08. | :25:12. | |
Project which cost the taxpayers ?80 million and saved nothing. Taunton | :25:13. | :25:19. | |
has nobody who knows what to do with the computers of the chances of | :25:20. | :25:22. | |
another expensive disaster, watch this space and my place in the | :25:23. | :25:30. | |
house. Taunton Deane has got clock up written all over it. One of the | :25:31. | :25:37. | |
latest, I must tell the house, I thank you for your support. The | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
committee was meant to be considering a highly controversial | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
building application but the planning officers in Taunton for | :25:47. | :25:53. | |
got, Fidel Castro style, to inform the house. The result was red faces | :25:54. | :25:59. | |
and anger. It was pulled. West Somerset is trapped in an unfair | :26:00. | :26:04. | |
partnership with a financially dodgy council. Chances are there will only | :26:05. | :26:12. | |
be nine or ten councillors left because of the changes in the | :26:13. | :26:18. | |
demographics. It will spell the end of local democracy. The plan sneaked | :26:19. | :26:24. | |
in under the radar using the Parliament act to get round the | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
involvement of the commission. You might think it was cunning stuff. | :26:29. | :26:36. | |
public opinion. They have gone public opinion. They have gone | :26:37. | :26:43. | |
through with a fine tooth comb but the sums don't add up. Emperor | :26:44. | :26:52. | |
Williams decided to put his plan through. In Taunton, they approved a | :26:53. | :27:01. | |
merger. It has led to legal challenge. They insist they were not | :27:02. | :27:08. | |
told the truth. The legal challenge... I'm not surprised but | :27:09. | :27:17. | |
it has gone too far. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against change, but | :27:18. | :27:23. | |
partnerships can work. Maybe there are too many overpaid senior | :27:24. | :27:31. | |
deserve a proper consultation but we deserve a proper consultation but we | :27:32. | :27:44. | |
have a confidence trickster. Through my door came a questionnaire. The | :27:45. | :27:53. | |
plan, the money was so tight something needed to be done and they | :27:54. | :27:55. | |
have ruled out the possibility of any partnerships. They look how | :27:56. | :28:05. | |
these work. There will be a high-level business transformation | :28:06. | :28:06. | |
document which is deliberately phased to convince everybody it was | :28:07. | :28:09. | |
a full-blown merger. The south-west 1 multi-million pound | :28:10. | :28:20. | |
scheme, you name t they've got it. Taunton Deane want to put the | :28:21. | :28:23. | |
services online and trim back the staff, but it doesn't work. West | :28:24. | :28:28. | |
Somerset where broadband is intermittent or nonexistent in most | :28:29. | :28:32. | |
cases the population doesn't have computers. We can't get them to | :28:33. | :28:37. | |
work. Pigeons are quicker. My constituents need to talk to real | :28:38. | :28:41. | |
human beings, not robots in Japan. The architect for the great schemes | :28:42. | :28:47. | |
never do their homework. The business plan is riddled with | :28:48. | :28:50. | |
guesswork and half truths and downright lies. The document was | :28:51. | :28:54. | |
never offered and the most sensible solution to go back to the drawing | :28:55. | :28:58. | |
board which is exactly what the Government told them to do to find | :28:59. | :29:02. | |
out a way of moving forward with imagination. That is what I want. | :29:03. | :29:07. | |
And I can tell you this, it is what the Government wants, but Emperor | :29:08. | :29:12. | |
Williams doesn't fancy working with top flight councils, he couldn't | :29:13. | :29:15. | |
cope with it. He is not that bright. He has done everything in his power | :29:16. | :29:21. | |
to prevent constructive talks taking place. In these questions, I was | :29:22. | :29:30. | |
asked believe it or not just about everything, my favourite colour, my | :29:31. | :29:35. | |
inside leg measurement and at no point have I been invited to provide | :29:36. | :29:40. | |
my name and address. So anybody can write in. Don't go for the merger in | :29:41. | :29:46. | |
west Somerset and Taunton Deane. These forms can be filled in by | :29:47. | :29:50. | |
Mickey Mouse or Emperor Williams. They set-up a new website with | :29:51. | :29:54. | |
similar questions. It is not doing the trick. People are not conned. We | :29:55. | :29:59. | |
should know that in this House, we have seen Brexit and Trump, but it | :30:00. | :30:04. | |
may not stop councillor Williams and his mates trying to skew the results | :30:05. | :30:09. | |
by making multiple entries on different computers on his own. Yep, | :30:10. | :30:14. | |
it happened before. It is a consultation sham designed to abuse | :30:15. | :30:17. | |
and was approved by a council that claims to be democratic. No wonder | :30:18. | :30:26. | |
the electorate of Taunton Deane voted out the Conservative | :30:27. | :30:31. | |
councillor after 42 years. It has always been blue, no longer, they | :30:32. | :30:34. | |
went and got a Liberal Democrat, that's how bad this council is. | :30:35. | :30:38. | |
People in Taunton Deane are sick of the way the council is working and | :30:39. | :30:45. | |
it is getting worse. It used to be the county town, but its market | :30:46. | :30:49. | |
moved to Bridgwater. The whole area is overrun with unpopular housing | :30:50. | :30:54. | |
schemes and there seems to be a determination to build just for | :30:55. | :30:59. | |
building's sake. Guess what Emperor Williams is a builder. He is is | :31:00. | :31:04. | |
photographed alongside prominent local developers. I leave that | :31:05. | :31:10. | |
hanging. And they look like a happy family on their ceremonial debuts. | :31:11. | :31:17. | |
Brother John was seen with the bosses of Somerfield who completed | :31:18. | :31:23. | |
Taunton Deane's direct Labour HQ. It sounds like something from the other | :31:24. | :31:28. | |
side! It is located in the business park and owned by Somerfield's, but | :31:29. | :31:32. | |
most of the workload is in Taunton and another town. The staff have to | :31:33. | :31:37. | |
go from one place to another, to do their work. Absolute madness. Why is | :31:38. | :31:49. | |
there no reference to the costs? One doesn't know, ask Brother John. | :31:50. | :31:55. | |
Guess what Taunton Deane let it slip through and I'm told the | :31:56. | :32:00. | |
construction work was subcontracted to a company owned by guess who? | :32:01. | :32:04. | |
Brother John himself! Such a relationship is a bit too close to | :32:05. | :32:08. | |
comfort and guess what? Nobody has said there is a conflict of | :32:09. | :32:12. | |
interest. Wouldn't get away it in most places. This is nothing to do | :32:13. | :32:21. | |
with Taunton Deane's constituents. This is not good. We need openness | :32:22. | :32:27. | |
in Local Government. I don't need to tell anybody that here Mr Speaker. I | :32:28. | :32:31. | |
have highlighted these things to give the House a prospective of what | :32:32. | :32:38. | |
is going on in my part of Somerset. My constituents can smell a rat and | :32:39. | :32:43. | |
they know what it is like. They want to keep their council and so they | :32:44. | :32:47. | |
should t thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. | :32:48. | :32:51. | |
THE SPEAKER: Thank you. Should I end up as a member of council, in | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
Somerset, I shall make it my priority, to stay on the right side | :32:57. | :33:00. | |
of the honourable member for Bridgwater! | :33:01. | :33:05. | |
LAUGHTER 2016 has been a tumultuous year | :33:06. | :33:11. | |
culturally and politically and with an assassination of an as bass dor | :33:12. | :33:17. | |
and a terrorist attack yesterday, it seems we are finishing on a low. We | :33:18. | :33:20. | |
have more in common with our European partners than divides us. | :33:21. | :33:24. | |
And I feel that the current stand-off over Brexit and the | :33:25. | :33:28. | |
forthcoming negotiations will drive us further apart from our neighbours | :33:29. | :33:34. | |
when surely these are times when we must stick together and find common | :33:35. | :33:41. | |
ground rather than hunk irdown into a bunker focussed on the challenges | :33:42. | :33:44. | |
of Brexit while the big challenges and threats remain. The main debate | :33:45. | :33:48. | |
in the EU negotiations seem to be one of immigration versus free | :33:49. | :33:53. | |
movement and k access to the single market. I am not in free movement of | :33:54. | :33:57. | |
unemployment and the free movement of exploitation. Over a decade ago | :33:58. | :34:01. | |
as a trade union official I saw construction workers being brought | :34:02. | :34:05. | |
in from abroad and used on big construction projects named as | :34:06. | :34:10. | |
anyway Thorpe power station or Lindsey oil refinery spring to mind. | :34:11. | :34:14. | |
These immigration workers would be used by the prime and principle | :34:15. | :34:20. | |
subcontractors to drive down wages in a sector where skilled well paid | :34:21. | :34:25. | |
jobs provided a good standard of living. Wage rates were falling in a | :34:26. | :34:31. | |
race to the bottom that god employers, the majority of | :34:32. | :34:34. | |
employers, were forced to join in to stay competitive and the difference | :34:35. | :34:38. | |
was kept a bigger profits by the corporations and its bosses rather | :34:39. | :34:43. | |
than being shared out amongst the men and women doing the work. It is | :34:44. | :34:55. | |
unsurprising that so many working class people voted to leave the EU | :34:56. | :35:00. | |
when this was their most visible personal experience of it, albeit | :35:01. | :35:05. | |
wasn't the EU that was at fault, but the system of globalised capitalism | :35:06. | :35:08. | |
that we are seeing today. My solution would be simple, retain | :35:09. | :35:12. | |
free movement in a qualified manner. If you have got a job, you can come | :35:13. | :35:15. | |
and work here, but the job must be advertised in the UK in English and | :35:16. | :35:20. | |
must pay accepted UK pay rates. I suspect that the rest of the EU may | :35:21. | :35:25. | |
soon find itself moving towards such a system anyway. But the euro | :35:26. | :35:31. | |
referendum and it would seem events elsewhere brought into focus another | :35:32. | :35:37. | |
new state of politics. Exemplified by the year of the word, post truth. | :35:38. | :35:41. | |
In the UK there was no better example than the red vote Leave bus | :35:42. | :35:52. | |
with its promise of an extra ?350 million a week for the NHS. Members | :35:53. | :35:56. | |
of this House who associated themselves with the promise of never | :35:57. | :36:02. | |
apologising for this association. I have to say that I sought guidance | :36:03. | :36:17. | |
from Mr Speaker and advice how I may criticise the Foreign Secretary. I | :36:18. | :36:25. | |
would suggest that these members were deliberately and wilfully | :36:26. | :36:31. | |
mendacious. A practise which is known in Cheshire as being a | :36:32. | :36:39. | |
snollygoster. Post truth, politics is dangerous because it devalues our | :36:40. | :36:43. | |
political system and corrodes the quality of our democracy and | :36:44. | :36:47. | |
diminishes public trust in our institutions, but it has a broader | :36:48. | :36:51. | |
effect too. A cultural effect. As well as undermining honesty and | :36:52. | :36:57. | |
trust and celebrating deceit, post truth celebrates ignorance and | :36:58. | :37:00. | |
stupidity that learning is not to be valued and has nothing to | :37:01. | :37:05. | |
contribute. When the member for Surrey Heath said he had enough of | :37:06. | :37:09. | |
experts on Sky News, it was a breathtaking attack on progress. An | :37:10. | :37:12. | |
attack on scientific and cultural learning, a devaluation of the | :37:13. | :37:19. | |
intrinsic importance... THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: We are | :37:20. | :37:23. | |
mentioning members. Did you give notice that you were going to | :37:24. | :37:26. | |
mention members in the chamber? That's something I will bear in mind | :37:27. | :37:30. | |
and I will amend my comments suitably as a result. So when | :37:31. | :37:33. | |
members talk about the fact that they have had enough of experts, it | :37:34. | :37:41. | |
is an attack I believe on progress. A devaluation of the importance of | :37:42. | :37:48. | |
knowledge is a good thing. I say this clearly to the House please | :37:49. | :37:54. | |
reject the dishonesty of post truth politics, but reject its regressive | :37:55. | :37:58. | |
and reactionary message that ignorance and dishonesty are somehow | :37:59. | :38:03. | |
a god thing. Post truth didn't put a man on the moon or develop the | :38:04. | :38:08. | |
Hubble Space Telescope. And post truth will not find a cure for | :38:09. | :38:12. | |
cancer. And if we in this place cannot address an argument with fact | :38:13. | :38:16. | |
maybe it is time to reassess whether our views are correct and | :38:17. | :38:20. | |
sustainable. If I may Mr Deputy Speaker, I make one further plea to | :38:21. | :38:23. | |
the House as we look forward to the New Year. To reject the notion, the | :38:24. | :38:28. | |
52% vote to leave is somehow the will of the people. It is the will | :38:29. | :38:32. | |
of the majority of the people and it must be respected and we must | :38:33. | :38:37. | |
deliver the exit from the EU that the referendum agreed. But it cannot | :38:38. | :38:40. | |
be portrayed as the will of all the people. The views of the 48% must be | :38:41. | :38:47. | |
taken into account as to how we exit the EU. We cannoting ignored or | :38:48. | :38:54. | |
airbrushed away. I pay tribute to honourable members on my front bench | :38:55. | :38:58. | |
who are trying to make efforts to represent the 100%. In addition to | :38:59. | :39:05. | |
the perils of politics, I fear we face another threat which is one of | :39:06. | :39:10. | |
disunity. The referendum was brought about by this Government to halt | :39:11. | :39:14. | |
long running rifts in certain parts of the House, but the rifts have | :39:15. | :39:17. | |
been transferred to the whole country. They fed narrow nationalism | :39:18. | :39:22. | |
in certain parts of the country and I say to honourable members that | :39:23. | :39:26. | |
narrow petty nationalism cannot be the solution to any problem that we | :39:27. | :39:31. | |
face in the world today. I'm not imagining a nation where we all | :39:32. | :39:35. | |
agree and everything is fine and dandy, but a basic consensus about | :39:36. | :39:39. | |
how we do politics has been attacked as exemplified by attacks in the | :39:40. | :39:43. | |
media against High Court judges and their integrity. We are stronger | :39:44. | :39:47. | |
when we stick together and the at moment I have never known our | :39:48. | :39:51. | |
country to be so deeply and unpleasantly divided. We heard so | :39:52. | :39:55. | |
much about putting the great back into Great Britain, perhaps now with | :39:56. | :39:58. | |
the external threats and challenges we face, it is time to put the | :39:59. | :40:05. | |
united back into the United Kingdom. Today I wish to address two very | :40:06. | :40:10. | |
important constituency issues. One in relation to transport | :40:11. | :40:15. | |
infrastructure arrangements and the other the education improvements in | :40:16. | :40:19. | |
Filton and Bradley Stoke. Firstly the metro bus. This will provide a | :40:20. | :40:25. | |
dedicated bus route from the south of Bristol to my constituency in | :40:26. | :40:30. | |
order to provide an alternative to car journeys and should carry 6,000 | :40:31. | :40:39. | |
passengers a year, which equates to 228,000 car journeys per year. It is | :40:40. | :40:45. | |
?100 million project funded by the Department for Transport, south | :40:46. | :40:48. | |
Gloucestershire council and Bristol City Council. I have always been a | :40:49. | :40:51. | |
keen supporter of the scheme and remain so. However the metro bus | :40:52. | :40:57. | |
works have caused major congestion disruption and delays for the | :40:58. | :41:01. | |
residents of Bradley Stoke and the surrounding areas. One of my | :41:02. | :41:08. | |
constituency team has a 10 to 15 minute drive through the rush hour, | :41:09. | :41:14. | |
she had a journey which took nearly three hours. I have experienced and | :41:15. | :41:20. | |
shared the frustrations of people stuck in the traffic jams during | :41:21. | :41:23. | |
commuting hours without much evidence at times it seems of work | :41:24. | :41:26. | |
actually taking place on the metro bus route. Constituents have | :41:27. | :41:30. | |
reported that whilst they are stuck in their cars, in traffic jams, they | :41:31. | :41:33. | |
have seen workmen asleep on the site. The work have taken too long. | :41:34. | :41:39. | |
Are over time and thinkingsly, were not done with understanding or | :41:40. | :41:43. | |
appreciation for people who have to get in and out of Bradley Stoke | :41:44. | :41:46. | |
every day to travel to school and work. The project suffered from a | :41:47. | :41:49. | |
lack of communication from the contractors and the council. I did | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
organise and chair a public meeting this year to get local people | :41:55. | :41:57. | |
face-to-face with the contractors and council and representatives from | :41:58. | :42:01. | |
the bus company. A few weeks ago I organised a meeting with road | :42:02. | :42:05. | |
contractors Allen Griffiths, metro bus and south Gloucestershire | :42:06. | :42:10. | |
council and including the lead councillor responsible for transport | :42:11. | :42:16. | |
in south Gloucestershire along with Bradley Stoke town councillors. I | :42:17. | :42:19. | |
met with the Secretary of State a week or so ago for transport to | :42:20. | :42:22. | |
bring this issue to his attention and to ask for his help. I | :42:23. | :42:27. | |
understand that major transport infrastructure projects and | :42:28. | :42:31. | |
improvement works will cause disruption and jams occasionally, | :42:32. | :42:35. | |
however right next door to the congestion is the M4, M5 managed | :42:36. | :42:40. | |
motorway scheme which was completed on time and on budget. Often the | :42:41. | :42:44. | |
contractors work through the night and all hours. One evening they | :42:45. | :42:47. | |
replaced a pedestrian bridge and replaced it in the same nimth night. | :42:48. | :42:52. | |
The works were completed with the minimum of disruption to residents. | :42:53. | :42:56. | |
I suggested to the contractors that these ought to be the methods which | :42:57. | :43:01. | |
they aspire to adopt. I was told they couldn't work longer hours | :43:02. | :43:04. | |
during to health and safety considerations. | :43:05. | :43:15. | |
Since the recent meeting I organised with the stakeholders, greater | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
efforts have been made to communicate to local residents and | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
progress has been made in assisting the flow of traffic to minimise the | :43:25. | :43:28. | |
impact on local road users at peak times. | :43:29. | :43:36. | |
The other local issue I'd like to raise is about the Academy in my | :43:37. | :43:43. | |
academies which runs this was issued academies which runs this was issued | :43:44. | :43:53. | |
a financial notice to improve and provide a plan to achieve a balanced | :43:54. | :44:01. | |
budget with a deficit of ?1 million. Winterbourne Academy has had issues | :44:02. | :44:06. | |
with leadership and management and needs to be re-brokered into a new | :44:07. | :44:10. | |
structure. During this process parents, teachers and pupils felt | :44:11. | :44:14. | |
they were not being kept informed. I was contacted by a large number of | :44:15. | :44:20. | |
constituents were very concerned about what was happening. | :44:21. | :44:33. | |
We met with the South regional schools Commissioner. It has enabled | :44:34. | :44:42. | |
us to get more background to the situation. Trying to reassure them | :44:43. | :44:52. | |
that everything possible was being done to secure a solution to the | :44:53. | :44:56. | |
difficulties. The Academy will be taken over by a new trust. They've | :44:57. | :45:03. | |
looked at their options. They've communicated it to the schools | :45:04. | :45:06. | |
Commissioner who has decided to take the recommendation to Lord Nash. | :45:07. | :45:13. | |
There should be full clarity about who will run it. Better | :45:14. | :45:20. | |
communication is needed. I understand the outcome they are | :45:21. | :45:24. | |
hoping for is that the school becomes part of a multi-Academy | :45:25. | :45:29. | |
trust managed jointly by the Olympic Academy trust. I welcome the recent | :45:30. | :45:42. | |
news that Dave Baker, CEO of Olympus Academy trust and Castle School | :45:43. | :45:50. | |
education trust will jointly provide interim leadership, and support for | :45:51. | :45:54. | |
the Academy, with a view to appointing a principal at the end of | :45:55. | :46:07. | |
January. After the Good Friday agreement, hundreds of terrorists | :46:08. | :46:10. | |
were let out of prison in the name of reconciliation. We have lots of | :46:11. | :46:15. | |
former terrorists walking the streets. Some of them have worked | :46:16. | :46:19. | |
their way into high positions of political life. There is an amnesty | :46:20. | :46:28. | |
for former terrorists and yet the full force of the law is being used | :46:29. | :46:33. | |
to prosecute those on the other side of the fence, former soldiers doing | :46:34. | :46:36. | |
their best and doing their duty. This is clearly wrong and smacks of | :46:37. | :46:44. | |
victors justice it cannot be right to let terrorists out of prison | :46:45. | :46:50. | |
whilst pursuing former British soldiers. If there is going to be | :46:51. | :46:54. | |
lasting peace there needs to be fairness on all sides. Not that I | :46:55. | :47:10. | |
think... My youngest son has passed out of his basic training a couple | :47:11. | :47:13. | |
of weeks ago and I'm immensely proud of him. When he is deployed on | :47:14. | :47:27. | |
operations in future and asks me for advice, I have done an operational | :47:28. | :47:36. | |
careful, because if mistakes are careful, because if mistakes are | :47:37. | :47:39. | |
made, if things go wrong and the politics change in the future, even | :47:40. | :47:45. | |
45 years later, he could be pursued through the courts in his retirement | :47:46. | :47:49. | |
in a witchhunt, politically motivated. I don't think so. My | :47:50. | :47:56. | |
advice would be the same advice I received. If you feel your life is | :47:57. | :48:03. | |
in danger or your comrades are in danger, do not hesitate to defend | :48:04. | :48:09. | |
support former service people from support former service people from | :48:10. | :48:10. | |
this injustice because what is this injustice because what is | :48:11. | :48:14. | |
happening is a stain on the honour of our country. We are letting down | :48:15. | :48:19. | |
so badly the people who risk their lives to keep us safe. I am grateful | :48:20. | :48:29. | |
and honoured to follow the gentleman opposite. I'm going to speak about | :48:30. | :48:37. | |
three issues that have come about in relation to community casework in my | :48:38. | :48:41. | |
the issue of how hysteroscopy is the issue of how hysteroscopy is | :48:42. | :48:50. | |
conducted in the NHS and drawn to the attention of the house the | :48:51. | :48:55. | |
serious pain and distress suffered by four too many women who are not | :48:56. | :49:01. | |
and empathy they receive from and empathy they receive from | :49:02. | :49:07. | |
clinicians and the NHS. As this house will be aware, in the | :49:08. | :49:14. | |
procedure, a small camera is passed through the cervix to examine and | :49:15. | :49:21. | |
take a sample from the lining of the womb. That means cutting out | :49:22. | :49:24. | |
of the lining of the womb. It is of the lining of the womb. It is | :49:25. | :49:32. | |
useful in the diagnosis of cancer and also to investigate fertility | :49:33. | :49:36. | |
issues and perform minor operations. For most women, this is a | :49:37. | :49:42. | |
significantly uncomfortable procedure. But for a sizeable number | :49:43. | :49:49. | |
it can be unbearably painful, leading to significant blood loss, | :49:50. | :49:53. | |
loss of consciousness and hospitalisation. Some procedure is | :49:54. | :50:04. | |
are carried out as an outpatient appointment and often without any | :50:05. | :50:10. | |
kind of anaesthesia. The NHS website helpfully says you may | :50:11. | :50:11. | |
some discomfort similar to period some discomfort similar to period | :50:12. | :50:15. | |
cramps when it is carried out. It should not be painful. To say this | :50:16. | :50:24. | |
advice is misleading is something of an understatement. It is | :50:25. | :50:33. | |
unacceptably painful for some women. It is estimated up to a quarter of | :50:34. | :50:38. | |
patients have reported severe pain. I know that you will agree with me | :50:39. | :50:43. | |
this is not acceptable to presume the worst that can happen is for | :50:44. | :50:50. | |
women to experience some discomfort. The reality for women is very | :50:51. | :50:56. | |
different. All women need to be offered proper anaesthesia at the | :50:57. | :51:01. | |
appropriate moment so the sizeable minority who experience significant | :51:02. | :51:14. | |
pain can be supported. This is the third time I've raised this in | :51:15. | :51:20. | |
debate and I've decided not to read out the individual cases that have | :51:21. | :51:23. | |
been mailed to me trusting that there are stories will get action. | :51:24. | :51:31. | |
leader of the house if he will raise leader of the house if he will raise | :51:32. | :51:36. | |
the matter for me with the Department of Health and get for us | :51:37. | :51:42. | |
a statement about the issue of pain management. We need better systems | :51:43. | :51:54. | |
triage. More information on what triage. More information on what | :51:55. | :51:57. | |
might happen needs to be made available to patients beforehand, | :51:58. | :52:02. | |
accompanied by the support needed to ensure women understand the risks. | :52:03. | :52:17. | |
You're begging for the procedure to stop. Given this is the third time | :52:18. | :52:27. | |
of raising this and I've had some warm words from ministers in the | :52:28. | :52:33. | |
past, I am failing to understand what's preventing action and I | :52:34. | :52:40. | |
wonder if it is money. The cost of having anaesthetic available to | :52:41. | :52:48. | |
women. I look forward to getting a written response from the Department | :52:49. | :52:52. | |
of Health. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that possibly by | :52:53. | :52:56. | |
mid-February, because I'm not unreasonable in the main, if I don't | :52:57. | :53:06. | |
get one then I'm going to seek a further debate in this house to | :53:07. | :53:11. | |
focus on the issue because I cannot believe other members in this house | :53:12. | :53:16. | |
that this remains acceptable. The that this remains acceptable. The | :53:17. | :53:24. | |
other issue like to focus on is that a couple of months ago we had our | :53:25. | :53:29. | |
first debate on arthritis for many years and given it affects 10 | :53:30. | :53:34. | |
million people, one in six of our population, we might think it | :53:35. | :53:38. | |
deserves greater attention. In particular it is important to | :53:39. | :53:41. | |
understand the differences between parts of arthritis and how they | :53:42. | :53:44. | |
affect everyday life because too often we assume this is something | :53:45. | :53:49. | |
for the elderly. She got an arthritic condition in | :53:50. | :54:03. | |
her 20s and she was so exhausted by the condition that she was unable to | :54:04. | :54:11. | |
continue her work in law and has spent many years trying to get the | :54:12. | :54:14. | |
condition under control. She said to me it is not about having a creaky | :54:15. | :54:22. | |
knees. People do not understand how it can impact massively on | :54:23. | :54:26. | |
somebody's life. There are implications for employers and | :54:27. | :54:30. | |
carers and the government's welfare to work policy. People with | :54:31. | :54:36. | |
rheumatoid arthritis which occurs when the immune system targets | :54:37. | :54:41. | |
joints. It can be a fluctuating condition and it can make it so hard | :54:42. | :54:46. | |
for a person to sustain full-time work. When properly understood and | :54:47. | :54:50. | |
managed there is no reason why an individual cannot continue in their | :54:51. | :54:54. | |
working lives provided there is sufficient understanding and | :54:55. | :54:57. | |
flexibility not just to avoid and manage flare-ups but to accommodate | :54:58. | :55:05. | |
necessary medical appointments. One constituent has written to me to ask | :55:06. | :55:09. | |
house to consider a legal right to house to consider a legal right | :55:10. | :55:11. | |
flexible working for those with flexible working for those with | :55:12. | :55:17. | |
fluctuating health conditions. I spoke recently about my own | :55:18. | :55:25. | |
experience of arthritis and getting it under control and I would like to | :55:26. | :55:28. | |
place on record my thanks to the many constituents who got in touch | :55:29. | :55:33. | |
with their stories telling me about their similar experience. I'm | :55:34. | :55:38. | |
delighted to hear about the breakthroughs in medical science | :55:39. | :55:41. | |
that will allow others to live full lives. The UK is leading the way in | :55:42. | :55:48. | |
many potential solutions. I've read about the medical research carried | :55:49. | :55:51. | |
out in Glasgow for osteoporosis and I know that our European partners | :55:52. | :55:56. | |
are working in this area. The clinical trials are taking place in | :55:57. | :55:59. | |
the Netherlands to reverse the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis | :56:00. | :56:07. | |
through and electronic implant. My concern is some of the critical | :56:08. | :56:11. | |
research collaborations in this area will be threatened by our departure | :56:12. | :56:18. | |
from the European Union. I know that it has been discussed but I would be | :56:19. | :56:22. | |
grateful if the Shadow Minister of the house would be able to discuss | :56:23. | :56:28. | |
with whoever he needs in order to confirm the specific areas of | :56:29. | :56:35. | |
research will be protected. Finally, I'd like to mention one of the more | :56:36. | :56:41. | |
troubling cases I've received in my constituency surgery concerning a | :56:42. | :56:47. | |
British national who was the husband British national who was the husband | :56:48. | :56:50. | |
of my constituent and was killed in Pakistan on a trip to visit family. | :56:51. | :57:06. | |
He'd been celebrating Eid. Gunmen opened fire and he and the driver of | :57:07. | :57:12. | |
the vehicle were killed instantly. The third who had been sat in the | :57:13. | :57:16. | |
back of the car managed to escape by jumping into the back of the ravine | :57:17. | :57:22. | |
and was able to raise alarm. My understanding is Mr Khan, who was | :57:23. | :57:31. | |
not the intended target, which is little consolation, my constituents | :57:32. | :57:34. | |
have struggled to make sure his death is fully investigated and | :57:35. | :57:37. | |
perpetrators brought to account. perpetrators brought to account. | :57:38. | :57:38. | |
Sadly they are struggling to the Sadly they are struggling to the | :57:39. | :57:43. | |
point of being asked for money by local investigating police | :57:44. | :57:45. | |
for example to transport files and for example to transport files and | :57:46. | :57:51. | |
take statements. I've written to the Minister concerned about the case | :57:52. | :57:53. | |
and he has been really helpful in the response. My purpose in raising | :57:54. | :57:59. | |
the case today is to draw attention to the plight of the family of my | :58:00. | :58:05. | |
late constituent. I want to get a greater understanding about how the | :58:06. | :58:11. | |
government can meet the safety concerns of British national is in | :58:12. | :58:18. | |
Pakistan. Assistance is afforded to them visiting the country and | :58:19. | :58:23. | |
perhaps when he winds up, the deputy leader of the house will indicate | :58:24. | :58:26. | |
whether he might consider pushing for Parliamentary time in order to | :58:27. | :58:27. | |
discuss this subject more likely. I want to thank the House for the | :58:28. | :58:36. | |
opportunity of raising these issues today and I would like to wish you | :58:37. | :58:43. | |
and to all our colleagues and to the amazing staff of this House, who are | :58:44. | :58:46. | |
so good with us every single day, the very, very best for Christmas | :58:47. | :58:52. | |
and for the New Year. Thank you mrrks Deputy Speaker. | :58:53. | :58:57. | |
Having served in Northern Ireland during the troubles there, I have | :58:58. | :59:05. | |
been asked by my old comrades of the Cheshire Regiment to highlight an | :59:06. | :59:08. | |
inI canitiy which has been referred to by good friend the honourable | :59:09. | :59:14. | |
member for Filton and Bradley Stoke. The inI can quite is that many | :59:15. | :59:20. | |
British soldiers could be re-investigated for their actions | :59:21. | :59:25. | |
during fatal shooting incidents. Apparently, the Police Service of | :59:26. | :59:29. | |
Northern Ireland has been instructed to look at about 230 fatal shooting | :59:30. | :59:36. | |
incidents during which some 302 people died. | :59:37. | :59:44. | |
Almost all terrorists. If so, it is my understanding that about 1,000 | :59:45. | :59:50. | |
ex-soldiers could be hauled into account for their actions all those | :59:51. | :59:57. | |
years ago and they could be even charged with manslaughter and | :59:58. | :00:03. | |
murder. I'm appalled that such actions against our soldiers has | :00:04. | :00:08. | |
been taken when so many terrorists from all sides were granted full | :00:09. | :00:12. | |
pardons under the Good Friday Agreement. To me, this looks like a | :00:13. | :00:20. | |
highly political and vindictive move by Mr Barry McGrory, the Director of | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland. As I understand it, McGrory | :00:25. | :00:32. | |
was a solicitor who in the past represented provisional Sinn Fein, | :00:33. | :00:36. | |
on the run terrorist schts and it was he who negotiated an effective | :00:37. | :00:45. | |
amnesty for many of them. His background hardly suggests | :00:46. | :00:50. | |
impartiality to me. Our soldiers were trained to apply strict rules | :00:51. | :00:56. | |
of engagement. The so-called yellow card. Technically, instructions by | :00:57. | :01:02. | |
the Director of Operations for opening fire in Northern Ireland | :01:03. | :01:09. | |
were both detailed and precise. They outlined exactly when soldiers could | :01:10. | :01:15. | |
use firearms and our troops spent a long time during pre-Northern | :01:16. | :01:19. | |
Ireland training sessions being instructed on them. Opening fire in | :01:20. | :01:25. | |
Northern Ireland was considered to be a very serious matter by the | :01:26. | :01:31. | |
Army. After every shooting incident, regardless of casualties, the Army | :01:32. | :01:37. | |
and the Royal Ulster Constabulary held an investigation. When such | :01:38. | :01:42. | |
events involved casualties or fatalities there were strict | :01:43. | :01:45. | |
procedures to be followed and they were too. Normally that involves | :01:46. | :01:51. | |
soldiers having to go to court to prove they had acted within the law. | :01:52. | :01:57. | |
And the yellow card rules. In one incident where I myself played a | :01:58. | :02:04. | |
small part I recall having to tell two soldiers that having escaped | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
with their lives, by opening fire, they would nonetheless be charged | :02:10. | :02:16. | |
with manslaughter. Unsurprisingly, the two men still in some shock were | :02:17. | :02:21. | |
utterly appalled. They shouted at me. Saying they were abandoned by | :02:22. | :02:30. | |
the Army. As their superior officer, I totally understand, understood | :02:31. | :02:38. | |
their feelings and shared them. Nonetheless, the Royal Ulster | :02:39. | :02:41. | |
Constabulary informed me that the two soldiers had to be charged with | :02:42. | :02:46. | |
manslaughter. Personally, I was furious and I argued vociferously | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
that this was wrong and very unfair. Regardless, the soldiers appeared in | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
court. It was quickly proved that they had acted within the law and | :02:56. | :03:01. | |
their case was dismissed. It was difficult for me and especially the | :03:02. | :03:06. | |
soldiers at the time to understand the reason for that court | :03:07. | :03:09. | |
appearance, but it was explained to me that having had their case | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
dismissed, they could never be charged again. Perhaps if the | :03:15. | :03:24. | |
politically mat changed -- political climate changed. Guess what? It | :03:25. | :03:27. | |
seems to have done. I had difficulty seeing the logic of that at the | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
time. I can tell you. Then later, after the immediate drama was over, | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
I did. I believed the whole matter had been dealt with in court and it | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
was over forever. But maybe I was wrong. I presume my two men could be | :03:43. | :03:50. | |
among the 302 soldiers apparently under investigation by the Director | :03:51. | :03:52. | |
of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland. I don't maintain that our | :03:53. | :04:02. | |
servicemen and women are above the law, of course they're not, but | :04:03. | :04:09. | |
reopening all fatal shooting incidents against all soldiers is | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
hugely one-sided and that looks bad and that includes me and several | :04:16. | :04:24. | |
members of this House. I give way. A gallant gentleman for giving way. He | :04:25. | :04:28. | |
was a leader of the Cheshire Reasonablingment and many of my | :04:29. | :04:31. | |
constituents would have served with him in that excellent renlg: Does he | :04:32. | :04:35. | |
not agree with me that those former servicemen who served in Northern | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
Ireland and risked their lives in that respect, including my | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
constituents deserve to have that black cloud removed from them as | :04:45. | :04:49. | |
quickly as possible? I thank my good friend because he comes from Chester | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
and I commanded the Cheshire Regiment. I thank my good friend for | :04:54. | :04:58. | |
that intervention. Yes, yes, our soldiers should not be under this | :04:59. | :05:06. | |
cloud. They are not terrorists. Terrorists have been given amnesty | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
and pardons in the Good Friday Agreement. Why should our men, some | :05:11. | :05:19. | |
of them quite old now, not sleep soundly? Terrorists who have killed | :05:20. | :05:32. | |
do so. It's wrong. It's wrong. It is possibly even malicious and a huge | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
waste of public money while we are at it. Why is the Director of Public | :05:37. | :05:44. | |
Prosecutions not telling the Police Service of Northern Ireland to | :05:45. | :05:47. | |
direct its efforts into clearing up and charging so many unsolved | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
terrorist murders from the time of the troubles? Incidents involving | :05:53. | :06:01. | |
soldiers were investigated as I've explained at the time and if wrong | :06:02. | :06:08. | |
was done, our soldiers were taken to court at the time. Some even went to | :06:09. | :06:19. | |
prison. What sort of people are we that we give terrorists amnesty and | :06:20. | :06:26. | |
hound those who put their lives at risk for us? Hound those that put | :06:27. | :06:35. | |
their lives at risk for the rest of us. I demand that the legal | :06:36. | :06:40. | |
authorities in Northern Ireland desist from this clearly politically | :06:41. | :06:45. | |
inspired, blanket action against what could be almost one of | :06:46. | :06:54. | |
thousands of soldiers. They should concentrate their energies on | :06:55. | :06:58. | |
finding the unlocated remains of many innocent people massacred by | :06:59. | :07:01. | |
terrorists and bring those murderers to book. Thank you, Mr Deputy | :07:02. | :07:09. | |
Speaker. It is always a pleasure to follow the honourable gentleman. I | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
support his comments as I do the other gentleman who spoke earlier | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
on. I think everyone in this House resonates with his comments and I | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
think we all want to have those prosecutions and those | :07:23. | :07:25. | |
investigations to desist and stop from them. Can I first of all Mr | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
Deputy Speaker associate myself and my party, the DUP and offer sincere | :07:31. | :07:36. | |
sympathies to all those who have lost loved ones in the awfulness of | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
the unspeakable attack in Berlin? I think it is good that we remember at | :07:41. | :07:46. | |
this time of year those who grieve and for an attack that was so close | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
to a church as well. I would speak Mr Deputy Speaker in the short time | :07:53. | :07:58. | |
we have in making a difference, but I want to if heous on this time of | :07:59. | :08:03. | |
year. I'm one of those guys who loves Christmas. I love taking my | :08:04. | :08:07. | |
grandchildren to special church services and attending services in | :08:08. | :08:11. | |
different churches and just remembering the real reason for the | :08:12. | :08:15. | |
season. A chance to celebrate Jesus. We know in all reality 25th December | :08:16. | :08:20. | |
is not just a day when Jesus was born, but a time to focus our minds | :08:21. | :08:26. | |
on the greatest gift given to mankind, Lord Jesus. Last week I put | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
down an EDM referring to the real meaning of Christmas and many | :08:31. | :08:34. | |
members took the opportunity to sign that and endorse that comment as did | :08:35. | :08:39. | |
others who asked knee make comments on it as well. The Christmas message | :08:40. | :08:47. | |
is a celebration of Jesus who gave his life for those who would accept | :08:48. | :08:50. | |
him into his hearts. I love the celebration of his birth. It was a | :08:51. | :08:53. | |
time for faith and for family and for focus and a personal basis I | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
also want to thank the Lord Jesus for the personal faith that I have. | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
I thank God for the time that he will spend over Chris has with our | :09:03. | :09:06. | |
families, with my wife and my boys and indeed, with my mother. And | :09:07. | :09:12. | |
cherish the time to laugh and the time to be laughed at and just to be | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
in each other's company. I see it as a time where I refocus on what is | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
important and what I need to do. It is a time I think of my role and how | :09:23. | :09:27. | |
I can make a difference in my own family and my own constituency. The | :09:28. | :09:34. | |
honourable gentleman spoke about our soldiers and while we are in this | :09:35. | :09:40. | |
House, our soldiers, our Army, our RAF, naval service and the Fire | :09:41. | :09:43. | |
Service and the Ambulance Service are all doing their work for us and | :09:44. | :09:47. | |
protecting us and we want to put that on record as well. And as you | :09:48. | :09:57. | |
know freedom religious belief I speak out for them. I want to focus | :09:58. | :10:04. | |
and think for one minute and pray for those persecuted Christians | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
across world who can't worship their God as we will this Christmas and | :10:10. | :10:13. | |
think of the 100,000 Christians who will be killed for their faith. The | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
200 million who will be persecuted and the 200 million that live in an | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
endangered neighbourhood. That's are the facts of where we are. It is | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
Christmas time and we all enjoy a good Christmas movie. Many of us | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
think of It Is A Wonderful Life By James Stewart. A great film. Your | :10:32. | :10:40. | |
life affects everyone else. When I focus upon the issue of make ago | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
difference i want to focus on that. I want to quickly give an | :10:45. | :10:50. | |
illustration of it which I believe carries a lesson for us all Mr | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
Deputy Speaker. The story is told of an old man who used to go to the | :10:56. | :10:58. | |
ocean to do his writing. Early one morning he was walking along the | :10:59. | :11:02. | |
shore after a big storm passed and found the fast speech that. Often | :11:03. | :11:10. | |
the distance he noticed a small boy approaching wearing his Wellington | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
boots and carrying a bucket. As the boy walked, he paused every so often | :11:15. | :11:18. | |
as he grew closer, the man could see he was occasionally bending down to | :11:19. | :11:22. | |
pick up an object and put it into his bucket and take it into the sea. | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
The boy came closer and the man called out, "Good morning, may I ask | :11:27. | :11:33. | |
what it is you're doing?" The young boy paused and replied, "Taking | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
starfish into the ocean. The tide washed them up on to the beach and | :11:38. | :11:44. | |
they can't return. When the sun comes up, they will die." The old | :11:45. | :11:50. | |
man said there must be tens of thousands of starfish on the beach, | :11:51. | :11:54. | |
you won't be able to make a difference. The young boy turned and | :11:55. | :12:01. | |
smiled said, "Ah, yes, but I can make a difference to this one." | :12:02. | :12:05. | |
People may raise their eyebrows... I'm grateful to the honourable | :12:06. | :12:21. | |
gentleman forgiving way and for reading what is an inspiring story | :12:22. | :12:28. | |
and I would like to pay tribute to his comments on religious freedom -- | :12:29. | :12:34. | |
for giving way. I think he's making a difference to people over the | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
world and I am grateful to him. I appreciate that. People highlight | :12:39. | :12:46. | |
individual cases, because where I believe I can make a difference | :12:47. | :12:55. | |
where I can. It is a time to figure out a benefits form to someone who | :12:56. | :12:58. | |
is deserving and contact the housing is -- executive to help someone, the | :12:59. | :13:11. | |
helpful someone to get an operation and to get further up the to get | :13:12. | :13:16. | |
their examination or investigation done. There is a time to register | :13:17. | :13:25. | |
concerns over Brexit and to highlight the concerns going | :13:26. | :13:35. | |
forward. I believe we have a duty to encourage others to do what we do, | :13:36. | :13:42. | |
and in my area, there was a post on Facebook, which said, instead of | :13:43. | :13:47. | |
looking into a house where the ambulance could not come to the | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
door, the family were able to contact others to let them in, and | :13:52. | :13:59. | |
the sense of community... We can but those issues -- we can member those | :14:00. | :14:07. | |
issues. There is more need for each other to take care of each other | :14:08. | :14:10. | |
where we can and to look after our elderly relatives and help were | :14:11. | :14:15. | |
began. It takes effort and time but we will all be the beneficiaries | :14:16. | :14:23. | |
from living in a community that cares in a place where you trust | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
your neighbour. It would be great that if it carries on all year | :14:28. | :14:34. | |
round. I'm one of 115 members of this place and I'm only one of an | :14:35. | :14:40. | |
eight strong DUP team in this place, a party which I think boxes above | :14:41. | :14:48. | |
its weight, let me say. The page to keep on making differences were | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
began. -- we pledge. Doing what we can for everyone. A lovely quotation | :14:54. | :15:03. | |
from every appeal. -- Everett heel. I'm only one but I am one, I can't | :15:04. | :15:08. | |
do everything but I can do something. This is the reason and | :15:09. | :15:13. | |
this is the lesson that we can all take on board in this place, the | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
mentality of doing what we can for those, that we can help. I want to | :15:18. | :15:22. | |
put on record and thank everyone, Mr Speaker, as well, for your | :15:23. | :15:30. | |
understanding and patience, giving a us the chance to speak in this | :15:31. | :15:38. | |
House. And for understanding my ulster Scots accent and making sure | :15:39. | :15:48. | |
that we can understand each other. The leader of the House says he | :15:49. | :15:50. | |
enjoys my accent and I hope he understood it well. For those who | :15:51. | :15:56. | |
are here and to keep us safe and for the staff who are very clearly | :15:57. | :15:59. | |
writing down the words, just when you think they are getting to | :16:00. | :16:05. | |
understand you, they say, what did you say again? It is a pleasure to | :16:06. | :16:10. | |
be a member and a pleasure to be a member of this House. I want to say | :16:11. | :16:20. | |
one thing to my friend. We may not understand you sometimes. But my God | :16:21. | :16:27. | |
you have one hell of a heart and we can see it. I thank you for that | :16:28. | :16:34. | |
intervention and he knows I think equally of him and we have a mutual | :16:35. | :16:41. | |
understanding of our service in Northern Ireland in uniform and also | :16:42. | :16:46. | |
our service in this House. Can I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and | :16:47. | :16:54. | |
a happy New Year. God bless in 2017. May I also states that the | :16:55. | :17:01. | |
honourable member makes a big difference in this House and is a | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
big asset in this chamber. I fully agree with my honourable friend, the | :17:07. | :17:10. | |
member for Chipping Barnet, with everything she said about the own | :17:11. | :17:14. | |
arrest nature of the tax returns and I hope the Minister will think about | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
her proposals -- she said about the owner Russ nature. | :17:20. | :17:25. | |
I want to talk about DW assessments -- DWP. In Twickenham where I am, we | :17:26. | :17:35. | |
have good employment figures, I'm happy to say, and since 2010 the | :17:36. | :17:40. | |
unemployment figures have decreased by 34%. I am grateful for that. | :17:41. | :17:48. | |
However, what concerns me, the nature and the attitude that happens | :17:49. | :17:55. | |
in DWP assessments. Many of us in this chamber have seen the Ken Loach | :17:56. | :18:06. | |
film, I Daniel Blake and the excellent acting in that film. It is | :18:07. | :18:11. | |
a very moving film, but what is more troubling for me, the people I have | :18:12. | :18:19. | |
met in my surgery, not actors, people who have lived through the | :18:20. | :18:22. | |
kind of scenes that have been portrayed by care much. I have seen | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
people who have been treated worse than the character in I Daniel | :18:28. | :18:41. | |
Blake. My concern, which I have mentioned, if someone has a terminal | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
condition, they must not go through an assessment if they have a | :18:46. | :18:51. | |
consultant report. I value the ministers saying they do not need to | :18:52. | :18:56. | |
have repeated assessments, but for other people who undergo the DWP | :18:57. | :19:00. | |
assessment, they must be treated with dignity. And it is shameful | :19:01. | :19:09. | |
that I have met people, gentleman, older than myself, who have been | :19:10. | :19:17. | |
shamed in these assessments and who have not been given the respect they | :19:18. | :19:24. | |
deserve. I believe that what is needed, a bit like having the police | :19:25. | :19:28. | |
wearing body cameras, we need these assessments to be recorded, with the | :19:29. | :19:32. | |
agreement of the people going through, so that if there is a | :19:33. | :19:39. | |
concern summer has not been treated with respect or shamed, the | :19:40. | :19:45. | |
assessors can at least be shown why and how they have given this | :19:46. | :19:49. | |
impression to people -- someone has not been treated with respect. There | :19:50. | :19:57. | |
needs to be recording and there needs to be better accountability. | :19:58. | :20:03. | |
Nobody should feel shame going through this assessment. Having said | :20:04. | :20:08. | |
that, this is Christmas and I wish Deputy Speaker and all speakers and | :20:09. | :20:14. | |
our excellent staff and all members a very very Merry and peaceful | :20:15. | :20:22. | |
break. Thank you. Before the House adjourns I want to say a number of | :20:23. | :20:29. | |
points which I wish to raise, we want to celebrate the birth of a new | :20:30. | :20:33. | |
life as we move to Christmas, but many colleagues will be reflecting | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
on treatments, and I've been in the chamber and I've listened to our | :20:38. | :20:41. | |
comments from colleagues who have lost babies. We think of the murder | :20:42. | :20:48. | |
of our colleague Jo Cox. I agree with honourable man was that I hope | :20:49. | :20:52. | |
that record will become number one and a bit of money will be made. My | :20:53. | :20:56. | |
own mother died early this year at the age of 104 and people would say | :20:57. | :21:01. | |
she had a good innings and she lived long enough to vote in the European | :21:02. | :21:11. | |
referendum. But obviously for so many people Christmas won't be quite | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
the same. That is when I wanted to spend a little moment on Brive | :21:17. | :21:23. | |
counselling services -- bereavement. Colleagues spoke about their | :21:24. | :21:29. | |
experiences ten, 15 years ago, and this is clearly an important area. I | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
praise the all party Parliamentary group for funerals and bereaved | :21:36. | :21:41. | |
months on what they do, especially Fairhaven 's Hospice, over 13 years | :21:42. | :21:49. | |
they have carried out the wishes and have allowed people to live rather | :21:50. | :21:56. | |
than to die. They play an absolutely vital role in supporting families in | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
their greatest time of need. Their bereaved month counselling services | :22:01. | :22:06. | |
are second to need -- Brive. Bereavement. Every ?3 out of ?4 go | :22:07. | :22:17. | |
to the Hospice as I hope that somewhere in the wider world there | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
is an individual who has lots of money who might help us as want to | :22:23. | :22:26. | |
kick-start the fund for our annual Hospice. Southend Hospital has a | :22:27. | :22:33. | |
number of challenges, and I was convinced by the Essex success | :22:34. | :22:41. | |
regime that we would see manifest changes but that hasn't happened | :22:42. | :22:46. | |
yet, but I hope we can get on with it and any alterations to accident | :22:47. | :22:50. | |
and emergency services can only happen if they are clinically led. | :22:51. | :22:58. | |
Underline did to to the House Southend alternative city of culture | :22:59. | :23:03. | |
will be launched -- I'm delighted to announce to the House. Our new town | :23:04. | :23:17. | |
crier will be welcoming BC -- the year celebrations, we will be | :23:18. | :23:23. | |
celebrating food and drink, music, fashion, architecture, the Armed | :23:24. | :23:29. | |
Forces, and I'm greatly heartened by the way the local community is | :23:30. | :23:33. | |
rallying around this event. Southend will be celebrating 125 years of the | :23:34. | :23:40. | |
founding of the borough, they will be events celebrating the historic | :23:41. | :23:46. | |
milestone. Including the Festival Southend-on-Sea led by the Mayor of | :23:47. | :23:49. | |
Southend and the leader of the council. It will be a wonderful | :23:50. | :23:55. | |
occasion. Moving to the leader of the Council, John Lamb, he is | :23:56. | :23:59. | |
concerned that authorities are struggling to meet the spiralling | :24:00. | :24:08. | |
costs of adult social care. I would be grateful if my friend the debited | :24:09. | :24:15. | |
leader of the House with ask the Secretary of State to the cut | :24:16. | :24:18. | |
funding for adult social care, especially for councils such as | :24:19. | :24:23. | |
Southend stash if my friend the debited leader. -- if my friends the | :24:24. | :24:34. | |
deputy leader. Seven years was spent producing the hill -- Duke | :24:35. | :24:44. | |
-- seven years were spent reducing the Chilcott inquiry. I hope that at | :24:45. | :24:53. | |
some stage the former Prime Minister Tony Blair will be called before one | :24:54. | :24:57. | |
of the select committees to give an account on how on earth he came to | :24:58. | :25:01. | |
those decisions which were clearly wrong. As far as Iran is concerned, | :25:02. | :25:09. | |
refugees from camp liberty were successfully airlifted to Albania in | :25:10. | :25:19. | |
September and I hope that the leader of the NCR will be able to speak | :25:20. | :25:24. | |
some time in the UK. School inspections is a worry for all | :25:25. | :25:30. | |
schools and I am appalled at the local inspection that took place at | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
our wonderful school, our Lady of Lourdes. I don't know if the | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
inspector had an agenda, but how on earth the inspector team could have | :25:41. | :25:48. | |
judged this school as failing beggars belief, poor judgment, and I | :25:49. | :25:52. | |
do think school inspections generally should be revisited when a | :25:53. | :25:59. | |
new chief inspector of schools is in place. | :26:00. | :26:07. | |
He had been incurred a stand, giving infantry and life-saving training to | :26:08. | :26:17. | |
the Peshmerga -- he had been in Kurdistan. This constituent has been | :26:18. | :26:22. | |
left with no money and no support and I intend on another occasion to | :26:23. | :26:27. | |
raise it in the dedicated adjournment debate. He is a | :26:28. | :26:32. | |
constituent together with his mother, and has lost his home and | :26:33. | :26:38. | |
everything, because of a boundary dispute about offence, which was | :26:39. | :26:43. | |
four inches out of place. The law in his case was an as, perversely, and | :26:44. | :26:52. | |
it needs looking at again. We launched a public appeal in | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
Southend, of the organisation, and it is wonderful, the valuable | :26:59. | :27:01. | |
artefacts that are being rescued from the Thames Estuary. Pulse | :27:02. | :27:06. | |
fishing is an issue which has been brought to my attention by Leigh on | :27:07. | :27:13. | |
Sea fishermen and I don't think fish enjoy terribly much having these | :27:14. | :27:16. | |
pulses sent through their bodies and I do hope the minister responsible | :27:17. | :27:21. | |
for fisheries when he comes to meet myself and others will look very | :27:22. | :27:22. | |
carefully at the issue. Eastwood academy is one of the | :27:23. | :27:31. | |
outstanding. It achieved magnificent progress in all levels and the | :27:32. | :27:37. | |
academy was selected to appear in the parliamentary review 2016 for | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
its efforts at raising standards in secondary education. I was delighted | :27:42. | :27:46. | |
to support gas safety week. There have been over 20 deaths and over | :27:47. | :27:51. | |
1,000 gas-related injuries in the past three years. I recently met | :27:52. | :28:00. | |
Jesuits from the Philippines who spoke to me about the inspiring work | :28:01. | :28:08. | |
their organisation SLB, it promotes sews I do political involvement and | :28:09. | :28:12. | |
has led to relieve operation. I commend them for their work. Angela | :28:13. | :28:18. | |
rusk incelebrates 25 years of status. I met with the Chancellor | :28:19. | :28:24. | |
who briefed me on their plans for the next 25 years, and degrees aimed | :28:25. | :28:29. | |
at increasing the number of doctors and nurses to fill vacancies in the | :28:30. | :28:33. | |
NHS. Marine protection zones are very important and the UK has a | :28:34. | :28:38. | |
reputation of being a leader in the ocean conservation. I do | :28:39. | :28:44. | |
congratulate them on the issues. And ending with a very few local issues. | :28:45. | :28:51. | |
I congratulate the third generation family owned manufacturing business | :28:52. | :28:54. | |
for sustaining their operation for 50 years. I was delighted to visit | :28:55. | :28:59. | |
pride and joy classic cars in my constituency. I congratulate the | :29:00. | :29:06. | |
walker witness for climate change local activist and congratulate | :29:07. | :29:08. | |
acting ageing event which was held in my constituency, it was a | :29:09. | :29:14. | |
privilege to also visit The Prince's Trust explore enterprise programme | :29:15. | :29:16. | |
and congratulate the young people on the wonderful work which they are | :29:17. | :29:27. | |
doing. I also visited Angloco, they are doing marvellous work in | :29:28. | :29:31. | |
delivering 45 new fire engines to Essex fire and rescue and I also had | :29:32. | :29:35. | |
the opportunity to visit pinewood studios, I am still waiting for a | :29:36. | :29:41. | |
casting, but they're going to help me with the alternative city of | :29:42. | :29:47. | |
culture. I finally had very good visits to the Philippines where one | :29:48. | :29:51. | |
of our colleagues took us to Smokey mountain. A humbling experience and | :29:52. | :29:57. | |
the Dominican Republic, who are very, very keen on doing further | :29:58. | :30:03. | |
trade with us. So, Brexit does mean Brexit and I hope that we will all | :30:04. | :30:10. | |
make a success of it. I wish the three deputies, all parliamentary | :30:11. | :30:13. | |
colleagues and everyone who works in the House of Commons a very happy | :30:14. | :30:16. | |
Christmas, good health and a wonderful new year. | :30:17. | :30:25. | |
Thank you. It's always a pleasure to follow my friend the honourable | :30:26. | :30:31. | |
member for Southend who represents probably arguably the second best | :30:32. | :30:36. | |
seaside resort on the east coast. Before I move on to the more mundane | :30:37. | :30:43. | |
issues by comparison to others spoken about, could I say how much I | :30:44. | :30:49. | |
agree with the comments made by the member for Beckenham. I think he | :30:50. | :30:54. | |
spoke for the feelings of the whole House on that particular matter. | :30:55. | :31:00. | |
Also the member from Strangford who reminded us of the real message of | :31:01. | :31:07. | |
Christmas, like many members I have attended a number of services of | :31:08. | :31:12. | |
nine lessons and Carols over the last couple of weeks and it includes | :31:13. | :31:17. | |
the opening passages from St John's gospel and something that I always | :31:18. | :31:21. | |
found profound is how Jesus came into the world, but the world knew | :31:22. | :31:31. | |
him not. It's often the case that we reflect on the more perverted | :31:32. | :31:37. | |
religious happenings in the news and we should remember the true meaning | :31:38. | :31:42. | |
and also the fact that faith is the driving force for so much good that | :31:43. | :31:49. | |
happens in the world and I commend the honourable member for that. I | :31:50. | :31:55. | |
want to reflect on some more mundane issues that affect my constituency | :31:56. | :32:00. | |
and highlight some of the changes and challenges facing it. In doing | :32:01. | :32:04. | |
so I am mindful I don't want to give the impression that I am here just | :32:05. | :32:07. | |
to put a begging bowl out to the Government for more money for this, | :32:08. | :32:11. | |
that and the other, of course it would be very welcome, the resort of | :32:12. | :32:17. | |
Cleethorpes has responded to the changing situation and it has on | :32:18. | :32:21. | |
offer I would argue that is unsurpassed amongst resorts on the | :32:22. | :32:25. | |
east coast. Only last week one of the three finalists in the British | :32:26. | :32:32. | |
high street awards was with the traders from Seaview Street in | :32:33. | :32:38. | |
Cleethorpes and that shows how dedicated small independent | :32:39. | :32:42. | |
retailers can be. Of course, my honourable friend from Southend | :32:43. | :32:46. | |
talked about the longest pier, we of course have the Pier of the Year. A | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
prize which was certainly not going to be giving up easily to Southend, | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
however cultured it may or may not be. My constituency also contains | :32:57. | :33:04. | |
the largest port complex in the country and has a rich rural | :33:05. | :33:10. | |
hinterland stretching north to the southern end of the Humber bridge. | :33:11. | :33:14. | |
So much for the advantages and how are we going to meet the challenges. | :33:15. | :33:19. | |
Regeneration is an essential ingredients of lifting morale and in | :33:20. | :33:23. | |
north-east Lincolnshire the council area we have put together a team | :33:24. | :33:27. | |
made up of the council leader, chief executive, myself and a number of | :33:28. | :33:30. | |
private sector partners who are putting together plans that I am | :33:31. | :33:35. | |
sure will attract private sector investors. That will need some | :33:36. | :33:39. | |
Government support. I discussed this with a number of ministers in recent | :33:40. | :33:45. | |
weeks and we do hope to receive that support when plans are finalised. | :33:46. | :33:51. | |
This is not just a begging bowl but a genuine attempt to inject | :33:52. | :33:53. | |
investment into the area. Cleethorpes has done incredibly well | :33:54. | :34:05. | |
as I presentationed. Can I draw attention to local Government | :34:06. | :34:09. | |
funding. I recognise that local Government was bloated and to some | :34:10. | :34:14. | |
extent inefficient. I spent 26 years as a local councillor. I have seen | :34:15. | :34:20. | |
many of its failings. But I think the Government do need to recognise | :34:21. | :34:24. | |
that council budgets can only be cut so far and I am not here referring | :34:25. | :34:30. | |
to adult social care, important though that is, but many of the | :34:31. | :34:34. | |
things that make our lives that little bit better, the libraries, | :34:35. | :34:44. | |
the parks, gardens, and so on, are actually being cut to the bone in | :34:45. | :34:48. | |
many respects. There is little things that do improve the quality | :34:49. | :34:53. | |
of life. We need those and we do enjoy them. I would urge the | :34:54. | :35:00. | |
Government to recognise that as we try and come to terms with balancing | :35:01. | :35:06. | |
the country's finances. House something rightly a priority for the | :35:07. | :35:09. | |
Government and they've introduced many new and innovative schemes but | :35:10. | :35:13. | |
too many homes are being built on green field sites. The main entrance | :35:14. | :35:19. | |
to a town like Cleethorpes could be greatly enhanced by investment in | :35:20. | :35:24. | |
what due to a change in shopping habits, redundant retail units being | :35:25. | :35:30. | |
given new life, it's a main arterial route into the resort and investment | :35:31. | :35:35. | |
in an area like that is very worthwhile. While on the subject of | :35:36. | :35:42. | |
housing, I note the section in the community Secretary's financial | :35:43. | :35:45. | |
statement last Thursday saying that consultation would be held on | :35:46. | :35:49. | |
whether or not to withhold new homes bonus payments from developments | :35:50. | :35:53. | |
that were granted only after appeal. I can give my response to that | :35:54. | :36:00. | |
consultation now. Forget it. Local democracy is important. The | :36:01. | :36:04. | |
Government has done a lot to bring about localism and this is something | :36:05. | :36:09. | |
that goes completely against that. I would really urge them to think | :36:10. | :36:14. | |
again and abandon even the consultation. Transport connections | :36:15. | :36:19. | |
are of course vitally important to any local economy and my | :36:20. | :36:26. | |
constituency is no exception. It's moderately well served by road, the | :36:27. | :36:34. | |
A180 and M1 link provides access to the national motorway network. There | :36:35. | :36:38. | |
is room for improvement and the A180 itself has stretches of the old | :36:39. | :36:47. | |
concrete surface which is extremely annoying to my constituents living | :36:48. | :36:52. | |
in some villages, it causes an unacceptable level of noise. I | :36:53. | :37:00. | |
welcome the almost complete ?100 million plus A160 upgrade that will | :37:01. | :37:04. | |
access access to the port. But the next part of the jigsaw, the network | :37:05. | :37:11. | |
of roads that give access to the ports is the A15 between Lincoln and | :37:12. | :37:17. | |
where it joins the A180 close to Scunthorpe is extremely dangerous | :37:18. | :37:20. | |
single carriageway road and it urgently needs dualing. I recognise | :37:21. | :37:24. | |
that it's a local road and therefore all the Government could get out of | :37:25. | :37:28. | |
saying it's nothing to do with us, guv. But the reality is it is an | :37:29. | :37:37. | |
important access to the Humber ports, that's a strategic Government | :37:38. | :37:40. | |
policy and therefore I think the Government do need to give some | :37:41. | :37:46. | |
consideration to that. Turning to rail services, and it's yet another | :37:47. | :37:52. | |
opportunity for me to highlight the urgent need for a direct rail | :37:53. | :37:56. | |
service between Grimsby and Cleethorpes and London King's Cross. | :37:57. | :38:01. | |
Businesses in the area regard it as vital. At every meeting I and | :38:02. | :38:05. | |
neighbouring MPs attend this issue is brought up. Immingham is the | :38:06. | :38:11. | |
largest port in the country, 25% of the rail freight in the country | :38:12. | :38:16. | |
comes and goes to Immingham but passengers can't. The area does need | :38:17. | :38:23. | |
that. The office of rail and road recently considered an application | :38:24. | :38:27. | |
from great north eastern, an open access operator, who wanted to | :38:28. | :38:31. | |
provide those services but because it was linked to additional services | :38:32. | :38:35. | |
into Yorkshire they had to reject it because they have to protect virgin | :38:36. | :38:40. | |
east coast market share. Now I can recognise how important that is from | :38:41. | :38:44. | |
the Treasury's point of view, they pay an enormous amount of money for | :38:45. | :38:47. | |
the privilege of running those trains but I would genuinely ask is | :38:48. | :38:51. | |
that actually more to do with the interests of the company and the | :38:52. | :38:56. | |
Treasury rather than the interests of the passengers? On regeneration, | :38:57. | :39:04. | |
I do myself chair the regeneration committee for Barton on Humber, | :39:05. | :39:09. | |
that's in the north Lincolnshire council part of my constituency and | :39:10. | :39:16. | |
I must congratulate the deputy leader of north Lincolnshire council | :39:17. | :39:20. | |
who sits alongside me at those meetings and does actually deliver | :39:21. | :39:27. | |
some of the minor improvements to the town which are essential and I | :39:28. | :39:32. | |
know that somewhat goes against what I was saying earlier but I question | :39:33. | :39:36. | |
how long even a well-run council such as north Lincolnshire will be | :39:37. | :39:41. | |
able to maintain those schemes. Turning to the rural areas I would | :39:42. | :39:46. | |
remind the House that the rural economy is not just about | :39:47. | :39:50. | |
agriculture but other rural pursuits and it's important that we recognise | :39:51. | :39:56. | |
that conservation does come naturally to those who work in the | :39:57. | :40:02. | |
countryside. Finally, can I just reflect on the education performance | :40:03. | :40:08. | |
in our area. Like many coastal communities we do have many high | :40:09. | :40:17. | |
performing schools but we also have overall poor standards. The argument | :40:18. | :40:22. | |
about selection is one that's going to run and run as it has for the | :40:23. | :40:29. | |
last 30-odd years. My own view is that if selection can provide young | :40:30. | :40:36. | |
people with more choice within the schools in the area, that actually | :40:37. | :40:41. | |
provide for them and we should focus on the areas where resorts demand | :40:42. | :40:46. | |
change. Grammar schools can be a force for good and for some it's an | :40:47. | :40:50. | |
opportunity that we should not deny them. In my own local area I would | :40:51. | :41:00. | |
also argue that bilaterial schools that are part-selected have a role | :41:01. | :41:08. | |
to play. I think I will conclude there, merely by following on from | :41:09. | :41:11. | |
the honourable member for Southend who spoke about Brexit. 70% of my | :41:12. | :41:18. | |
constituents voted for Brexit. I believe they were the right to do | :41:19. | :41:24. | |
so. I believe it will give our country more opportunities and in | :41:25. | :41:30. | |
our own particular area the common fisheries policy has long been a | :41:31. | :41:34. | |
cause for concern. Could I urge the Government as I have done on | :41:35. | :41:37. | |
previous occasions not to forget the fishing industry. It was forgotten | :41:38. | :41:42. | |
in those original negotiations in the 1970s. At a time when up to 600 | :41:43. | :41:50. | |
deep sea trawlers at one time sailed out of Grimsby, providing thousands | :41:51. | :41:54. | |
of jobs to the Grimsby and Cleethorpes area, that's now down to | :41:55. | :41:58. | |
a handful of near water boats but there are still great opportunities | :41:59. | :42:02. | |
for those in the fishing industry and for the food and fish processing | :42:03. | :42:08. | |
industry that are absolutely vital to the Cleethorpes constituency. | :42:09. | :42:11. | |
With that I conclude by wishing you and all members and staff a happy | :42:12. | :42:14. | |
Christmas and a peaceful new year. Thank you. | :42:15. | :42:19. | |
James Berry. I start by thanking the work of all the emergency services | :42:20. | :42:27. | |
over the Christmas period, especially those who will be working | :42:28. | :42:32. | |
while we are enjoying time with our families, and since I propose to | :42:33. | :42:35. | |
speak on home affairs I pay tribute to the police. I was out on a walk | :42:36. | :42:41. | |
the Met session just last week and saw the excellent work they do for | :42:42. | :42:47. | |
us everyday. Kingston is the safest borough in London and I want to | :42:48. | :42:52. | |
thank Chief Superintendent who retires as the Kingston, borough | :42:53. | :43:01. | |
commander very soon. There was a campaign for more police officers in | :43:02. | :43:04. | |
Kingston town centre and ended with a campaign for more automatic number | :43:05. | :43:12. | |
plate recognition is on the 83 corridor, both of which is | :43:13. | :43:16. | |
delivering. I want to talk about a national problem for the police, the | :43:17. | :43:26. | |
rise of hate speech and extremism online, and I will refer to Twitter | :43:27. | :43:29. | |
and Facebook because they are the most famous social networks, and not | :43:30. | :43:36. | |
the only ones. Social media has revolutionised the way we | :43:37. | :43:38. | |
communicate and receive news and information and the way companies | :43:39. | :43:44. | |
advertise and undoubtedly it can be used as a force for good but social | :43:45. | :43:50. | |
media platforms are being abused by those who wish to do people greater | :43:51. | :43:58. | |
harm. These social media platforms are not established and maintained | :43:59. | :44:02. | |
out of a sense of altruism, but they are designed to make money for their | :44:03. | :44:10. | |
zone -- their owners, and the revenues from Facebook in particular | :44:11. | :44:13. | |
are enormous, although I don't criticise them for that. In less | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
than one minute any member of this House with a iPhone would be able to | :44:18. | :44:27. | |
find copious amounts of hate speech, racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, | :44:28. | :44:33. | |
many types of discrimination, and language which is downright abusive | :44:34. | :44:36. | |
and would not survive our criminal law. In the home affairs let | :44:37. | :44:45. | |
committees recent report we outlined how our Jewish colleague received | :44:46. | :44:50. | |
2500 abusive tweets over the course of a few days using the hashtag... | :44:51. | :45:06. | |
Using that hashtag is offensive, abusive and racist, but if you | :45:07. | :45:09. | |
search for the hashtag now as I did a few moments ago, you will find it | :45:10. | :45:15. | |
still on Twitter, not from two hours ago, but from two years ago. I say | :45:16. | :45:22. | |
that is a disgrace and especially a disgrace after the matter has been | :45:23. | :45:27. | |
raised by a committee of this House. Although hate speech makes up a very | :45:28. | :45:30. | |
small proportion of the overall traffic on social media, when we | :45:31. | :45:38. | |
live our lives more and more online, and this speech exists online in a | :45:39. | :45:43. | |
way it doesn't in the street and the way in which we speak to one | :45:44. | :45:48. | |
another, there's a risk it becomes normalised and it gives a licence to | :45:49. | :45:54. | |
others to repeat it and to do worse. I turned to the other issue which is | :45:55. | :46:00. | |
extremism. It doesn't stop hate speech, just as social media is used | :46:01. | :46:04. | |
by people who want to advertise holidays and beauty products, is | :46:05. | :46:08. | |
also used by those who want to advertise terrorism. It is knowing | :46:09. | :46:15. | |
said duration to say that -- it is no is a duration -- it is no | :46:16. | :46:23. | |
exaggeration to say that Daesh has run the greatest PR campaign since | :46:24. | :46:36. | |
Goebbels with the Nazis. It is a barbarous medieval regime. It has | :46:37. | :46:41. | |
committed atrocities like we have seen in France and what we appear to | :46:42. | :46:47. | |
have seen in Berlin, but I would not blame all of this on social media, | :46:48. | :46:50. | |
but I am going to say that young people in Britain are being | :46:51. | :46:54. | |
radicalised in their bedrooms and the gateway to much of the radical | :46:55. | :46:59. | |
material online is the common social media platforms like Twitter and | :47:00. | :47:04. | |
Facebook, and in addition to being a Condo it there which extremists are | :47:05. | :47:06. | |
being recruited -- Condo it. We have social media platforms being | :47:07. | :47:18. | |
used by millions of people, every minute of every day, being used or | :47:19. | :47:23. | |
abused by people who want to peddle extremism and hate. What do social | :47:24. | :47:30. | |
media companies do about this? The answer is far too little and I've | :47:31. | :47:34. | |
not heard one member of this House demur from that proposition. I'm not | :47:35. | :47:41. | |
sure that we as a society should accept the proposition that | :47:42. | :47:45. | |
organisations like social media companies can create something to | :47:46. | :47:51. | |
make money that has the potential to do or at least facilitate harm, but | :47:52. | :47:55. | |
it would be unreasonable to expect them to do more to prevent that | :47:56. | :47:59. | |
harm. I would say the polluter should pay. Who is left to pick up | :48:00. | :48:05. | |
the pieces? The police with the Home Affairs Select Committee, and the | :48:06. | :48:11. | |
member for Leicester East, we went to Scotland Yard, to see they unit, | :48:12. | :48:18. | |
dozens of officers who went through social networking sites to flag up | :48:19. | :48:22. | |
this material and not really for any law enforcement purpose. They are | :48:23. | :48:26. | |
not there to apply for a court order, but they are merely telling | :48:27. | :48:32. | |
Twitter that this violates their own in-house terms of use and often to | :48:33. | :48:36. | |
their credit Twitter will remove the material. Why should the police have | :48:37. | :48:43. | |
to do it? In the hay there is a similar unit for non-English | :48:44. | :48:48. | |
language material. -- in the Hague. Why should my constituents have to | :48:49. | :48:52. | |
have their taxes used to fund our police to do the work that social | :48:53. | :48:55. | |
media companies should be doing themselves? By father passed away | :48:56. | :49:00. | |
three years ago this week and he was fond of quoting Margaret Thatcher -- | :49:01. | :49:06. | |
my father. She did not like people coming to her with problems without | :49:07. | :49:10. | |
coming to her with a solution. So I will present three solutions. The | :49:11. | :49:16. | |
first is to consider legislation, the most straightforward approach | :49:17. | :49:19. | |
will be to make social media companies liable for what they are | :49:20. | :49:24. | |
now or enabled to be published on their platforms, and father reasons | :49:25. | :49:26. | |
including libel and copyright law, this would be devastating the social | :49:27. | :49:31. | |
media companies, they do not want it to happen -- and for other reasons. | :49:32. | :49:36. | |
In Germany last week it was announced by the government they | :49:37. | :49:39. | |
would consider legislation for fines of up to half a million Euros if | :49:40. | :49:46. | |
social media companies failed to remove hate speech breaching German | :49:47. | :49:52. | |
laws within 24 hours, so our friends in Europe are considering | :49:53. | :49:56. | |
legislation. The second option is to encourage social action, social | :49:57. | :50:02. | |
media companies rely on people being members of them to see the | :50:03. | :50:05. | |
advertising they make money from, so if we voted with our feet the | :50:06. | :50:09. | |
companies would not be able to survive and if we made it clear as | :50:10. | :50:15. | |
users of social media companies as almost all of us are, that we are | :50:16. | :50:19. | |
not going to stand for eight speech and extremism, that would send a | :50:20. | :50:24. | |
very clear message. -- hate speech. The third option which I favour, | :50:25. | :50:28. | |
that social networking companies, social media companies, get their | :50:29. | :50:32. | |
own house in order and take responsibility and for once show | :50:33. | :50:38. | |
some real leadership. Social media companies could establish or at | :50:39. | :50:43. | |
least fund a not-for-profit organisation which employs people to | :50:44. | :50:47. | |
identify and remove offending posts, that uses their technological | :50:48. | :50:51. | |
brilliance to be able to filter out this material for manual checking | :50:52. | :50:56. | |
and which has police officers paid for by this organisation to gather | :50:57. | :50:59. | |
intelligence and to progress any cases that need legal input. There | :51:00. | :51:06. | |
is a model for this in the national centre for missing exploited | :51:07. | :51:09. | |
children which I had the fortune to visit in Washington, DC, | :51:10. | :51:14. | |
not-for-profit organisation funded by the technology centre and in | :51:15. | :51:19. | |
large part by Facebook and Google to tackle amongst other things online | :51:20. | :51:24. | |
child exploitation. Why can that not apply to hate speech online? I | :51:25. | :51:31. | |
suggest social media companies go away for Christmas and comeback in | :51:32. | :51:34. | |
the New Year with a proper proposal for an organisation of this kind so | :51:35. | :51:40. | |
they can tackle online extremism and hate speech and if they'd do so they | :51:41. | :51:45. | |
will know that they should expect to be scrutinised -- and if they do not | :51:46. | :51:51. | |
do so. And they will be concerted calls for legislation to make them | :51:52. | :51:56. | |
do so in 2017. On that note, Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Mr | :51:57. | :52:04. | |
Keith Vaz. It is a pleasure to follow the honourable man before | :52:05. | :52:12. | |
Kingston who gave an excellent speech and he's right you have | :52:13. | :52:15. | |
raised the which are occurring on the internet to do with extremism | :52:16. | :52:21. | |
and hate crime -- he's right to have raised. I was feeding my own debate | :52:22. | :52:29. | |
on the tragic death of the 15-year-old boy who committed | :52:30. | :52:34. | |
suicide because of the bullying he had experienced on the internet, the | :52:35. | :52:39. | |
cyber bullying that occurred, and I'm glad his parents are in the | :52:40. | :52:46. | |
chamber today as they were only in Westminster Hall. -- I was leading | :52:47. | :52:52. | |
my own debate. There have been a succession of reports by the Home | :52:53. | :52:56. | |
Affairs Select Committee and one of those co-authored by the deputy | :52:57. | :52:59. | |
leader of the House who has been promoted since. To his August | :53:00. | :53:06. | |
position. The tragedy, it is not followed up, there's always an | :53:07. | :53:11. | |
excuse given. His example of an organisation that is funded by these | :53:12. | :53:16. | |
companies and therefore able to monitor in a professional way what | :53:17. | :53:19. | |
is going on rather than people ringing up and try to find who in | :53:20. | :53:23. | |
California they should speak to in order to get something off the net | :53:24. | :53:26. | |
is a very good one and rather than serving the Home Affairs Select | :53:27. | :53:29. | |
Committee he should be giving evidence to it on this important | :53:30. | :53:33. | |
point and I hope he will put that forward to the committee when they | :53:34. | :53:38. | |
next meet. I want to raise a few of my passions at this traditional | :53:39. | :53:44. | |
debate, in a few moments, that I have to speak. I'm glad to see the | :53:45. | :53:52. | |
parents here of Brandon, and I hope this debate will lead to them being | :53:53. | :54:01. | |
able to pursue their important campaign on cyber bullying which | :54:02. | :54:03. | |
they launched a couple of weeks ago and that they will continue, when | :54:04. | :54:10. | |
you lose a child of 15 and some of us are parents in this House, and it | :54:11. | :54:14. | |
must be an unspeakable tragedy for them. This campaign will give hope | :54:15. | :54:21. | |
to other families who are on a similar position. The member for | :54:22. | :54:28. | |
Kingston and Surbiton mentioned the support for his local police service | :54:29. | :54:32. | |
and I hope that when the deputy leader comes to reply he will give | :54:33. | :54:37. | |
us good news about one issue which concerns me which is the failure of | :54:38. | :54:40. | |
the government to announce the police funding formula for not just | :54:41. | :54:46. | |
Leicestershire Constabulary and police services throughout the | :54:47. | :54:50. | |
country. The former policing minister said the review had been | :54:51. | :54:56. | |
paused until the national police chief counsel 's had completed their | :54:57. | :55:05. | |
investigation into the capabilities that they had as far as policing is | :55:06. | :55:12. | |
concerned. Sarah Thornton is the chair of the Council and she has | :55:13. | :55:14. | |
said there's nothing to stop the review proceeding. It will be good | :55:15. | :55:24. | |
to know when Constabulary is like Leicestershire and Kingston, and | :55:25. | :55:30. | |
indeed in Northern Ireland, although you might have a different formula, | :55:31. | :55:35. | |
that we are able to know precisely how much money the police have got | :55:36. | :55:41. | |
to spend in future. As is my custom, I want to mention diabetes again. I | :55:42. | :55:48. | |
would be missing this opportunity if I didn't, and there is a time of the | :55:49. | :55:56. | |
year when people eat a lot of sugar and mince pies and cakes and things | :55:57. | :56:07. | |
of that kind, as I have just done. I will compensate for that very | :56:08. | :56:13. | |
shortly. LAUGHTER It is important to look at the | :56:14. | :56:17. | |
variations of care in diabetes, UK diabetes published a very | :56:18. | :56:20. | |
interesting report with the all-party group which I'm very | :56:21. | :56:25. | |
honoured to check, launched by the Health Secretary, where we pointed | :56:26. | :56:30. | |
out that in certain parts of the country you can get structured | :56:31. | :56:32. | |
education and care but in other parts you are not. When I was | :56:33. | :56:38. | |
diagnosed with type two diabetes, if I were sent instead of the pharmacy, | :56:39. | :56:44. | |
to get my other tablets, I was sent to the gym, and maybe that would | :56:45. | :56:50. | |
have prevented the onset, which would have, eventually, because my | :56:51. | :56:55. | |
mother had diabetes, but it would have prevented out a bit longer | :56:56. | :56:59. | |
diabetes taking hold of my system. -- which would have come eventually. | :57:00. | :57:03. | |
We need to save in the long-term by spending more money now and that | :57:04. | :57:05. | |
through structured education. A number of my constituents will be | :57:06. | :57:15. | |
helding off to India because the Indian Government has decided to | :57:16. | :57:20. | |
recall the 1,000 rupee note which is about ?10 and the 5500 note as part | :57:21. | :57:24. | |
of a campaign to route out corruption in India. However, a | :57:25. | :57:30. | |
number of British Indians came back with rupees when they were last | :57:31. | :57:33. | |
visiting the country, I don't know about members of the House but when | :57:34. | :57:36. | |
you go abroad you change your money and sometimes you bring it back with | :57:37. | :57:40. | |
you. A lot of my constituents and indeed other members of the British | :57:41. | :57:49. | |
Indian community are in a position where they are having to change | :57:50. | :57:55. | |
their money by the 31st December, so a lot have decided to go back in | :57:56. | :57:59. | |
order to bag their money quickly before it ceases to be legal tender, | :58:00. | :58:04. | |
it's as if we have gone abroad with ?20 notes and suddenly the British | :58:05. | :58:08. | |
Government announcing ?20 are no longer legal tender, please come | :58:09. | :58:13. | |
back and bank them before 31st December. I wrote to the Governor of | :58:14. | :58:16. | |
the Bank of England, he wrote back to me and told me he was happy if | :58:17. | :58:22. | |
the Indian Government agreed that the rupees could be banked in an ind | :58:23. | :58:27. | |
yant bank in the United Kingdom to save British Indian constituents and | :58:28. | :58:30. | |
others having to go all the way back to India. A lot of cricket | :58:31. | :58:33. | |
supporters have gone to India for the cricket match, they've changed | :58:34. | :58:38. | |
their pounds into rupees, they can't change them back as it's going to | :58:39. | :58:42. | |
cease to be legal tender. This is a good way of proceeding. I wonder if | :58:43. | :58:49. | |
the deputy leader could speak to the Foreign Secretary, I did write to | :58:50. | :58:52. | |
him sometime ago suggesting to the Government that perhaps they could | :58:53. | :58:57. | |
contact the Indian Government and allow these coins and notes to be | :58:58. | :59:03. | |
banked in banks in the United Kingdom. I have eight Indian banks | :59:04. | :59:08. | |
in Leicester east, I am sure in Northampton north he may have one or | :59:09. | :59:11. | |
two but this is an opportunity to save a lot of money for people | :59:12. | :59:15. | |
having to go all the way over there to put their money in the bank. Two | :59:16. | :59:22. | |
final points, one of course about Yemen, the tragedy in Syria, the | :59:23. | :59:29. | |
tragedies that have occurred in Berlin, the assassination in Turkey | :59:30. | :59:34. | |
are terrible, terrible events which I think shocked the whole world but | :59:35. | :59:41. | |
the situation in Yemen has now been ongoing for 15 months. You kiently | :59:42. | :59:46. | |
granted an urgent question last week when we looked at the situation in | :59:47. | :59:52. | |
Yemen. The situation is not improving. The basic foods are not | :59:53. | :59:57. | |
available as I said to the Prime Minister when she came back from the | :59:58. | :00:02. | |
European Council on Monday and gave her statement. Citizens are eating | :00:03. | :00:08. | |
grass and drinking sea water. The ports are closed. The airport is | :00:09. | :00:15. | |
closed. So wheat cannot be brought into Yemen and without wheat people | :00:16. | :00:20. | |
are not going to be able to survive. It's not a lack of aid. Again I want | :00:21. | :00:27. | |
to thank you, MrSpeaker, you came to Yemen Day last week where we met | :00:28. | :00:31. | |
with aid agencies there, together with the Minister of State for the | :00:32. | :00:34. | |
department of international development and the Foreign Office | :00:35. | :00:39. | |
Minister, we heard from the UN deputy Secretary General. The fact | :00:40. | :00:45. | |
is unless you open the ports and the airport you can't get humanitarian | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
aid in. The disaster appeal launched last week by the joint committee on | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
emergencies on the BBC has raised a lot of money but there's no point in | :00:57. | :01:01. | |
having the money, it has to be spent on the people in Yemen and other | :01:02. | :01:08. | |
parts of that country and I hope very much that we will pursue the | :01:09. | :01:16. | |
cause of a ceasefire. MrSpeaker, finally, let me say I will remember | :01:17. | :01:20. | |
2016 as a good year, there are lots of reasons why I might not remember | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
it as a particularly riveting year, but one I will and that is the | :01:25. | :01:33. | |
victory of Leicester City football club as the English champions and | :01:34. | :01:39. | |
this is one of those great events. I am not going to say that will never | :01:40. | :01:43. | |
happen again because we know what happened to Gary Lineker and full | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
marks to him for wearing his underwear as he promised to do when | :01:48. | :01:55. | |
he lost his bet with the nation. My honourable friend the member from | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
Strangford is a Leicester City supporter. He is a Foxes supporter | :01:59. | :02:07. | |
and every time I go to a match at Kingpower stadium I bring him back a | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
programme and people wonder why am I taking two programmes, I always say | :02:12. | :02:14. | |
it's for him, so he has a collection if not better than mine. There are a | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
number of other members of the House who support Leicester City football | :02:19. | :02:21. | |
club, this was our year. A fantastic year. That's why I was so pleased | :02:22. | :02:28. | |
that MrRanieri only on Sunday was named as the coach of the year and | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
Leicester City football club was the team of the year. So this 2016 is an | :02:33. | :02:39. | |
historic year for us, a letter that we will never, ever forget. -- a | :02:40. | :02:46. | |
year that we will never, ever forget and probably never repeat. | :02:47. | :02:49. | |
Arsenal... I was going to say something about Arsenal. Because the | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
Speaker is a great supporter of Arsenal. Every time what unites us | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
is of course we don't really want to see Chelsea win the league, I don't | :03:00. | :03:03. | |
think. I think it's Arsenal's turn. Every time we see Arsenal getting to | :03:04. | :03:08. | |
the top of the Premier League something goes wrong. This year we | :03:09. | :03:16. | |
keep our fingers crossed, not just for MrSpeaker but for young Oliver | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
who can repeat the team backwards and forwards at a blink of an eye. | :03:21. | :03:26. | |
We would like to share it, of course we could carry on winning the | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
Premier League, but it's only fair we should give it to another team. | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
Of course we are in the Champions League and I will this week be | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
placing my bet on Leicester winning the Champions League because I am | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
quite hopeful that we will proceed and that's what 2017 will be all | :03:46. | :03:50. | |
about for me. Can I end by wishing you, Mr Speaker, the staff of the | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
House, the deputy leader, ministers, fellow colleagues, on all sides of | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
the House, a very happy Christmas. There was an old tradition, I | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
understand, I wonder if - whoever wound up the debate for the | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
Government always ensured that every member still in the House when the | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
House rose for the Christmas recess would get a mince pie. I don't know | :04:13. | :04:19. | |
whether you have heard of that particular story but one of the | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
door-keepers mentioned it to me so I am very much looking forward to | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
visiting the rooms of the deputy leader of the House and getting the | :04:27. | :04:32. | |
mince pie at the end but let's hope we get a great new 2017 where all | :04:33. | :04:38. | |
our ambitions and our dreams can be fulfilled. Thank you very much, Mr | :04:39. | :04:45. | |
Speaker. It's a pleasure to follow the right honourable gentleman, | :04:46. | :04:49. | |
although I speak as an Arsenal supporter like you, Mr Speaker, but | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
congratulate Leicester City on their fine achievement this year. At the | :04:55. | :04:57. | |
beginning of last week I was with the parliament choir in Berlin and | :04:58. | :05:08. | |
it was a great honour to sing in the building of the Bundestag and it's | :05:09. | :05:13. | |
with great sadness we hear of this terrible event last night and I know | :05:14. | :05:18. | |
my honourable friend was there with a committee and will wish to pass on | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
condolences to the people of Germany. Stafford this year has seen | :05:23. | :05:30. | |
some great developments, economically, General Electric that | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
took over one business in Stafford and other places have almost | :05:35. | :05:41. | |
completed the construction of their first new factory which contains | :05:42. | :05:45. | |
autoation and after the referendum they decided to go ahead with the | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
construction of their second new factory in Stafford on the Redhill | :05:50. | :05:56. | |
business park which deals with high voltage direct current business in | :05:57. | :06:00. | |
which Stafford is a world leader and I very much welcome that. I also | :06:01. | :06:06. | |
very much welcome the investment by a Chinese institution into the | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
Stafford, former university campus which they vacated to go to | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
Stoke-on-Trent earlier this year. A new university will be established | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
in Stafford alongside an international school and I very much | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
welcome that, the continuance of higher education in Stafford which | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
is also continued through the medical school and Staffordshire | :06:32. | :06:33. | |
University who maintain another campus in the town. It was also | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
announced this year that the Ministry of Defence would further | :06:39. | :06:45. | |
expand their site in Stafford to welcome more servicemen and women in | :06:46. | :06:48. | |
the coming years and I very much welcome that. Stafford has a great | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
tradition of hosting the Armed Forces, both the RAF and the Army | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
and the arrival last year of two new regiments, one signals and 16 | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
signals to join 22 signals, has made a great and positive difference to | :07:04. | :07:10. | |
our town. We are also seeing the expansion of our IT sector in | :07:11. | :07:14. | |
Stafford and indeed of a lot of other small and medium businesses | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
and I want to pay particular tribute to small and medium businesses now | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
at Christmas time because these are the people who year in, year out | :07:23. | :07:29. | |
often work 60, 70, 80 hours a week, running businesses, employing | :07:30. | :07:31. | |
people, paying their taxes, they don't get much sung about, they | :07:32. | :07:35. | |
often have to deal with a lot of hassle but they get on with the job | :07:36. | :07:44. | |
of providing jobs and of keeping this country going to a large | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
extent, jobs are created and sustained through the small and | :07:49. | :07:50. | |
medium businesses in all our constituencies. I want to say a | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
little bit about the sustainability and transformation programme for | :07:56. | :07:57. | |
Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire. I have already raised this in the | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
House on a couple of occasions. I want to say that I approach this in | :08:03. | :08:08. | |
a positive spirit. We do need a transformation of our care. There | :08:09. | :08:13. | |
are many good ideas in it. I do wish that the programme to leadership had | :08:14. | :08:16. | |
engaged more with Members of Parliament. We had one or two | :08:17. | :08:22. | |
meetings but, sadly, the suggestions certainly that I put forward were | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
not taken up and I believe that they need to listen much more to Members | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
of Parliament as they take this further forward. I have already | :08:31. | :08:33. | |
raised the question of the suggestion that one of the accident | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
and emergency departments in Stoke and Staffordshire should close, I | :08:38. | :08:44. | |
believe that's absolutely wrong and will not benefit my constituents nor | :08:45. | :08:48. | |
indeed those of the other Members of Parliament in Stoke-on-Trent and | :08:49. | :08:50. | |
Staffordshire and I will be taking that up as I did with the Secretary | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
of State this morning at every opportunity but I do believe there | :08:55. | :08:57. | |
are very positive things that we continue with and I urge them to | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
engage with local Members of Parliament. But the issue that | :09:03. | :09:06. | |
really concerns me, as indeed it does a lot of members, is social | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
care. Staffordshire this week has had a warning that it is seeing | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
closures of social care homes across the County in the private sector, | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
because it's simply unaffordable for them to continue. What we have to | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
remember is that some of this is a consequence of matters that have | :09:25. | :09:29. | |
been going on for quite a long time. But some is also the consequence of | :09:30. | :09:32. | |
the introduction of the minimum living wage. We are to bear in mind | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
that most of those who work in the care sector are on or about levels | :09:38. | :09:44. | |
of pay which are the minimum wage. They have received, rightly, a pay | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
rise through the minimum living wage but there has not been the core | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
respondent increase in the amount that is paid to care homes for the | :09:54. | :09:59. | |
provision of services. We have also seen in Staffordshire this year the | :10:00. | :10:02. | |
better care fund not working as it should have done. ?15 million was | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
supposed to go into improvement in care. It has been retained within | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
the health service for understandable reasons, but this has | :10:12. | :10:16. | |
caused a great shortfall to the County Council. I hope that this | :10:17. | :10:20. | |
will be to some extent recommend teed, certainly for the coming year, | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
but we are facing a crisis in the funding of social care, indeed in | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
the funding of health and social care and we need a long-term | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
solution. Many members on all sides have raised this on a number of | :10:33. | :10:35. | |
occasions, I certainly have over the last two or three years but the time | :10:36. | :10:43. | |
has come for action. We can not have more sticking plaster recommend di. | :10:44. | :10:46. | |
The announcements made by the Secretary of State were welcome and | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
I support them but they are sticking plasters in the face of the sums of | :10:51. | :10:58. | |
money which are required. I want to mention briefly transport in my | :10:59. | :11:02. | |
area. I have asked in the past for the Secretary of State for transport | :11:03. | :11:06. | |
to meet with me to discuss the road system in Staffordshire and | :11:07. | :11:09. | |
particularly in Stafford and I do it for a couple of reasons. One is that | :11:10. | :11:14. | |
we are shortly to have the improvements to the M6 between | :11:15. | :11:19. | |
junction 13 and 15 which I welcome but inevitably those improvements | :11:20. | :11:22. | |
which take at least two years will take at least two years will have a | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
knock-on impact upon other roads in the area and we need to ensure that | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
they are carried out in the most efishent and effective way with the | :11:32. | :11:34. | |
least disruption but much more serious is the potential disruption | :11:35. | :11:41. | |
to be caused by the construction of HS2, phase two-A if that passes | :11:42. | :11:46. | |
these Houses of parliament in the coming 12 or 15 months. The route | :11:47. | :11:53. | |
cuts across all the major transport, north-south transport routes in | :11:54. | :11:55. | |
Staffordshire which are the national north-south routes in the west of | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
the country. Unless we think about this well in advance, how it is | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
going to be planned, when road closures are happening, when work is | :12:05. | :12:10. | |
to be done and alternatives are planned well in advance, we will see | :12:11. | :12:13. | |
chaos, not just for a couple of years, but for many years and I urge | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
the Government to think about that in advance. I know they may say it | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
hasn't passed parliament yet, we can't do anything about it until | :12:23. | :12:25. | |
then, that is absolutely not the approach. We must think about it now | :12:26. | :12:30. | |
because the consequences, not just for Staffordshire and Stoke but | :12:31. | :12:33. | |
indeed for the entire West Midlands and north-west economy could be | :12:34. | :12:34. | |
quite serious. Other matters in the House which I | :12:35. | :12:44. | |
have raised, the issue of hoists border -- for disabled people. It | :12:45. | :12:53. | |
was a surprise when a constituent of mine so it was not a requirement for | :12:54. | :12:57. | |
major change of HS2 have hoists in a couple of rooms so disabled people | :12:58. | :13:03. | |
could enjoy the benefits of staying in those hotels -- major chains of | :13:04. | :13:11. | |
hotels. I would like to see a standard that in every hotel that is | :13:12. | :13:15. | |
constructed in this country and indeed those that have already been | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
built, above a certain size, that it is standard that some rooms would | :13:21. | :13:25. | |
have those hoists available. I've also raised the issue of fireworks | :13:26. | :13:31. | |
after the tragic loss of two lives in Staffordshire and the facilities | :13:32. | :13:36. | |
that contain fireworks. It is extraordinary that the | :13:37. | :13:43. | |
responsibility for inspecting facilities which can contain almost | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
as much explosives or gunpowder as Guy Fawkes had when he wanted to | :13:49. | :13:56. | |
blow up this place, they are regulated by local authorities, who | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
might be very good at other things but simply do not have the expertise | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
and I would like to see any major and by major I mean upwards of a few | :14:06. | :14:09. | |
hundred kilos, possibly a few tens of kilos of explosives, to be | :14:10. | :14:15. | |
regulated to the Health and Safety Executive who have the experience, | :14:16. | :14:17. | |
possibly through the Fire and rescue authorities who have the experience | :14:18. | :14:23. | |
to make judgments on these matters. We have a couple of weeks ago an | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
excellent debate which I was privileged to lead on the ivory | :14:29. | :14:35. | |
trade -- we had. And the request that the United Kingdom should and | :14:36. | :14:41. | |
trade in ivory, having spent many years of my life in Tanzania which | :14:42. | :14:44. | |
is now suffering huge depletion in its elephants this is a matter which | :14:45. | :14:49. | |
is the request for me and I'd add the government is looking at this | :14:50. | :14:54. | |
and we will have a consultation -- and I know the government. I hope we | :14:55. | :15:05. | |
can see all I've -- ivory trade stopped in the UK with a few | :15:06. | :15:09. | |
sensible exceptions. Finally, a couple of other issues, I want to | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
raise the question of employment and support allowance for the | :15:15. | :15:19. | |
work-related activity group, this is a matter that many colleagues on all | :15:20. | :15:23. | |
sides have some concerns about, the government promised to come up with | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
measures that would compensate the loss of the additional money coming | :15:29. | :15:33. | |
in to people who start on that group from next April, and we have yet to | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
hear concrete measures that I believe are satisfactory and I hope | :15:39. | :15:40. | |
the government will take another look at this. I very pretty want to | :15:41. | :15:46. | |
mention matters to do with international development and around | :15:47. | :15:55. | |
Syria. -- I very quickly. I have seen the work UK Government is doing | :15:56. | :15:58. | |
with the incredibly generous governments of the people of Lebanon | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
and Jordan as well as Turkey and Egypt and Iraq. In hosting millions | :16:04. | :16:11. | |
of refugees and providing education for their children, so much so that | :16:12. | :16:14. | |
in Lebanon there are shortly to be more serene refugee children in | :16:15. | :16:19. | |
their state schools and there are Lebanese children, this is an | :16:20. | :16:22. | |
example of the excellent work which is done to the international | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
development budget which has received criticism in the press in | :16:28. | :16:30. | |
recent days and is quite right we should investigate all those issues, | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
but we should never forget the great work that is done through that and | :16:36. | :16:40. | |
the support that is given to these marvellous people who help people in | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
the most difficult of circumstances, and with that I wish you and | :16:46. | :16:49. | |
everyone a Merry Christmas and a placid year. Mike Wood. -- blessed | :16:50. | :17:02. | |
New Year. I would like to add my agreement to the item is put forward | :17:03. | :17:07. | |
by my friend from Stoke and my gallant friend for Beckenham. About | :17:08. | :17:13. | |
the concerns that some of our servicemen seem to be treated more | :17:14. | :17:18. | |
adversely than some suspected and indeed convicted terrorists. I hope | :17:19. | :17:24. | |
those concerns are heard not only by the government but also by the | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
devolved administrations in Northern Ireland. One of the joys of our | :17:29. | :17:35. | |
roles as members of Parliament is being able to work with so many | :17:36. | :17:38. | |
community organisations. All year round. Who do so much valuable work. | :17:39. | :17:46. | |
For often the most vulnerable people in our society. During the | :17:47. | :17:54. | |
volunteering week in the autumn I have the pleasure of spending some | :17:55. | :17:59. | |
time with a range of organisations including age UK and the springboard | :18:00. | :18:05. | |
centre, Black Country food bank, and a dimension unit at A -- dementia | :18:06. | :18:20. | |
unit. In Christmas we value the role that our community organisations | :18:21. | :18:22. | |
play but they do this work all year round. It is very difficult to pick | :18:23. | :18:31. | |
out any individual examples above any others but it would be remiss of | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
me not to highlight the work of Worsley community centre in my | :18:37. | :18:40. | |
constituency, led by the formidable Janet Blakeway. And the work they | :18:41. | :18:45. | |
have done to improve accessibility into the centre. I was able to | :18:46. | :18:53. | |
launch their new stair lift which was made possible by the work Janet | :18:54. | :19:00. | |
had done, bringing in local firms, solutions and handy care, to do the | :19:01. | :19:07. | |
work for the local community, really transformed the services that were | :19:08. | :19:13. | |
on offer. The buzzword of the big society might have passed into | :19:14. | :19:19. | |
political history, but of course the work that so many unheralded | :19:20. | :19:27. | |
volunteers and community organisations do every day of the | :19:28. | :19:30. | |
week, every week of the year, continues, regardless of passing | :19:31. | :19:37. | |
fads in our political lexicon. There are some who argue that in our self | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
is age in which we are supposed to live that people are no longer | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
interested in working for community -- selfish age. Or supporting good | :19:47. | :19:53. | |
causes, but that is not the spirits I have had myself with the support | :19:54. | :19:59. | |
for the Macmillan coffee morning or the community clean-ups we have had | :20:00. | :20:06. | |
in Dudley South -- that is not the experience I have had. I hope the | :20:07. | :20:13. | |
debited leader will make sure the government continues to look at how | :20:14. | :20:16. | |
the government can make it easy for people to give up their time -- I | :20:17. | :20:23. | |
hope the deputy leader. They can donate their resources and skills to | :20:24. | :20:34. | |
help the communities around them. It is pleasing to see a growing number | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
of friends groups, supporting local parks in green spaces, at a time | :20:40. | :20:45. | |
when local authorities are having to look at how and where they are able | :20:46. | :20:50. | |
to dedicate resources. Being able to see community is saying that these | :20:51. | :20:54. | |
things are important to us, and going out and taking practical | :20:55. | :20:58. | |
action with our societies. Most recently in Dudley South the friends | :20:59. | :21:07. | |
of Cockbain park group was formed a month or so ago on a wet Wednesday | :21:08. | :21:13. | |
evening, and still attracted 60 people from local estates, and that | :21:14. | :21:17. | |
was in response to damage and disruption caused following an | :21:18. | :21:25. | |
unauthorised traveller camp. The Black Country has seen an unusual | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
number of unauthorised traveller camps over the summer and into the | :21:31. | :21:36. | |
early autumn and many of these have been responsible and considerate to | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
the local neighbours, but sadly there are some who have behaved | :21:41. | :21:45. | |
criminally with disruption and criminal damage and police reports | :21:46. | :21:51. | |
of robberies and indeed violent crimes as well. Whilst our local | :21:52. | :21:57. | |
authorities in my own borough Dudley and also neighbouring boroughs have | :21:58. | :22:03. | |
pursued successive magistrate court orders, but of course those who seek | :22:04. | :22:11. | |
to take advantage of the system is known that means they have at least | :22:12. | :22:14. | |
seven days before they need to worry about it. And so the effect has been | :22:15. | :22:21. | |
that some of the less responsible and less considerate groups have | :22:22. | :22:28. | |
just gone from one park or play area to the next, still causing the same | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
damage and disruption at each. I would hope that the government would | :22:34. | :22:40. | |
look again at both practical questions such as can a provision of | :22:41. | :22:49. | |
land for traveller camps, authorised traveller camps, can that be work so | :22:50. | :22:55. | |
that local authorities can come together to make sure there is | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
adequate provision over a wide area rather than a single authority area. | :23:00. | :23:05. | |
And also whether it is time to look at local authorities being able to | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
designate particular land or categories of land as designated | :23:11. | :23:22. | |
sites where I unauthorised camps would attract criminal penalties and | :23:23. | :23:26. | |
the reality is that go with it, but we must always considered the | :23:27. | :23:31. | |
genuine human rights of travelling communities. But they must be | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
balanced with the legitimate rights of settled communities as well. This | :23:37. | :23:46. | |
year I was really pleased that the former Chancellor of the Exchequer | :23:47. | :23:51. | |
was able to announce the enterprise zone in my constituency had been | :23:52. | :23:57. | |
approved. He announced that at the budget in March. We are still | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
waiting for the final approval of the business case and I hope the | :24:03. | :24:07. | |
deputy leader will make enquiries so that we can expect final approval | :24:08. | :24:15. | |
very soon so that the new jobs and investment and hopefully the | :24:16. | :24:20. | |
increased prosperity can come into my constituency and benefit not only | :24:21. | :24:25. | |
those I represent but also those in neighbouring constituencies will | :24:26. | :24:33. | |
stop the extension to the Metro network in the West Midlands, which | :24:34. | :24:40. | |
the government has signed off on between Wednesbury and Brad hill in | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
my constituency, that is now going ahead. It is being underwritten by | :24:45. | :24:50. | |
the new West Midlands combined authority, meaning it can go ahead | :24:51. | :24:55. | |
sooner than was expected and I hope the government will give serious | :24:56. | :24:59. | |
consideration to extending that further onto Stourbridge so that the | :25:00. | :25:06. | |
tram link can connect back with mainline rail networks and enjoy | :25:07. | :25:14. | |
benefits, just to connectivity. The final thing I would like to raise | :25:15. | :25:18. | |
before the House adjourns for the Christmas recess, working to make | :25:19. | :25:24. | |
sure that everyone in our communities has the skills and | :25:25. | :25:29. | |
knowledge they need to succeed. I've been lucky enough to be able to | :25:30. | :25:33. | |
visit every school in my constituency since I was elected | :25:34. | :25:41. | |
last May. And clearly there is much excellent teaching and school | :25:42. | :25:45. | |
management around Dudley and the wider Black Country, and it is | :25:46. | :25:49. | |
important I make that point, because my wife has returned to the | :25:50. | :25:52. | |
classroom recently and I know she is listening. It could be a cold | :25:53. | :25:57. | |
Christmas if I forget to emphasise that. As far as my own | :25:58. | :26:03. | |
constituencies are concerned, the victors trust and one of the trust | :26:04. | :26:12. | |
show how powerful schools working in partnership to drive up standards | :26:13. | :26:18. | |
can be -- Invictus Games and one other trust. But in the wider Black | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
Country wider concerns have been raised by Ofsted to the four Black | :26:24. | :26:32. | |
Country authorities and children start below the national average in | :26:33. | :26:36. | |
those authorities, and in general they slip further behind, sadly, | :26:37. | :26:44. | |
across the Key stages 1-4. The performance is less good than | :26:45. | :26:50. | |
similar local authorities with similar levels of deprivation | :26:51. | :26:52. | |
elsewhere in the country, and we really need to look at how we can | :26:53. | :26:59. | |
make sure that no child is left behind where ever they are in the | :27:00. | :27:06. | |
country. Part of this must be that high performing schools and | :27:07. | :27:09. | |
academies trust is our able to innovate so we have more diversity | :27:10. | :27:13. | |
and tailored education provision within states cools. -- state | :27:14. | :27:21. | |
schools. The victors trust which has one school in my constituency has | :27:22. | :27:27. | |
plans for a specialist school which incorporates almost a military style | :27:28. | :27:33. | |
curriculum along with core subjects, targeting those in danger of | :27:34. | :27:37. | |
becoming disengaged with the education system. And I hope the | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
government will give this serious consideration when that application | :27:42. | :27:45. | |
is submitted. We do have a lot of talent within | :27:46. | :27:58. | |
our local schools and I saw it recently when I received a letter | :27:59. | :28:02. | |
from some about the scourge of modern slavery, this is an issue | :28:03. | :28:05. | |
that I have taken up with ministers, it's an issue that I know the deputy | :28:06. | :28:10. | |
leader himself has done a lot of work on in the past but the quality | :28:11. | :28:16. | |
of that letter and the depth of understanding that they | :28:17. | :28:19. | |
demonstrated, not only of the slave trade, of the early 19th century, | :28:20. | :28:23. | |
the abolition of slavery in the United States and also how that | :28:24. | :28:27. | |
affects our communities now was remarkable for primary school | :28:28. | :28:32. | |
children. Finally, you will be aware of some of the talent in my | :28:33. | :28:35. | |
constituency, I hope in the Christmas card that you will have | :28:36. | :28:42. | |
received showcasing the artistic talents in particular of some | :28:43. | :28:52. | |
finalists, Alex and Lucy, William and Millie and Tia, Thomas and | :28:53. | :29:01. | |
Reggie, I am delighted that not only were those seven excellent entries | :29:02. | :29:06. | |
able to go on the Christmas card, but into a large shopping centre in | :29:07. | :29:10. | |
my constituency who was so impressed with the standard of all the entries | :29:11. | :29:16. | |
they've put them on display so that people doing their last-minute | :29:17. | :29:19. | |
Christmas shopping can see how many talented artists we have in Dudley | :29:20. | :29:23. | |
South so I think that's a good point at which to finish and to wish you | :29:24. | :29:30. | |
again a very merry Christmas, Mr Speaker and best wishes for the new | :29:31. | :29:35. | |
year. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I want to speak today about one issue of | :29:36. | :29:39. | |
great concern which is how negatively the proposed new national | :29:40. | :29:44. | |
funding formula for schools will impact on schools in my Congleton | :29:45. | :29:48. | |
constituency if it is not revised and it is critical for the children | :29:49. | :29:53. | |
of my constituency that it is. Prior to the announcement last week my | :29:54. | :29:57. | |
constituency schools were already amongst the poorest funded in the | :29:58. | :30:02. | |
country. So we expected a good funding increase. But after that | :30:03. | :30:07. | |
announcement head teachers tell me theirs will be the very worst funded | :30:08. | :30:13. | |
schools in the country. The most poorly funded local authority used | :30:14. | :30:21. | |
to be ?4158 per head but this will now be Cheshire east at ?4122. | :30:22. | :30:27. | |
Imagine my heads consternation last week when they discovered their | :30:28. | :30:31. | |
funding will not actually increase, but drop. I use the word | :30:32. | :30:36. | |
consternation, they have used the word outrage. No wonder that within | :30:37. | :30:41. | |
48 hours of the announcement no less than five head teachers came to my | :30:42. | :30:45. | |
constituency office to express their utter dismay. A year ago, I took a | :30:46. | :30:49. | |
group of head teachers to meet the former Education Minister to ensure | :30:50. | :30:52. | |
that he heard their concerns directly on poor funding for | :30:53. | :30:57. | |
Cheshire East schools and to implore him that the new formula must | :30:58. | :31:00. | |
address this and this was after a similar meeting in the previous | :31:01. | :31:05. | |
parliament when the local authority officers met his predecessor with me | :31:06. | :31:09. | |
for the same purpose. Hundreds of my constituents signed a petition for | :31:10. | :31:14. | |
fairer funding. This issue is far from new which is why the | :31:15. | :31:17. | |
announcement was so shocking. My head teachers are now asking how | :31:18. | :31:21. | |
Cheshire East has become the most poorly funded area after a | :31:22. | :31:24. | |
convincing case to the Minister was made by them at their meeting and | :31:25. | :31:31. | |
they thought that had been heard. I too find it difficult to understand. | :31:32. | :31:34. | |
What is particularly concerning is that these are some of the highest | :31:35. | :31:38. | |
performing schools in the country but there is a point at which this | :31:39. | :31:43. | |
laudable level of achievement cannot be maintained. The Secretary of | :31:44. | :31:47. | |
State last week in this place - sorry yesterday in this place said | :31:48. | :31:51. | |
we have been able to ensure that the areas that have been underfunded | :31:52. | :31:57. | |
will be able to gain up to 3% over 2018-19 and 2019-20. My schools are | :31:58. | :32:02. | |
facing exactly the opposite, not a rise of 3%, but the majority of my | :32:03. | :32:08. | |
high schools face a reduction of 2. 9%. Before I relay some of the | :32:09. | :32:13. | |
unpalable options facing head teachers in my constituency let me | :32:14. | :32:16. | |
set in context last week's announcement because a number of | :32:17. | :32:20. | |
other factors actually make the funding reductions for my schools | :32:21. | :32:25. | |
far worse. Firstly, it's said that schools face a reduction of 8% in | :32:26. | :32:31. | |
funding in real terms by 2020, due chiefly to unfunded increase in | :32:32. | :32:35. | |
employer costs. So that makes the average savings to be found, not | :32:36. | :32:41. | |
over 2%, but over 10%. In addition, the reduction in the educational | :32:42. | :32:44. | |
services grant will mean an additional hit for academies in my | :32:45. | :32:49. | |
constituency which means all seven high schools and even graver in | :32:50. | :32:52. | |
Cheshire East there is still no local plan which has led to hundreds | :32:53. | :32:58. | |
of new houses without additional funding for the proportionate | :32:59. | :33:01. | |
increase in the number of children attending the schools. This effect | :33:02. | :33:05. | |
of so-called lagging means schools are required to educate additional | :33:06. | :33:09. | |
children with no additional funding. So what do head teachers tell me | :33:10. | :33:13. | |
will be the effect of this new formula on their schools? With | :33:14. | :33:18. | |
reference to the primary schools one head teacher says they will be | :33:19. | :33:23. | |
forced into significant reductions including reducing support staff to | :33:24. | :33:27. | |
help SEN children. At the high schools which will lose ?800,000 a | :33:28. | :33:34. | |
year between them, one alone will face losses of ?300,000 over three | :33:35. | :33:40. | |
years. Head teacher Ed O'Neill says this will be deeply damaging and the | :33:41. | :33:44. | |
removal of the of the grant and the calculator pressures mean total | :33:45. | :33:48. | |
savings of 12% will have to be found. Richard Middlebrook nominated | :33:49. | :33:54. | |
for Head teacher of the Year is a national leader of education. He | :33:55. | :33:58. | |
says the only way to survive would be to either open for only four days | :33:59. | :34:04. | |
a week, narrow the curriculum or close the 6th form, all completely | :34:05. | :34:09. | |
implausible. Dennis Oliver, one head teacher also a national leader of | :34:10. | :34:12. | |
education, is loo looking at either the removal of all teaching | :34:13. | :34:17. | |
assistant posts, loss of all technicians, or eight non-viable | :34:18. | :34:21. | |
sixth form groups or removing heating and lighting for a year or | :34:22. | :34:27. | |
general resources for children such as paper and books. Another head, a | :34:28. | :34:33. | |
long established Ofsted inspector tells me he risks losing his | :34:34. | :34:38. | |
school's outstanding status. He has a ?200,000 deficit as a result of | :34:39. | :34:42. | |
lagged funding now to -- due to new housing. He believes the only | :34:43. | :34:47. | |
feasible way to run the school would be to remove the programme of extra | :34:48. | :34:51. | |
curriculum activities and or reduce the number of 6th form classes. He | :34:52. | :34:55. | |
himself is already teaching 12 hours of maths a week to help balance the | :34:56. | :35:01. | |
budget. Another head teacher at a boys school has calculated that | :35:02. | :35:05. | |
losing the entire music, art, business studies or geography | :35:06. | :35:08. | |
departments could achieve the reductions. Simply not possible for | :35:09. | :35:13. | |
a school which is a regional leader in music and the creativity arts. | :35:14. | :35:17. | |
She's concerned about the recruitment and retention of key | :35:18. | :35:20. | |
staff whilst managing a reduction of 2. 9% which she calculates will | :35:21. | :35:27. | |
actually be 5% taking into account other factors. The chief executive | :35:28. | :35:31. | |
officer at one academy trust of which I am a patron, is facing a | :35:32. | :35:39. | |
reduction of 2. 4% but tells me that in addition he has been educating | :35:40. | :35:44. | |
over 50 children every year free for the last three years due to the | :35:45. | :35:50. | |
increased housing nearby. Equating to over ?200,000 per year of missing | :35:51. | :35:56. | |
funding in each of the last three years. This has depleted healthy | :35:57. | :36:00. | |
reserves. The school he says has made every cut it can to ensure it | :36:01. | :36:05. | |
has a balanced budget. He says, we have increased average class sizes, | :36:06. | :36:10. | |
removed some subjects from our post-16 provision, increased contact | :36:11. | :36:14. | |
time for teachers and reduced the amount spent on books and computer | :36:15. | :36:17. | |
equipment. As I say, I am proud to be patron for this well-run | :36:18. | :36:21. | |
multiacademy trust, already helping to drive down back office costs for | :36:22. | :36:26. | |
the three schools in the trust by providing central services of | :36:27. | :36:33. | |
finance and human resources. Another faces deeper reduction as a result | :36:34. | :36:36. | |
of the change in funding with children with special needs and | :36:37. | :36:39. | |
disabilities for which it has a dedicated unit. The school is a lead | :36:40. | :36:43. | |
school for emotional health and members may recall that I | :36:44. | :36:49. | |
highlighted recently its outstanding work with the most vulnerable | :36:50. | :36:54. | |
students and families but the head teacher says, as head, I have no | :36:55. | :36:57. | |
option but to reduce staffing from this area in order to meet a minimum | :36:58. | :37:01. | |
number of teachers to provide a curriculum. He continues, this is | :37:02. | :37:07. | |
alongside a shortfall in funding for schools that maintain a truly | :37:08. | :37:12. | |
inclusive intake. The shortterm view will store up problems for society | :37:13. | :37:17. | |
and other services in the long-term. I feel that the holistic support for | :37:18. | :37:20. | |
children and families is being sacrificed and has no educational | :37:21. | :37:25. | |
value in raising standards for our most vulnerable students. Now these | :37:26. | :37:30. | |
head teachers who I know well are utterly dedicated and professional | :37:31. | :37:34. | |
but the concerns I express on their behalf have been increasing for | :37:35. | :37:37. | |
several years. Their conclusion is that the proposed national fairer | :37:38. | :37:42. | |
funding formula is not fit for purpose, certainly not in Cheshire | :37:43. | :37:45. | |
East. They are asking the Government to go back to the drawing board | :37:46. | :37:49. | |
after listening to the outcome of the current consultation and I am | :37:50. | :37:53. | |
asking for the concerns I have expressed today to be included in | :37:54. | :37:56. | |
that consultation. I hope the deputy leader of the House will refer these | :37:57. | :38:01. | |
concerns to the school Minister and convey my request to him for an | :38:02. | :38:05. | |
early meeting which I have in fact already asked for, to which these | :38:06. | :38:08. | |
head teachers will travel at short notice. I hope then that the schools | :38:09. | :38:13. | |
Minister will not just hear but also act by reviewing the impact of the | :38:14. | :38:18. | |
new funding formula on the schools in my constituency. Without it, | :38:19. | :38:23. | |
there will be grave implications for the education and life chances of | :38:24. | :38:27. | |
the children these head teachers so deeply care about. And with that, | :38:28. | :38:32. | |
may I wish you and all colleagues within the chamber a happy and | :38:33. | :38:34. | |
restful Christmas. Thank you. It's an absolute pleasure | :38:35. | :38:45. | |
to make my debut appearance as the Shadow deputy leader of the House in | :38:46. | :38:49. | |
this adjournment debate where I believe we are at our best raising a | :38:50. | :38:54. | |
huge number of issues but I am conscious that other than the deputy | :38:55. | :38:57. | |
leader of the House I am the only thing standing between members and | :38:58. | :39:01. | |
their Christmas recess. So I will be as brief as I can as I run through | :39:02. | :39:05. | |
my thoughts on the debate we have enjoyed this afternoon. The member | :39:06. | :39:10. | |
for Harrow East opened the debate remembering those less fortunate | :39:11. | :39:13. | |
than ourselves. A very important message at Christmas and the plight | :39:14. | :39:19. | |
of those who are homeless. Add my thanks to Crisis who do amazing work | :39:20. | :39:23. | |
all year round but particularly at Christmas and pay credit to the last | :39:24. | :39:27. | |
Labour Government who did so much work in tackling rough sleeping. My | :39:28. | :39:31. | |
honourable friend for north Tyneside raised important issues of drug | :39:32. | :39:36. | |
addiction and the hugely important issue of sprinklers in schools and | :39:37. | :39:40. | |
raised issues of jobs in her constituency for whom she is a | :39:41. | :39:44. | |
tireless advocate for the people of north Tyneside. The member for | :39:45. | :39:48. | |
Chelmsford raised something that interested myself about the plight | :39:49. | :39:51. | |
of his constituents and their rail journeys into London. He told me | :39:52. | :39:57. | |
their trains are now 30 years old. I see his challenge of 30 years old | :39:58. | :40:04. | |
and I raise him the class 37s which are 1960s locos which many commuters | :40:05. | :40:08. | |
between Barrow and Preston use and frequently break down. They are a | :40:09. | :40:14. | |
magnificent engine, last time I raised this in the House many train | :40:15. | :40:25. | |
enthusiasts said to me on Twitter. My honourable friend raised the | :40:26. | :40:29. | |
issue of workers receiving a pay cut this Christmas. She is an advocate | :40:30. | :40:33. | |
for them and raises the issue of retail workers who often, Christmas | :40:34. | :40:38. | |
is bittersweet, the hours and money they can earn is great but often | :40:39. | :40:41. | |
January comes with a reduction in hours and a pay cut. The member for | :40:42. | :40:45. | |
Bridgwater and west Somerset informed the House of the drama | :40:46. | :40:50. | |
unfolding in his constituency and called it the end of local | :40:51. | :40:53. | |
democracy. Many of my constituents perhaps would argue that's already | :40:54. | :41:00. | |
happened given that fracking is being forced upon the people of | :41:01. | :41:08. | |
Lancashire. The issue of call for the rejection of post-truth politics | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
is one I concur. And we should all commit to putting the united back | :41:13. | :41:18. | |
into the United Kingdom. The member for Bradley Stoke talked | :41:19. | :41:22. | |
about road transport infrastructure issues in his constituency and since | :41:23. | :41:26. | |
we are making our Christmas list, I would like to add the A585 to my | :41:27. | :41:32. | |
wish list for the road into Fleetwood. There was the | :41:33. | :41:48. | |
The gallant member for Beckenham raised the inequity faced by the | :41:49. | :41:54. | |
ex-service personnel who served in Northern Ireland and I am sure the | :41:55. | :41:58. | |
deputy leader will be expanding on that in his remarks. The member for | :41:59. | :42:03. | |
Strangford reminded the House of the real reason for Christmas, the | :42:04. | :42:06. | |
greatest gift ever given, the birth of Jesus Christ and he remembered | :42:07. | :42:09. | |
all the persecuted Christians around the world which is an issue he feels | :42:10. | :42:16. | |
strongly about. Sometimes one - probably finds overwhelming to deal | :42:17. | :42:20. | |
with, my Christmas gift to the member for Strangford is one John | :42:21. | :42:23. | |
verse four, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who | :42:24. | :42:27. | |
is in the world and I hope that offers him some comfort this | :42:28. | :42:28. | |
Christmas. The member for Twickenham spoke | :42:29. | :42:37. | |
about the shamefaced by our constituents, the assessments, and | :42:38. | :42:44. | |
the great Ken Loach film I Daniel Blake, which if anyone has any time | :42:45. | :42:48. | |
over Christmas, I think they will be off to hire that from Amazon videos | :42:49. | :42:53. | |
or something. The member for Southend West reflected on | :42:54. | :42:57. | |
bereavement which is felt more acutely at Christmas than any time | :42:58. | :43:02. | |
of year and I'm pleased he raised the issue with his local hospice and | :43:03. | :43:05. | |
the work they do, and if I was not at this debate I would have been at | :43:06. | :43:11. | |
St John's Hospice in Lancaster where students from a college were doing a | :43:12. | :43:16. | |
Christmas performance, but instead I will be visiting a children's | :43:17. | :43:20. | |
hospital in Blackpool tomorrow. The member for Cleethorpes raised the | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
issue of Seaview Street in his constituency which was a win at the | :43:25. | :43:26. | |
British high street awards last week. His constituency might be the | :43:27. | :43:33. | |
number one result on the East Coast, and he knows he could not possibly | :43:34. | :43:37. | |
compete with the result of Fleetwood and indeed my constituency which was | :43:38. | :43:46. | |
the winner at the same awards, but he raised the issue of the fishing | :43:47. | :43:50. | |
industry and that must be looked at very seriously when it comes to | :43:51. | :43:54. | |
Brexit negotiations and we must support the British fishing | :43:55. | :43:57. | |
industry. The member for Kingston and suburb that -- Surbiton spoke | :43:58. | :44:10. | |
about hate speech on social media and also races, Islamophobia, | :44:11. | :44:14. | |
homophobia, sexism, racism, and all forms of hate. If I might indulge | :44:15. | :44:21. | |
you, last week I reported a comment on Facebook which was made about the | :44:22. | :44:27. | |
person who is a democratically elected politician in this country, | :44:28. | :44:37. | |
and the quote was, shoot the EXPLETIVE between the eyes, but I | :44:38. | :44:46. | |
heard from Facebook that that did not exceed their rules. I heard from | :44:47. | :44:56. | |
our friend about diabetes, and Leicester City, 2016 has been a fine | :44:57. | :45:02. | |
year for Leicester City, but also for the mighty Barrow who beat a | :45:03. | :45:09. | |
league side away from home for the first time in many years, it was | :45:10. | :45:14. | |
clearly a Barras in defeat for Blackburn in the FA Cup -- clearly | :45:15. | :45:21. | |
an embarrassing defeat. May I join members who remembered our Kholi Jo | :45:22. | :45:25. | |
Cox and she reminded us that we have more in common than which divides us | :45:26. | :45:34. | |
-- remembered our colleague. All those members of the House who come | :45:35. | :45:36. | |
from many different fate and cultural backgrounds but all in the | :45:37. | :45:43. | |
same way British, so may I take this opportunity to wish you a happy | :45:44. | :45:47. | |
Christmas, but to which the debited leader of the house is a happy | :45:48. | :45:51. | |
Hanika and in my household we will be celebrating both festivals and | :45:52. | :46:00. | |
anyone who has ever seen the OC will know about the merger of both | :46:01. | :46:05. | |
festivals. What ever members of this House are celebrating, may I wish | :46:06. | :46:08. | |
them a very happy Christmas and every peaceful New Year and extend | :46:09. | :46:13. | |
that to the staff that work for us and the staff at the House and | :46:14. | :46:16. | |
everyone who works here and all of our constituents. Michael Ellis. | :46:17. | :46:23. | |
Thank you very much indeed. It is a pleasure to appear before you and | :46:24. | :46:29. | |
opposite the shadow debited leader of the House, a commensurate | :46:30. | :46:35. | |
performance if I may say so. Although the shadow leader of the | :46:36. | :46:39. | |
House called me suave on a recent occasion, in the chamber last week, | :46:40. | :46:46. | |
the impressive skills of the member for Walsall South is now in evidence | :46:47. | :46:49. | |
for everyone to see and I was rather disappointed at first that she was | :46:50. | :46:54. | |
not in the chamber today, but I welcome her to her place and she | :46:55. | :47:01. | |
only need follow the example of her shadow leader, her leader, in my | :47:02. | :47:07. | |
opinion, and she will do very well. This is an excellent opportunity to | :47:08. | :47:13. | |
have a look at a Panorama of subjects without being checked for a | :47:14. | :47:17. | |
want of relevance, and in the spirit of Christmas, I would want to say | :47:18. | :47:23. | |
and referred to Mr Speaker in his absence and his awesome memory and | :47:24. | :47:27. | |
attention to detail which I think does this House proud. The member | :47:28. | :47:32. | |
for Harrow East spoke about those less fortunate than ourselves and if | :47:33. | :47:38. | |
I may say so the work he has done and is doing on the homelessness | :47:39. | :47:43. | |
reduction Bill which I understand is making very good progress, I'm told | :47:44. | :47:48. | |
it is the longest private members Bill ever, quite an achievement. But | :47:49. | :47:53. | |
he has clearly done tremendous work in this area. Also it is well known | :47:54. | :48:00. | |
that his work with faith groups across our communities is very much | :48:01. | :48:02. | |
appreciated and extremely impressive. The member for North | :48:03. | :48:08. | |
Tyneside spoke about drug deaths being at record levels, and the | :48:09. | :48:15. | |
importance of treatment for those who have become addicted to illegal | :48:16. | :48:21. | |
narcotic substances. She made powerful point in that regard, as | :48:22. | :48:25. | |
she did about the issue of fire safety in schools. The member for | :48:26. | :48:32. | |
Chipping Barnet spoke about the digitisation of the tax system and | :48:33. | :48:39. | |
the estimate as given by the Federation of Small Businesses that | :48:40. | :48:42. | |
there will be cost issues regarding that advancement. And cost, she | :48:43. | :48:52. | |
spoke of, for entrepreneurs as well, but this is a voluntary system and a | :48:53. | :48:57. | |
pilot system and I know the points she made with her usual customary | :48:58. | :49:01. | |
eloquence, elegance, they will actually be very much listened to | :49:02. | :49:05. | |
and this is something she has raised some trigger points. She's looking | :49:06. | :49:11. | |
at the issue with the same scale as she did as Secretary of State for | :49:12. | :49:15. | |
Northern Ireland and no doubt she will keep pursuing her thing, but it | :49:16. | :49:19. | |
is a pilot scheme and therefore these contributions will be very | :49:20. | :49:25. | |
useful going forward. The member for Linlithgow and is Falkirk spoke | :49:26. | :49:29. | |
about illicit tobacco being a danger, which we know that it is, | :49:30. | :49:36. | |
and not only is it a danger to the Treasury as a loss of revenue, but | :49:37. | :49:42. | |
actually more importantly it is very harmful, harmful in so many ways, | :49:43. | :49:45. | |
harmful to young people because it might be distributed in an illicit | :49:46. | :49:50. | |
way so that young people can gain access to it. It might contain | :49:51. | :49:55. | |
content which is unwholesome. And not wholly related. And he made some | :49:56. | :50:02. | |
good points in that regard -- regulated. My friend for Chelmsford | :50:03. | :50:13. | |
is a senior member from whom I have occasionally sought advice and have | :50:14. | :50:16. | |
been happy to do so, and he raised the trains problem. In his area, no | :50:17. | :50:22. | |
doubt the same issues arise elsewhere, the infrastructure | :50:23. | :50:27. | |
failures. A major investment from Liverpool Street up the line to his | :50:28. | :50:35. | |
part of the world, is underway, of course, and there has been a | :50:36. | :50:38. | |
commitment for new trains in the next couple of years, 2019-2020. He | :50:39. | :50:45. | |
made the valid point that there is a need for jam today as well as jam | :50:46. | :50:50. | |
tomorrow. We would all like jam perhaps every day. As a member of | :50:51. | :50:56. | |
the breakfast club here in the House of Commons, he partakes of that. | :50:57. | :51:03. | |
Frankly, his constituents are very well served by him if I may say so, | :51:04. | :51:09. | |
and he made some very valid points about about the engineering work | :51:10. | :51:12. | |
that sometimes overruns from the weekend and goes into a Monday | :51:13. | :51:16. | |
morning. The fact that freight trains can be using the line in the | :51:17. | :51:18. | |
rush hour and other very sensible points. He talked about the trials | :51:19. | :51:27. | |
of digital signalling, that are being planned by Her Majesty 's | :51:28. | :51:31. | |
government, and he has suggested that his area be a part of the | :51:32. | :51:39. | |
experiment area. That is something I know will grow through to the | :51:40. | :51:42. | |
Transport Secretary because I will make sure that it does. -- go | :51:43. | :51:47. | |
through. We will see of that community to apply. The member for | :51:48. | :51:52. | |
Mitcham and Morden, I was not aware that she had made a music video, but | :51:53. | :52:00. | |
I know now, and I obviously in an minority because I understand | :52:01. | :52:03. | |
thousands have already watched it. She also spoke about our businesses | :52:04. | :52:10. | |
and companies in this country, and of course our businesses are the | :52:11. | :52:13. | |
engine and the lifeblood of the economy and it is appropriate to | :52:14. | :52:17. | |
thank them for the work they do in employing people and contributing in | :52:18. | :52:22. | |
the highly valuable way that they do to the economy. Full-time work makes | :52:23. | :52:27. | |
up nearly 75% of the growth in employment since 2010 and I would | :52:28. | :52:34. | |
like to say John Lewis is a very good company with a very good | :52:35. | :52:39. | |
reputation. I would gently encourage all chief executive is to find time | :52:40. | :52:43. | |
to meet members of Parliament when such requests are made wherever | :52:44. | :52:47. | |
possible. She mentioned it was appreciated across the House the | :52:48. | :52:49. | |
Acme -- Academy community. We would like to show support to | :52:50. | :53:02. | |
them, a very smoky minty but a great asset to our society -- a very small | :53:03. | :53:10. | |
community. I had to think long and hard about what to say next. He | :53:11. | :53:16. | |
referred to a merger most foul and I'm sorry to hear about the local | :53:17. | :53:21. | |
difficulties in his area. It was a subtle speech for those members who | :53:22. | :53:27. | |
were not present. He really is a ferociously as for his constituents. | :53:28. | :53:34. | |
-- ferocious voice. Those in his district must think twice before | :53:35. | :53:37. | |
crossing him. I will say no more about that. The honourable member | :53:38. | :53:45. | |
for Chester mentioned the fact that the European Union is a source of | :53:46. | :53:51. | |
concern to him in terms of where we go from here. I can assure him that | :53:52. | :53:58. | |
Her Majesty 's government is not going to be introspective and it is | :53:59. | :54:01. | |
not introspective and will not be and has not been. I said to him that | :54:02. | :54:08. | |
the UK has always been an outward looking country and we will continue | :54:09. | :54:11. | |
to be. We should have faith and he should have faith in the people of | :54:12. | :54:17. | |
this country moving forward. The honourable man but for that the | :54:18. | :54:24. | |
spoke -- the member for Bradley Stoke spoke about the alternative to | :54:25. | :54:30. | |
private car journeys, when it is up and running. There have been | :54:31. | :54:35. | |
consequent congestion and delays and he has clearly been working hard and | :54:36. | :54:39. | |
he mentioned the meetings he has been having on the subject. He has | :54:40. | :54:44. | |
been working hard on behalf of his constituency meetings here and in | :54:45. | :54:47. | |
his constituency and progress has been made. I was pleased to hear | :54:48. | :54:53. | |
about that, but I was also struck by what he said about his son and the | :54:54. | :55:00. | |
excellent advice that he gave to his excellent son, he is rightly proud | :55:01. | :55:04. | |
of him. I don't think he's in his place will stop forgive me, he is in | :55:05. | :55:08. | |
a different place from where he was earlier. He is rightly proud of his | :55:09. | :55:13. | |
son, and although I have never met him, may I say that I'm proud of | :55:14. | :55:18. | |
him, as well. Someone who has joined Her Majesty 's Armed Forces very | :55:19. | :55:25. | |
recently. The member for West Ham made some very powerful arguments | :55:26. | :55:32. | |
that have the House in close attention, and the patient she spoke | :55:33. | :55:37. | |
about undergoing pain during these procedures is palpable. I have | :55:38. | :55:42. | |
already instructed the matter be raised with the Department for | :55:43. | :55:46. | |
health, this is an issue which clearly needs a response. I will | :55:47. | :55:52. | |
certainly transmit that message to the right quarters. She also | :55:53. | :55:56. | |
mentioned research into arthritis and I will also undertake to look | :55:57. | :56:03. | |
into that. My honourable and gallant friend for Beckenham spoke very | :56:04. | :56:10. | |
powerfully in his remarks to this House, and can I say this, I have | :56:11. | :56:15. | |
discussed the matter very briefly on the front bench with the Secretary | :56:16. | :56:20. | |
of State for Northern Ireland. The matter of the UK soldiers being | :56:21. | :56:25. | |
investigated. Firstly I want to say that Her Majesty 's Armed Forces | :56:26. | :56:32. | |
have made and continue to make such a contribution to peace and | :56:33. | :56:36. | |
stability in Northern Ireland and they will be provided where | :56:37. | :56:39. | |
necessary with as much taxpayer funded legal support as is | :56:40. | :56:45. | |
necessary. Her Majesty 's government is aware of an imbalance in the | :56:46. | :56:51. | |
system, and as part of addressing the legacy of the past, is looking | :56:52. | :56:56. | |
to create a more balanced and proportionate system going forward. | :56:57. | :57:01. | |
I want to thank him again for his powerful contribution and the way in | :57:02. | :57:06. | |
which he speaks and the subject matter on which he speaks, is always | :57:07. | :57:10. | |
one that commands the respect and attention of this House. | :57:11. | :57:16. | |
The honourable member for Strangford and this House is so much richer for | :57:17. | :57:22. | |
his presence, he has the true affection of this House. He spoke of | :57:23. | :57:27. | |
his love for Christmas and I think of his grandchildren and how he | :57:28. | :57:31. | |
enjoys spending Christmas with them and the true meaning of Christmas. | :57:32. | :57:37. | |
The powerful religion us invocation he gave was one that struck me and I | :57:38. | :57:43. | |
commend him for that and for all the work of his career in this chamber | :57:44. | :57:47. | |
over the past year, but in fact throughout his time as a member of | :57:48. | :57:52. | |
parliament. I know that he does a great deal of work about freedom of | :57:53. | :57:59. | |
religion generally and that he works powerfully, not only for those | :58:00. | :58:03. | |
Christians persecuted around the world, and sadly they're ever | :58:04. | :58:07. | |
increasing in number, not only are they remembered by him, but his work | :58:08. | :58:10. | |
on freedom of religion throughout the year is something that should be | :58:11. | :58:17. | |
commended in this House. The honourable member for Twickenham | :58:18. | :58:22. | |
spoke of the Department for Work and Pensions assessments and she is a | :58:23. | :58:27. | |
fiercely independent voice throughout the year and I mean that | :58:28. | :58:34. | |
as a compliment. Some behind me who assume it was not. But I do mean it | :58:35. | :58:38. | |
as a compliment. She is a fiercely independent voice throughout the | :58:39. | :58:41. | |
year and she continued to show that independent today. The honourable | :58:42. | :58:50. | |
member for Southend West who very much clearly enjoys these prerecess | :58:51. | :58:54. | |
adjournment debates and we enjoy hearing him, the points he raises is | :58:55. | :59:01. | |
too much for the short few hours of the time remaining but one thing | :59:02. | :59:04. | |
that did strike me in particular about his remarks, he lost his | :59:05. | :59:11. | |
mother this year at the age of 104. One is never old enough to lose | :59:12. | :59:16. | |
one's mother and can I say to him that my heart goes out to him for | :59:17. | :59:21. | |
his loss. The fact of the matter is I know that he has raised his | :59:22. | :59:27. | |
mother's birthdays as they have come along each yoer -- each year and I | :59:28. | :59:31. | |
think I have been pleased to offer my good wishes on those occasions, I | :59:32. | :59:37. | |
do commiser ate with him for his loss. He also mentioned The Prince's | :59:38. | :59:42. | |
Trust and that was one of the things he spoke about amongst many. Can I | :59:43. | :59:47. | |
just take this opportunity to say that, he spoke about how effective | :59:48. | :59:52. | |
The Prince's Trust was in his area and one particular division, but I | :59:53. | :59:57. | |
would like to commend the work of His Royal Highness the Prince of | :59:58. | :00:01. | |
Wales. Many achievements, the superb work in many areas and The Prince's | :00:02. | :00:07. | |
Trust is one of them. It's the 40th anniversary of The Prince's Trust | :00:08. | :00:11. | |
this year and it's clearly transformed many young lives, not | :00:12. | :00:17. | |
only in my honourable friend for Southend West's constituency but | :00:18. | :00:20. | |
across the country. We are very lucky to have the Prince of Wales, | :00:21. | :00:25. | |
in my opinion, I have to get that in, as clearly the House expects it | :00:26. | :00:36. | |
off me. The honourable member for Cleethorpes spoke affectionately of | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
his constituency. He spoke of the Pier of the Year winner. I thought | :00:41. | :00:45. | |
for one minute he was talking of the other place, but it's the pier that | :00:46. | :00:53. | |
goes out into the sea. The private sector investment that is coming the | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
way of Cleethorpes, he spoke of Government support needed in that | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
quarter. He spoke a lot about a request for lots of money from the | :01:03. | :01:06. | |
Government for Cleethorpes while reiterating he wasn't actually | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
asking for money but he made an attractive case. My honourable | :01:12. | :01:16. | |
friend for Kingston and Surbiton, as well as giving a charming retirement | :01:17. | :01:20. | |
message to the chief superintendent of his area, whom we all wish well | :01:21. | :01:28. | |
in his retirement, spoke very keenly about social media abuse. And the | :01:29. | :01:34. | |
prolific amount of hate speech that we see and that the social media | :01:35. | :01:39. | |
companies have a responsibility, a moral responsibility to do more. I | :01:40. | :01:45. | |
would like to take this opportunity to commend the cross-party Home | :01:46. | :01:47. | |
Affairs Select Committee for its report on anti-Semitism. He spoke | :01:48. | :01:50. | |
about that and he is on that committee. He referred to the 2500 | :01:51. | :01:57. | |
deeply offensive messages received in a short period of time by one | :01:58. | :02:04. | |
member of this House, anti-Semitic messages. I would like to commend | :02:05. | :02:10. | |
the committee for its work and perhaps mention also when referring | :02:11. | :02:17. | |
to this issue that I think today we lost Rabbi Blue or his death was | :02:18. | :02:22. | |
announced today, he was a wonderful voice of reason on the airways and | :02:23. | :02:28. | |
it's a marked contrast to the anti-Semitism that we are receiving | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
- hearing about from social media in many quarters. He spoke of - he | :02:33. | :02:41. | |
heard that the late Lady Thatcher made a remark about people, I think | :02:42. | :02:49. | |
what he was referring to was Lord Young where Laid Thatcher apparently | :02:50. | :02:55. | |
said most people bring me their problems, he brings solutions, I | :02:56. | :02:57. | |
think that's the what he was referring to. I have come on now to | :02:58. | :03:03. | |
the honourable gentleman for Leicester east, I haven't forgotten | :03:04. | :03:09. | |
him. He spoke of the campaign against cyber bullying and the loss | :03:10. | :03:17. | |
of a boy of 15, the tragedy of the loss is something I wanted to | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
mention. The member does so much to raise individual cases like that in | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
this place and I commend him for that. The whole House offers its | :03:27. | :03:32. | |
sympathy to the parents of Brandon who have been in the Palace of | :03:33. | :03:40. | |
Westminster today, I know, and we certainly send our commiserations | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
for his loss and it reiterates, and the points he made reiterates the | :03:45. | :03:47. | |
issue of the damage done to young people in particular but also to | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
people of all ages by cyber bullying. The member for Leicester | :03:53. | :04:02. | |
east has tremendous history of good work in the quarters of diabetes and | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
in Yemen. He has focussed on Yemen to my certain knowledge for years, | :04:08. | :04:11. | |
for as long as I have been in this House and now it's a cause that many | :04:12. | :04:16. | |
are exercised by, rightly, but he Haas been a beacon of support for | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
Yemen for many years. His support for Leicester football club is also | :04:22. | :04:28. | |
widely known and he did say something about mince pies, but I | :04:29. | :04:33. | |
will have to consult the clerk about that. We will see whether that | :04:34. | :04:40. | |
applies. The honourable member for Stafford spoke of his affection for | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
his constituency and the unsung heros of small and medium sized | :04:47. | :04:52. | |
enterprises and it's right we talk about them because so much work goes | :04:53. | :04:59. | |
in by small business owners and managers who often work all hours of | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
the day and night and are the lifeblood of our economy. He made | :05:05. | :05:09. | |
very valuable points about the ivory trade as well and his knowledge of | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
African affairs is very impressive. I remember speaking to him a few | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
weeks ago and I was bowled over by his knowledge of African affairs so | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
when he speaks on the subject he speaks with some experience and | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
persuasion. The honourable member for Dudley South spoke of the | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
valuable work done by volunteers, the good work that they do. And what | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
can we do to encourage companies to encourage volunteers? I think I am | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
right in saying that one example from my own constituency, the | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
Nationwide building society which I think has three of - three days a | :05:51. | :05:56. | |
year for each of its employees to do voluntary work in their communities | :05:57. | :06:00. | |
and they're paid still by the company for those three days but the | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
company - it's part of the company's social action project and I think if | :06:06. | :06:08. | |
more companies can do that sort of thing that will clearly form an | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
encouragement for those who wish to support their communities. He said | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
he visited every school in his constituency, as someone asked if he | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
passed all the exams, I have no doubt that he would, if he could, or | :06:22. | :06:29. | |
if he needed to. The honourable member for Congleton spoke about | :06:30. | :06:32. | |
schools funding and she is a powerful force for her area and I | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
know she will continue to fight, she made some powerful points there, | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
continue to fight on that subject and she certainly knows how to make | :06:42. | :06:48. | |
her voice heard in this place. So I take this opportunity, if I may, to | :06:49. | :06:54. | |
wish everyone a happy Christmas. In particular, the staff of the House, | :06:55. | :07:00. | |
Members of Parliament staff, the police here who look after us and | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
security, and Mr Speaker and the deputy Speakers, including you, of | :07:06. | :07:11. | |
course, we have had a year in 2016 to remember, one which will go down | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
in history for many reasons and with historic developments, not least of | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
course this country's second female Prime Minister and many other causes | :07:23. | :07:29. | |
of celebration but the House lost a member in the prime of her life in | :07:30. | :07:35. | |
Jo Cox. An explempar of public service. Her family f I may say so, | :07:36. | :07:42. | |
have shown extraordinary dignity in their bearing and we remember that | :07:43. | :07:47. | |
family at Christmas and we wish them and all those of our constituents, | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
especially those like the Cox family who have suffered a bereavement, all | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
the very best this Christmas and in the new year. | :07:57. | :08:02. | |
The question is that this House has considered matters to be raised | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
before the forthcoming adjournment. As many of that opinion say aye the | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
contrary no. I think the ayes have it. I beg to move the House do now | :08:14. | :08:21. | |
adjourn. The question is this House do now adjourn. Thank you. I am | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
grateful to you for selecting this topic as the last to be debated | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
before the Christmas recess. In so doing providing me with an | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
opportunity to put my objection to the closure of Woolwich barracks on | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
the record. As I may not get another chance, can I take the opportunity | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
to wish you and the staff of the House a very merry Christmas. I am | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
also pleased to see the Minister in his place. He knows Woolwich station | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
well and I know for reasons he may touch upon in his response is | :08:55. | :08:57. | |
extremely fond of it. Can I take this opportunity to say to him that | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
the extremely courtups manner in which he has engaged with me over | :09:02. | :09:06. | |
recent weeks on this issue has been appreciated. There has been an | :09:07. | :09:14. | |
unbroken military presence in Woolwich since the 26th May 1716 | :09:15. | :09:20. | |
when a Royal warrant in the name of King George I authorised the | :09:21. | :09:25. | |
formation of two permanent companies of Royal Artillery in the town. The | :09:26. | :09:33. | |
gunners regimental motto is everywhere and it could just as | :09:34. | :09:39. | |
equally serve as a metaphor for the military's imprint on Woolwich, seen | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
in everything from its architecture so street names. The kings Royal | :09:46. | :09:50. | |
troop, Royal Horse Artillery are quartered in Woolwich today, | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
maintaining a bond between our community and our Armed Forces that | :09:55. | :10:00. | |
spans three centuries. In determining, as it has, to sell off | :10:01. | :10:04. | |
Woolwich barracks by 2028, it is that bond that the Government intend | :10:05. | :10:08. | |
to break. Now there will of course be those | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
who argue that the disposal of the barracks has been a long time | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
coming, that we should just accept that Woolwich's days as a garrison | :10:17. | :10:19. | |
town are numbered, and that therefore the focus of this debate | :10:20. | :10:25. | |
should be on the future use of the site and how we secure the optimal | :10:26. | :10:30. | |
outcome for those affected. Not whether the decision itself is the | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
right one. If I were convinced that the department's case for disposing | :10:35. | :10:38. | |
of the site was irrefutable, that would be the debate I would have | :10:39. | :10:41. | |
called for and would be leading today. But I do not. I believe that | :10:42. | :10:46. | |
the case for disposing of Woolwich barracks has not yet been made | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
convincingly and I hope in the time available to probe the rationale | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
that underpins the decision and in so doing to hopefully convince the | :10:56. | :10:59. | |
Minister to ask his officials to revisit the decision. In objecting | :11:00. | :11:02. | |
to the closure of Woolwich barracks I want to make clear to the House | :11:03. | :11:08. | |
that I do not seek to undermine the department's defence of state | :11:09. | :11:10. | |
strategy in its entirety. In his statement to the House on 7th | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
November, the Defence Secretary was correct when he asserted that the | :11:16. | :11:21. | |
current estate is too big, too expensive and too inefficient. He | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
was therefore also right in my view to argue it too often fails to meet | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
the needs of our Armed Forces and their families. Just as the size and | :11:30. | :11:33. | |
structure of our Armed Forces have changed to meet different threats | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
over recent decades, so it is right that the defensive state is | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
modernised and rationalised, both for reasons of affordability and | :11:42. | :11:44. | |
efficiency. I fear it will be extremely | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
challenging to execute in practice, but I take no issue with the | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
strategy itself. The issue I want to raise tonight is not whether the | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
strategy to reduce the MoD's built estate is the right one, but whether | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
it is right that the disposal of Woolwich barracks should form part | :12:01. | :12:07. | |
of it. I believe that it is not for three - The question is that this | :12:08. | :12:11. | |
House do now adjourn. I believe it is not for three main | :12:12. | :12:13. | |
reasons. | :12:14. | :12:23. |