Wednesday, October 18, 2006
One of the things I have been campaigning on consistently over the last year are for improvements in public transport facilities. This is a particular problem at Earlsfield Station where the steps up to the platform prevent many people from being able to access the trains. To keep up my campaign, I met with the new Minister in the Department of Transport, Tom Harris MP, who is in charge of trains. I was successful last year in making sure Balham Station was in the first tranche of stations to receive part of £370million the government is investing in making our stations more accessible. There have been some improvements over the past few months at Earlsfield including the installation of a disabled help point and a new ticket machine. However, I used the opportunity In my meeting with the new Minister, to emphasise that the access problems are far from being resolved.
On Tuesday, the House of Commons passed the 2nd Reading of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill. This is great news and something that is long overdue. When I was a solicitor my firm acted for the bereaved families of people who had died in preventable deaths such as rail disasters and in places of work. At the moment, we are lacking a proper framework for holding companies and other organisations to account where management failings lead to the death of workers. The Bill will establish a new approach to criminal liability for companies and introduce a more effective offence. Individuals will also be found guilty of manslaughter where they have caused death through gross negligence.
This week, the Public Accounts Committee investigated "Smarter Food Procurement in the Public Sector". The Public Sector in England spends around £2 billion per year on providing food and catering services to staff and service users! Without affecting the nutritional quality of the meals provided, the public sector (which includes school food, hospitals and the armed forces) can secure annual savings of £224 million on food and catering services over the next 5 years.
I also attended Diwali celebrations in the House of Commons that had been organised by Keith Vaz MP. The Hindu festival of Diwali is on the 21st October, but it was nice to begin celebrations a few days early!
On Thursday I took part in the ‘wear it pink’ Breast Cancer Campaign. This will be taking place on Friday 27th October, and anyone can take part by donating £2 and dressing in pink for the day. The donation will allow Breast Cancer Campaign to continue researching the cure and help the one woman in nine in the UK that will be diagnosed with breast cancer. The target this year is £2.1m.To register and to receive your free fundraising pack either call freephone 0800 1073104; or visit the website. My commitment was confirmed beyond doubt by my willingness to look very pink and very silly to raise awareness of the campaign. You can see the photo here.
At the end of the days hearing I spoke in an Adjournment Debate I had secured on neonatal care. I outlined the significant progress that has been made in neonatal care – the fact that four in five babies now survive, compared with one in five in the 1980s is testament not only to the technological advances, but also the work of doctors and nurses in this area. I visited the neonatal unit at St George’s recently – the hospital offers the most advanced neonatal care in South West London, supported by £72m of funding over three years. However, I used the Adjournment Debate to stress that there is an urgent need for more funding, additional recruitment of neonatal nurses, extra capacity and a more effective commissioning service. Research by BLISS has shown that only 3% of neonatal units in the UK can currently provide one to one nursing for premature babies, and that the nursing shortfall is around 2700 nationwide. You can read the full debate here. I was encouraged by the Minister’s response and hope that the debate helped to raise awareness of these issues.
On Friday I took part in a School Council meeting at Ravenstone Primary School in Balham and gave out badges to newly elected members of the Council, who ranged from Year 3-6. I also spent some time with the excellent Headteacher Alan Millington discussing the improvements to the school over the last few years and spent a pleasant morning visiting various classes, taking part in an assembly and meeting students and staff.
On Sunday I reviewed the papers on the Adam Boulton morning show on Sky TV with Tory Rachael Whetstone. I then took part in a fantastic event in Brick Lane on behalf of Concern Worldwide "Standing up to Poverty". I have set out the pledge below, specially written by Richard Curtis, calling on all those who gathered at the event to ‘Stand Up Against Poverty’.
The Pledge:
“We stand here proudly as members of the generation that intends to defeat extreme poverty, the greatest challenge of our times.
We stand up now because we do not wish, years from now, to stand in front of the next generation and say ‘we knew that millions of people were dying unnecessarily every year – and we stood by, doing nothing.'
We cannot stay seated when a child born in a poor country today will die 30 years earlier than a child born in a wealthy one. It’s is time to end all this heartbreak.
And we stand up because we are asking not for charity but justice – we know, that in our names, world leaders have already made promises to bring this to an end – they are called the Millennium Development Goals.
What is needed is the political will to achieve and exceed these goals - So we, hundreds of thousands of concerned individuals from over 100 countries, are on our feet to say:
To the leaders of the wealthy countries – be great - fight to keep your promises – debt cancellation, more and better aid, and trade rules that help fight poverty – you know what needs to be done – do it.
We also stand before the leaders of poorer countries to say:
Be great – make it your first responsibility to save the lives of your poorest citizens. We ask you to achieve real transparency and accountability in how money is spent, to tackle inequality, to root out corruption. You know what needs to be done. Do it.
Every generation has mighty battles to fight against evils such as slavery and apartheid which seem as though they cannot be defeated. But history proves time and again they can, if enough people stand up against injustice.
We wish to set a record today of the number of people standing up to demand action on poverty – but the record we really want to break is the world’s record of breaking promises and just ignoring the poor.
We are six billion Voices. We want justice now. No more excuses. We will not stand for them.”
You can see a photo from the event here.
Sadiq
On Tuesday, the House of Commons passed the 2nd Reading of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill. This is great news and something that is long overdue. When I was a solicitor my firm acted for the bereaved families of people who had died in preventable deaths such as rail disasters and in places of work. At the moment, we are lacking a proper framework for holding companies and other organisations to account where management failings lead to the death of workers. The Bill will establish a new approach to criminal liability for companies and introduce a more effective offence. Individuals will also be found guilty of manslaughter where they have caused death through gross negligence.
This week, the Public Accounts Committee investigated "Smarter Food Procurement in the Public Sector". The Public Sector in England spends around £2 billion per year on providing food and catering services to staff and service users! Without affecting the nutritional quality of the meals provided, the public sector (which includes school food, hospitals and the armed forces) can secure annual savings of £224 million on food and catering services over the next 5 years.
I also attended Diwali celebrations in the House of Commons that had been organised by Keith Vaz MP. The Hindu festival of Diwali is on the 21st October, but it was nice to begin celebrations a few days early!
On Thursday I took part in the ‘wear it pink’ Breast Cancer Campaign. This will be taking place on Friday 27th October, and anyone can take part by donating £2 and dressing in pink for the day. The donation will allow Breast Cancer Campaign to continue researching the cure and help the one woman in nine in the UK that will be diagnosed with breast cancer. The target this year is £2.1m.To register and to receive your free fundraising pack either call freephone 0800 1073104; or visit the website. My commitment was confirmed beyond doubt by my willingness to look very pink and very silly to raise awareness of the campaign. You can see the photo here.
At the end of the days hearing I spoke in an Adjournment Debate I had secured on neonatal care. I outlined the significant progress that has been made in neonatal care – the fact that four in five babies now survive, compared with one in five in the 1980s is testament not only to the technological advances, but also the work of doctors and nurses in this area. I visited the neonatal unit at St George’s recently – the hospital offers the most advanced neonatal care in South West London, supported by £72m of funding over three years. However, I used the Adjournment Debate to stress that there is an urgent need for more funding, additional recruitment of neonatal nurses, extra capacity and a more effective commissioning service. Research by BLISS has shown that only 3% of neonatal units in the UK can currently provide one to one nursing for premature babies, and that the nursing shortfall is around 2700 nationwide. You can read the full debate here. I was encouraged by the Minister’s response and hope that the debate helped to raise awareness of these issues.
On Friday I took part in a School Council meeting at Ravenstone Primary School in Balham and gave out badges to newly elected members of the Council, who ranged from Year 3-6. I also spent some time with the excellent Headteacher Alan Millington discussing the improvements to the school over the last few years and spent a pleasant morning visiting various classes, taking part in an assembly and meeting students and staff.
On Sunday I reviewed the papers on the Adam Boulton morning show on Sky TV with Tory Rachael Whetstone. I then took part in a fantastic event in Brick Lane on behalf of Concern Worldwide "Standing up to Poverty". I have set out the pledge below, specially written by Richard Curtis, calling on all those who gathered at the event to ‘Stand Up Against Poverty’.
The Pledge:
“We stand here proudly as members of the generation that intends to defeat extreme poverty, the greatest challenge of our times.
We stand up now because we do not wish, years from now, to stand in front of the next generation and say ‘we knew that millions of people were dying unnecessarily every year – and we stood by, doing nothing.'
We cannot stay seated when a child born in a poor country today will die 30 years earlier than a child born in a wealthy one. It’s is time to end all this heartbreak.
And we stand up because we are asking not for charity but justice – we know, that in our names, world leaders have already made promises to bring this to an end – they are called the Millennium Development Goals.
What is needed is the political will to achieve and exceed these goals - So we, hundreds of thousands of concerned individuals from over 100 countries, are on our feet to say:
To the leaders of the wealthy countries – be great - fight to keep your promises – debt cancellation, more and better aid, and trade rules that help fight poverty – you know what needs to be done – do it.
We also stand before the leaders of poorer countries to say:
Be great – make it your first responsibility to save the lives of your poorest citizens. We ask you to achieve real transparency and accountability in how money is spent, to tackle inequality, to root out corruption. You know what needs to be done. Do it.
Every generation has mighty battles to fight against evils such as slavery and apartheid which seem as though they cannot be defeated. But history proves time and again they can, if enough people stand up against injustice.
We wish to set a record today of the number of people standing up to demand action on poverty – but the record we really want to break is the world’s record of breaking promises and just ignoring the poor.
We are six billion Voices. We want justice now. No more excuses. We will not stand for them.”
You can see a photo from the event here.
Sadiq
