Tuesday, July 01, 2008
The last few weeks have been as busy as ever.
One of the highlights was meeting staff and students at Graveney with the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls MP. The visit presented a great chance to see first-hand what the government’s record investment is doing to improve schools in Tooting. Graveney is just one of the schools in Tooting that will benefit from over £250 million funding in the next few years as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme. The programme guarantees that all secondary schools in Wandsworth will be refurbished or remodelled. It was great to see students from Sellincourt Primary School taking advantage of Graveney's IT facilities on the visit - it's wonderful to see Tooting's schools working together like this.
You can see a great picture of myself and Ed Balls at Graveney with students from Sellincourt Primary School HERE
I also had the privilege of spending 2 hours with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, discussing with him and a handful of MP’s a variety of issues that he has been working on and talking about for some time now. Things like; interfaith work, the role of faith in politics, fighting poverty, the mature way of influencing politicians, the role of the Church in our society and much much more. He is a very thoughtful and decent man.I have always been a long distant admirer of Dr Williams and I feel that he is now a friend.
This year we celebrate the 60 th Anniversary of our NHS. The NHS is Labour's greatest achievement; a health service that is available to all based on need – not the ability to pay.
60 years on and the NHS is there throughout all of our lives. I was born in St George’s Hospital in Tooting, as were my 2 children. Our local NHS has been a life saver for my family over the years, and I'm incredibly proud to be part of a government that has done so much to improve it in recent years.
As part of the celebrations I met with the Secretary of State, Alan Johnson MP to discuss his plans on how we prepare the NHS for the challenges over the next period. One of the biggest differences over the coming period will be the greater attention being given to Public Health. Not only will this improve the quality of life for potential patients of the NHS but it could lead to huge savings to the HNS by following the old maxim that "prevention is better than cure". At our meeting Alan mentioned some excellent work that he and Professor Ara Darzi had been working on in relation to a blue print for the next ten years of the NHS - so bring on the 70th birthday and an even stronger NHS.
One of the things I regularly try and encourage is for our local schools to come and visit Parliament and see for themselves the work that goes on here and also so local children can have aspirations to be future Parliamentarians or work in politics and Government. I was extremely impressed by the Gatton Primary School pupils, of varying ages who came on a recent visit. All the questions that the students asked were relevant and fascinating. As a governor of the school I have seen the huge emphasis the school gives to the issue of citizenship. This hardwork is clearly bearing fruit. You can click HERE to see a photo of the Gatton School visit.
Since January I have been acting as a mentor to three students from the Three Faiths Forum Parliamentors Scheme a project they are conducting in Tooting. The group worked closely with Year 10 students at Graveney School over four weeks in May and June to produce a really excellent project, which was based on the things the students at Graveney felt were important to them. They decided to focus on the culture of stereotyping, problems with respect and gang culture and produced an excellent video that investigated the impact these issues had on their fellow students. It was a pleasure to meet all the students at in parliament at the end of the project and I look forward to next year's programme.
With the Summer weather approaching, it is a great time to be attending and enjoying local festivals and fundays.I thoroughly enjoyed the first day of the Furzedown Festival, which is traditionally the Funday. My family had a great day, as always, at this year’s festival. My own contribution this year was to be in charge of the bouncy castle, which was good fun. The festival goes on for another 2 weeks and is an excellent advert for all that is wonderful about Furzedown.
I also thought the inaugural Balham and Tooting Community Association Funday was a real treat. The day clearly took months to organise and all the volunteers deserve our thanks. Not only has this event brought different faith groups closer together but it has also made our local community stronger. It was so good to see the Bishop of Kingston and the Imam from Tooting Islamic Centre spending time together with local families enjoying the day.
You can click HERE to see a photo from the funday.
One of the highlights was meeting staff and students at Graveney with the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls MP. The visit presented a great chance to see first-hand what the government’s record investment is doing to improve schools in Tooting. Graveney is just one of the schools in Tooting that will benefit from over £250 million funding in the next few years as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme. The programme guarantees that all secondary schools in Wandsworth will be refurbished or remodelled. It was great to see students from Sellincourt Primary School taking advantage of Graveney's IT facilities on the visit - it's wonderful to see Tooting's schools working together like this.
You can see a great picture of myself and Ed Balls at Graveney with students from Sellincourt Primary School HERE
I also had the privilege of spending 2 hours with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, discussing with him and a handful of MP’s a variety of issues that he has been working on and talking about for some time now. Things like; interfaith work, the role of faith in politics, fighting poverty, the mature way of influencing politicians, the role of the Church in our society and much much more. He is a very thoughtful and decent man.I have always been a long distant admirer of Dr Williams and I feel that he is now a friend.
This year we celebrate the 60 th Anniversary of our NHS. The NHS is Labour's greatest achievement; a health service that is available to all based on need – not the ability to pay.
60 years on and the NHS is there throughout all of our lives. I was born in St George’s Hospital in Tooting, as were my 2 children. Our local NHS has been a life saver for my family over the years, and I'm incredibly proud to be part of a government that has done so much to improve it in recent years.
As part of the celebrations I met with the Secretary of State, Alan Johnson MP to discuss his plans on how we prepare the NHS for the challenges over the next period. One of the biggest differences over the coming period will be the greater attention being given to Public Health. Not only will this improve the quality of life for potential patients of the NHS but it could lead to huge savings to the HNS by following the old maxim that "prevention is better than cure". At our meeting Alan mentioned some excellent work that he and Professor Ara Darzi had been working on in relation to a blue print for the next ten years of the NHS - so bring on the 70th birthday and an even stronger NHS.
One of the things I regularly try and encourage is for our local schools to come and visit Parliament and see for themselves the work that goes on here and also so local children can have aspirations to be future Parliamentarians or work in politics and Government. I was extremely impressed by the Gatton Primary School pupils, of varying ages who came on a recent visit. All the questions that the students asked were relevant and fascinating. As a governor of the school I have seen the huge emphasis the school gives to the issue of citizenship. This hardwork is clearly bearing fruit. You can click HERE to see a photo of the Gatton School visit.
Since January I have been acting as a mentor to three students from the Three Faiths Forum Parliamentors Scheme a project they are conducting in Tooting. The group worked closely with Year 10 students at Graveney School over four weeks in May and June to produce a really excellent project, which was based on the things the students at Graveney felt were important to them. They decided to focus on the culture of stereotyping, problems with respect and gang culture and produced an excellent video that investigated the impact these issues had on their fellow students. It was a pleasure to meet all the students at in parliament at the end of the project and I look forward to next year's programme.
With the Summer weather approaching, it is a great time to be attending and enjoying local festivals and fundays.I thoroughly enjoyed the first day of the Furzedown Festival, which is traditionally the Funday. My family had a great day, as always, at this year’s festival. My own contribution this year was to be in charge of the bouncy castle, which was good fun. The festival goes on for another 2 weeks and is an excellent advert for all that is wonderful about Furzedown.
I also thought the inaugural Balham and Tooting Community Association Funday was a real treat. The day clearly took months to organise and all the volunteers deserve our thanks. Not only has this event brought different faith groups closer together but it has also made our local community stronger. It was so good to see the Bishop of Kingston and the Imam from Tooting Islamic Centre spending time together with local families enjoying the day.
You can click HERE to see a photo from the funday.
