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- Fairtrade Fortnight in Dover & Deal
Many constituents have discussed the importance of Fairtrade with me at my street stalls and surgeries and over the years I’ve campaigned with ‘Christians Together in Dover’ to pressure international governments to secure better trade rules that will allow the world’s poorest countries to help grow their economies and reduce poverty.
Fairtrade Fortnight started this week – and I’d like to outline why fair trade is so important and how very small changes in our own shopping habits can make big differences to the world’s poorest people.
During this global economic downturn, it is vital that world trade continues. By buying...
- Great and good come to town
It can’t be often that one smallish town plays host to two former Deputy Prime Ministers, a Peer of the Realm who is also a Secretary of State for Transport and the current Home Secretary, all on the same time – but that was what happened on Tuesday and the town in question was Dover. Ever since I was elected in 1997 I’ve made a point of bringing Government Ministers into my constituency and I’ve ensured that every Home Secretary has paid us a visit. Alan Johnson is the sixth Home Secretary during my time in parliament and...
- Time to change for the better
This week the Prime Minister set out the next stages of Labour’s agenda for constitutional and parliamentary reform which revolves around the fundamental issue of how we restore the legitimacy, credibility and effectiveness of Parliament, through reform of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. It involves clarifying and codifying our constitutional rights and responsibilities and creating a publicl ife that better reflects the dynamism and diversity of Britain. But it must also address how we distribute power between individuals, neighbourhoods, regions and the centre. We all know that many people have lost faith in Parliament and...
- Darker days under Major
When Dover and the rest of East Kent was faced with the economic impact of the global recession and the worst international financial crisis in 60 years, we were not prepared to sit back and let the recession take its course. The Government’s priority was to protect homes, jobs and businesses and that’s exactly what we’ve done. We’ve taken action to support people and the economy. If we’d repeated the experience of the Tory recession in the 1990s, house repossessions and businesses failures would have been twice as high and well over a million more people would have...
- Disaster relief is a challenge
On Monday, my colleagues and I crowded into Committee Room 14 for the weekly meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party but unlike some recent notable PLP meetings we weren’t attending to sort out internal disagreements or to quell the latest revolt we were there to hear an update on the Haiti emergency and the news from that far away island was grim. Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of State for International Development told us that 50,000 corpses had already been buried and some people were forecasting a final death toll as high as 200,000. These mind boggling figures are hard to...
- School is fine - now for Ofsted
Schools, right across the country have been transformed over the last twelve years. Exam results are up, there are more teachers and teaching assistants and school buildings have been revamped. In my Dover & Deal constituency, we are on the brink of school mergers and restructuring schemes which are expected to see the emergence of at least two new academies which will be funded by the Government’s ‘Building Schools for the Future’ program and provide an exciting new beginning for hundred’s school children. It’s difficult to go into any of my local schools these days without hearing the...
- Committed to a greener future
On Tuesday, Parliament’s first sitting of the new year, the Secretary of State for Climate Change, Ed Miliband reported back to the House on the Copenhagen Summit. For those of us who thought 2010 would signal a great leap forward in protecting the planet – the outcome was disappointing in many respects but the Accord, that was agreed by fifty counties, does represent the start of a new chapter on climate change, even if it does not provide everything we wanted. Progress has been made in a number of important areas. For example there is international backing for an overall...
- Traffic chaos again
In Christmas week I would normally devote my column to a seasonal yuletide theme. This year I could have told you all about the special church service I attended in Buckland to pay tribute to the people who work in our emergency services or I could have described the wonderful Christmas Tree Festival in Deal which raises funds for McMillan Cancer Support or I could have waxed lyrical about the splendid annual Christmas Carol Concert in Aylesham – which I haven’t missed attending in the last 15 years. This year’s concert was a little different from past years...
- Regeneration on track
We all know that most regeneration plans take a long time to deliver and the best laid schemes are prone to delay and slippage but not-so the construction, delivery and implementation of Dover’s Javelin trains to London. After all the lobbying, and cajoling that went into connecting the Priory station into the high speed rail network I was pleased to welcome the former Minister of Transport, Dr Steve Ladyman to Dover in 2007 – on the day he made the historic announcement that the deal was done and Dover was to have its fast trains after all. Earlier this year,...
- Time to save the earth
Climate change is happening, it's real, and it's man-made and that’s why people across the constituency of Dover & Deal have been talking to me about this important issue, worried about what kind of planet we are going to leave for our children and our grandchildren. I've been listening to my constituents' opinions on climate change and I've told Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State, what people in our area are saying. We want our government to lead the way and sign an ambitious deal at the Summit because the consequences of doing otherwise would be disastrous. More than 180...
- We must back fight for right
The Race Discrimination Act has been in force since 1976. It was seen as a much needed reform and described as a ground breaking piece of legislation but like every Act it had its flaws. Remarkably, discrimination against seafarers was permitted under the original Act and it’s still permitted today – even for seamen sailing on British flagged ships trading between British ports. Exemptions for seafarers means that two people working on the same ship and doing the same job can be paid vastly different salaries simply by virtue of their nationality and non UK seafarers are...
- Our country is not broken
Everyone knows that it’s the official opposition’s duty to test, probe and, where appropriate, oppose Government policies but it shouldn’t be their role to rubbish the country and talk down the United Kingdom – Britain is not broken or bankrupt or bust as the Conservatives would have you believe, we face serious challenges like every other country in the world, but Britain is not broken. We are a much fairer country than we were a decade ago, more tolerant and more unified and we want it to stay that way. Levels of trust among people within their local neighbourhood...
- Why we need green energy
Over the next two decades we will need to replace around a third of our electricity generating capacity if we are to continue to meet demand and unless we make much greater use of renewable energy we will struggle to reduce carbon emissions, as part of our commitment to tackling climate change. We will also need to create more gas storage infrastructure. The existing planning system for major infrastructure is cumbersome, complicated and costly, and simply isn’t up to this challenge and that’s why the Labour Government is reforming the development consent regime for major infrastructure. The Planning Act 2008...
- Can Buckland be the answer?
When I moved to Dover 30 years ago, Buckland was a fully functioning General Hospital and the Victoria Hospital in Deal was a struggling Cottage Hospital but both were well used and highly valued by their communities. Over the years, the Victoria has been expanded and improved but successive hospital authorities have removed services from Buckland. Along with thousands of local people I campaigned vigorously to stop the rot at Buckland and our campaigning brought about a temporary stop to the haemorrhaging of services and the promise of a £4 million refurbishment programme – but the Trust Board had a...
- Building our town's future
On Monday, my old friend Kay Andrews visited Dover for a special viewing of Dover Castle’s Great Tower and to discuss our ambitious regeneration plans. Kay hails from my native Wales and long before being elevated to Baroness Andrews she was policy adviser to Neil Kinnock and she served in his Private Office right up until the 1992 General Election. That’s a time I remember well – it was the general election at which I failed to gain the Dover & Deal seat by just 833 votes. Kay has held various ministerial positions in recent years but in July...
- Fighting the credit rip-offs
Dealing with debt is always difficult but during the current economic downturn it’s especially problematic. What I hear about time and time again in my advice surgeries are complaints about high interest rates, unfair practices and rip-offs. The worse stories come from constituents who have been lured into borrowing from loan sharks at unbelievably high interest rates. I recently had a family in my Dover office who had fallen behind with their council tax payments and when threatened with court action they felt forced to borrow the money from sharks and found themselves trying to pay off the debt...
- Talking about street politics
I’ve been holding my Saturday Street Stalls in Dover and in Deal for more than twenty years now and I still find them a great way of meeting people and hearing constituents' concerns. I get a lot of moans and groans of course but on the whole the people who stop for a chat are friendly and mostly supportive but that’s not to say I don’t hear criticisms of what the Government is doing or what they should be doing. Last Saturday I was out in Aylesham with my team and the subjects raised on the stall varied from...
- One Stop Too Many
After the long 10 year lobbying campaign to extend the high speed train link to Dover it’s great to see the Javelin trains running on peak time services to London, St Pancras and I was pleased to learn that the usage has been so great that they are now doubling the number of carriages to meet the growing demand. In December the full high speed service will be operation from Dover Priory to London but the story doesn’t end there and nor does the lobbying because there’s lots more to do. I’ve been corresponding with the Chief Executive of the...
- Conference Season Ends
By the end of this week all the annual party conferences will be over for another year and a good thing too, I hear many people say. I suppose it’s inevitable that as the general election comes closer, the polarity between parties will become more defined and the claims and counter claims more intense. This is the first time we’ve had five annual conferences within the span of one parliament for more than a decade so it’s not surprising that things are starting to hot-up. I was never able to go to conference when I was sailing the seven seas...
- Sure Start Success
This week is National Sure Start Children’s Centres Week and communities across the country will be hosting a variety of activities to celebrate the success of the Government’s Sure Start programme and promote the universal services on offer for families with children under 5. Here in Dover I will be attending the official launch of Samphhire Children's Centre at Aycliffe Primary School, the latest of seven Children's Centres to open in Dover and Deal. I have been a strong supporter of Sure Start Children's Centres right from their inception and our own Triangles Centre in St Radigunds, the first...
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