General News

As a Minister of State, in Defra I helped to guide the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004 through parliament. Inside government there had been opposition to the legislation until minds were concentrated by the tragedy in Morecambe when 21 Chinese immigrant Labourers were killed by the rising tide as they gathered cockles in the bay. The deaths were a direct result of the awful conditions in which they were forced to work. No legal rights, no health and safety measures, no minimum wage.

Over the past few months I have said a good deal about my work on audio description. I am pleased to say that we have made great progress. Blind people, and others with limited sight will get help through the government’s digital switchover helpscheme will now have one-button access to audio description thanks to the decisions made by Andy Burnham. Sky are now audio describing 20% of their programming and the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 are looking into what they can do to increase rates of audio description. But as they say every silver lining has a cloud.

The death of one youngster at the hands of another is tragic and evil – so the outburst of popular anger is totally justified. In contrast, the solidarity shown to the family at the Everton game on Saturday was generous, spontaneous and right.

A recent letter from a constituent raised the issue of Europe. The writer is outraged that my fellow MPs and I - he alleges - have "given away powers to Brussels". He was ruder than that, but you get the idea ………...

Last week, sparks flew in the House of Commons – and outside - over the issue of UK settlement rights for former Gurkhas. Most people’s reaction was simple: They have risked their lives for us so they should have the right to settle in the UK. Indeed that is the argument I put to Ministers, including a face-to-face meeting a few hours before the vote.

In recent weeks I have been going through the excitement and the pain of a public bill committee. It is almost always interesting because major legislation deal with real-life issues – but it also mops up great tranches of your life for several weeks.

Thursday, 11th March is ‘National No Smoking Day’. There will be events designed to help people who want to stop smoking. As a former smoker I ‘gave up’ smoking quit some 25years ago. The biggest part of quitting is making the decision and sticking to it, and while the decision to stop smoking is a very personal one there are many things that can be done to help those who want to quit.

The Head of South Wales Police, Chief Constable Barbara Wilding, has grabbed the media’s attention with some money-making initiatives. As is often the case some of the details have been lost in translation. In short, the police in South Wales still provide some services that the police in England don’t, and that costs time and money. In England, officers employed by the Highways Agency undertake a number of functions to keep roads running smoothly. They clear debris after a crash, they provide assistance to large vehicles that have broken down, and they give instructions to drivers in bad weather. In Wales all of this is done by the police.

When the Justice Select Committee was taking evidence recently, I asked the director of Victim Support, what victims want from the Criminal Justice System. Her answer was that in the first place they would like not to have become victims at all, but given that turning the clock back is not possible, they simply want to be sure that it won't happen again.

That week, when the UK experienced some of its worst snowfall in the last decade the media spoke of nothing else except the country grinding to a halt. Well it didn’t, I am proud to say that I and all the people who work for me made it into the office. I only wish I could say that about other people’s offices.