In the current rather febrile atmosphere at Westminster over Brexit at the moment conspiracy theories seem to abound more than ever. This week a highly fanciful story in one left-leaning national newspaper implicated me in a plot by ‘hard-Brexiteers’ supposedly to undermine the PM by backing an amendment to the Offensive Weapons Bill which sought to prevent the banning of a certain type of rifle.
I backed this particular amendment because the rifle involved is used by a small number of gun club members, already subject to very stringent controls, many of them disabled and has never ever been used in criminal activity. I have always been a vociferous advocate of some of the world’s toughest gun control laws that we have in the UK, but they need to be evidence based and clear this proposal wasn’t. A small number of constituents who clearly had not done their research beyond poring over the Guardian then accused me of putting Brexit before gun control.
The fact is that no one had written to me during the consultation in favour of the measure but a number of disabled constituents had written to me to raise their concerns. The amendment therefore sought to tighten up the regulations further without denying law abiding sportsmen and women their sport. One irate constituent describing himself as a Professor assured me that everyone who had signed the amendment with me was a ‘hard-line Brexiteer’ which will be news to my co-signatories and neighbours such as Nicholas Soames and Peter Bottomley, ardent Remainers. I hope the professor demands a rather higher standards of research from his students!
This week we had another opportunity to debate school funding, or in the case of West Sussex, unfair funding, and I have placed a link to the debate and my comments on the School Funding section of my website. Also on the subject of funding in West Sussex I joined 6 of my West Sussex colleagues for a meeting with the Local Government Minister Rishi Sunak to make sure he is well aware of the shortcomings we have been facing in our county not least with the severe funding pressures on adult social care and children. We look forward to the crucial local government funding settlement due to be announced in December and we are cautiously optimistic that our pleas will be acknowledged.
I was honoured to be asked by 3rd Shoreham Sea Scouts to open their new ‘Accessibility for All’ lift at their headquarters on Adur Rec. It is a great addition to this popular venue and will enable them to be even more inclusive of young people with disabilities. I was able to mention my Father who had been a troop leader in the 6th Shoreham Scouts who used to meet at the hut next to Shoreham lighthouse before being merged into the 3rd Shoreham some years ago, back in the days when the Baden Powell broad brimmed hat and baggy shorts was the standard issue uniform.