Earlier this week we debated the controversial United Kingdom Internal Market Bill introduced to protect the integrity of trade throughout the UK if a trade deal with the EU is not secured but with serious question marks about its standing in international law. I have serious reservations about the Bill in its current form and after listening closely to the debate I decided not to vote for it.
Within an hour of the vote which saw the Bill passed without my support I received my first email from an avowed anti-Brexiteer obviously opposed to this Bill, accusing me of my ‘shameful, utterly shameful vote. How can we ever take you and your colleagues seriously again?’ and worse. I sometimes wonder why I bother! I did a lot of research into the Bill and listened to hours of debate before coming to my conclusions. Is it too much to ask for a constituent to spend a few minutes checking what I actually did before unleashing their vitriol for something I actually didn’t support? As usual I have published a fuller explanation on my social media.
Last week in Parliament I attended the first meeting of the Review of Early Years Policy which is being chaired by my colleague Andrea Leadsom. One issue we looked at was the impact of the lockdown on new babies and new parents in particular. For them the experience of socialising with other new babies and extended family members face to face has been virtually non-existent let alone the problems caused by partners unable to attend scans and hospital appointments with mum before birth. I have taken this up with the Health Secretary and the charity The Parent Infant Foundation which I chair has produced an excellent report ‘Babies in Lockdown’ which you can find here: https://parentinfantfoundation.org.uk/babies-in-lockdown
This week I had a briefing from RWE Renewables who run the Rampion wind farm about their plans to extend it and potentially quadruple the power generated. Because of the way the technology has developed they can probably achieve this with a similar number of turbines as they have now albeit with wider rotor blade diameters. Despite initial concerns the current Rampion is very popular with the public and an important part of the national drive to increase renewable energy substantially. Clearly there will be new concerns about the impact on fishing and shipping access to Shoreham Harbour for example. A comprehensive consultation exercise will be launched in the Spring which I will help to promote, and it is important that as many people engage as possible.
See you at my next street surgery in Lancing from 10am on Saturday.
