On Tuesday 19th October David met with a constituent at a Breakthrough Breast Cancer event in Westminster, in order to support the work of this charity.
Breakthrough Breast Cancer aims to combat this form of cancer through education, research, and campaigns. For more information please visit www.breakthrough.org.uk.
David talking to Action for Children in Birmingham’s ICC at this year’s Conservative Party Conference. Picture taken by Jamie Jones.
To find out more visit Action for Children’s webite.
David at Buckinghamshire Economic & Learning Partnership’s (BELP) briefing for MPs on 8 October 2010.
At the meeting local Bucks MPs discussed the performance of the Bucks Economy from the perspective of the emerging economic data and the coalface views offered by business.
The key messages that came out were that:
Ø More businesses are started in Bucks than in any other county, and that the county can claim to be the Entrepreneurial Heart of Britain.
Ø The work of BELP to accelerate the availability of next generation broadband in Bucks is a real positive and will make a difference to many businesses.
Ø Bucks as a whole is less exposed to public sector cuts than many places but it does represent a serious issue, especially for Aylesbury and small companies who have public sector contracts.
Ø There is scope for our local authorities to work more closely together to support employment opportunities during the current period.
To find out more visit the BELP website.
On the 3rd July I visited the Breathe Easy (Aylesbury Group) stall in Market Square, to support them in their valuable work.
To find out more about the British Lung Foundation’s Breathe Easy support group network, follow this link: http://www.lunguk.org/supporting-you/breathe-easy
On 9th July, I attended the opening of the Robert Mews Workshops. The workshops are a series of refurnished out buildings that will be used by local artists. To find out about future art events in Buckinghamshire please visit Bucks Open Studios.
Picture from the Bucks Herald
Local MP, David Lidington has teamed up with GMTV news reporter and presenter John Stapleton to support this year’s Carers Week (14 – 20 June) and celebrate the contribution made by people in Aylesbury, and throughout the UK, who provide unpaid care for someone who is ill, frail or disabled.
The theme of Carers Week is ‘A Life of My Own’ with calls for greater understanding and support for the army of carers who provide vital care for their families, friends and communities. In doing so, many sacrifice much in their own lives, unable to do the little things that most of us take for granted. All too often, these unsung heroes also suffer ill health.
David met up with John Stapleton at the House of Commons to pay tribute to carers, and to urge that they receive more support in their caring roles. David said:
“A trip to the cinema, or even a full night’s sleep – these are luxuries for many of the thousands of carers in Aylesbury. I am supporting Carers Week and all those helping to raise awareness of carers, and their priceless contribution they make to our local community. I hope that as a result of Carers Week, many more carers will find out about services and support that exist to help them.
John Stapleton, who has cared for both his wife and his mother, said:
“Working without pay and often with little recognition – many carers give up their lives as they once knew them, but never give up on caring. They are not the forgotten few, but the forgotten millions. This Carers Week let’s speak up for carers – let’s not leave them isolated and lonely, financially, physically and emotionally broke. Let’s start caring for the carers, give them back a life of their own.”
I do get more than a little fed up with incessant stories in the media about young people getting into trouble. Yes of course this goes on but I just wish that we saw people coverage of all those charitable and other voluntary initiatives in which young men and women are playing a vital and constructive role.
So I was really pleased to be in Southcourt on Friday night for me official opening of the Southcourt Studios. This is all grown out of an initiative by Aylesbury Vale Youth for Christ to find out what was lacking in terms of leisure and recreational facilities for young people in our area. It what is so great about the AVYFC project is that they are not just for young people; young people are active partners in making things happen. First came the youth cafes in various parts of Aylesbury and now the Southcourt Studios which provide a chance to young people to compose and perform music in a dedicated facility. There was a tremendous buzz on Friday evening and Dave Rollins, Gary Mullins and their team have every right to feel very proud of what they have achieved.
If you want to see more, including me wearing a hoodie(!!) have a look at the report filmed by Bucks TV here.
Last week was very much RAF week. On the Monday morning I began the working week with a visit to Halton Primary School, just outside Wendover. About three quarters of the children who go to Halton are from RAF families. This causes a number of challenges for the school. For a start, fathers (and in these days mothers too) can be posted at very short notice, meaning frequent family moves. The headteacher told me that she had lost about 10 children in December 2009 as a result of postings. She knew that, given the law of averages, they would probably be replaced by a similar number of children from RAF families newly posted into Halton but the problem she faced was that the census date for schools, the date at which pupil numbers are used to calculate a school’s budget entitlement, fell in January while those school places were still vacant. The school therefore faced an immediate budget shortfall and would soon have to take on new pupils without the funding being available to support them.
Not surprisingly, service children often end up passing through a number of different state schools in a very short space of time. At Halton School, they can be taking in boys and girls who have perhaps attended three or four different primary schools in as many years. You can imagine the dislocation which those moves cause to a child’s education. Sometimes, a child might miss one part of the curriculum entirely because different schools teach it at a different point in a particular academic year.
For children with special educational needs, it is not always straightforward to ensure that an assessment and the resources to support particular forms of assistance are transferred from one education authority or one school to another. It’s hard enough to make this happen within England. When a child moves in to Bucks from Scotland, Northern Ireland or from an RAF station overseas, the problems can be worse. I am going to take this point up with education ministers.
But it wasn’t all bad news. The reason that the school invited me to visit them was to help celebrate their success in obtaining recognition of be special demands placed on them by the large number of service children at Halton. Bucks County Council has agreed to pay an additional sum of money per pupil to Halton School and to Walters Ash School ( which serves RAF High Wycombe). Musician, Paulton school has been able to secure funding from a number of different sources for a mobility officer to provide support to service children and ensure that information about their school records and their educational needs has been properly collated. Academic standards at Halton School are on the up and be staff and governors seemed enthusiastic and very determined to improve the school’s reputation further.
Two days later, I was in Walters Ash. Not to visit the school but to spend a couple of hours at RAF High Wycombe. I first called on Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Moran, commander-in-chief of Air Command. We chatted about the role of the RAF in our defence policy, Afghanistan and nuclear deterrence. Whichever political party forms the government after the next general election will need to undertake an urgent and thorough review not just of Britain’s defence but of our broader national security strategy. It seems to me to be essential that we do a great deal more to integrate our defence, diplomatic and development policies and so that once the government collectively has agreed on a particular policy, every minister knows what they are signed up to and what their department is expected to provide. We should never make foreign policy commitments about the deployment of British forces unless we are willing to ensure that the service men and women concerned are properly equipped and kitted out for that task.
I then went down the road for a meeting with group Captain Tony Radcliffe, station commander of RAF High Wycombe. I suspect that he has more very senior officers on his station then any other RAF local commander! We talked about the integration of civilian and contracted staff with uniformed personnel, about service housing and social and recreational facilities. It was good to hear that some of the rather dilapidated service quarters have been done up but disappointing to learn that the station’s antiquated gym still hasn’t been replaced. I remember this being raised with me as an issue by RAF personnel more than 10 years ago. Of course they problem is that when money is tight all three services, quite naturally and rightly, give priority to the people in the front line ahead of those back home.
Despite all the budgetary pressures, what impresses me every time I talk to the RAF (and I am sure that this applies in the other two services as well) is their can do attitude. Officers and other ranks are usually pretty straight with me over what’s going wrong but they then work on the basis that while they might want certain things to change they will also do their utmost to make the best of the circumstances in which they find themselves. It’s a pretty good principle by which to live.
David at Aylesbury College Question Time.
In the picture (from left to right) John Bercow MP, Ben Wilmshurst (Student), High Sheriff Allan Westry, Principal Pauline Odulinski, Police Officer Sergeant Steve Laws and David Lidington MP
On 9th February, David Lidington and John Bercow were on the panel of two ‘Question Time’ events at Aylesbury College on Friday. In the second annual event for students, Allan Westray, High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, Steve Laws from Thames Valley Police and Pauline Odulinski, Principal of Aylesbury College joined with Mr Bercow, MP for Buckingham and Speaker of the House of Commons and Mr Lidington, MP for Aylesbury, in answering a range of questions from over 50 pupils of local schools and students from the College.
In a lively hour and a half, the topics ranged from electoral reform to selective schools, including EU membership, HE fees and MPs salaries. There was widespread agreement on the panel on a number of issues, and a number of key points were acknowledged by the MPs for them to take away and consider.
The panel then attended a buffet lunch in Hardings restaurant, meeting members of the local business community, concluding with another question and answer session, being joined by Graham Grover, Chief Executive of the Buckinghamshire Economic and Learning Partnership.
The questions were equally challenging, although more focussed on the economy and the local needs for growth. Much was made of the prospective election and potential change of Government, with Mr Bercow fastidiously maintaining his impartiality.
At the end of the session, the MPs were unanimous in their praise for the College, not just for the days’ events, but for the continuous improvements it has made in the past decade to make it a community asset to be proud of.
David signing the 2010 Holocaust Memorial Book
To find out more visit the Holocaust Educational Trust’s website here.
