This week is Armed Forces Week and I want to thank every constituent who is serving or has served in our Armed Forces. Coming from a military family, I know the sacrifices that you have made over the years but also the rewarding aspects of serving our country. I do a lot of work on defence issues and this week started with the Armed Forces Day Flag Raising Ceremony with the Military Wives Choir singing. This was followed by an afternoon meeting with Rick Haythornthwaite to discuss his review of Armed Forces Incentivisation.
At the meeting I was very clear with my views on career progression and human resources in the armed forces because I think we are letting down serving personnel. For instance, careers for the Army are managed remotely out of Glasgow. How does that help with individuals who may need more help and advice deciding on their career progression?
I have been banging on about this for years as I have seen it first-hand with my son, when he was in the army, and others and I am not impressed. This is a people-centred business and the human resources element is not good enough alongside accommodation, catering and other issues that crop up through my visits on the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme.
On Wednesday I spoke in a debate about Veterans UK - the body that looks after pensions and the armed forces compensation scheme - about how the service is being let down by the lack of digitalisation. This has meant months of delay receiving paper records before decisions can be made. There is progress on this but long overdue. Sadly, I was speaking about it in 2018 when I was the SE Regional Chairman of the Veterans Advisory and Pension Committee.
The other big event on Monday was the vote on the Privileges Committee’s report concerning Boris Johnson. Although the sanction may have been a little harsh, the report was sound and I accepted the findings and voted for the report. It was a thorough report. It was disappointing that Boris, who had been happy with the progress of the committee over the last year, then decided that it was not acceptable. Harriet Harman had asked Boris’ Chief Whip if he was happy that she continued to chair this inquiry and was assured that they were, so any criticism of her on political grounds is not acceptable.
As backbenchers, we need to be sure we are not being misled in the Chamber as we are making extremely important decisions impacting on our constituents. We must be assured that what we are being told is correct especially as we have to explain the government's position in public. I am grateful to all constituents who have written to me on this subject, including those who backed Boris. I served in Boris’ government as a PPS and backed him on his policies – I particularly liked our levelling up agenda - but we cannot be misled.
On Tuesday, we looked at teacher recruitment and retention in the Education Select Committee. It is not a happy picture. This is so disappointing as teaching is a crucial role for our society and we need the best people to become teachers. In the afternoon I sat alongside my colleague, Sir Oliver Heald, as I helped to sponsor a Ten-Minute Rule Bill on helping parents who have children in hospital.
One of my children spent four weeks in Winchester’s Royal Hampshire County Hospital when he was six, but fortunately we lived 400 yards from the hospital so did not have that added pressure and expense of car parks and where to stay. My belief is this Bill will help parents and carers.
On Wednesday, I met some of the Afghan girls/women’s football team. They are based in Doncaster but FIFA are not recognising them as a team so they came in to ask for our help. Some of them still have parents in Afghanistan and are missing them desperately. One player had been offered a place at three football clubs but had injured herself and needed treatment. It was incredibly sad as they are all feeling the strain of being in another country without the usual family support and there were tears all round.
It was lovely to see constituents at the Friends of the South Downs Centenary celebrations in Parliament and congratulations to all the work that they do promoting the South Downs and campaigning for it to be preserved.
I also had a meeting with the Minister to discuss an upcoming Bill - the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas) Bill. This is to prevent public bodies making investment or procurement decisions based on boycotting other countries. I have grave reservations about the Bill on many grounds, including the fact that I believe that public bodies should be allowed to decide where they want to invest their pension funds. Israel, the Occupied Territories and the Occupied Golan Heights have been put in a separate category and I am challenging that too. There are many other backbenchers with the same concerns so I hope that we can amend this Bill or prevent it from going further.
There was an opposition debate on Animal Welfare and I voted for an amendment rather than Labour’s motion. We have some of the best animal welfare standards and continue to improve on them where necessary. I receive a lot of emails on animal welfare and can assure people that we are taking it very seriously. If you are interested, I can send you more detail on the list of policies we have put in place.
Today I visited Hart Plain Junior School and took part in the BBC South politics show which goes out on Sunday morning.
Have a great weekend.
