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My week in review

Posted by Kate Green, MP for Stretford and Urmston, at 10:06, Fri 20 January 2012:

Last week, I was privileged to make a visit to the Sexual Assault Referral Centre at St Mary’s.

This SARC, established in 1986, was the model for similar centres opened across the country under Labour. It provides support, medical advice, and counselling to victims of sexual assault, as well as carrying out forensic examinations to support criminal investigations. Many of the victims it sees are children. I was immensely impressed with the dedication, professionalism and compassion of the staff I met there.

On the same day, Vera Baird QC, who chairs the Women's Safety Commission, and I met a number of local organisations who provide support and services to women who’ve been victims of sexual violence.

We were very depressed at what we heard: chaos in commissioning because of changes at the NHS and cuts in local authority funding, grant funding slashed (Trafford’s refuge faces a 50% cut in its Supporting People grant), worries about cuts to police numbers (especially as crime figures announced this week show personal crime’s on the increase again, after years when it was falling under Labour), even local councils switching off the street lights at night to save money – leaving women, and men, feeling unsafe when they’re out and about at night.

The meeting in Manchester was the first of a series of such meetings we’ll be holding around the country to hear evidence of threats to women’s safety. We’ll be publishing our report of what we discover, and proposals from Labour to improve personal safety, in early March.

Back in Westminster this week, I followed up one of the concerns that had been raised at the meeting with the women’s organisations when I asked Ministers what steps they’re taking to ensure that schools have responsibility for educating children and young people that violence and abuse against women and girls is unacceptable - in any circumstances.

Minister Tim Loughton told me the government take this issue seriously, but the truth is he won’t put any obligation on schools to get the message across.

Yet we know many girls (and boys) experience bullying and assaults, and that too many young people of both sexes think it can be appropriate for a boy to hit his girlfriend.

There’s a huge job to do to educate both boys and girls that such behaviour’s simply unacceptable. I’m disappointed at Ministers’ hands-off response.

More happily, on the subject of schools, it was a huge pleasure to welcome a group from Flixton Girls High school to parliament this week. They've been working on a project called “Send my sister to school” which calls for every girl in developing countries to be able to go to school, and they came to see an exhibition in parliament featuring their work.

This is such an important campaign, since we know that if girls get an education, their families, communities and countries prosper. I am very proud that Flixton Girls have been involved.

And even more on schools – I attended the inaugural meeting of the all-party parliamentary group on school food this week. Let me tell you - if you’ve got bad memories of school dinners, this meeting would have opened your eyes.

Schools have been producing imaginative, healthy food thanks to the work of the School Food Trust and nutritional standards for school meals introduced under Labour. But the all-party group heard concerns about standards not being applied to free schools and academies, and uncertainty about future eligibility for free school meals.

We agreed we’d campaign together on these issues. After all, a child who goes to school hungry isn’t in a good state to learn.

I was also glad to have the chance to participate in a debate on privatisation in the NHS this week. The government proposes to allow up to 49% of NHS provision to be reserved for private patients.

I think that’s plain wrong. I’m sure it’s not what local people or NHS staff want. No wonder the Royal College of Nursing announced this week that it’s totally opposed to the government’s NHS bill.

Later in the week, I was able to raise another issue of concern to local people, when I asked the Minister for the Environment about the impact on air quality of biomass emissions.

The UK government remains in breach of EU law on pollution, and I wanted to know what actions Ministers plan to take.

Biomass emissions are a cause for concern, especially for residents of Flixton, Urmston and Davyhulme, who are near the site of the proposed Barton biomass plant. I’ll continue to press for answers from government Ministers to the concerns that have been raised.

So there has been lots going on in parliament this week – and two shocking examples of bad behaviour in the chamber too. On Wednesday, David Cameron described Dennis Skinner as a dinosaur –shameful behaviour from the Prime Minister, who surely ought to set an example of good manners in parliament. And on Thursday, a Tory Minister accused Green MP Caroline Lucas of being hysterical – would he ever have said that about a man?

We see way too much of this disrespectful, insulting behaviour from the Tories. It isn’t funny, in fact I think it’s disgraceful, demeaning, and quite simply rude.

Back in my office, meantime, we’re very happy to welcome new member of staff Kate Bell to my team. Kate’s working as a researcher, specialising in supporting me in my role as the shadow spokesperson on equalities. She’s based in the Westminster office, working with us one day a week.

But she’s keen to make a visit to the constituency, and will be coming along to my annual FairTrade coffee morning in Urmston at the beginning of March.

Do let me know if you’d like an invitation to this event. Kate and Rebecca from the London office, along with Alex, Carl and Tom, who are based in the Urmston office, will all be there (and I’m hoping Tom and Carl will repeat their baking efforts from last year). We’d love to see you there and have the chance to say hello. Please let me know if you’d like to come along.

Best Wishes

Kate

p.s. Don’t forget to check out my new look website- www.kategreen.org.