Gisela Stuart MPWorking hard for Bartley Green, Edgbaston, Harborne and Quinton

Last Post finds an echo in Brum // November 20th, 2009 // Speeches, Articles and Interviews

Afghanistan and remembering those who have given their lives or been injured serving their country dominates the week.

Friday 6 November

Friday, particularly when it’s an advice surgery weekend is hectic. There are lighter moments though. Having taken up the case of a constituent who had her car clamped and towed away, the clamping operator asked to see me. He felt his profession had a bad reputation which it didn’t deserve.  I know how he feels, so I agree to see him.

Having paid for two hours parking late on a Saturday evening, my constituent arrived 20 minutes later only to find the car had been towed away. The release cost short of £400, an extra hour on the parking ticket would have cost £1.00. He thought he was being reasonable, and that fines would be pointless. I didn’t.  No meeting of minds and no reputations restored. Now he knows how I feel. 

In the afternoon I talk to the cadets at King Edward School. My time with the Royal Navy in the summer certainly had opened my eyes and I thought it worth sharing what I’d learnt. They wanted to know more about Afghanistan. Why we are there, whether we can win and whether our troops had the equipment they needed. All fair points.

Walking round the school ground I mention that I’d never been inside the Chapel. What an eye opener! Pugin and Barrie had built a miniature Westminster in Birmingham. When the school re-located to the Edgbaston site they reconstructed the chapel. If we ever need a location for an English Parliament, I couldn’t think of a better venue.

In the evening we start early with the surgery as a queue started to build up. Some of the cases should be dealt with by councillors but aren’t - others need to be taken up at government level.  I am struck by the number of cases where the root of the problem, are not the rules, but their pedantic interpretation.  Some agencies seem to have a blank where common sense should kick in.

Saturday 7 November

It’s a sad day for the city as the last daily edition of the Birmingham Post is published.  From now on it’s a weekly paper published on Thursday and the Mail will become a morning paper.  I’m not convinced the newspaper proprietors have fully grasped the fact  that without good journalists, they won’t have papers people want to buy!

There are three more surgeries on Saturday morning. At the Quinborne Centre we take photos for the website. On 24^th November people in the Midlands will get a chance to vote for their favourite lottery application. I want them to vote for Quinborne!

In the evening I take the family to a concert at the CBSO.  Janine Jansen is the soloist for Sibelius’ Violin Concerto and she is a star!

Sunday 8 November

Remembrance Sunday is more poignant than it’s been for years.  The last survivors of WW1 have gone and the battlefield of Afghanistan creates new casualties on an almost daily basis.  The church is filled with families and young and old alike.  This is how it should be.

The church warden wonders why my name isn’t on the parish electoral register.  I explain that as a Catholic I don’t qualify.  She muses that as the church had been a Catholic Church well before it became Church of England I was welcome.  “And the way things are going” she says “it might well be Catholic again before you know it”.

Monday 9 November

The last week before the Queens Speech, so business is essentially dealing with Lords Amendments.  Votes are unpredictable and I settle down to work in the office waiting for the bell to go.

I’m on the Koenigswinter Steering Committee.  We organise an annual conference bringing together politicians, businessmen and opinion formers from the UK and Germany.  It seems right that we should meet on the day when we celebrate 20 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  There is now a whole generation of young people out there who regard the Cold War as a piece of history.  I wonder whether they realise how remarkable it was that the wall came down without a single shot being fired.

Tuesday 10 November

I have a Home Office Civil servant with me for the day as part of the Industry and Parliament Trust scheme.  Our first meeting is with a young student from Prague who is writing about “joined up government under the Blair administration”.  It was useful to have a civil servant with me, who was much better at explaining how we work across departments than I would have been.

My adjournment debate in Westminster Hall is about the Royal Centre of Defence Medicine in Birmingham.  I asked for the debate because I’ve become frustrated by the inaccurate newspaper reports.  Julie Moore the Chief Executive of UHBT and Brigadier Chris Parker have done an extraordinary job bringing together the best of the NHS and the best of defence medical services for the benefit of our armed forces.  They focus on optimal medical care, but that cuts no ice with papers like The Sun.  Using injured soldiers and distressed families to increase circulation or score party political points is unacceptable.  We all ought to know that.

Just before I leave my office for Westminster Hall, clutching my speech hoping not to be late, the phone rings. “Is that Gisela?” the voice is unmistakable, it’s Denis Healey.  He liked last week’s copy of the House Magazine and the coverage of his Lifetime Award.  I’m so glad.

Wednesday 11 November

A pile of letters, e mails and invitations await me.  I work my through them, observe the two minute silence and watch the service from Westminster Abbey on the television.

In the afternoon I meet a specialist on electromagnetic pulse attacks.  He’s convinced me that protecting the electricity grid and other infrastructure systems should be a government priority.  Need to find out more and see if the Foreign Affairs Committee can look into this.

Prime Minister’s Question is later than usual as party leaders quite rightly attended the memorial service.

I make several phone calls to prepare for a piece I’m doing for BBC’s You and Yours.  Pinewood Studios had their planning application for expansion turned down and I am hoping we can get them to Birmingham.  We have the skilled workforce and the space for re-location; alas Pinewood is not  yet keen on the idea.  We’ll just have to keep working on them!

The Foreign Affairs Committee takes evidence on the special relationship.  Are we really America’s best friend?  As always, the story is more complicated, as Dr David Dunn from Birmingham University who was one of our witnesses explains to us.  Later in the session the question arises whether we were right to have taken on a whole geographical region like Helmand, or whether we would be better off focusing on a particular function.  It’s an idea worth pursuing.

Thursday 12 November

I’m feeling sorry for myself. I am missing the official opening of the German Christmas market in Birmingham because there are still potential votes in the Commons.  Hard to believe, but the largest German Christmas market, which attracted almost 200 000 visitors from Germany and the Netherlands last year, is held in Birmingham.  I can vouch that the Gluehwein, the sausages, the pretzels and the Lebkuchen are authentic!

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