Posted on 2019-09-19 | 11:43

Parliamentary Report 

Dear Colleague  

I am setting out my Parliamentary Report which deals with a number of issues which have come up over the last few months, and others which are going to come up in the coming months. 

 Brexit  

Brexit continues to dominate the whole parliamentary agenda and has done so since the beginning of the year. Theresa May tried four times to get her deal through the House of Commons but she failed on each occasion and this resulted in her being forced to set a timetable for her departure. Since then we had the unedifying campaign to elect a new leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister and this resulted in the election of Boris Johnson. Immediately on taking office he appointed a very right-wing cabinet full of “no deal brexiteers” and he then commenced a tour around the UK throwing money around like confetti. It now appears this was a precursor to calling a general election. The position that he and his Government have taken on Brexit is that the UK will leave the EU on the 31st October, whether a deal is agreed or not and his negotiating position with other members of the EU revolves entirely around scrapping the “backstop.” Up until now the EU have refused to shift on this but if the UK leaves the EU without a deal then it was made clear by Theresa May, and reaffirmed by Boris Johnson, that no border controls between Northern Ireland and the Republic will be imposed. Until now the Irish Government have also said that they will not impose border controls but if this is the case then the European Commission will have to step in and impose their own border controls on goods and people travelling across the border. Alternatively, they will have to have border controls on mainland Europe otherwise the EUs Customs Union will be undermined. However, Parliament has now legislated against “no deal” and instructed the Government to ask the EU for an extension until 31st January if a deal is not agreed by the 19th October. On these votes that took place in Parliament on the 3rd and 4th September I voted in accordance with the majority wishes of my constituents with Labour and other opposition parties to take “no deal” off the table. I will continue to take this line because I recognise that around two thirds of the people in Hall Green voted to remain within the EU. It is now totally unclear what is going to happen next. The Government has prorogued parliament so it will not be sitting until the second week of October when a new “Queen’s Speech” will be introduced setting out the Governments programme. Parliament has already said that if a deal is not agreed by the 19th October then the Prime Minister should seek an extension until the 31st January but, Boris Johnson is adamant that the UK will be leaving the EU on the 31st October. The Government has lost its majority, even with the support of the DUP, in parliament and, therefore, it would seem inevitable that a general election will take place. 

Climate Change  

In late April the Labour opposition put forward a vote in Parliament to declare a National Environmental and Climate Change Emergency. Climate Change has moved up the political agenda, both in the UK and other industrialised countries. This has been brought about by a number of natural disasters that are directly related to Climate Change and also because of the campaigning efforts of activists such as Greta Thunberg, the 16 year old Swedish schoolgirl whose “one person demonstration” has both inspired and galvanised others like the Extinction Rebellion movement whose direct action campaigns I support. The vote in Parliament was carried overwhelmingly because the Government knew that it would be defeated had it tried to oppose. 

 HS2 

As colleagues know I have been a fierce opponent of the building of HS2 and voted against its construction. It now appears that the Government are also having second thoughts, despite £9 billion having already been spent and I very much welcome this review. From the beginning I always felt the economic and business case for its construction was flawed and I thought it would end up massively over budget. This has proven to be the case to such an extent that neither the HS2 company, or the Government will admit to what the projected costs are now going to be. The idea that £32 billion should be spent on enabling business people to travel from Birmingham to London, and vice versa, half an hour quicker never made sense and just about every businessperson I spoke to, who did not have a vested interest in the project, said that this amount of money could be spent in far better ways. I have always said that the money would be better spent on improving transport connectivity between east and west in the country and the building of an underground or other similar transit system in Birmingham. This would bring huge benefits to the city and would provide even more jobs in the West Midlands than are going to be provided by building the vanity project that is HS2. Incidentally, in order to try and contain the costs, it has now been suggested that the speed of the trains could be reduced which undermines the whole premise under which the project was sold! 

Local and European Elections 

The local elections which were held in May were a disaster for the Conservatives who lost over 1000 seats but were not good for Labour either. As time had passed and the Government had became more chaotic, the main opposition party should have been gaining seats on council’s up and down the country but, unfortunately, the Labour Party also ended up with a net loss of seats. The European elections were always going to be difficult for both ourselves and the Conservatives because nobody had thought they were going to take place however, they turned into a catastrophe for ourselves and the Conservatives. The only winners were the new Brexit Party of Nigel Farage and the Liberal Democrats who picked up a lot of votes from Labour remain voters. 

Air Pollution Alert on the BBC  

I raised with the BBC the need for air pollution reports to be incorporated into their weather broadcasts because an increasing number of people are suffering from asthma and Birmingham has, regrettably, been identified as having one of the worst pollution levels in the country. I had a response from Tony Hall the Director General which can be viewed at rogergodsiffmp.co.uk in which he recognised the need to incorporate alerts for “high incidents of pollution” into weather forecasts on TV and radio. He said that they intended to include more air quality data in their broadcasts at national and, possibly, local level. 

 Support for Birmingham Taxi Drivers 

Birmingham’s black cab drivers are protesting as a consequence of being forced to pay Birmingham City Council’s Clean Air Charge, while simultaneously carrying the bulk of the cost of ensuring their cabs meet the council’s clean air objectives. I tabled an EDM supporting the black cab drivers and calling for additional financial support to be made available to fund the cost of converting vehicles and for an extension of the deadline beyond the end of this year. 

 National School Breakfast Programme 

I have met with representatives of the organisation running the National School Breakfast Programme. This is an excellent way of ensuring that children, particularly from poorer families, who cannot always provide an adequate breakfast are properly fed at school before they begin their days lessons. Two schools in the Hall Green Constituency are currently participating – Heathmount Primary School and Nelson Mandela School and I am urging other schools to also sign up for the programme. 

Sarehole Mill  

I have had meetings with the Birmingham Museums Trust who run the historic facility at Sarehole Mill where work is continuing to restore the historic machinery to full operation so that they can produce their own flour and bread on site. Unfortunately they have run into a problem because the government are currently considering a proposal to add folic acid to flour which is going to impact on Sarehole Mill and other small scale traditional mills who do not have sufficient budgets to invest in equipment to evenly distribute folic acid. On behalf of the Museums Trust I have written to Nicky Morgan and Theresa Villiers, the two ministers involved, to ask that an exemption be granted for traditional wheat and water mills producing less that a thousand tons of flour a year. 

Proton Beam Therapy and Schooling 

I have been working with the family of a child due to transfer to secondary school in September. He contracted a cancer which was suitable for treatment by Proton Beam Therapy and, as I have previously dealt with a constituent who had this treatment at a facility in the Czech Republic, I provided a prize – “Tea on the Terrace” as a part of their fund raising efforts to pay for the cost because the NHS does not pay for this treatment in the Czech Republic or Germany. I also pressed the Education Department at the City Council to allow him to go to a mainstream school, rather than a special need school, because he is a bright young child and the only reason he is behind in his work is because of treatment he has had to have, not because he has an ongoing disability. I am pleased to say that, after a lot of lobbying, a place was found for him at a mainstream secondary school and the parents and grandparents were enormously appreciative. 

 London Capital and Finance 

 A number of constituents have been affected by the collapse of London Capital and Finance which went into administration early in the year. More than 11,000 investors were affected, and they are owed £236 million. It is quite clear that there has been an appalling lack of regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and, bearing in mind the Serious Fraud Squad are involved, there is high likelihood that criminality has taken place. I have put down a large number of questions to the Treasury regarding the lack of proper regulation of this company and I also put down an EDM saying that the head of the FCA, Shaun Bailey, should not be considered for the position of Governor of the Bank of England, bearing in mind his organisation had failed lamentably to investigate LCF, despite the fact they were warned about its promotional activities more than three years ago. The FCA actually assisted in the deception of people because they gave part regulation to LCF for its promotional activities but not full regulation and therefore, LCF were able to advertise to potential investors that they were regulated by the FCA. I am pleased that the government, in view of the seriousness of the scandal, have appointed a high court judge to investigate exactly what has happened and I hope that my constituents who were affected will at least be able to get part of their money back. I also hope that those who ran the company like a “ponzi scheme” will be brought before the courts. 

 Debt and Loan Transparency  

I was one of the signatories to a letter to the Chancellor calling for loans, particularly to impoverished countries to be transparent and I am pleased that the Labour Party has committed itself in government to pass “an overseas loan transparency act” which will set up a public register of any loans made to a foreign government, including state owned enterprises. Any loans not disclosed on that register within 30 days will be unenforceable in British courts. 

 TV Licenses for Over 75s  

I have, together with a huge number of MP’s have made representations to the Government and BBC over the outrageous decision by the BBC to scrap the universal provision of free TV licences for over 75s households and to, instead, restrict them to certain categories who are in receipt of some kind of benefits. The Government, when it transferred responsibility to the BBC denied that it was doing so as a precursor to restricting the universality of free TV licenses to the over 75s, but this is exactly what has happened and it clearly demonstrates the total hypocrisy of the Government who were only too happy for the BBC to do “its dirty work!” 

 The Football Pools 

 Although the Football Pools are played much less regularly nowadays since the introduction of the National Lottery they are still played by 152 of my constituents in Hall Green. I was, therefore, happy to support the campaign to reduce the Pools duty to 10% in line with the same rate charged for bingo. 

 Rail Fares 

I was one of many MP’s who complained to the rail minister about the announcement by the train operating companies that rail fares will rise by 2.8% this coming January. This will mean that a season ticket between Birmingham and London Euston is projected to cost £11, 205 from January – a rise of £3188 since 2010. These latest rises demonstrate, once again, why our railways should be taken back into community or public ownership so that they can be run for benefit of the public and not private profit. A copy of the EDM that I submitted on this subject can be viewed at www.edm.parliament.uk and searching Roger Godsiff. 

 Balsall Heath Forum Site 

As many of you are aware the Balsall Heath Forum has been wound up. It was, for many years, only existing from hand to mouth and there have been many criticisms of poor management. My concern, and that of many local residents, is that the site , which is owned by the council, will now be sold for housing and I have strongly opposed this because Sparkbrook is one of the most congested areas in the city and the forum had built up a gardening offshoot which, if run properly, could be economically viable. It also provided a pleasant “haven” where people could go to escape the noise of the surrounding roads. I will continue to press the council to engage with a number of groups whose names I have passed onto the council who are prepared to takeover the running of the facility and bring both investment and managerial expertise into its running. 

 Kashmir 

Ever since being a Member of Parliament I have championed the rights of people in Kashmir, on both sides of the line of control, to determine their own future. I was, therefore, horrified by the decision of the Modi BJP Government to annex Indian held Kashmir and to incorporate it into the Indian state. This is a total betrayal of the Kashmiri people who were given the special status, under Article 370, when the then Maharaja opted for the state to join with India after the withdrawal of the British Raj. The decision to annex the Indian controlled part of Kashmir not only undermines the birth right of the Kashmiri people, who will lose their national flag and control over their domestic affairs, but will also mean that the provision that prohibits non Kashmiri’s from buying land in Kashmir will also be scrapped. I have attended and spoken at a number of rallies against the decision of the Indian Government to rescind Article 370 and I will bring the matter up in Parliament when it resumes. 

 Hong Kong 

I have written to the Foreign Office urging them to make representations to the Chinese Government about the way in which the protests in Hong Kong are being brutally suppressed. When the UK handed Hong Kong to the Chinese, there were special provision made to ensure that their way of life, including their democracy and various freedoms were preserved, but the new law being pressed by the Chinese Government to have extraditions to the mainland for people to be tried under Chinese law totally undermines these freedoms. I attended a meeting at the House of Commons where the representative of Carrie Lam the Chinese Government puppet chief executive, tried to blame the unrest on “local agitators” and I was pleased to be able to point out to her, along with others, that these were not “agitators” but people who did not want to lose, or have undermined, their democratic traditions. 

 Probation Service 

After five years of disastrous involvement of 21 private companies who were responsible for the supervision of 150,000 low to medium risk offenders the government has now bowed to the inevitable and brought the Probation Service back into full public ownership. This is yet another example of the Tory ideology of “privatise everything” even when there was never a logical case for the Probation Service to be privatised and all that has happened is that the service has drastically deteriorated, experienced staff have been cut, and the public purse has ended up paying for the private profit that these firms made. 

 Wes Streeting Letter 

 I added my name to a letter sent by Wes Streeting to the Ambassador, Dr Husam Zomlot the Head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, regarding the reports that the Palestinian Police had banned the LGBT rights group Al-Qaws from organising activities in the West Bank. A response was received from Dr Husam Zomlot who assured us that the Palestinian State did not “tolerate any form of discrimination.” He also said that the views expressed were not those of the Palestinian State but of the individual police spokesperson and that the “statement was immediately removed at the instruction of the government.” He went on to say that they have a firm commitment to ensuring that such forms of discrimination were not acceptable and were incompatible with the values of the Palestinian State. 

 Whirlpool Tumble Dryers 

Many of my constituents have Whirlpool tumble dryers and they were naturally alarmed when signs of fire occurred even after Whirlpool had modified their machines. I wrote to the Consumer Affairs Minister urging that Whirlpool should accept responsibility and take back these machines and I am pleased, at last, the government has agreed to take action to ensure Whirlpool take their obligations seriously. 

 We live in extremely unique and challenging times. The two-party system in the Westminster Parliament is well and truly broken and it is obvious that the “first past the post” system of elections can no longer fulfil its historic role of ensuring stable governance. I had always supported the “Alternative Vote,” which is a variation of the first past the post system, which ensures that every MP elected receives at least 50% plus one of the votes in their constituency. However, since seeing the chaos over the recent past I now believe that a system of proportional representation would be more reflective of the wishes of the electorate and although such a system would inevitably mean that there are coalition governments in the future, this has to be better than the totally “broken system” that we now have. I end by saying that I have no idea for certain what is going to happen over the next 6 weeks. 

 Kind regards

Roger Godsiff MP