My week in Westminster began with the exceptionally moving National Ceremony marking Holocaust Memorial Day (pictured), which including contributions from both those who survived the Nazi Holocaust, and also those who survived later genocides such as Srebrenica. If you haven't yet had a chance to watch this it is available on iPlayer at https://www.bbc.co.uk/…/epi…/m000dtcs/holocaust-memorial-day
I had a couple of opportunities to speak in the Chamber during the week - firstly supporting the Government's changes to early release during a debate on Tuesday, and secondly asking about public transport in Newcastle-under-Lyme at Transport Questions on Thursday. Please see my previous Facebook posts for further details.
In addition to many other meetings with media, charities, Ministers and colleagues, I was also invited to a dinner on Wednesday with BBC executives and another 8 or so fellow new Conservative MPs. This, like many such meetings in Westminster, was held under what is known as the "Chatham House Rule" which means that I can report broadly what was said but not who said it - this might sound a bit odd but it does make for much better and franker discussion (see https://www.chathamhouse.org/chatham-house-rule for further detail and explanation).
Listening to views around the table, it was clear that whilst we all appreciated the value of the BBC around the world - both as a cultural export and through the World Service and other journalistic features, there was significant concern about (a) the future of the licence fee, in a world where so many now get their content online; and (b) the difficulty in providing journalistic balance, connected to the temptation for every interview to become a search for a "gotcha" moment. This is something that seems to have been driven both by social media (especially Twitter) and of course the political polarisation we have had in recent years, through both Brexit and the Scottish referendum.
My Friday was spent in the constituency, meeting with, amongst others, the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) for North Staffordshire. I know the internal structures of the NHS can be confusing but essentially this is a GP-led organisation that is responsible for making decisions about most of the Health Services across the region, including the Royal Stoke. They hold regular meetings with the local MPs so that we can feed in constituents' concerns and also relay the CCG's concerns to Health Ministers. You can read more about the CCG and their structure here: https://www.northstaffsccg.nhs.uk/you…/who-we-are-what-we-do
Royal Stoke University Hospital is unfortunately lumped with a PFI deal, from the last Labour government, which costs around £15 million a year to simply service the debt. This is money that could be spent on staff, beds and equipment. Along with my colleagues from Stoke-on-Trent, I am pushing the Department of Health to buy out this PFI contract so that more money can reach the front line and improve outcomes for patients.
Finally, on Friday evening, we had a modest celebration at Wolstanton Conservative Club, both to thank my supporters for all their help in the General Election and also to mark the 11pm moment when we formally left the European Union.
With warm regards,
Aaron