After many welcome weeks in the constituency over the summer I returned to Parliament to a string of historic milestones: Tributes to Her Majesty on becoming the longest serving monarch, 3 heated debates on the Syrian refugee crisis, the Assisted Dying Bill, Harriet Harmans’ last Prime Ministers Question Time and the election of new Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
I had my own personal milestone too – securing my first PMQ! With the plight of the agricultural industry across Taunton Deane and nationally coming to a head through demonstrations in local supermarkets and in Europe I decided to focus my question on this issue. I’ve met with many farmers recently to discuss the devastation caused by prices in the lamb, beef, arable and dairy sectors falling below the cost of production. It’s not just the farmers themselves whose livelihoods are at risk, many jobs in rural areas rely on a buoyant farm sector as does the management of the countryside.
In response to the serious situation for milk producers in particular the Effra (Environment, Food, Farming and Rural Affairs) Select Committee, of which I am a member, called an emergency inquiry into the dairy sector last week to understand the causes of the crisis and to find a way forward. Interestingly Farm Minister George Eustace gave assurances that evidence indicates the industry is set to expand by 2 ½ % soon. In the meantime farmers need support to weather the storm until then.
The PMs comprehensive reply to my question seeking assurance to this effect was comprehensive, referring to the £500m European package to help dairy farmers, the Grocery Code Adjudicator working to get a fairer deal with supermarkets and taking steps to make sure we do more to encourage public authorities to procure British food.
The debate on the Assisted Dying Bill proved a stark contrast to PMQs. Held on a Friday, the turn out was apparently unprecedented and being a free vote and apolitical the cross party interaction was a welcome diversion, being informed, feisty and at times deeply moving to boot. My post bag on both sides of this issue was significant and as promised I listed with an open mind and heart. Eventually the bill was defeated unanimously by 330 to 118.
What this debate did highlight was the need for much better palliative and end of life care. Perhaps it also did us the service of getting us all to talk about death and how we deal with it. Not the jolliest of notes to end on but unavoidable!
