During my parliamentary service, a member of parliament has been assassinated every seven years on average. Airey Neave, a Colditz hero, working with Margaret Thatcher on Northern Ireland, was blown up in 1979 at the House of Commons. Close by, I heard the explosion.
More recent deaths include the remarkable Jo Cox, MP for Batley and Spen. She was killed during the 2016 Referendum Campaign. The murder of animal-loving Sir David Amess followed. We worked together in support of fire safety in homes and flats. Some colleagues understandably cite security as a partial cause for retirement from parliamentary life.
There are risks and security worries for MPs and peers, their families and their staff and agents. The threats to us are generally less than those faced by psychiatric social workers and paramedics, members of the emergency services including RNLI crew and of course every member of our armed forces.
Journalists are critical to democracy, not just in war zones. In the Gaza Strip more than 100 journalists are reported to have been killed. Their work is remarkable in bringing light to the bloodshed of innocent lives in Gaza and Israel.
I have known remarkable people in the Worthing West constituency. Women and men involved in special operations and intelligence during the Second World War and since did not generally talk about the necessary courage, determination and ingenuity. It took fifty years for my father to explain the details of how scouting behind enemy lines caused his chin to be shot away and his lung shot through. He was young at the time.
Alexei Navalny was twice his age when he died aged 47. His fight for Russia extended over nearly two decades. An opposition leader to President Putin, he had been an anti-corruption activist. In effect he volunteered to become a political prisoner, returning from Germany where he recovered from Novichok nerve agent poisoning. In 2011 he described Putin’s United Russia as a “party of crooks and thieves”.
The number of people detained in Russia simply for taking part in commemorative events honouring Alexei Navalny was 387 at the time of writing this article. The number will increase. His widow Yulia Navalnaya met European foreign ministers in Brussels, continuing her husband’s anti-corruption campaign. “The main thing we can do for Alexei and for ourselves is to continue to fight.” She asks us to share rage, anger and hatred for those who dare to destroy the future of others.
With others, I want sustainable peace in Gaza and Israel. Simple demands to bring about peace and an end to the bloodshed include the release of hostages, a credible plan for a two-state solution, support for a new Palestinian Government without the terrorist influence of Hamas, and a vast increase in humanitarian aid and medical support on the ground.
In Israel, I would demand that necessary action to deal with the Hamas organisation take account of the lives, not just basic humanitarian needs, of those fleeing from place to place within the ever-shrinking territory.
A group of active constituents have informed me that to date, more children have been killed in Gaza than the entire primary school population in Worthing. Every day this figure increases.
Many constituents have signed petitions calling for greater work to release the hostages still held by Hamas, to ramp up the delivery of humanitarian aid to the innocent civilians caught up in the conflict, and to bring an end to the violence and bloodshed. They can have confidence that I support calls for peace.
Do not expect MPs, including me, to vote on every motion proposed within Parliament.
Speaking to residents across Worthing and Arun, including most recently when out with Cllr Russ Cochran and Cllr Sean McDonald in Northbrook, they expect me to support the important work of the Foreign Secretary. We share in appreciating his realistic and effective diplomatic efforts to bring about an urgent end to the conflict and a realistic plan for peace.
Do expect me to work behind the scenes for an effective United Nations approach to Russia, for Ukraine, for Palestinians and for Israel’s existence. With democracy, accountability and representation comes peace.
