Students at Worthing College came with Matthew Crawley to tour and learn about the Palace of Westminster. Matt has engaged successive generations in history and politics. Three in their group have had work experience with my office team. Another has helpfully moved on to a permanent role after being an intern. Over the years, many people who were at college locally have gone on to serve constituents with dedication and skill as members of my caring team.
We discussed the purposes of medicine: help prevent illness, cure those you can and care for those who must live with a condition. The purposes of politics are to reduce avoidable disadvantage, distress and handicap while trying to help increase well-being, a mix of wealth and welfare.
Health matters to all. When walking between the station and our home near Worthing Town Hall, after passing the new HMRC offices, I admire the nearly completed NHS ‘campus’, Worthing’s Integrated Care Centre, a welcome partnership between the Borough Council and the health services, with support from central Government, in the interests of residents who can also be patients and carers for others.
The encouragement to eat well, stay well and live well remain in my memory from opening the Strand Medical premises between Durrington station and The Strand. Clinicians and their support staff proclaim that quality health matters. A former member of their staff now works with me.
In past days I met the team at Worthing-based Bluecrest Wellness. Through employers and direct to individuals they provide health checks. Think of MOTs for people. Health and public health are best served by everyone doing what they can, often in partnership. My NHS Covid booster jab was administered at a pharmacy near work. From the beginning of the NHS, family doctors were independent contractors.
The systems often need attention. Dentistry is a current issue. I am asking for another meeting with the Minister on the Dental Recovery Plan; there are still local problems. Taxpayer funding for the NHS is now rightly more than twice as high a proportion of national income as in the 1990s.
Employment levels in the constituency are holding up. The shocks of the pandemic together with the fuel price contributed to an inflation spike It has been a challenge to reduce inflationary pressures without devastating loss of jobs. In the constituency there are now just about as many employed as there were in March 2020. Employment advisers, DWP and independent contractors, help people into work and make possible a smooth transition from full-time education at College and University into professional employment. Latest figures show the constituency claimant count has not risen in the past month or year for people over or under 18.
There are long-term trends in breaking down the barriers to a genuinely representative democratic parliament. I try to meet each year with the Centenary Action group formed six years ago to continue the challenge of making Parliament work for women. I advocate achieving votes at 16: that would make 18 ½ rather than 20 ½ the average age of first participating in a general election. The main conflicting arguments against are that young people do not want the vote – try telling that to my Worthing College visitors!
BBC Newsnight recorded an interview on why I believe it is environmentally wrong and economically unjustified to continue massive subsidies to burn wood pellets from North America in the former coal-burning Drax power station in Yorkshire. It aired on Tuesday with good reception.
When MPs are given or take the opportunity of a free vote, the description is conventionally a matter of ‘conscience’. Young people, like those visiting from Worthing College, will expect our politicians to vote with their conscience on matters to do with the environment or public health. We want all, young and old, to work well, stay well and live well.
