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Should we ban all advertising of junk food before the watershed?
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- Visiting the Falklands
Have you ever visited a military cemetery? In the United States on 4th July every grave, including those from the civil war, are decorated with an American flag. In France and Belgium military cemeteries stretch for miles and often have large monuments recording names of those without a grave from the two world wars. Only since the Falklands war of 1982 have families of those who die in war had the opportunity to bring military personnel home for burial. Standing last week in the war cemetery in San Carlos Bay looking at the war graves and monument to those who...
- What has China to do with the forthcoming European elections?
What has China to do with the forthcoming European elections? Your first reaction may be to talk about trade and the growing imports of cheap clothing and white goods. The answer is the Shanghai Cooperation agreement. You may never have heard of it. It is however why the European elections are important to you. To understand the link you need to go back in time to Harold Macmillan and 1956. An important year 1956; it brought the Suez Crisis and the joining together of six European countries to form the Coal and Steel Community. In 1957 the Treaty of Rome...
- Children Falling Through the Devolution Gap
CHILDREN FALLING THROUGH THE DEVOLUTION GAP The age of criminal responsibly in Britain is 10; the average around Europe is between 14 and 16, and we have of the highest rates of custody for children. Drug, alcohol and mental health problems are rising with 85% of children in prison showing signs of a personality disorder and one in ten showing signs of a psychotic illness. Children in prison are 18 times more likely to suicide than children in the community. HMP Parc and YOI in Bridgend, was opened in 2002 and has 64 places, enabling young offenders to serve their...
- Welcoming Pakistan to Bridgend.
 We take our
democracy so much for granted. We have forgotten how many
freedoms are newly won, and how hard we worked for
them. Universal male
suffrage, introduced in 1918, was to enable all soldiers returning
from the front to have the right to vote for the first time. The
vote was also granted for the first time to women over 30; women
only having the right to vote at 21, the same age as men, in
1928.
We have
forgotten that the 1944 Education Act brought access to free
secondary education for everyone up to the age of 15 for the first
time, opening up opportunities to women and to...
- Immigration
Immigration
is a topic full of fear, anxiety, misinformation and
prejudice. At a time
when jobs are being lost and the economy is in everyone’s mind it
is appropriate to look at immigration, how it affects our work
force and how we plan for the future.
Two terms
need to be clarified. Immigration is a term used for those who seek to move to live
permanently in a new country. Migration is used to describe those
who move from one area to another and sometimes settle
permanently.
In February
2008 a new points based immigration system was introduced in the UK
with a simplified 5 tier entry system. Some of those...
- One World, One Dream.
 One World, One
Dream.
Madeleine with Paralympic Gold
Medalist Simon Richardson ‘One World, One Dream.’ is the
Chinese slogan for the Olympic and Paralympics games. Walking
through the Olympic village to meet some of the athlete sand their
families it was easy to feel the games had lived up to this claim.
The long queues to enter the village were well organised and moving
fast. Fine sprays of water and parasol kept the waiting in the hot
sun at least tolerable. I was in Beijing as part of a cross party
delegation of MP’s, civil servants, business leaders and
journalists for discussions with Chinese leaders to build mutual
understanding and trust....
- Olympic Week
August 2008 will stand out as a
time of rain and cold except for this last week when perhaps the
world changed a little, for the better. Watching the wonderful closing
ceremony of the Olympics and knowing that the next games will be in
Britain was fascinating. Then, sitting in the sunshine in St James’
park in London and walking down the Mall listening to the music and
the athletes talking during the celebration show on giant screens
it was time to reflect on what this meant for Britain. The day was
warm, the sun shone, the park and the Mall were full of people of
all ages,...
- Alcohol, Drugs and Mental Health
Watch out in the next few weeks
for the publication of the Bradley report. Lord Bradley was
appointed in December 2007 to lead a review into the treatment of
people with severe mental health problems within the criminal
justice system and to explore how they can be diverted away from
the prison system. Lord Bradley was asked to carry out his review
following an increase to 92 of the self inflicted deaths in prisons
in 2007. It could have been worse; of the
22,459 recorded incidents of self harm; over 100 prisoners were
resuscitated who otherwise would have died. We know we have a
serious problem. The Chief inspector of...
- Women and Children in the Prison System.
Yesterday someone dragged a
sharp implement along the side of my car causing considerable
damage. I did not think about motivation, problematic background, I
thought retribution. One of the key issues affecting the criminal
justice system is how we balance the natural need and desire for
retribution and the long tern societal need to address reoffending
through rehabilitation. This is the third of a series
of articles based on work by the Prison Reform Trust, statistics
and information from Government agencies providing the facts on
which this debate can begin. Wales has no prison for women
and only one, youth offender institute (YOI), based at Parc Prison.
There are increasing numbers...
- Women's Voices
Women's
Voices
There 646
Members of Parliament. Since 1918, there have been
4,659 people elected as Member’s of Parliament. Of these 4,659 only 291 have
been women, a mere 6% of all MP’s ever elected. Sixty four percent of those
women MP’s have been Labour MP’s. I mention this because two very
important women have died recently. I have already written of the
loss of Gwyneth Dunwoody the longest serving women MP who serves
for 38 years as an MP. The second person who has died you will not
have heard of. Val
Price dedicated her life to supporting and encouraging women to
stand for elected office. Val gave advice, support...
- The Byron Review
The Byron
Review.
The internet
can be a frighteningly foreign world for the technophobes amongst
us. Often it is children who spend hours online, chatting and
updating their social networking profiles. As parents it is easy to
see your child typing away and assume that as they are at home they
are safe from danger. Unfortunately that is not always the case.
Cyber bullying is on the rise and online friends may not be who
they claim to be.
Recently Dr
Tania Byron, a prominent child psychologist published her review:
‘Safer Children in a Digital World’. Dr Byron found that parents’
lack of confidence with new technology is leaving children
vulnerable...
- Healthy Eating
Healthy
Eating.
Today, one in three
children are classified as
overweight. Overweight adolescents
have a 70% chance of becoming obese adults. Here in Bridgend 57% of over 18s are classed
as obese leading to a
range of problems such as diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.
Obese young people also often suffer from the social and
psychological effects of being overweight.
There has been a lot of discussion recently
about how best we can tackle childhood obesity. A Private Members
Bill was recently put forward to restrict the advertising of
unhealthy food products to children by introducing a nine o’clock
watershed for these adverts.
This idea is backed by many groups...
- The UK Acts to Ban Cluster Bombs
The UK acts to ban cluster
bombs. On 28th
May after 10 days of intense talks in Dublin, an agreement was
reached on a new international Convention prohibiting the use,
production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster
bombs. A
cluster bomb is a single bomb which breaks up to scatter scores of
small bombs across a wide area. Although highly effective, many of
these bomblets can fail to explode on impact as they should. They
can remain in the ground for months and years waiting to be
disturbed or discovered. This means that many years after the
original conflict these bombs continue to injure and maim
civilians. Thirty
years after the Vietnam War, cluster...
- Crime: Perceptions and Reality
 Crime is big business; it sells more novels
than on any other subject and is a sure headline grabber for the
print and broadcast media in drama, news, current affairs and
documentary formats. The public have a thirst for knowledge when it comes to crime,
crime sells papers, improves television ratings and draws people to
watch films and read books. Despite all of the attention given to crime
there is a disparity between people's experiences of crime and
reality of what is happening in society. A recent poll showed that 57% of
people think that crime is rising; an impression from watching
television, while 48% had the...
- Sexual Health
Sexual Health
Over the last few years the number of young people affected by sexually transmitted infections has increased dramatically with 23 percent more young people affected than in 2002. The most frightening thing about these infections is that some have no symptoms at all yet the consequences can be devastating. Some are painful and incurable and all are surrounded with ignorance and stigma. Bridgend is affected as much as anywhere and as a result our Sexual Health Services are one of the most vital front line medical provisions in our community. They provide treatment for people affected by...
- Cervical Screening
Cervical Cancer article 2.
Every woman dreads the moment when an envelope comes through the door reminding her that its time for another cervical smear test. A busy life combined with the unpleasantness of the test and an ‘it’ll never happen to me attitude’ means that over thirty percent of women are not attending cervical screening.
Unfortunately however, cervical cancer poses a very real threat. Every year 70 women in Wales alone are killed by this disease. The most frustrating thing about this statistic is that we can prevent this disease: we just need to raise awareness.
One charity at...
- Whaling
Whaling
One of the campaigns that I receive most correspondence about is whaling. Whaling is a highly emotive subject and has been given greater prominence more recently due Japan beginning a "scientific" hunting of up to 1000 whales.
The Government has been at the forefront of the attempts to bring a halt to this practice, working with other nations, including Australia, New Zealand and the USA, to question the value of this "scientific" research – much of which can be easily obtained from non-lethal means.
One of the ways that the Government has sought to tackle this issue is through...
- Fair Trade Fortnight
Fair Trade Fortnight.
The importance of buying fair trade has been publicised in shops and cafes all over the country to mark Fair Trade Fortnight. In our local area we are leading the way on Fair Trade with Porthcawl already classed as a Fair Trade town and Bridgend making its application this week. Many of our shops and schools also pride themselves on buying Fair Trade products.
Buying food and other goods from developing countries helps to grow their economies and reduce poverty. Fair Trade products are becoming increasingly popular. Every 2 years for the last eight, UK shoppers have...
- International Women's Day
 Being part of the change you want to see in
the world.
My mother is 93 and I thought of her life when planning my
first ever International Women’s day coffee morning in Bridgend
this Saturday. We take changes in women’s
lives for granted in this country and forget how recent many
changes have been. This is important when we
look at our responsibilities to help and support women around the
world to access opportunities we in the UK have gained only within
my mothers life time. I invited seven local women who were ground breakers
within their fields to join me as speakers...
- Military Mental Health
Seaside News Article – Military Mental Health
Our Armed Forces face continual challenges in the immensely difficult job that they do. It was only in World War one when the British Army was faced with the numbers of troops with battle fatigue and shell shock that an interest was taken in the mental health impact of military life. The challenges facing our armed forces are well understood, as they have traditionally risked their lives in the world’s trouble spots. Less documented are the mental strains that come with the job.
The most obvious risk to mental health is combat itself,...
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