For the second time in recent history, Worcestershire has sent one of its MPs to lead the Home Office. Bromsgrove’s Sajid Javid’s elevation to Home Secretary (after Amber Rudd’s resignation) follows former Redditch MP Jacqui Smith.
The longest standing member of the House of Commons is known as The Father of the House. It is currently the Conservative member Kenneth Clarke, and he recently said that this is the maddest parliament he has ever known. Last week demonstrates why.
Last week, companies with more than 250 employees were forced to published their gender pay data. This revealed, for the first time, hard data that showed the discrepancy between pay levels for men and women.
There is huge outrage that the contract to produce our new, blue, British passports will be awarded to a French Dutch company after we leave the EU. How can a foreign company take work away from British firm De La Rue?
Recent events in Salisbury have certainly turned people’s minds to international relations. The image of a ‘hazchem’ dressed anti-terrorist officer, in front of Salisbury cathedral is a cross between MacMafia and an Alistair MacLean novel.
From time to time stories are put around that cause distress to people on low incomes. One recent story is that 1 million children will lose their free school meals. This is important to many families living in Wyre Forest, who may think they are affected by this and will lose a benefit.
Winter pressures on the NHS give us a very good indicator of just how well our medical services can cope under pressure. This season’s ‘flu has been particularly nasty and with the appalling weather we have had recently, pressures on A+E have increased.
There were a couple of things dominating the political news last week; one ridiculous, one important. The silly news was that Jeremy Corbyn was somehow a Czech asset for intelligence, based on one or more cups of tea with a Czech diplomat turned spy back in the 1980s.
