June 2008
Denise Williams from Port Talbot is one of the unsung heroes of the National Health Service. She is a hardworking volunteer with the Friends of Neath Port Talbot Hospital, helping to organise a regular car boot sale, staff the reception at the hospital and provide support too in the Children's Centre.
I was honoured to accompany Denise last week to 10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah. The Prime Minister thanked Denise and a number of other volunteers from across the country for their selfless dedication.
Why did this special event happen? The Prime Minister told us he had invited everyone because it was National Volunteers Week and because we are this Summer celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the NHS.
The Prime Minister said to Denise, 'We all owe Wales a lot for the NHS, after all it started there with you, thanks to Aneurin Bevan!'.
The Prime Minister and our Government have been under a lot of pressure lately. Whilst many of the problems are of a global nature, much can be done to minimise the impact on people's security and living standards. Gordon Brown is very much an internationalist and takes courageous decisions to show the lead to other countries such as the recent outlawing of cluster bombs and the updating of the Terror legislation, including the 42 day detention arrangements. I support both these initiatives.
Nearer home, the excellent decisions on fairness for temporary and agency workers and flexible working do not grab headlines nor will the soon to be announced new National Carers Strategy get much attention. I take a keen interest in carers issues. Before this Labour Government came to power over a decade ago, little or nothing was done for carers and I applaud advances that are being made by and for carers.
I have recently met with senior managers of Corus and with other local companies. Top of my list for discussion was the twin challenge of job security and environmental improvement. Council Leader Derek Vaughan and I have of course been promoting our new Clean Air Charter and we are confident that the widespread local concerns can be positively addressed in the coming weeks and months.
