July 2008
This month we celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the National Health Service. Its founder, Labour Health Minister, Aneurin Bevan led the struggle to establish the world's first free health service. We must always remember him and all those dedicated nurses and doctors who have sustained it down the years; we must never take it for granted. The next time we walk into a hospital or pick up a free prescription, think of Nye and all those who struggled to establish it in 1948.
We also recently celebrated National Veterans' Day. I have always seen this as an opportunity for the present generation of young people to understand the sacrifices of past generations through the first hand experiences of our local veterans: not to glory in a war but to understand its causes and recognise the suffering caused in order to avoid it in the future.
Sadly this year one of those veterans Denys Parsons died shortly before National Veterans Day and so did not visit local schools to explain his military experiences, as he has in previous years. I was always impressed by the way Denys modestly and honestly spelt out the realities of war. As Sir Winston Churchill once put it, we resort to war only when all else fails, 'better jaw-jaw than war-war.'
Denys gave so much to his country and to his town as a fine local historian. We are in his debt for his campaign for the commemoration of the sacrifices of local merchant seamen in our Civic Centre and on our seafront. We shall always remember him at all those special public gatherings which he attended proudly wearing his veteran's badge.
As someone who has striven in my political life for greater equality in Britain and internationally, I was very pleased to see the launch by Equalities Minister, Harriet Harman MP of the Government's Equalities Bill. As the author of the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act I know how hard our 6 million carers have struggled to achieve 'the right to an ordinary life'. The same applies to women's rights with equal pay, disabled people with their rights to work and access and black minority ethnic people with racial abuse. It is therefore surely right that the Government makes illegal age discrimination and discrimination against carers. As Chair of the All Party Carers' Group I will be meeting the Minister to put the case for carers.
So, please let's no longer have people say 'I'm against discrimination but...'.
Anyone wishing to know more about the Government's new equal opportunities policies or information on my advice surgeries can contact me.
