This week has been rightly focused on commemorating our Service Personnel and marking the 100th anniversary of the Royal British Legion.
On Monday I was privileged to join a small group of colleagues for the dedication of the new Garden of Remembrance in Parliament. The Garden will feature a poppy for each of the 650 Parliamentary Constituencies in the UK. It was an honour to put one in place on behalf of Heywood & Middleton. Heywood was the only town in the UK to have lost its MP on active service in both World War I and World War II, so the day had a special resonance.
On Tuesday I joined a cross-party group of colleagues on the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme in Portsmouth. The scheme is designed to help MPs better understand Forces life by working alongside regular members of the Army, Navy and Airforce. I’ve been a member of the scheme for my entire time in Parliament and I’m grateful for the insight it has given me.
Later in the week I had meetings in Westminster about the Electoral Reform Bill, which I served on the Bill Committee for. The Bill is designed to combat electoral fraud by removing some of the loopholes exploited by those unscrupulous people who want to tip the result of an election one way or another. Specifically I met with colleagues to see how we can tighten up rules around postal voting, which we all know can be exploited.
Returning to the constituency, I met with students at Elizabeth House School for a Q&A session about my role as an MP. It was so encouraging to see young people actively engaged and interested on a range of topics and I was seriously impressed by some of the things they wanted to know. The future is in safe hands!
Thursday was Armistice Day and joined veterans for a tribute to mark the occasion and observing the minute’s silence at 11am.
This Sunday I laid wreathes at the war memorials in Middleton, Castleton, Bamford and Norden before joining the community in Heywood for 11’o’clock. Thank you to everyone who turned out to mark the occasion – one thing we can be very proud of locally is how we show our respects to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
