Julie Morgan

 

  Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Cardiff North

 

AS I SEE IT...

Welcome to my new blog. Here you can read about my views on a range of issues. I’ll be focusing on Cardiff North, but will also be commenting on both national and international issues when necessary. I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts; I’ll certainly enjoy writing them down!

 

Read my latest entries below:

Doubling Up

Question Time

Fighting Words

 

Click here to visit the archive.

 

 

AS I SEE IT...

 

December 2nd 2009

 

Doubling Up

 

It was a busy day for me in the House of Commons chamber. I had a question in both International Development questions and Prime Minister’s Questions. I was fairly low down on the order paper, but because the new Speaker John Bercow tends to move much more quickly through the order paper than his predecessor, I managed to ask both questions.

 

For my question to the Prime Minister, I decided to ask about moving civil service jobs to Cardiff North:

 

JM: I was pleased to read over the weekend that the Government are considering moving many of the 130,000 civil service jobs in London and the south-east out to areas where the need is greater. Will my right hon. Friend consider my constituency of Cardiff, North as a destination for more civil service jobs, bearing in mind that the Revenue and Customs building in Llanishen has six empty floors?

 

PM: Cardiff, North is an excellent location for new work and new jobs. As of December 2008, over 3,000 posts have been reallocated from London and the south-east to Wales, and nearly 300 have gone to Cardiff. We want to help areas by creating jobs, not causing unemployment.

 

 

For my International Development question, I decided to as about climate change and Bangladesh:

 

JM: What discussions he has had with the government of Bangladesh on aid to tackle the environmental effects on that country of global warming?

 

The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Mr. Gareth Thomas): The UK works closely with the Government of Bangladesh on climate change issues. We are, for example, playing a role in advising and assisting the Bangladesh delegation in its preparations for the Copenhagen meeting next month.

 

JM: I thank the Minister for that reply. Earlier in the year, I visited Bangladesh with the Nationwide Association for Integrated Development-NAID-which is a small charity working between Wales and Bangladesh. I saw at first hand the effects of the flooding, the droughts and the cyclones; the poorest people in the country were being affected. What more can he do to help the people of Bangladesh, especially given that one fifth of the country could disappear if the sea level rises by 1 metre?

 

GT: My hon. Friend is right to highlight the particular challenges relating to climate change in Bangladesh; more than 30 million people in that country could be affected by rises in sea level. That is one reason why my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for International Development are continuing to press for further climate finance to be made available to help developing countries such as Bangladesh.

 

Asking questions is a great opportunity to highlight local, national and international issues. In fact, one of the most fascinating and rewarding parts of being an MP is the sheer range of issues you can become involved in and the causes you can champion. The job is endlessly varied and stimulating – it’s a great privilege to do it.

 

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October 21st 2009:

 

Question Time

 

Last week, I was lucky enough to be drawn to ask a question in Prime Minister’s Questions. It’s always a bit nerve-racking when you get up to speak on such a high-profile occasion in the chamber, but I used the opportunity to raise the issue of child poverty in Wales. The Prime Minister’s reply was a good reminder of all that Labour has done and what people stand to lose if the measures we have adopted are cut.

 

This is what was said:

 

JM: The Prime Minister has been a great champion in the fight against child poverty and under this Government child poverty has fallen, but there are still far too many children living in poverty, and in Wales, too many children living in workless households. What further measures can he propose to bring down child poverty?

 

PM: We are committed to eradicating child poverty in this country. We have taken half a million children out of poverty as a result of child tax credits, child benefit and other measures that we have taken. I hope that there is an all-party consensus on removing child poverty, but I have to say to the House that we cannot cut child poverty if we cut child tax credits, we cannot cut child poverty if we cut educational maintenance allowance, we cannot cut child poverty if we cut Sure Start, and we cannot cut child poverty if we deny young people the chance to get both the best education and the best opportunity for work.

 

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October 1st 2009:

 

Fighting Words

 

What rousing words from Gordon Brown in his speech to the Labour Party Conference on Tuesday. The list of some of our achievements since 1997 was a great reminder of some of the fantastic things that Labour has done:

 

“It is the fighters and believers who change the world, we've changed the world before and we're going to change the world again.

 

And you know our country faces the biggest choice for a generation, so we need to fight, not bow out, not walk away, not give in, not give up but fight; fight to win for Britain.

 

You know because if anyone says fight doesn't get you anywhere, that politics can't make a difference, that all parties are the same then look what we have achieved together since 1997: the winter fuel allowance, the shortest waiting times in history, crime down by a third, the creation of Sure Start, the cancer guarantee, record results in schools, more students than ever, the Disability Discrimination Act, Devolution, Civil Partnerships, peace in Northern Ireland, the Social Chapter, half a million children out of poverty, maternity pay, paternity leave, child benefit at record levels, the Minimum Wage, the ban on cluster bombs, the cancelling of debt, the trebling of aid, the first ever Climate Change Act.

 

That's the Britain we've been building together, that's the change we choose".

 

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Click here for archive.