There have been some wonderful events in the constituency over the last few weekends, not least the opening of the new St Clare Hospice charity shop on Ongar High Street, and the ever-wonderful Strawberry Fair in the King George’s Playing Fields. However, my Fridays have been impacted slightly by ‘sitting Fridays’ in Parliament and spells on call as the Duty Minister.
Last week saw two long awaited and controversial bills come to the Commons – the Crime and Policing Bill, in which various amendments on abortion decriminalisation had been tabled, and the Terminally Ill Adults(End of Life) Bill on assisted dying.
I have had hundreds and hundreds of emails, campaign cards, letters and phone calls about these bills, especially on assisted dying for which the majority of those constituents who contacted me were asking me to vote against the bill.
The first time the Bill was brought to the House of Commons, I voted against it. Whilst I think there may be some grounds for assisted dying, this bill does not address the issues in which I have a particular interest. Similarly, there was no pre-legislative scrutiny, and the close analysis of the bill was undertaken by a subcommittee of the Commons rather than a Committee of the whole House. I also noted that the Secretary of State for Health - who himself has previously advocated for assisted dying - is opposed to the bill because he does not believe the NHS is capable of implementing the policy. Consequently, I again voted against the legislation again last Friday. However, the bill passed by 23 votes and will now go to the Lords for further consideration.
In the Crime and Policing Bill, Parliament was effectively asked to decriminalise abortion to birth - which is to say that a mother could abort a baby up to the minute before without fear of prosecution. I think this is entirely unjustifiable so I voted against . Again the Commons took a different view - after only two hours debate (far too little time for such a major change). I hope the Lords will now look closely at this.
