from l to r: Lord Willie Bach, Ruth Fenney (Chairman of PA&I), Mr Edward Garnier
The first speaker was the Rt Hon Edward Garnier, QC, MP, who is currently Shadow Ministers for Justice.
Mr Garnier first explained how constituencies are set out and how the Boundaries Commission every few years become a thorn in the sides of many by readjusting the boundaries and, therefore, altering the numbers of voters in each constituency. Nonetheless, he told us that by and large each constituency contains around 75-80,000 voters. In Leicestershire, there are 3 city consitutencies and 7 in the county; each of which is represented by 1 Member of Parliament, all elected by the ‘first-past-the-post’ system of voting.. This is quite unlike the European Union constituencies where there are usually 5 Members per constituency who have been elected using proportional representation.
He emphasised that we have a confrontational system in the UK, whereby the opposition parties sitting on the left challenge the party of government who sit on the right of the House of Commons. At the same time, the role of challenger must not be mindless, and everyone should be ready to provide alternative government at the next election if they have convinced the electorate with their policies.
He went on to explain that the current Palace of Westminster was built in 1855 following a fire in 1830 which completely destroyed the old buildings. Members attend the House from Monday to Thursday, weekend life starts on Friday with constituency work taking up much of the day along with Saturday very often. On Sunday, Mr Garnier said that he usually finds time to say ‘hello’ to his wife!
He finished off by giving explanations of such things as Select Committees, Commons Committees, guillotining of Bills to name but a few. He then thanked everyone for their attention and handed over the rostrum to our next speaker from “the other place”
Baron Bach of Lutterworth was a created a Life Peer in 1998. Lord Bach is currently the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice, which position finds him working very closely with Edward Garnier from time to time. He added that he also has a very important links with the WI – his wife is a member!
The traditional view of the House of Lords, Lord Bach said, was of crusty old gents, sitting quietly, probably snoozing, or listening through old-fashioned ear trumpets. But nothing could be further from the truth, apparently: at times, it can be a very lively debating chamber. He explained how the Commons is the prime House because they are elected and the majority party forms government. The Lords recognises this, but views itself as brighter and more experienced but has to keep itself in checked because it is unelected.
The Life Peerage system was introduced in 1958 by Harold Macmillan and is generally viewed as a good thing because it brings in experience and knowledge from all walks of life. The make-up of the Lords is around 740 members comprising: 92 hereditary peers, 600+ life peers with the rest being made up of Bishops and, probably most senior of all, the Law Lords. A place in the Lords is for life, but some believe that it should be fixed term. Just as in the Commons, many Lords have other jobs but a large number are retired.
No party has a majority in the Lords as this would offend against democracy, but there are marginally more Labour than Conservative who have more than the Lib-Dems. Some Lords are Independents.
Up until 1997, women were notoriously lacking in the Lords, but that situation is rapidly changing and they are becoming increasingly important; indeed the current Leader of the House of Lords is a woman. Ethnicity is also well recognised in the Lords – more so than in the Commons.
The role of the Lords is to pass Bills – these cannot become law until passed by both Houses of Parliament. Some Bills can start in the Lords, but most begin life in the Commons. However, unlike in the Commons, there is no guillotine (time limited committee stage) in the Lords: every amendment must be thoroughly discussed. This ensures maximum scrutiny and is very important.
The House of Lords is also the highest court in the land and an imminent move by the Law Lords to a new building across Parliament Square will do much to confirm the fact that the Judiciary is completely separate to Government
The House of Commons has a speaker and so does the Lords. However, the Speaker in the Upper Chamber has no control over who speaks next and it can be quite chaotic at times, said Lord Bach.
He finished up on the question of whether or not the House of Lords should be elected. He is neither pro nor anti, but told of a former peer from the 1940’s who said nothing for 45 years, before uttering his first words. On being asked why he had kept quiet for so long, he replied: “it’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and have it confirmed” !!
The whole, most informative and enjoyable session ended with a Q&A session which, unfortunately, was time-limited (!) but which could have gone on for much longer. Roll on a further similar session, and well done to PA&I Committee for arranging this superb event.
Sue Lobb - Wigston Magna WI
CLIMATE CHANGE CAMPAIGN
On Saturday 28 March, WIs around the country took part in Earth Hour 2009 alongside one billion people around the world, who switched off their lights for an hour to raise awareness about the problems of climate change.
Women in the UK have the power to tackle climate change – through choosing green domestic supplies and educating the next generation about climate change. In many other countries, women are responsible for gathering food and fuel, looking after the dependent members of their families, yet they often do not have a voice in their local community let alone in the politics of their country. Women will be a key element of successfully tackling climate change and it is time that the international community listened to our voices – that’s why we’re launching our women and climate change campaign in May.
THOSE SENIOR MOMENTS MEETING in March
There were three excellent speakers who each gave us food for thought. Mr. Steve Perry, a Clinical Leader at the memory clinic, from the Leicester General Hospital, advised us that dementia is a group of diseases, all of which lead to loss of brain tissue. Signs of the disease are many, some of which are loss of concentration, mood changes, retaining information, self care and domestic tasks. It is not only old people who are affected, but the young as well. Alzheimer’s attacks nerves and causes clumps of protein around the brain cells.
Our second speaker, Vivienne Dickens was from the Alzheimer’s Society and she emphasised good diet, exercise and brain usage are all essential in preventing the disease, also more social activity. Sometimes a loss of smell is detected which can result in a desire for sweet food intake and even an increase in salt added to the diet.
There have been 15 referrals a day in Leicestershire alone to the National Health. The whole of the county is only divided into four areas and each area has it’s own responsibilities. There is a telephone number for immediate help if required. The most important help a carer can give to a sufferer is to keep them as happy as possible.
Samantha Quinn, a National Health representative, gave a shorter talk and was encouraging the audience to sign up for the newsletter, which is supplied at intervals by the Foundation Trust, in order that readers could be kept up to date with news of the work carried out.
Peter Wiseman added to the talk with his work as Mental Health Locality Manager at Glenfield Hospital, where they are trying to organise day care work in communities. Claire Howley gave a very appropriate vote of thanks to all the speakers and some members could relate to individual sections of the disease, by personal experience.
Our thanks to Janet Neaverson and the Public Affairs Committee, who organised the Senior Moments meeting.
Margaret Meadows, Sapcote W.I.
OUR PROJECT IN GHANA
This year we are also supporting a sanitation project in Ghana. The project will work in the Ashaiman suburb of Tema, which is a harbour city in the Accra region of Ghana. The aim is to train people to build, operate and maintain toilet and water facilities. The local government will also support the project by making available health professionals. Included in the project will be education and training in health, hygiene and AIDS/HIV prevention.
We are looking forward to extra donations for this. Please make sure any money raised is clearly identified when you send it in. We would also like to hear what fund raising activities you have been doing for this project.
WOMEN WINNING FOR THE PLANET
At the ACWW European Area Conference at Southampton University 150 women attended from various countries across Europe plus day visitors. Merja Siltanen the European Chairman , our WI National Chairman Fay Mansell and May Kidd JP Deputy World President of ACWW were also present.
Asta Kuosmanen(Finland ) and Janice Langley (UK England) gave presentations on their societies' Climate Change projects. Also at this session, the NFWI film "A World Without Jam" was shown.
The keynote speaker Denise Smyth Wright felt that the most important thing that women could do was to teach the younger generation about climate change.
Topics discussed and agreed were: reduced use of plastic bags, lower indoor temperatures, car sharing, use of public transport, and not leaving electrical items on standby.
Three Resolutions were passed.
1.To encourage ACWW members to spread information to RURAL families. To urge governments to supply information to all members of the public including the Rural areas.
2. Call on governments to make available access to credit for women.
3. Stop using plastic bags and to reduce packaging.
Bethan Williams gave a presentation on Mrs Madge Watt, the Founder President of ACWW.
May Kidd will be with our Federation on Wednesday 14th October
"CARE OF OLDER PEOPLE" DIGNITY AND RESPECT
Report of a Meeting where speakers from various fields in the NHS and the Leicester Partnership talked on the subject of care for the elderly. The Main Topic discussed was “What is Old Age”. There are 33,000 older persons living in Leicestershire. 15,000 live on their own and 11,000 of them are women. The NHS has realised that Dignity and Respect is important to the elderly, and their personnel have been instructed to ask the patient how they would like to be addressed.
No one agency can support the needs of the older person. The idea that “Prevention is better than Cure” is coming into the front of thinking. Topics covered included Falls which account for 78% of elderly accidents; earlier stroke prevention, and phases of decline. Memory Clinics should be used more, the earlier the better. As soon as a patient fears a memory losss, they must ask their GP to refer them for further investigation.
Champions for the elderly are being trained, there are already 1,000 in the community. The new thinking is “Think of it as Health Care not Medical Care”. More Investment is needed in Community Care.
Ann Roberts, PA Committee
MIXED SEX HOSPITAL WARDS
NFWI has received queries from members on its attitude to mixed sex hospital accommodation and we have been asked to pass the following on to members. While there is currently no capacity to campaign on this issue, NFWI is aware of members’ concerns and is monitoring the situation carefully, bearing in mind our 1979 mandate calling for an end to mixed sex wards anywhere other than intensive care and high dependency units. The Government had stated that it is committed to creating “single sex accommodation” (not wards) around specialist facilities, ie single sex bays within mixed accommodation. There are many divergent views on the acceptability or otherwise of this priority and there is significant variation between hospital trusts as to how it is implemented. If this is a matter of concern to you, further information may be obtained by clicking on the link on the right-hand side of the page, or from your local Primary Care Trust.
FUNDING AN ACWW PROJECT
Although all your donations for ACWW are used for project work, we thought we would choose a project to sponsor so we can follow up how the money is used. The project is outlined below and we hope that members will give a little more this year to finance this without diverting funds from our normal collection:
Country - Ghana
Society - Marginalised women and youth development initiative
Project Title - Sanitation in Ashiaman for health, productivity and
poverty alleviation.
You can read the full story by clicking on 'ACWW Project 2008' in the downloads box on the right-hand side of the page.
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