GERAINT DAVIES MP
WELSH LABOUR & CO-OPERATIVE MP MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR SWANSEA WEST O Abertawe ac yn gweithio dros Abertawe
Your monthly update See centre pages
INTERNAL MARKET BILL POWER GRAB BREAKS INTERNATIONAL LAW The Internal Market breaks international law, undermines the Good Friday Agreement, gives ministers the power to make laws without Parliamentary agreement and reverses the devolutionary settlement. It means we can’t set environmental and food standards in Wales and will give back spending powers to Westminster e.g. the Shared Prosperity Fund which replaces EU funding. We’ve only had 1.5% of rail funding for 5% of people and 11% of track and more control from London is not in Wales’ interests.
GERAINT MEETS WITH SWANSEA EXTINCTION TO DISCUSS AIR QUALITY & COVID-19
I recently spoke at the ‘Clean Air for Swansea?’ event organised by Swansea Ex
During the online meeting, I highlighted the recent research that illustr significantly increases risk of coronavirus infections, hospital admissions and fatalities. At the meeting I stated, “We now need a strategy to drastically reduce air pollution in the UK. The Government must set legal targets, fund green transport and invest in air pollution monitoring to combat our toxic air crisis and aid our fight against Coronavirus.” Need help during this lockdown? Call my office on 01792 475943
Raise an issue in Parliament? Email me on info@geraintdaives.org.uk
Geraint Speaks for UK parliament international Stockholm Environment Institute UN online Clean air, Covid-19 and Climate Change Conference Geraint Davies, Member of Parliament for Swansea West, this month opened the Stockholm Environment Institure Conference, marking the inaugural World Clean Air Day. Speaking at the Conference, Geraint Davies said “Seven million people die each year from air pollution and millions more will die as a result of climate change. “We are 1% higher than 19th century temperatures, yet in Europe it is 2% and cover the Arctic its 3%, which accounts for the fact that 8,500 tonnes of ice a sec is melting from Greenland. “We face a catastrophe in our lives and in our children’s lives, so its fantastic that we have this opportunity to join the dots between Coronavirus and air pollution.
N REBELLION 9 LINK
xtinction Rebellion.
rates that poor air quality
VIRTUAL WARD SURGERIES LAUNCHED Member of Parliament for Swansea West, Geraint Davies, has held online constituent meetings to speak directly with residents during the Coronavirus pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, the office of Geraint Davies MP has operated virtually with residents being able to contact their MP via letter, telephone, e-mail and social media. Building upon this, Geraint Davies was keen to speak one-to-one with local residents and invited local residents from Killay to join him on a video conferencing call, via Zoom. The next online meeting is scheduled for Sketty next month.
Boris Johnson’s Government is Silencing MPs AND THE PEOPLE WE REPRESENT Boris Johnson may give the impression of a loveable rogue but beneath the bluster lurks a more sinister threat than a man afflicted by serial, benign incompetence. He has, after all, already removed two Conservative Prime Ministers in his ruthless quest for power. To consolidate that power, he now has our fundamental values of democracy, the rule of law and human rights in his sights. A key to this strategy is to weaken and sideline Parliament. The first step was to stop millions of voters being represented in debates in Parliament by abolishing the right for their MPs to speak and vote online. Since June, voters whose MPs are shielding or shielding family members from COVID-19 have been prevented from contributing in Parliament. Our democracy is of fundamental importance at such a dark time in our country’s history. We face a resurgence of the Coronavirus pandemic that has already claimed 45,000 lives, alongside a sudden end to furlough that will throw millions into unemployment and poverty. On top of that, a ‘no deal’ Brexit threatens to cast Britain adrift from our largest market. At this time, like no other, all voters and all constituents must have their voices heard equally in the ‘Mother of all Parliaments’. It is not technically difficult to participate in Parliament online and was already happening in April and May, with MPs from all four corners of the land successfully participating as equals in debates using video conference technology. And yet, this week, Keir Starmer was prevented from leading the opposition in the debate on the Government’s Internal Market Bill, which itself breaks international law. That was because he was denied the opportunity to speak remotely from self-isolation, as one of his family is being tested. Last week, Jacob Rees-Mogg was in self-isolation as one of his family had symptoms. However, it was he, as Leader of the House, who initiated the restrictions on remote working in the name of ‘going back to work’ but found as a result he was prevented from doing his own work, answering Business Questions remotely. This week I was timetabled to present the ‘Remote Participation in House of Commons Proceedings Bill’ to restore the right of all voters to have their MPs representing them in debates. Ironically, as I am shielding a family member, Dawn Butler MP will present the Bill and deliver my speech instead.
These examples underline the importance of the need to restore the equal right of all voters to be represented in this Parliament by their MPs through online democracy. Only then will the voices of millions of voters across hundreds of constituencies be heard again. It is probably illegal for Parliament to vote to undermine the democratic mandate – the source of its own legitimacy – in particular with a vote which excluded the representatives of those constituencies most affected. However, the Government is using ‘Parliamentary privilege’ to prevent the courts from intervening, even though its purpose is to protect the rights of individual MPs and the voters they represent. These democratic rights are all the more important as the Government embarks on a frenzy of anti-democratic initiatives, with its Internal Market Bill risking the Good Friday Agreement. At a time when the Government is creating a Divided Kingdom at home and is destroying trust in Britain abroad, all our constituents should have a voice in these debates. The Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the House of Lords are all operating online. The taxpayer has already invested heavily in technology that worked well until June in the House of Commons, so the purpose of my Bill is to reinstate this entirely functional system. The Government’s bid to stifle Parliamentary democracy is part of a pattern that threatens our fundamental values, including the unlawful closure of Parliament last year, the hounding out of office of senior civil servants, and attacks on the BBC. These actions must be seen alongside the new move, via the Internal Market Bill, to break international law and award unprecedented powers to Johnson’s administration. On top of that, we are hurtling towards a ‘no deal’ economic catastrophe, the emasculation of our justice system, and withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights. We cannot allow the Prime Minister’s insatiable lust for power to threaten our fundamental values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. This is a struggle to protect our values and the rights of all our voters, all our nations and all our futures. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Article written by Geraint Davies published in the Byeline Times, 16th September 2020
NEWS IN BRIEF Government Must Appoint Food Security Minister In Wake of Pandemic
Ministers should consider enshrining in law a right to food and must appoint a ne according to an influential committee of MPs, after the coronavirus pandemic expo government’s handling of the food system in a crisis.
Geraint Davies, Labour MP for Swansea West, and a committee member, pointed to t were currently in food insecurity, amid fully stocked supermarkets and while furloug
“This is the shameful condition of the UK after ten years of austerity,” he said. “But We face the cliff-edge of the end of furlough in October, as the UK braces itself for followed by a disorderly Brexit. The combination of a greater financial squeeze on t a resurgence of disease and food shortages will hurtle millions more into food insecu
Road congestion levels in outer London higher than before lockdown
Road traffic congestion in outer London is now far higher than it was last year as peo cars after lockdown, according to new data.
Geraint Davies MP, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on air pollution, sai knew air pollution can harm children’s lung capacity, hearts and mental health, redu increasing anxiety in the classroom. Now we know air pollution increases coronavirus symptoms of the disease worse. We need to redouble our efforts to reduce air pollution
CORONAVIRUS
This week’s news on the second local lockdown in Wales, illustrates the continued I continue to meet with the First Minster, Vaughan Gething, Welsh Government University Health Board on this fast moving issue. If you have any concerns surr pandemic, please conTact me and I raise your concerns with the relevant individuals symptoms then you must book a test by phoning on 01639 862757
ew minister for food security, osed serious problems with the
the fact that 6.6 million people gh provisions remain in place.
t there’s much worse to come. a second wave of coronavirus the poorest families alongside urity and hunger in the UK.”
ople have gone back into their
id: “Before the pandemic [we] ucing concentration levels and s infection rates and makes the n both in and outside schools.”
d threat Covid-19 poses to us. nt Ministers and Swansea Bay rounding our response to the s. Also, if you have coronavirus
ACTIVITIES IN THE COMMONS Question to Secretary of State for Wales
The Development Bank of Wales has been found by the Welsh Affairs Committee to be much more effective in the delivery of coronavirus loans to business than high streets banks, which have been found to be unresponsive, delayed and risk-averse, and not to understand local businesses. Will the Secretary of State and the Minister impress on the Chancellor the need to provide more funding for the Development Bank of Wales and to import this excellent idea into England to help all British business? Question to Secretary of State for Health
Some 10% of infectious people are being sent over 22 miles—some, hundreds of miles—without contact tracing, for testing, so would the Secretary of State agree that the current testing system also amounts to a spreading system for the virus? Question to Secretary of State for International Trade
Margaret Thatcher got Japanese car companies to come to Britain as a platform to export into the single market. As a result of this Japanese deal, along with the Secretary of State’s expected EU deal, will there be more or fewer Japanese cars being exported from Britain into the EU? Question to the Prime Minister
The Prime Minister is stumbling forward into mass unemployment with the sudden and universal removal of furlough, and towards a further spike and resurgence of coronavirus due to making people who are working from home travel to work. To minimise further and future bad decisions and U-turns, will he fully restore the online Parliament so that all voters can be fully represented in all debates and law making, as happens in the Welsh Government, the Scottish Government and the Lords, whether their MPs are shielded or unshielded, so that we make the best decisions with the least harm during the pandemic and the recession through the reintroduction of proper online democracy.
CHANCELLOR URGED TO EXTEND FURLOUGH Geraint Davies MP has joined colleagues in calling on the Chancellor to extend furlough, as Coronavirus cases increase. More than 100 MPs have united to lobby the chancellor Rishi Sunak to extend the Job Retention Scheme (JRS) for the aviation sector until March 2021. Geraint Davies MP signed a letter, in collaboration with Unite the union, which asks for help to “stop the crisis engulfing the sector” and “recognise the wider economic benefits of keeping workers active within the sector, not unemployed and collecting benefits”. The Swansea West MP has also been pushing for more support for employees to work from home in an effort to stem the increase of community Covid-19 infections. Geraint Davies said, “Britain faces a jobs crisis, and we’re calling on the Government to change course before it’s too late. “Instead, the government is replacing furlough with a Job Retention Bonus, a poorly targeted scheme that sounds like it has been made up on the hoof and will see money go to businesses who were going to bring back workers anyway.”
As Johnson stumbles into mass unemployment and a second wave of coronavirus he denies 15 million voters a voice in debates by refusing to restore online democracy #PMQs Geraint hits out at Johnson during PMQs this month
CONTACT ME / CYSYLLTU A MI (01792) 4759432 32 Walter Road, Swansea, SA1 5NW
info@geraintdavies.org.uk GeraintDaviesMP
@GeraintDaviesMP