Letter from Parliament - Tony Lloyd MP

Tony Lloyd MP

I went to an event hosted by Sporting Memories Foundation, who have a nice project geared towards people suffering with dementia. They recap memories of sporting events that people might remembers, like the 1966 World Cup win. They have been working in other areas of Greater Manchester and we spoke about the possibility of bringing this to Rochdale.

I went to my first Shadow Cabinet in my new role on Tuesday morning, and met with the Irish Ambassador, which was good. A Bill has also been put forward before Parliament for equal marriage in Northern Ireland.

Flood resilience was addressed, which is important to Rochdale after the flooding a couple of years ago. We spoke about what people can do to stop flooding and how to defend and prevent the build up of flooding. Planting trees and laying peat help, as they absorb all of the flood water and make a huge difference.

It was World Parkinson’s Day this week, and I showed my sympathy and support for the sufferers. It’s vitally important that we need more research on what triggers this debilitating disorder.

The court in Rochdale shut some time ago. When that happened, people had to travel to Bury. Now they have to go to Manchester, and people are more likely to not turn up. This was something I was involved with as Police and Crime Commissioner. Richard Burgon, the Shadow Justice Secretary is trying to see what can be done to prevent this. Giving evidence via video link can be useful as it doesn’t take too much time out of someone’s time, be it a defendant, witness or police.

I met with a Human Rights agenda delegation about post-Brexit, and also spoke in a couple of TV interviews about this. The government still can’t tell us where we are going with Brexit. Labour wants  Brexit jobs and we need the government to come back with a jobs package.

Following my meeting with Holroyds last week, I also meet with other machine tool producers about supporting industry needs. I want to work with them because we have companies like that in Rochdale.

Age UK addressed the underfunding in social care, which has been drastically cut back in Rochdale. People are not getting the level of care they need.

Good Friday I will be watching Rochdale play Shrewsbury.