Letter from Parliament - Tony Lloyd

I had one of my regular meetings with Rochdale Borough Council’s Chief Executive, Steve Rumbelow, discussing amongst other things, progress on the new shopping centre and Marks and Spencer’s welcome decision to locate there. The building is going up quickly, and the M&S decision is a major vote of confidence in the town and its future.

I attended Voices for All in the Wheatsheaf Centre showcasing the work of some voluntary groups in Rochdale dealing with mental health, Veterans’ concerns’ and energy conservation.

I had a meeting with Rochdale football club director, David Bottomley, with Keith Hicks and Siobhan McElhinny from the club’s community work team. The club does a huge amount of work with many different groups of people within the community which many reading this will be unaware of, often using football as a means of engagement for both girls and women as well as boys and men. Perhaps less well known the club engages with people of all ages on education and training initiatives as well as on social inclusion projects.

A tour of Hopwood Hall enabled me to see this amazing legacy from the Borough’s past but the building, as it is restored has potential as one of the great buildings in the north of England and to create and sustain employment for local people.

Along with our Mayor, I visited Jones and Brooks, one of our local printers, and Sunshine local confectionary suppliers - both local success story creating jobs and adding value to Rochdale.

I held an advice bureau in my office.

With Mayor Zaman, I attended the opening of Rochdale Photographic Society’s Annual Exhibition at the Heritage Centre in Littleborough. The exhibition is open until 16 September and shows some of the best of local photographic talent. Everyone is welcome.

An early start saw me join people campaigning against the appalling train service in the north, in this case in Macclesfield, whilst the Rochdale Labour Party was out in force in our local train stations. The Government has got to get a proper grip of the poor value and poor service that too many communities in the north get from our divided, privatised railways.

In Parliament I attended a meeting with Bloodwise, a charity which campaigns on the important issue of raising awareness around blood cancers. These less known cancers are the third biggest cause of cancer deaths. Bloodwise has set itself the task of helping to stop people dying from blood cancer, making patients’ lives better, and looking for ways to stop blood cancer happening in the first place.

As Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, I was involved in Northern Ireland question time raising the important issue of getting the Northern Irish parties back into the elected Assembly and that theme continued in Parliament over two days. It might seem a long way from Rochdale’s concerns, but we can’t let the Good Friday Agreement falter. Too many lives were lost to let things slip backwards. I want this government to show some real energy in resolving the issues outstanding.

There was an important meeting about the proposal to change the law on organ donation so that people would opt out rather than opting in for organ donation. I agree with this as long as we make sure the safeguards are there to protect those with religious or conscience objections to organ donation. I have opted in but every year people waiting for transplants die because families are not sure about the wishes of their loved ones. Opting out works well in Wales so we know it makes a difference.

On another health-related issue, I went to the Breast Cancer 'Wear it Pink' photo call. Breast cancer is amongst the most common cancers for women and like many it has affected members of my own family, but the good news is that with early diagnosis and with early treatment the survival rates have shot up and what was once a death sentence is no longer. However, we do need more research to move on to prevention, so the campaign will continue.

In Parliament there was an important statement on the Novichok attacks in Salisbury and Amesbury which killed one woman whilst potentially threatening many more. Few doubt this was an unbelievably cynical act by Russian operatives and round the world has drawn condemnation. Chemical weapons were banned globally years ago and no one should expect to find them on the streets of today’s Britain.

This past weekend, as Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, I attended the British Irish Association’s conference on relations between our two countries. This is one of the major conferences on British-Irish relations in the year and saw the Irish Foreign Minister and the leader of the main Irish opposition party attend along with diplomats and academics and politicians from both countries. Ireland is one of Britain’s biggest trading partners and the economic relationship needs to withstand Brexit in both our interest. In reality, the relationship is much more complicated and ensuring no hard border across Ireland is a priority in the Brexit talks as well as maintaining the peace that followed the Good Friday Agreement of 20 years ago.

On Sunday, along with hundreds of other trade unionists, I attended the opening session of the Trades Union Congress in Manchester. This year sees the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the TUC which is recognised internationally as the founding of organised trade unionism worldwide. The first meeting took place in Manchester and it is fitting it is back this year. People in the north should be proud that, just as the Co-operative movement began in Rochdale, many of the real milestones in social progress began in our city region from Mrs Pankhurst’s fight for votes for women to trade unionism and cooperation.

Trades unions are just as relevant today as all those years ago in seeking to ensure that the world of work is fair and that working conditions are reasonable.

Some of the debates that took place on equal pay, on job insecurity, on challenging casual employment contracts show a wealth of knowledge in the trade unions but demonstrate as well exactly why trade unions are still relevant.