View From The House - 1st June 2000

Reprinted From The Lichfield Mercury

Living in the constituency which an MP represents has many advantages. I am able to meet constituents in informal situations whether shopping at Safeway in Beacon Street or TJ Hughes in The Precinct. The disadvantage is that I am beginning to get constituency mail put through the front door. The problem with this is that when the House of Commons is in session, I have to be in Westminster during the week so the mail doesn't get picked up for quite a few days - sometimes longer. This causes real problems for urgent cases. So, please always write to me at "The House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA". (It will even get to me without the postcode - though it makes the postman's job just that bit harder).

As regular readers of the Mercury will know, I am always keen to visit local events. This usually has to be on a Friday or a weekend (it is not practical to come up during the week as there are votes I have to make in Westminster virtually every day through the afternoon and evening, Monday to Thursday). But given plenty of advance warning (MPs diaries fill up very quickly), you can count on my presence. Again, it's best to write to me about this at the House of Commons.

The letter from local GP, Dr Gerbo Huisman of St Chad's Health Centre, to Tony and Cherie Blair suggesting that baby Leo be born in the Victoria Hospital's Maternity Unit - while we still have one - put the case well. The Maternity Unit offers the nearest thing to a home birth with the minimum of medical intervention. It is a growing trend in Britain for babies to be born by Caesarean Section. A far greater proportion of children are born this way in the UK than either the US or in Europe. This is not the case at the Vic. The midwives there also offer aroma therapy and other treatments that relax the patient. And besides, isn't it better to give birth in your own local hospital where friends and family can visit rather than having to move out of the City? It is a mystery to me why, when the economy is doing well, there are so many cutbacks after just three short years. That is why I was so impressed with the demonstration of mums, dads, and grandparents (as well as offspring) who marched from The Precinct to Beacon Park to mark their support for the Maternity Unit and the Victoria Hospital in general. If the South Staffordshire Health Authority thought it was just me objecting to the closure of services at the Vic, the 300+ demonstrators would have put them straight on that one. And I am still meeting people who said they would have joined the march if only they had known about it.