Nia listening to Margaret Smith and Ray Lewis at the hospital consultation day
- Nia questioning hospital chiefs about ambulance resources and improving staff recruitment strategies
Speaking up at the recent public information day held at the Selwyn Samuel Centre, Nia questioned Hywel Dda Health Board’s Director of Medical Services and Director of Planning about over-stretched ambulance resources and improving recruitment
She said, “You have said that it is not money but rather the difficulty of attracting qualified staff that is driving the centralisation of services. What about developing closer links with the new medical school in Swansea, and really trying to offer doctors attractive packages to encourage them to come here?
And what calculations have you made about the additional costs of acquiring and running more ambulances to transport patients to Glangwili or Withybush, if services are no longer offered at Prince Philip Hospital? What about using the money instead to pay for more specialists in Prince Philip Hospital.”
Nia Griffith MP, Shadow Wales Minister, joined a group of legal aid campaigners from Ty Arian Solicitors, who work in Llanelli and Swansea, when they descended on Parliament with a giant coffin, to symbolise the death of legal aid. The campaigners dressed as undertakers presented a petition to Labour’s Lord Bach, who will be leading the opposition to the Government’s Legal Aid and Sentencing Bill in the Lords. About a dozen members of the House of Lords came out to meet them including Baroness Anita Gale, Labour’s Shadow Spokesperson for Wales in the Lords. The stunt marked the start of Committee Stage in the House of Lords, which had its first session on 20th December and is continuing in January.
Nia explained
“The Government’s legal aid reforms propose severely limiting advice on welfare benefits, employment, housing and debt – saving just 2.5 per cent of the legal aid budget – yet cutting this service would leave thousands without the help they need. Preventative and early advice is being cut in many areas, particularly debt, yet this can save £10 for every £1 invested. It is vital to influence crossbencher Lords to support Labour’s amendments to stop this bill leaving vulnerable people with no access to free, independent, quality advice.”
Supporting World Aids Day, Nia Griffith MP said
“Many people in Llanelli care a great deal about tackling HIV and AIDS, and regularly contact me about it. I am proud of Labour’s leadership whilst in government to tackle this global scourge, and I urge Ivan Lewis MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State to do all he can to ensure the Tory-led Coalition Government continues our work.
“With 34 million people still living with HIV worldwide, action now is vital if we are to make a real difference. I am particularly worried that the Global Fund has been forced by limited donations, to freeze its spending until 2014, particularly as this represents around half of the world’s spending on HIV AIDS as well as three-quarters of the efforts to combat malaria and over 80% of the response to TB.
The international community should come together to get the Global Fund process moving again. No one country can hope to tackle the spread of HIV and AIDS alone but UK leadership is now more important than ever.”
Ivan Lewis MP, Labour’s Shadow International Development Secretary said:
“Despite the progress we have seen, around the world millions of people are living with HIV and almost two million people are still dying from AIDS-related illnesses every year. I am very concerned by the recent news that the lack of support for the Global Fund means it has had to freeze its spending until 2014.
We urgently need international leadership to champion this cause and ensure that the price of the global financial crisis is not abandoning those suffering from HIV or AIDS.
Highlighting Labour’s plan to boost the economy, Nia Griffith MP explained
“The Labour Government in Wales is showing there is a better way with the Jobs Growth Fund which will provide 4,000 jobs per year for young people. The Welsh Government is also investing in infrastructure projects like schools, roads and broadband and boosting business through the recent announcement of £55m in grants and loans to help small and medium-sized firms.
Now I am calling on the UK Chancellor to boost the economy, by adopting Labour’s plan for temporary VAT cuts, more investment in infrastructure projects and waiving national insurance payments for firms taking on new employees. Instead the Chancellor seems determined to undermine investor confidence in manufacturing by changing the goalposts for investors in solar power and imposing a supertax on energy –intensive industries like steel. At the same time he is sucking money out of the Welsh economy and squeezing household budgets through increased VAT, cuts in winter fuel allowance, real term cuts in pensions and benefits. All this means that people have less money to spend in local shops. He needs to act quickly to prevent real hardship and to stop this becoming the worst double-dip recession ever.”
Burry Port Town Cllr Jean Hire, shopper Madelaine Phillips, Co-op shopworker Barbara Taylor, shop manager Anthony Evans and Burry Port Town Cllr Ken Edwards
Nia Griffith MP was joined last Friday in Burry Port Co-op by Burry Port Labour Councillors Jean Hire, Ken Edwards, Shirley Matthews and Pat Jones to highlight Usdaw’s Freedom from Fear Campaign.
Nia said, “Every year shopworkers are threatened, verbally abused and even assaulted. Nearly half of all incidents of abuse result from requests for proof of age or refusing a sale of an age-restricted product. The Freedom from Fear Campaign teaches shoppers and shopworkers that they should be free from the fear of violence, threats and verbal abuse and that it should never be accepted as just part of the job.”
“This campaign highlights the problems shopworkers face, particularly during the festive season when incidents of verbal abuse can increase dramatically. In the run up to Christmas, customers are stressed, stores are busy and sometimes things can boil over. That’s why we are asking shoppers to show respect for shopworkers and to ‘Keep your cool at Christmas’.”
You can learn more about Usdaw’s Respect week and Freedom from Fear Campaign at http://www.usdaw.org.uk/ourcampaigns/freedomfromfear.aspx
Following a determined campaign by Nia Griffith MP, Keith Davies AM, the Llanelli Star and Llanelli and Burry Port town councils, Labour councillors on the Mid and West Wales Fire Authority put forward motions at a recent meeting of the Authority which would give fire authority members more information about the plans for Llanelli Fire Station before agreeing to sign up to them.
Labour’s preferred option was not to sign off the draft plan until precise details about what is to happen in Llanelli had been clarified, but the minority Labour group on the authority did not gain enough support from other members to carry this motion.
They did however secure enough support to pass their fall-back motion, proposed by Labour’s Cllr Steve Lloyd-Janes of Hendy, which will allow five of the councillors on the Fire Authority, including the three from Llanelli to be present at negotiations between fire-fighters at Llanelli Fire Station and senior officers.
Commenting on the outcome, Nia Griffith MP said
“I am sure that our campaign, strongly promoted by the Llanelli Star, has influenced members of the authority and made them think twice. It’s a pity that more members did not follow the Labour members’ lead in refusing to sign up to the plan until plans for Llanelli had been clarified, but at least now, they will be able to hear both sides of the story and raise objections to any proposals they see as unworkable for staff or likely to compromise fire service cover in Llanelli. I will be following developments closely; I am determined to stop any cuts to our service in Llanelli.”
Nia Griffith MP joined Geraint Davies and local AMs at a campaign meeting called by the GMB to save the local Remploy factories
Addressing the meeting, Nia Griffith said
“Just at a time when we need more manufacturing jobs, it is madness to close factories and leave the employees join the back of the ever lengthening queues of workers chasing a diminishing pool of jobs. The products are excellent – with more investment in marketing, there is the potential to develop Remploy factories into very successful businesses. I am currently buying new office furniture from Remploy.”
Geraint Davies, MP for the Fforestfach area added
“ Just since Nia and I visited the Fforestfach factory a few months ago, I have promoted the products with big public sector purchasers like the university and helped fill the order books. Just think what proper investment in marketing could do.”
Hearing about Nia’s campaigning on behalf of owners of steel framed houses purchased from the Council under the right to buy, local County Councillor Keith Davies alerted her to the fact that homes in Ger y Gwendraeth, Kidwelly are of similar construction. Together they organised a meeting for home owner residents with housing officer Jonathan Morgan. At the meeting they secured an undertaking from Mr Morgan that privately owned homes in Ger y Gwendraeth would be assessed in 2012 at the same time as the renewal programme for council owned homes in the same estate, and that some funding would be available as Kidwelly is in the Lower Gwendraeth renewal area. He also confirmed that when the work had been completed, a “certificate of adequacy” would be issued which would be accepted by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Mr Morgan agreed to meet residents again in October.
After the meeting, Nia commented
“It was encouraging to hear Mr Morgan say that council officers would learn from the experience of dealing with properties in Trimsaran, where there have been distressing delays, and I want to see the necessary repairs sorted out much more smoothly in Ger y Gwendraeth. I will keep fighting for council help, to bring peace of mind to owner occupiers who have put their life savings into these homes and just want to be safe and know that, if they wish to move away or downsize, prospective purchasers will be able to get mortgages.”
Nia Griffith MP who is a founder member of the Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East has welcomed a clear statement in favour of the Palestinian application for statehood from Douglas Alexander MP, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary.
Nia said “Supporting the recognition bid was the right step towards achieving a just and viable two state solution in the Middle East. The World Bank, the UN, the EU and the IMF have all assessed the progress of the Palestinian Authority and judged it to be ready for statehood. I would urge our government and foreign secretary William Hague to be decisive and show the leadership necessary to support the recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN. The UK cannot support the right to self-determination in every country in the Middle East and then deny the same right to the Palestinians, in violation of international law and UN resolutions, especially when they are pursuing their aims in a peaceful non-violent manner.”
Nia with Swansea MPs Geraint Davies and Sian James delivering the 100,000 signature petition to the Department for Transport.
Nia Griffith MP recently met members of the Save Swansea Coastguard Campaign who had travelled up to Westminster to deliver the 100,000 signature petition and lobby MPs. After sailing along the Thames past the Houses of Parliament to draw attention to the cause, the campaigners came in to meet MPs and discuss how best to influence the Minister before he announces his decision on the future of Swansea Coastguard in early October. Later that evening Nia joined Martin Caton MP for Gower and other local MPs to make the case for keeping Swansea Coastguard, in a debate called precisely for that purpose, but the Minister’s response was disappointing. The MPs then obtained an appointment to deliver the petition to the Minister’s office at the Department for Transport.
If you have not already done so, please help by responding to the consultation which can be accessed via www.saveswanseacoastguard.co.uk by 6th October.
