Missed Opportunity on Interns

IPSA have today published their new scheme for Parliamentary Expenses, back-tracking on their earlier proposal to make the payment of parliamentary interns mandatory within Parliament.

In the amount of time it takes you to read this, someone in the UK will have had a stroke.

On average, that person will be in hospital for the next 28 days. They are likely to suffer ongoing physical, psychological, sensory and social complications, potentially for the rest of their life.

There's a 40-50 per cent chance that, in a year's time, they will still be reliant upon someone else for their day-to-day activities, and nearly a one in three chance that they will be depressed.

The news of Ashok Kumar's sudden and untimely death will cause great sadness across the House of Commons. Ashok was a gentle, thoughtful, and hugely considerate colleague who was widely respected for the balanced way he approached the political agenda.

As Chair of the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) he presided over an organisation aimed at providing an evidence based approach to important scientific questions. Ashok's leadership enabled the staff and Members of the Board to feel valued and his loss will be felt deeply by all concerned.

“The fact that bowel cancer is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer, when it is one of the most curable cancers shows that we need to make sure that everyone is aware of the symptoms of bowel cancer and the help that is provided by the NHS,”

commented Phil Willis MP after backing the BE LOUD! BE CLEAR! campaign organised by Beating Bowel Cancer.

Local MP Stands united with thousands on bridges across the world to mark International Women’s Day.

Phil Willis, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, today joined thousands of women gathering on bridges across the world to mark International Women’s Day. Phil Willis met with the Prime Minister’s wife, Sarah Brown, and music legend Annie Lennox on Millennium Bridge to mark the worldwide celebration by releasing 100 white dove balloons at 12 noon.

Phil Willis MP formally opened Coppice Park Nursery’s new outdoor play area last Friday
The nursery had been awarded a £9000 outdoor grant from North Yorkshire County Council to improve its outdoor play provision.

Despite the rain the children, parents and staff all turned out to see the ribbon cut.
Nursery owners Isobel and Gilly said,

"The funding from North Yorkshire County Council is enabling us to develop further our outdoor play so that the children can really benefit from the experiences that can only be provided outdoors.