(This item was published in the Brighton Argus on 25th September 2023 with their document “XL bully debate has sparked huge response“ which supports Glyn Saville who formed that e-petition) This week is the beginning of the Party-Political annual Conferences so there will not be any formal Parliament until the second half of the October. The first Party holding its annual conference is the Liberal Democrats in Bournemouth which began on Saturday 23rd September finishing tomorrow. Sunday the 1st October will see the opening of the Conservative conference in Manchester ending on Tuesday the 4th.  On Friday the 6th the Green Party will begin their Conference in Brighton and Plaid Cymru will start their Conference in Wales. Plaid Cymru ends on Saturday and Green Party ends on Sunday. The following weekend on Sunday 8th October the Labour Party Conference opens in Liverpool closing on Wednesday and on Friday the 13th the DUP Conference in Ireland opens closing on the Saturday. Finally, the SNP Conference will open on Sunday the 15th and it closes on Tuesday the 17th which is the second day of the new Parliament arrangement. It will be interesting to observe the results of all of these Party Conferences.

It has been surprising to notice how quickly a news item can become an e-petition. In the last 12 days an e-petition that was published on 13th September was written by Glyn Saville. On Friday 15th September early in the evening there were 60,000 signatures which were gathered together with another 20,000 signatures in that hour. By the end of that evening another 60,000 people had signed it and by the following morning there were an additional 90,000 people who had signed. By the end of Saturday there were a further 170,000 people had endorsed it. That petition is now the 7th largest out of nearly 49,000 petitions that exist since November 2006 when the Prime Minister Tony Blair introduced the e-petitions. This petition is entitled as “Bad owners are to blame not the breed – don’t ban the XL bully” and it includes the text

I believe that the XL bully is a kind, beautiful natured breed that loves children and people in general, and are very loyal and loving pets. An XL bully is a “Heinz 57”, a mixture of different breeds, so if you ban them then this will have implications for cross breeds of dog because nobody can be sure on the breed specifics. They are all different sizes and shapes. Just because a dog is big and muscular doesn’t mean it can be labelled an XL bully, it is unfair to do this.

Over the last three weeks in Parliament from the beginning of September until last Tuesday, some the Early Day Motions were raised. Sadly, the item that Peter Bottomley the MP for Worthing West submitted in July on the last day of Parliament which is “Holocaust Memorial and Victoria Tower Gardens” has not yet been signed by any MP so far. He submitted another item last Tuesday which is “Transitional arrangements for All-Party Parliamentary Groups” and it would be very positive if MPs would endorse it when Parliament reopens in mid October. Earlier in September he put forward a piece entitled “All Party Groups” so far only two MPs have endorsed it a Labour and a DUP MP.  The only other Sussex MP who has submitted EDMs in this short period was Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion. The first one was entitled “COP28” which was submitted on the 14th September and so far, eighteen MPs have signed it, which including eleven Labour, four SNP and all 3 Plaid Cymru MPs. On the 18th September she submitted another entitled “COP28 and human rights” and to date only 4 MPs have endorsed it. It is rather disappointing that only three of our Sussex MPs have taken part. Peter and Lloyd Russell-Moyle from Brighton Pavilion only approved one EDM during that three week time period and both focused on the same one which was “UK manufactures of lower carbon construction vehicles” that a Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael submitted. A total of 15 MPs approved it. Although Caroline did not sign that EDM, she did sign eight of them over that period. It will be valuable to see what happens in the next period of Parliament. 

Last Tuesday a discussion was held entitled “Youth Programmes and Girlguiding: Further and Higher Education Students: Cost of Living” with sadly only one Sussex MP Caroline Lucas taking part.  At the beginning of the session a Liverpool MP George Howarth, the Chair person, began with the comment “I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called in the debate.” The person organising the discussion was Paul Blomfield a Labour MP for Sheffield. His first few words were “I beg to move, That this House has considered the impact of increases in the cost of living on further and higher education students.” The contribution from Caroline included

The fact that universities are themselves having to provide food banks for students is an indictment of the fact that clearly our young people cannot afford to make ends meet at university. Does he agree we should consider bringing back things such as the maintenance grant so that our young people can focus on learning rather than spend all this time trying to make ends meet?

Such an important range of issues representing serious viewpoints and effecting everyday lives deserves the fullest support from all of our MPs in making every effort in bringing positive resolve.