(This article was published in the Brighton Argus today – 18th December 2023) There have also been a couple of groups of events that have taken place in the last few days focusing on public controlled e-petitions. One of these items is arranging to take place this afternoon which is an e-petition 635904 named “Hold a parliamentary vote on whether to reject amendments to the IHR 2005” which is a reference to International Health Regulations (2005) a legally binding agreement that provides a framework to detect, assess, report, and respond to public health events that have the potential to cross borders. This is being organised by the MP Scott Benton the Conservative Parliament for Blackpool South. Dr Tess Lawrie published it in early April this year and it closed at the beginning of October with 116,391 signatures. Given that there have been nearly 4,500 Sussex signatures it would be very encouraging if some of our local MPs will participate. The largest locations represented by signatures are Arundel in West Sussex, Hove in Brighton and Hove and Wealden in East Sussex. Although the Lewes, Bexhill and Eastbourne areas have been significant across our region.   

Last week the “TheyWorkForYou” website published a schedule for next year which is proposed to take place on the first Friday in March. The MP for Hastings and Rye, Sally-Ann Hart is presenting a Bill to

require the provision of information relating to support available for parents and carers of infants for the purpose of supporting those infants; to require the Government to publish an annual report on the support available for infants and the impact that that support has had on outcomes for infants and children; and for connected purposes.

This bill is holding the second reading of her “Support for Infants Bill”. On the same day there is also the second reading of a Bill organised by Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the Brighton Pavilion MP. His piece is called “Conversion Practices (Prohibition) Bill” published a week before the one from Sally-Ann and his piece is described as

a Bill to prohibit practices whose predetermined purpose is to change a person’s sexual orientation or to change a person to or from being transgender; and for connected purposes.

It is unusual to have the opportunity for two Sussex MP’s speaking on the same day especially as there has been little discussion from Sussex MP’s for quite some time.

Last Tuesday included an important discussion called Auditory Verbal Therapy organised by Sally-Ann Hart. This was related to a charity called “auditory verbal” who were obviously delighted that the event was taking place. Four other MPs participated a SNP, a DUP, and a London based Labour MP and Maria Caulfield from Lewes contributing as the government minister. Sally-Ann stated

There are about 50,000 deaf children in the UK, with over 7,000 under the age of five. They face the prospect of lower academic achievement and lower employment and are at a high risk of poor mental health, bullying and social exclusion. But it does not have to be this way: when deaf children and their families have access to early, effective support, opportunities are transformed. Expanding opportunities for children with special educational needs, including deaf children, so that they can reach their full potential is really important to them, their families and us as legislators. Early support should be available to all deaf children, whether their parents choose to communicate with spoken language, sign language or both.

At the end of the session Sally-Ann also called for Maria to meet with the Charity.  Also on Tuesday an Education Committee session involving Caroline Ansell from Eastbourne together with a discussion about “Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill: Second reading” will take place The Bill is focused to prohibit the export of livestock in Great Britain which involves cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses

The other discussion about e-petitions which took place Monday has only appeared to emerge. The event was organised by Cat Smith, the Labour MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood and she picked up the three significant e-petitions that are focused on Israel and Palestine issues. All three of these events are still public and they are “Remain neutral in Israel-Palestine conflict and withdraw support for Israel” which has more than 150,000 signatures, “Urge the Israel Government to allow fuel, electricity and food into Gaza” which has almost 200,000 signatures and “Seek a ceasefire and to end Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip” which has almost 260,000 signatures. The three items had very large signature support from Brighton Pavilion and two of them had also significant Crawley support. The only Sussex MP who took part was Caroline Lucas who is clearly reflecting the significant number of her members of the group. Her initial words were

“Like everyone who has watched the footage and read the accounts of the Hamas atrocities on 7 October, and anyone who has followed the utter devastation and mass killing happening in Gaza and the growing violence in the west bank, my overwhelming response is, “How do we stop this?” That is why I urge the Government and the Labour Front Bench to support an immediate bilateral ceasefire.”

She then states a few minutes later

Of course, the scale of the deaths and the horror is vastly different now, but the fundamentals of then and now are the same: the lives of civilians in both Israel and Gaza must be protected.

Every effort to prevent suffering is vital.