My Newsletter 24/11/17
Welcome to my latest newsletter as Member of Parliament of Nottingham North. I’m pleased to announce that I have secured another Westminster Hall Debate. Next week I will be leading a debate on Voter Registration in Nottingham North. Way too many of our constituents aren’t registered to vote, and therefore miss out on the opportunity to take part in our democracy. We need to do more to change this, by both making it easier and encouraging people to engage more. I’ll share more on this next week after the debate, but in the meantime, please get in touch if you’ve had any personal experiences or difficulties in either registering to vote, or voting due to a lack of registration. This wasn’t all that happened this week though – I’ll tell you all about the rest below. As I’ve said before, I will strive to send you a newsletter like this each Friday to keep you updated on the work I’m doing in Parliament as well as in our community, and to inform you of any interesting events taking place in our area. To help me with the latter, if you are running or know of anything that you think may be of interest to others, feel free to drop me an email at alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk and I will include it in future issues. Please also forward it onto anyone you think may be interested. The Budget This week has of course been dominated by the Budget, made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Wednesday. I was very disappointed by a budget that not only confirmed that we are worse off, but didn’t have any plan to deal with the issues facing Britain. Real wages are lower than they were in 2010, economic growth is the lowest it has been since the Tories came to office and productivity has been revised down every year too. I was particularly disappointed with the lack of support for the NHS, yet again. After seven years of the Tories the NHS faces a funding crisis and this Budget didn’t go far enough to address that. It didn’t even meet NHS England’s call for an extra £4bn for the NHS, let alone the £6bn extra investment Labour are committed to. They’ve allocated more money for Brexit preparations than for the NHS. And there was no money to end the NHS pay freeze at this stage. I’m hoping to raise these concerns in the House next week, and will let you know if I’m given the chance. Asking Questions |
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Some weeks I’m unlucky and don’t get an opportunity to question the Government during Questions, but this week I had two chances at the start of the week.
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Round Tables Roundtable events are wonderful opportunities to discuss issues in a way that’s not done enough – where a range of different views and ideas on an issue (including my own!) can all be heard and discussed as a group, as opposed to the adversarial debates of the House or meetings where I only get to hear one view at a time. They’re a great opportunity for me to really learn about the ins-and-outs of topics from experts, and this week I was pleased to not only take part in, but chair two in Westminster:
Nottingham North |
That’s not all I’ve had on in Nottingham today though. This morning I visited Bulwell Academy in the morning, for a tour and to discuss how the school is doing and the challenges it’s facing with the Principal. |
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This afternoon I’ve been busy too – with an HIV Test thanks to the Terrence Higgins Trust. You can read more about that and find out how you can get your own here. Afterwards I met the team, parent champions, and family mentors at Small Steps Big Changes, a wonderful local Programme funded by Big Lottery, which works through CityCare to improve the outcomes of our 0-3 years olds – when help makes the biggest difference! And now I’m on my way to another busy local surgery, which will include a meeting with Immigration Education Nottingham, who do great work to help in the city and I’m keen to work with to support constituents who need their assistance. While I’m always available to help by email (alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk) or phone (0115 975 2377), please get in touch if there’s something you’d rather talk to me about at a surgery and my team will let you know when the next opportunity is. |
Tackling Issues As always I also met with several other people and groups throughout the week to discuss the issues their organisations are facing and how I can help them as a Member of Parliament. This week these included:
That’s all for this week, but I look forward to telling you how the debate goes on Tuesday, and once again, let me know if you’ve any personal experiences with voter registration issues that I could use. |
What’s On I want these emails to be as interesting as possible. That means there’ll be some politics – it’s important that I am held accountable. But I also want to offer information about what’s on locally. So, if you have an event you’d like me to advertise, let me know. Christmas Fayre Christmas Coffee Morning ‘Songs by Candlelight’ Chit and Chatter Hidden Treasures Homemade Christmas Fair Bilborough Christmas Festival Festive Firbeck Songs for a Winter Evening Christmas Concert Messy Church Bestwood Park Church’s Bestop Kitchen Free Community Cinema Bulwell Connectors Crafty Ladies Crochet Clinic |
I’d also like to tell you about Opportunity Nottingham. Opportunity Nottingham is a Nottingham City based project delivered through a partnership of local agencies including; housing, health, advocacy and criminal justice organisations. The project aims to improve the lives of people who are experiencing multiple and complex needs. It is part of the National Fulfilling Lives Programme and is made possible by National Lottery funding from the Big Lottery Fund. I supported the project when I worked as Portfolio Holder for Adults and Health at Nottingham City Council, including opening their Annual Event in 2016. I am also very supportive of the work of Framework Housing Association – who work to reduce homelessness in Nottingham, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire – and are the lead partner for Opportunity Nottingham. Opportunity Nottingham has two main aims: to provide and coordinate services for people who have multiple needs to enable them to live fulfilled lives; and to bring about system change by transforming the way services work at a national and local level so that they are easy to access, connected and delivered with the Beneficiary (service-user) in mind. Each Beneficiary on the project will face at least three of the following four complex needs; homelessness, offending, substance misuse and mental ill health. If you are a frontline worker in Nottingham City, and supporting anyone experiencing at least three of the above complex needs, you can find out more about Opportunity Nottingham on their website at www.opportunitynottingham.co.uk. The project also tweets regular updates – look for @OppNottingham.
Sound as a Pound have also asked me to advertise their 2-day finance ‘Money Talks’ courses in Nottingham. Transport and lunch are both provided, attendees will receive a £10 gift voucher for each day and there are plenty of other freebies on offer, as well as some sound money-saving advice! For further information you can call 0115 844 3745, email soundasapound@ncha.org.uk or visit their website at www.soundasapound.org.
I’d also like to congratulate Bulwell Forest Garden on their recent award win. They were awarded a Michael Varnam Award in the group category for the difference they’ve made in our area, particularly recognising the hard work and commitment from residents doing an amazing job to improve and strengthen our community. I’ve heard that many families enjoyed their annual Spooky Monday event on Monday, with 260 residents enjoying being able to carve pumpkins, take part in craft activities, bake some delicious pumpkin gingerbread in the clay oven and enjoy homemade pumpkin soup. The garden, located at will be open to the public 1pm-4pm, Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat until mid-December. In January, they will start planning the events and activities taking place throughout 2018. If you would like to be involved, please contact Barbara on 07890557854, and keep an eye out as I’ll be advertising the events in my newsletter once they’ve been organised.
You may also recall I advertised Aviva’s Community Fund recently. I’m pleased to hear that Bilborough Arts have applied to support their 2018 Festival. However, this funding depends on public votes, so please can you show your support by voting for their project here. I’m sure it will be an incredible festival, and be even better if they can receive this extra funding. I’m delighted to hear that Bilborough Arts aren’t the only group who have applied for this funding. Nottingham Peace Project, who I talked about in the summer have been busy providing music and poetry lessons to groups of disadvantaged young people across the constituency, and have also applied to the Aviva Community Fund. They’re an amazing group and you can show your support for their project here.
If you would like your events advertised here, or further information on those advertised, please email me at alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk. That’s all for now! Details of how to get in touch or to have a look at the things I’m doing are below… All the best, Alex
How to contact me If you would like to contact me, please email alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk or give my Nottingham North constituency office a ring on 0115 975 2377. If you are a constituent from Nottingham North e-mailing me regarding a casework issue you are my priority, so please ensure your message includes:
Strict parliamentary protocol means I can only deal with issues on behalf of my own constituents. If you aren’t sure whether you live in Nottingham North, you can check who your local MP is by entering your postcode online here: findyourmp.parliament.uk. You may also wish to write to me with your concerns. If so please send your correspondence to Alex Norris MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A OAA. All constituents who take the time and trouble to write a personal letter will receive a reply as a matter of priority. Other useful links
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