Rt Hon Jane Kennedy MP, Liverpool Wavertree, has been moved in the reshuffle, away from the poisonous chalice (in my view) of HMRC and is now Hilary Benn's Deputy at the Ministry of Food, Farming and Rural Affairs.
Congratulations Jane.
I look forward to lots of chats about your new brief, particularly given the time I spent living in the Holme Valley in very rural circumstances in a national park.
My Michael would have been chuffed too, he was most emphatic about the need for a Food Minister.
Great news
5 comments:
I wish Jane Kennedy the best of luck in her new post. However, I do hope her successor, Stephen Timms will be prepared to listen to reason, when it comes to the matter of security privatisation issues at HMRC
Indeed, I have just written to Stephen Timms on that very issue.
I said
"I am writing to you on behalf of a constituent who is currently a Revenue Constable at HMRC Queens Dock Liverpool. You will see his letter to me below.
I know him personally as I used to be a HR Advisor at HMRC and I recruited most of the current Revenue Constables on site myself.
Rumours have abounded for a long time that their role is to be privatised and they will be replaced with security guards.
This is a retrograde step. The RCs are very proud, they are employed by the Queen to protect her buildings and her staff and they are very dedicated. There is also a requirement that they must be British Citizens and each has their papers carefully checked.
Security Guards on the other hand can be anyone, indeed we have all read in the newspapers from time to time about security guards in Government buildings turning out to be illegal immigrants etc.
We can only preserve the vital safety and security of our Revenue and Customs facilities if we employ professional, properly accounted for people. HMRC offices include monies, goods, fuel, stuff taken from smugglers, secret things that we cannot afford the general public to get their hands on, not to mention all those discs full of data!! This is a Department that above all others cannot afford to get security wrong.
Please consider this very thoughtfully to ensure that you dont make one of your first acts, something that threatens the security of this crown department."
I think Jane is one of the most talented and able M.P's in the region. I do, however find this new brief a strange one, as she is a city, as opposed to a rural, M.P. Maybe her fresh eyes will give the role a new perspective.
I dont think food is a rural issue, or the environment, although I accept that rural and farming are. But dont forget that she comes from Darlington which is settled within the countryside and dont forget that she is a great researcher and will be busily engaging in finding out the key issues for the rural communities. In my experience those are access to services, transport, Post Offices, etc. And with her Co-op membership I hope she will be taking full opportunity to promote the Co-op solutions to those issues. I am looking forward to hearing about her work in future General Committees, I think we can all really get our teeth into this. City dwellers we might be now, but it was not always thus!
I know she will do an excellent job in whatever portfolio she holds. I stand corrected on food and the environment, I just got carried away with the "rural" tag
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