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A few more people wanted from Aberdare…
If more people sign up for the free Hear From Your MP service, Aberdare’s MP will receive an invitation to contact her constituents via the service.
The Hear From Your MP service is free and it enables MPs to communicate with their constituents.
In the words of Tom Steinberg and the MySociety crew : “HearFromYourMP is a site which allows you, the constituent, to sign up to get emails from your local MP about local issues. When your MP writes to you and other constituents, we give you the chance to discuss what has been said in a simple online forum.”
Here’s the link to Aberdare’s MP Ann Clwyd (Labour) on Hear From Your MP.
What Expenses has Aberdare’s MP Ann Clwyd during the past few years ?
It seems many people are pondering this question at the moment.
According to the TheyWorkForYou website, Ann Clwyd MP claimed £144,000 in 2007/2008 as expenses. In 2006/2007 she claimed £136,000 as expenses and in 2005/2006 £135,000.
For a clear profile on Aberdare’s long serving MP read the TheyWorkForYou profile here.
For regular updates on Ann Clwyd MP’s parliamentary contributions, sign-up to the free Hear From your MP service
Ann Clwyd – Aberdare’s MP – has drawn attention to the plight of a local business suffering in the present economic downturn. In a Parliamentary debate she calls for support from Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling and recounts the example of one of her constituents who runs the last medium heavy engineering firm in the Valleys …
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Ann Clwyd – Aberdare’s MP – drew attention to the plight of starving people in Zimbabwe yesterday in a debate in the House of Commons. She contributed a persuasive anecdote concerning her recent trip to South Africa…
While I was in South Africa a few weeks ago, Zimbabwean refugees handed me a note for 10 million Zimbabwean dollars. That buys a bag of tomatoes in Zimbabwe. Now Mugabe is prepared to starve his people to death for their votes. What kind of human being is President Mugabe ?
- Source Hansard, via TheyWorkForYou. Click the link to read Mrs Clwyd’s full contribution to the Parliamentary debate.
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For regular updates on Ann Clwyd MP’s debate contributions, sign-up to the free Hear From your MP service
Ann Clwyd – Aberdare’s MP – contributes towards the Iraq Inquiry debate in Parliament yesterday. She talks about her work with the Indict campaign and her contribution towards “the removal of the regime”.
I think that I have been quite consistent during the time that I have spoken about Iraq in this Chamber. I argued for one thing—for the removal of a regime that persecuted its own people and was responsible for 5,000 deaths in Halabja, for the deaths of tens of thousands of Kurds throughout Kurdistan, and for the deaths of tens of thousands of Shi’a in the south. It was for humanitarian reasons that I always argued for the removal of the regime, and I did so in 2003 when I spoke in favour of the war. I did that because I had failed—and I would suggest that we had all failed—in looking at the alternatives to war in the removal of the Saddam Hussein regime. There were alternatives. There was an alternative that I spoke about here for at least seven years; in fact, I continually bored myself by talking about it so often. I was very pleased that 201 people in this Chamber—my colleagues in all parts of the House—voted at that time to indict the regime and to remove it by international law.
- Source Hansard, via TheyWorkForYou. Click the link to read Mrs Clwyd’s full contribution to the Parliamentary debate.
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For regular updates on Ann Clwyd MP’s debate contributions, sign-up to the free Hear From your MP service
Aberdare’s MP Ann Clwyd ponders being “the only woman from Wales here for 14 years” at the House of Commons this week.
Her contributions came in a debate on International Women’s Day at the House of Commons on Thursday, 6 March 2008.
Speaking in the House, Ann Clwyd MP says : “I am pleased to see all the women in the House, because I know from personal experience how difficult it has been for women to be elected. I was the only woman from Wales here for 14 years, so like my right hon. and learned Friend the Minister, I am pleased to see more women in the House. It was a long fight; there had been only three women MPs from Wales before I was elected in 1984, two of whom were daughters of famous men. One was Lloyd George’s daughter, and the other was the daughter of the then Deputy Chief Secretary to the Treasury. The third was Dorothy Rees, who was unfortunately defeated after one year. That is why some of us speak with considerable feeling about the difficulties of getting here.” – Source Hansard, via TheyWorkForYou
Later in the debate, Mrs Clwyd mentions a meeting in Denbigh, her home town, where Leonora Cohen, one of Emmeline Pankhurst’s suffragettes, spoke, at the age of 97!
You can read Ann Clwyd’s fascinating and poignant account here.
Although no one can deny Aberdare’s MP shows enthusiasm for extending the vote, there are exceptions where Ann Clwyd does not wish to offer people the opportunity to vote. A day previously, on 5th March 2008, the House of Commons voted on whether a National Referendum should be held on the revived EU Constitution. Ann Clwyd MP voted against holding a referendum.
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For regular updates on Ann Clwyd MP’s debate contributions, sign-up to the free Hear From your MP service
At Prime Minister’s Question Time last week, Ann Clwyd the MP for Aberdare and Cynon Valley, invited Gordon Brown to congratulate the miners of Tower Colliery on their successful management of a coalmine … “despite the efforts of the Conservatives to shut them down” (
Source: Hansard via TheyWorkForYou).
Prime Minister Brown replied in kind … “I want to thank them for their efforts, proving that working people can get together and make a success of a project that other parties said would never work”.
The lack of leadership and statesmanship in the Labour Party in its present configuration remind one of Nye Bevan’s words given in speech to the Labour Party conference on October 4, 1957. Bevan warned of the perils of sending a “British Foreign Secretary naked into the conference chamber”.
And his subsequent question “Do you call that statesmanship? I call it an emotional spasm.”
The ‘emotional spasm’ in the UK Parliament last week came from a Prime Minister who has not been elected to lead his own Party. Moreover, Gordon Brown was unwilling to call a General Election after succeeding Tony Blair in 2007, as he did not want to become known as the shortest-serving Prime Minister since George Canning, who lasted a measly 119 days in 1827.
A fortnight prior to this spasmodic exchange in the House of Commons, the Labour Government renewed their committment to Nuclear Energy. This island is made of coal and thus, to borrow from Bevan again, it takes an organising genius to ensure a future energy crisis. Prime Minister’s Question Time last week should have been used to punctuate the history of Cynon Valley with something serious and statesmanlike, but instead, we got the Labour Party emotional spasm that Bevan warned about fifty years ago.
Aberdare’s MP Ann Clwyd has tabled an Early Day Motion in Parliament on the Aberdare Girls School Sikh case.
An Early Day Motion enables an MP to express their opinions on a subject and gather support. There is no guarantee of a debate in Parliament.
The EDM reads thus :
That this House takes serious note of the continued refusal of the Governing Body of Aberdare Girls’ School to permit a 14 year-old Sikh girl from wearing to school her Kara, a small Sikh bangle that is an article of her faith; is concerned to learn the punishment for the girl for her insistence on wearing her modest Kara was at first keeping her in isolation for nine weeks and then on 5th November, excluding her from school; and calls upon the UK Government to work with the Welsh Assembly and to do everything within its power to ensure the girl is immediately reinstated as her treatment clearly amounts to discrimination and contravenes the Race Relations Act 1976.
There is a detailed profile on the Cynon Valley MP on the TheyWorkForYou website, including Parliamentary contributions, voting records, and details on expenses. Nowadays it is possible to keep tabs on one’s Member of Parliament and read their Parliamentary contributions almost instantaneously. You can even request a free copy delivered in your e-mail intray!
Member of Parliament Ann Clwyd officially reopened the children’s room in the Library which has been revamped amidst much excitement for the many thousands of children who use it every year.
The Library on Green Street, Aberdare opened in 1963 and has remained virtually the same until recent refurbishments to improve access to the building.
A lift has been installed to the reference and local studies department upstairs to allow better access for members of the public, the foyer has been remodeled with a first-class reception area and a new teenage area has also been created.
The children’s room itself has been transformed with a bright and colourful underwater mural painted on the walls, which has delighted youngsters and parents alike.
The Cynon Valley MP also presented prizes to the local area winners of the “Big Wild Read” reading challenge.
Now in its ninth year, the summer reading challenge is the UK’s largest promotion of children’s books and aims to encourage children to read more and use the library regularly.
Aberdare MP Ann Clwyd (Labour, Cynon Valley) came to Aberdare Town today November 11th 2007 for Remembrance Sunday to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in Aberdare, along with representatives from other groups in the Community and several hundred of her constituents.
Photo : Laying the wreath at Aberdare Cenotaph – Ann Clwyd MP and Rhondda Cynon Taff Council Deputy Leader, Councillor Anthony Christopher
Aberdare’s MP Ann Clwyd made a thoughtful contribution to the Burma debate yesterday : “
I was flying over Burma at about 1 am this morning, and I wondered what was happening below in that country. Like many, I have not had the opportunity to visit it, but I have been to the border camps and I have for the past three years been the chair of the human rights committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which deals with the human rights of parliamentarians in trouble. We have over a five-year period heard from the Burmese in opposition, some of whom were elected in 1990. They have told us about the plight of their colleagues in Burma, and the stories are tragic. Members should be particularly concerned about the plight of our fellow parliamentarians who, unlike us, are not able to stand on any platform and speak out, or to practise their mandates.”
All of Ann Clwyd’s contributions to the Burma debate in the House of Parliament are available online here. There is a detailed profile on the Cynon Valley MP on the TheyWorkForYou website, including contributions, voting records, and details on expenses. Nowadays it is possible to keep tabs on one’s Member of Parliament and read their Parliamentary contributions almost instantaneously. You can even request a free copy delivered in your e-mail intray!
Come and hear the powerful stories of the Iraqi oil workers and trade unions resisting the military and economic occupation of their homeland . . .
Tuesday 2 October at 7 pm
WALLACE LECTURE THEATRE
Main Building
Cardiff University
Park Place (opp. Student Union Building)
Speakers-
EWA JASIEWICZ
UK rep for the Basra Oil Workers Union & founder member of NAFTANA, an organisation that builds solidarity with Iraqi workers.
+ Speaker from the Stop the War Coalition
About the Ewa Jasiewicz:
In 2004, Ewa Jasiewicz visited Iraq to build links between the anti-war movement and Iraqi trade unions resisting both occupation and the corporate take-over of their counrty. She became the UK rep for the Basra Oil Workers Union, a militant trade union resisting both the sell-off of Iraqi oil to foreign corporations and the armies of occupation and helped organise Iraq’s first anti-privatisation conference.
Ewa has lived in Baghdad and Basra, supporting human rights groups, womens organisations, families, workers, trade unionists and Palestinian refugees.
Her articles have appeared in Red Pepper, Electronic Iraq, Z-Net, Counterpunch, Infoshop, Occupation Watch and The Socialist Review in the US.
This will be an important meeting to join the international campaign against the hydrocarbon law that aims to give control of Iraq’s oil for the next 30 years to foreign multinationals.
About HANDS OFF IRAQI OIL
Hands Off Iraqi Oil is a UK coalition opposing any foreign exploitation of Iraq’s oil reserves that rips off the Iraqi people. Members include Corporate Watch, Iraq Occupation Focus, Jubilee Iraq, Naftana, PLATFORM, Voices UK, and War on Want.
For more info. about this event contact Adam Johannes on 07940108146
Only 30 people have signed up to keep in touch with Aberdare’s MP Ann Clwyd (Labour) via the Free Hear from your MP service .
This is a free service delivered by email which notifies people of contributions made by Ann Clwyd MP in the House of Commons.
Here is yesterday’s contribution in the House of Commons from Aberdare’s MP :
Spoken by Ann Clwyd in a House of Commons debate Oral Answers to Questions – Prime Minister: National Security (25 Jul 2007) Ann Clwyd: Can my right hon. Friend assure us that none of the 4,000 people who will be deported this year will be sent to countries where torture is endemic?
This man entertained thousands of Welsh people today for he spent the afternoon sitting on a bench in Queen Street, Cardiff singing his heart out.
The sun shone on Cardiff today and it felt like summer in the mid-day sun.
Today there are more beggars and homeless people in Cardiff than in many decades past.
Aberdare’s MP Ann Clwyd raised the issue of homelessness at this year’s March 1st St David’s Day Welsh Affairs Debate in the House Of Parliament, saying :
I have been shocked recently in Cardiff to see people sitting on the streets, by lifts, wrapped up in blankets, begging.
It was nigh impossible to walk down a single street without passing someone squatting at a shop-entrance begging.
Cardiff has changed so much in the past few years, but the chasm between the richest and poorest in society is wider than ever.
How long since we last spent some quality time in Cardiff ? An exchange from the Pen and Paper shop in Royal Arcade sheds light on our problem.
Do you know where Lears the bookshop is ?
Lears closed six years ago.
We shared the sun with the statue of John the Third Marquis of Bute overlooking Cardiff Castle, with a copy of Noam Chomsky’s Necessary Illusions at hand for company. Even the stern figure of old Butey seemed to want to smile in the glorious sunny Cardiff that was Friday, March 9th 2007.
Iraq For Sale Film
Thursday 15 February at 8 pm.
Chapter Arts Centre, Market Rd., Canton
Tickets available from Chapter box office.
Organised in association with Oyster Clothing.
The film will be introduced by poet, Robert Minhinnick, who will also show a short film about his recent visit to Iraq.
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Corporate Watch UK research and report on the corporate carve-up of Iraq.
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