"Lorely's Life" at Westminster Chapter 2

Written by Lorley Burt on Wed 1st Jun 2005

Frequently asked questions of a new MP: so what's it like down there, then? Are those green benches hard to sit on? Do you have an office yet?

Well, the sense of unreality hasn't worn off. I checked out my very own clothes peg and, yes, there was the ribbon to hang my sword. I had been keen to check the ribbon was there because, well, you never know when you might bring a sword in and need somewhere to hang it do you?

The green benches: no, they're not uncomfortable unless you have been bobbing up and down on then for over six hours trying to 'catch the speaker's eye' to make your maiden speech.

Accommodation. Yes we finally have an office. It's just walkable to reach the Commons Chamber where we vote within the eight minutes allowed by the Division Bell to get into the lobby.

Let me explain. If you're not listening or hoping to speak in a debate you don't have to physically be there. Since there's business going on in the Chamber for about 14 hours a day you COULDN'T be there all the time and do the other things you need to do.

So, you're in your office working away. The division bell rings. You drop what you're doing and 'leg it' to the Commons Chamber. You look keenly to find your whip (I'll tell you about whips the next time) and you're herded into the appropriate voting lobby like so many cattle. Or maybe that should be parrots, because the noise of the chatter is amazing.

So is there any point to our paying large sums of money to keep this fantasy land going? Well, yes there is. The other week two nuns from Solihull wrote to me asking to lobby me for the 'Make Poverty History' campaign which you may have heard of.

I duly met them, together with a monk from St Columbans monastery. Between them they had over 100 years of service working in the poorest areas of the world, mainly giving medical care to the sick where no other care existed. And THEY thought it was an honour to meet ME!

Anyway, the day before I have received some information about another initiative to help the World's poor called Stamp Out Poverty. It would involve introducing a tiny (0.005%) stamp duty on sterling currency exchanges and would produce £3bn a year for international aid.

Their visit spurred me to believe I COULD do something to fight for this cause.

So I am trying to get cross party support for an Early Day Motion, which is a lobbying motion to raise awareness of an issue, and our Parliamentary team has agreed to re-examine its feasibility. There's a long way to go, but if this could become a reality I'd feel my time as an MP had been well spent for that alone.

I'm doing lots of things for Solihull too, but space has run out and I'll tell you about that in Lorely's Life next time.