24th April 2023: A Week in Parliament

Trip to Dover

Last week, I undertook a cross-party trip to the Port of Dover to see how it operates daily. It is a fascinating process, on what is a very tight site, but designed for quick loading and discharge of vehicles – with three ferry operators providing multiple crossings daily. The Port hit the headlines over Easter due to delays in coaches being processed and able to travel onwards, with delays of 10 hours. It will come as no surprise, but this is a direct effect of Brexit with every single passenger’s passport now needing checked and stamped. The Port has put in place additional check areas and the French have provided additional resources as well. Even so, we were told about the fact that they are having to build an additional £50m facility to further increase checking capacity.

Meanwhile, Eurostar has cut its capacity by 30% as there is insufficient room to process passports at the St Pancreas terminus. This of course means that, in effect, fares will have to increase to offset the reduced number of seats. Yet again, as a result of Brexit. Additionally, another station serving Eurostar, Ashford, has closed indefinitely because it cannot cope. The Tories’ hard Brexit pledge is going well.

Scottish Renewables

I have once again called on the UK Government to step up and back Scotland’s renewable energy sector. I have called on them to prioritise the construction of new manufacturing facilities for renewable energy components. This will create new jobs and allow Scotland to continue being a world leader in this field. However, it seems that there is no plan in place for this job creation, no plan to match fund the just transition fund, no answer to the job losses at Harbour Energy, and no firm commitments on timescales for Acorn. To make matters worse, tidal stream funding has been halved instead of increased! It seems to be the case that ‘just transition’ is nothing more than warm words for this Tory Government. Time for action.

Iftar 

On Thursday I was honoured to attend the Iftar at the Ayrshire Muslim Education Centre. Along with other local representatives we were invited to celebrate the end of Ramadan. The event was specifically organised for non-Muslims and it was a great opportunity to go and learn more about such a special time for those observing Ramadan. I’d like to say a massive thanks to those at the Education Centre for their fantastic hospitality.

Street Surgeries

On Friday it was great to be out and about in the sunshine knocking on doors in the Grange Estate. Because of how big and spread out the estate is, it took us well over three hours to chap 300+ doors. It was probably the busiest one we have had in regard to picking up cases for the office as a lot of issues were raised. The experience was once again very positive, and it was refreshing to hear the amount of praise we were getting for being visible and out and about. Looking forward to tackling Stewarton this Friday!