Bim Afolami MP — for Hitchin and Harpenden

Education

Bim Afolami, Nadhim Zahawi and Hertfordshire County Council at a table discussing SEND support

19th Mar 2019 0

Bim Afolami MP meets with Education Minister to discuss SEND support

It was great to be able to meet with Department for Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi…

Articles

The Times

18th Mar 2019 0

I had two weeks away from Westminster. It looked horrifying

This article was written for The Times. My baby boy was born about two weeks…

Infrastructure

Blue Sign on Road Illustrating EV 200V Charging Point

18th Mar 2019 0

Electric Car Charging Points Initiative

Electric cars are the future, and we need to embrace that future in Hitchin and…

Health & The NHS

Bim delivers Speech on Mental Health

9th Jan 2019 0

New Government Initiative to Tackle Mental Health

I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that we are facing an epidemic…

Local Community

Bim meets Churchgate Resurgence PB to discuss Development

9th Jan 2019 0

Meeting with Churchgate Resurgence PB to discuss the Churchgate Development

I met with Vicky and John Wyer, and Stephen Boddey, to discuss their ideas for…

Local Community

Bim meets Hitchin Christchurch Scouts

9th Jan 2019 0

Bim Afolami MP visits 11th Hitchin (Christchurch) Scout Group

I spent a wonderful evening with the 11th Hitchin (Christchurch) Scout group. I had a…

Transport

Airplane

17th December 2018 0

Luton Airport Expansion Public Meeting

Over the summer, London Luton Airport Limited (LLAL) began their public consultation for the proposal…

Education

Bim congratulates Helen Barton of St. George's Harpenden on being named Best Comprehensive School in the Country

10th December 2018 0

Bim Afolami MP Congratulates St.George’s Harpenden on being named Best Comprehensive School in the Country

Well done to St George’s Harpenden on being named the best comprehensive school in the…

Local Community

Churchgate Shopping Centre

4th December 2018 0

Churchgate & Hitchin High Street

Hitchin town centre is struggling. Despite the amazing efforts of our local businesses, and of…

Education

Bim Afolami MP plants tree at Preston Primary School

29th Nov 2018 0

Bim Afolami MP plants tree at Preston Primary School

I had a wonderful time visiting Preston Primary School, were I had the privilege of…

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Bim Afolami MP

5 days ago

Great to be able to meet with Department for Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi yesterday along with Hertfordshire County Council representatives to discuss funding for children with SEND.

We were able to share with him the complex efforts being made locally to fix the fragmented system of SEND support and resourcing. Both in schools and at home, we agreed that a holistic approach to support for SEND through education, social care and mental health management works best.

There are challenges as demand for educational support is on the rise, and we are experiencing a shortage of skilled staff, such as speech and language therapists.

I join Minister Zahawi in congratulating our schools, parents and support networks who are transforming educational support for SEND pupils throughout their young years to ensure they can enjoy a confident, resilient and accomplished adulthood. …

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Bim Afolami MP

6 days ago

My baby boy was born about two weeks ago. As for any family it was an amazing experience for ours, welcoming this little guy into the world, and I took some paternity leave for about ten days while voting in parliament by proxy – the first father to do so in parliamentary history.

However, what was politically relevant was the sense of perspective it gave me about our travails. No, I didn’t have any Damascene conversions. I supported the PM’s withdrawal agreement before paternity leave, and I still do.

Before I went away, inside the Westminster house of horrors things felt pretty bad. MPs (including myself of course) were not as courteous as normal, irritable, tired, incapable of even bothering to talk about anything other than the B-word. Grim.

However, when you are an MP (especially as a Conservative one) you do feel at the centre of things. If you want to discuss the legal advice, you can grab the attorney-general in the lobby. If you want to see if the whole European Research Group is going to vote for the damn thing, you can catch Steve Baker in the tea room (at time of writing, the answer is no).

Whichever party you are in, whatever your view, there is always a group of similarly minded folk to comfort you through the noise and battle. The atmosphere is not good, but there is a sense of drama, excitement, and close friendship with others.

However, for the time I was away on paternity leave, changing nappies and chasing around both Hitchin and Harpenden looking for baby rash cream and various breastfeeding aids, I stopped feeling like an MP and I saw things from the outside. It was horrifying. No wonder the country is emotionally and politically exhausted.

From the outside, the Brexit debate made me feel distant and completely impotent. There was lots of people shouting, but I couldn’t make any sense of it. I was completely at a loss as to all the technicalities and the jargon that journalists keep repeating despite the fact that only about ten people outside Westminster understand what they mean, and a majority of MPs don’t know either.

The current winners of the impenetrable Brexit language competition are the “Malthouse compromise”, the “Cooper/Boles/Letwin amendment”, and “Common Market 2.0”.

Let me explain why things are at such an impasse. The fundamental reasons are the hung parliament and the Fixed-Term Parliament Act. The first means that it only takes 20 Conservative MPs to hold the government to ransom, and the second means that MPs don’t automatically fear an election even if they vote down the government’s signature piece of legislation (as had been the case for the last few hundred years of parliamentary history).

Add to that the naked political fact of the Labour Party just opposing everything that the government does in the hope of provoking chaos, despite the fact that the withdrawal agreement delivers pretty much everything the Labour Party says that it wants.

This is not to suggest that parliament is in its finest hour. Brexit has been a huge stressor to our whole system. Our modus operandi (from both government and opposition) still pretends that British governments can always rely on a decent majority.

As we enter into a world where I predict we will continue to see close elections and hung parliaments, we are going to have to adapt to genuinely engage with and scrutinise legislation in a more honest and less party political way.

In the meantime, we need to stop the point scoring and realise that every day without resolution to Brexit is a day when confidence in British democracy is draining away.

Bim Afolami is Conservative MP for Hitchin and Harpenden

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/i-had-two-weeks-away-from-westminster-it-looked-horrifying-xdb7vtz7j …

I had two weeks away from Westminster. It looked horrifying

thetimes.co.uk

My baby boy was born about two weeks ago. As for any family it was an amazing experience for ours, welcoming this little guy into the world, and I took some paternity leave for about ten days while…

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