How the state keeps on failing women
Welcome to my Monday Mail.
As your Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Sussex, I write a short email each Monday sharing what I have been doing and thinking about in the past week. Anyone can sign up to receive the Monday Mail, so feel free to share this email with friends and family who might be interested too.
How the state keeps on failing women
On Thursday, the Prime Minister came to the Commons to apologise on behalf of the state for its role in historical forced adoptions in England and Wales. An estimated 185,000 babies were taken from their mothers in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, with women pressured into giving up their children because they were unmarried. It was an emotional hour, with campaigners watching in the public gallery, and MPs speaking about their own families’ experiences of forced adoption.
It was the third time during the week that the Commons had heard about how the state has failed women when they are pregnant, labouring or when they are a new or bereaved mother.
On Monday, I was honoured to meet up again with Mid Sussex constituent Heather who is part of the DES Justice campaign. You will be able to read more about Heather and DES in my Mid Sussex Times column on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Baroness Amos published National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation. Within the report is a chapter on care in University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, the trust that runs the Princess Royal in Haywards Heath, and the Royal Sussex in Brighton. I raised the question of neonatal staffing levels at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
In what I expect to be my final question to Keir Starmer, I drew together these three injustices, namely that for decades and decades women have been failed by state misogyny, and that today these wrongs persist in maternity services locally and nationally. Here is my question to the PM.
Tell me your experiences of corridor care
At short notice, MPs have been told that this Wednesday there will be a general debate on “Corridor Care in the NHS.” I am intending to take part in the debate, and to help me get underneath the headline statistics, I would be very grateful if you could share your experiences of corridor care, be that as a patient, family member or clinician.
I have created a very simple survey here: Corridor Care Survey
Masha and the Bear
I felt that it was important to add my name to this letter penned by my colleague Tom Gordon MP to Lisa Nandy the Secretary for Media, Culture and Sport about the children’s cartoon Masha and the Bear.
The Russian cartoon series has been rightly criticised for its pro-Kremlin messaging. Concerns about the cartoon were brought to Tom’s attention after Ukrainians - some of whom he met when he visited the country earlier this year - started cancelling their Netflix accounts. Netflix had just renewed its license to stream the series.
Why does pro-Russian messaging on a popular children’s cartoon matter? Well, it's part of Russia’s propaganda efforts which are attempting to normalise the country’s military and expansionist aspirations. Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine is still ongoing, with one attack this week killing 30 people in Kyiv. I think we should be asking serious questions about whether it is appropriate for one of Russia’s biggest cultural exports to be seen by millions across the world.
More broadly where authoritarian jurisdictions who do not share our values are trying to use soft power to garner influence in the UK, we need a robust framework capable of determining what types of content are acceptable and what are not.
The letter has generated a bit of media interest, in The Guardian, The Telegraph, and a critical take in The Spectator.
Rivals
Finally, something much lighter.
I thought I would indulge myself by sharing this Matt Chorley substack unpicking the depiction of the 1987 General Election in Disney+’s adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals.
The TV series is brilliant not least because my cousin is a member of the production crew. Rivals is available on Disney+.
Getting in touch
My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch.
Best wishes,
Alison
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