Sussex and the City
After a pause during August, the Monday Mail returns!
Each week I send out a short email 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.
Summer in Sussex
A bit like school, Parliament has a summer holiday, or ‘recess’, although it’s back to school for us MPs today.
Over the last six weeks, I have been visiting many of the villages and towns across Mid Sussex. You can read about my ‘summer tour’ during week 1 and week 2 in my weekly Middy column.
As well as holding surgeries open to the public, I have made it a priority to have sit down meetings with our town and parish councils. Why? Well I think that our town and parish councillors are unsung heroes in our communities. They give up their time for little or no financial reward, and if you want to understand what really matters in a village, a good place to start is by asking a local councillor.
Listening to the concerns of each council, I was able to draw out common themes - for example, it is abundantly clear that there is a strong desire for more 20mph zones across Mid Sussex - as well as understand what makes each place unique.
If you have ever thought about giving up some time for your community, then do think about becoming a town or parish councillor. The National Association of Local Councils has a nice explainer about what is involved.
Summer in the City
As a family we spent a week in New York for our summer holiday. Now, the Monday Mail isn’t a travelogue, but I wanted to share a couple of reflections.
Firstly, I loved it.
I loved the hustle and can-do attitude. Whether it was the kids on the subway breakdancing to make a few dollars (a bit like this), to the story of why and how the Rockefeller Centre was built nearly a hundred years ago, it felt energising to me.
Secondly, it’s a city whose character is defined by its diversity as I learnt at the excellent Museum of the City of New York. That diversity stems from a history of immigration. 12 million people came through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. My visit coincided with the initial court ruling about the Epping Forest asylum hotel. The counterpoint between the two was on my mind as I learnt how immigrants were interviewed, security screened and medically examined. For the overwhelming majority of arrivals, it was not a place of detention because the authorities decided on the day of arrival whether someone would be permitted to enter the USA or not.
This is not to draw an equivalence between mass immigration to the USA in the early Twentieth Century, and the complexities of people claiming asylum in the United Kingdom today. But I do believe that there is something worth reflecting upon here. The Liberal Democrats have long called for asylum processing to be speeded up, so that people who have no right to be here are sent back swiftly and those who do have a valid claim can get a job, integrate, and contribute to our country.
I have always adored history for the lost worlds that it illuminates, and the lessons we can learn, but I had not expected the story of Ellis Island to echo across the years and miles as it has for me in the last few weeks.
Something to listen to and maybe read
My teen has been telling me about Gary’s Economics on YouTube for a while, but my middle-aged sensibilities needed the comfort of a Leading podcast to pay attention, which prompted me to buy his book. The teen promptly ‘borrowed’ said book, and has only just returned it to me. I haven’t finished the book yet, but I am enjoying it so far.
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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