25th January

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

This Friday, 27^th January, is national Holocaust Memorial Day and marks the 67^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi concentration and extermination camp which is the site of the largest mass murder in history. To mark the occasion I am again organising a service of commemoration in Dudley.

I am honoured that Joanna Millan – a survivor of the Holocaust will be joining us to talk about her experiences. In 1943 Joanna and her mother were taken from their home and sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Her mother died a year later from TB brought on by the conditions in the camp, leaving Joanna orphaned. She got by with the help of cooks from the camp’s kitchen who brought her food. When the Red Cross took control of Theresienstadt in 1945, Joanna, along with five other surviving orphans was flown to England where she was adopted by a couple living in London.

It will be a privilege to hear Joanna’s story, not least because it’s vitally important that we continue to remember and learn from the appalling events of the Holocaust – and ensure that we continue to challenge all forms of bigotry.

The event will be attended by faith leaders, the Mayor, MPs, councillors and residents from across Dudley and will also include the lighting of the Candle of Remembrance and a short presentation from former students of Ellowes Hall School who recently visited Aushwitz throught the Holocaust Educational Trust’s ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ programme.

I really hope that as many local people as possible will attend the event during their lunch hour, in between meetings, before going shopping in the town or picking the kids up from school. The service starts at 12noon at Dudley College’s Broadway campus and all resident of Dudley are welcome.

CRIME FIGURES

Figures released last week show the biggest increase in personal crime in a decade.

Robbery, theft and violence against other people is up a shocking 11%, overall crime is up 4% and in the West Midlands, robbery is up by 10%.

The police are working as hard as possible, but it’s pretty obvious that if you sack thousands of police officers crime will increase. Time and again residents tell me safer streets are their number one priority, but cuts of 20% to the police budget mean that in the West Midlands we are set to lose 2,764 police jobs – 450 more than expected. In Dudley we’ve already seen the consequences of this policy with the unpopular plans to close New St police station in the town centre in the evening.

Labour had a clear plan to find savings of around 12% over the course of this Parliament, which Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary said could be achieved without cutting front-line officers. The Tory-led Government is implementing cuts of 20% which is too far, too fast and is putting public safety at risk.

STREETER

I contributed to the debate on the future of the high street last week. It was called to tie in with the publication of a Government report led by Mary Portas on ways to revive town centres.

I asked the minister to visit Dudley. A number of towns will be chosen to pilot some of the report’s recommendation and I asked him to consider our town because I think we’d really benefit from the innovative thinking and new ideas this report promises.

Later in the debate a southern Tory saw fit to describe Dudley as ugly. Gary Streeter is MP for a seat in Devon, doesn’t seem to have any connection to Dudley or the West Midlands. He wasn’t born here. He’s never lived here. But he still saw fit to make disparaging, misinformed remarks about our town in Parliament.

Who do these people think they are? I raised an official complaint about this in the Commons, demanding that he apologise. After all, why should a place which boasts the UK’s first national geological nature reserve, a fantastic castle, a beautiful town centre which traces its roots back to mediaeval Britain, and the award-winning Black Country Living Museum be sneered at by somebody like him?

It worries me that the David Cameron’s party is home to people who have these kind of views. He likes to tell us his party has changed but these remarks suggest Tory MPs still regard industrialised urban areas with an attitude that is patronising at best and contemptuous at worst.

I’ve invited him to meet me in Dudley so he can see how wrong he is.