Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to make my maiden speech today. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne) and the hon. Members for Newbury (Mr. Benyon) and for Windsor (Adam Afriyie) on the eloquence of their maiden speeches. I have counted my predecessor, Syd Rapson, as one of my friends for many years, since we served...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Any debate about children with special educational needs is bound to be emotive. We are talking about real children and real families and there are many parents in my constituency whom I admire enormously for their dedication to their children and for the support that they give to the school that their child attends—it does not matter whether it is a mainstream school or a special school....
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: We in Portsmouth have just commemorated the 200th anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar. One of the most moving aspects of last Wednesday's drumhead service was the work that veterans had done with local schoolchildren. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is very important that we keep alive the memory of those who gave their lives in the service of their country, and that our...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Although I welcome the new jobs that the Olympics will bring, particularly in the construction industry, we must remember that the Government are also creating new construction jobs through programmes such as building skills for the future, and better homes. I hope that hon. Members agree that in planning for the Olympics we must ensure that we have enough training places to allow our young...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I am grateful for the opportunity to bring to the attention of hon. Members and the Minister the very important issue of corporate social responsibility. In the short time available to me, I shall set out the old narrow view of the responsibilities of company directors, how things have moved on in the 21st century, and why it makes good business sense for organisations not only to accept...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: How many hon. Members have taken part in the armed forces parliamentary scheme in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Portsmouth is, of course, the home of the Royal Navy, and I have spoken to serving naval officers and ratings who greatly appreciate the scheme. Their concern is that fewer and fewer MPs have active service experience, and they think that the scheme enables us to understand the lives of servicemen and women and what they have to do. I should like there to be even greater participation: does...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: What assessment she has made of the impact of the Licensing Act 2003; and if she will make a statement.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I thank the Minister for his reply, but I am particularly concerned about under-age drinking. I welcome the tough new penalties for selling alcohol to those under 18. There was a particular problem in an area in my constituency called Buckland, where antisocial behaviour was linked with under-age drinking. A partnership was formed between the local Co-op store, the police, the council and...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I congratulate the right hon. and learned Member for Kensington and Chelsea (Sir Malcolm Rifkind) on his success in the ballot. I sympathise with his discomfort in speaking from the Back Benches. I too am speaking from the Back Benches, but then I know no different. Perhaps the right hon. and learned Gentleman should ask himself why he was so summarily deprived of the comfort of the Front...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The pensioners who were living in poverty after 18 years—the poorest pensioners, having to live on the state pension—would not agree with the hon. Gentleman.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: We need to return to the point about who the pension provisions were for. Let me repeat that the millions of pensioners living in poverty, having to live on just £69 a week, would not consider themselves to have a very strong pension provision.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Of course I entirely agree with my hon. Friend.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Again, I entirely agree.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Yes.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne). Many people were mid-sold pensions and are having to find their way through their difficulties, and it is this Labour Government who have helped them to do that. I have been accepting interventions because I was advised, as a new Member, that it was very bad form not to accept them. I...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Pensioners have benefited greatly from the strong economy that our Chancellor has delivered in the past eight years, and which certainly was not delivered under 18 years of Tory rule. I want now to address the Bill. My concern is that although the flexibility described in the Bill assists those who are financially literate, it does not address the needs of those facing financial exclusion....
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: As I have already said, the Bill's aim of bringing simplicity is laudable, but the simplicity that it offers is not relevant to many of my constituents. There are areas of severe deprivation in my constituency, where between 14 and 17 per cent. of residents are seriously in debt, and between 38 and 50 per cent. experience stress in paying household bills. Financial exclusion—the lack of...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The right hon. and learned Gentleman and I are talking about different worlds. I am talking about people who will save small change and who may not be in regular work. Returning to the drawdown, such people need funds to buy a child a pair of shoes, not a house. They do not earn enough to buy a property themselves, let alone to help a child purchase their first house. People facing financial...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: If Members allowed me make progress, they would perhaps see where my argument is leading. This is a question of the differing priorities of Members in different parts of the House. One thing that this report had in common with its predecessor was the acknowledged role of credit unions in helping to tackle financial exclusion. Throughout the English-speaking world, credit unions have been...