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| Anti-Bullying Week |
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 When I was at school we all knew that bullying happened, but no-one spoke up. It was not really talked about. Everyone turned a blind eye.
Things are so different today - and so much better. Bullying is talked about openly, it is not tolerated in schools. And teachers and young people in schools across the country are working hard to stamp out bullying.
We know that simply watching an incident of bullying can encourage the bully to continue because they thrive on attention. This makes bullying unique because even those who are neither the victim nor perpetrator can be a part of it and therefore have a duty to try and stop it. Indeed, the message of the Government's recent campaign was: ‘laugh at it and you’re a part of it.
We have given schools the tough powers they need to take action against bullying. Schools can now punish pupils for bullying on the journey to and from school where victims can be at their most vulnerable. But we also need to educate people and provide teachers with the information they need to tackle these sensitive issues. |
More on Anti-Bullying Week 2008
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| The tragic death of Baby P |
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Everyone in Britain is horrified at the suffering that baby P endured and the failure of agencies to prevent this happening. People are asking how these despicable acts of evil can happen in this day and age and in Haringey of all places.
As a parent, I found reading the confidential serious case review and the details of the abuse deeply disturbing. It is even more heartbreaking now that we have all seen the photographs of baby P.
Like everybody I am angry that crucial interventions to save this little boy were not made.
Professionals working with children in this country do a tough job in very difficult communities but I will not hesitate to act on the findings of the investigation into what went wrong in Haringey and on Lord Laming’s review of child protection.
We must do whatever it takes to protect children from abuse and I will not rest until we have the very best child protection arrangements in the world. |
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| Read my latest Wakefield Express column |
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Remembrance Day is always an emotional time, as the whole nation pauses to remember those who fought for our country as well as those men and women who are serving around the world today.
But for me it was particularly poignant this year. Ninety years on since the end of the First World War - at the time, the "war to end all wars" - I had the honour to meet the last three surviving veterans of the Great War.
Bill Stone, aged 108, Harry Patch, aged 110 and Henry Allingham, aged 112, are the last three Brits who can remember - and share with future generations - the true horror of what happened all those years ago. |
Wakefield Express Column - 14 November 2008
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| Wear it pink! |
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 I joined with other Labour MPs in Parliament this week to support the ‘wear it pink’ campaign and raise awareness of breast cancer. We wore an assortment of pink clothing and pink rosettes to mark the end of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in the UK – in the last three months 456 women in the Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust area were referred for breast cancer treatment. |
Backing Breast Cancer Awareness Month
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