G4S – “it was always going to happen”.

Speaking after it was announced that G4S had reneged on its contract to provide security for the Olympic Games which had necessitated the Army being brought in to do its job Roger Godsiff said “it was always going to happen”. 

He went on to say: " The neo-liberal ideology which has driven our politics over the last three decades has yet again been shown to be totally flawed.  This ideology which decrees that everything done by the private sector is productive, efficient, worthwhile and cost-effective whereas everything done in the public sector is incompetent, inefficient, bureaucratic and costly has been shown for what it really is - a self-serving dangerous fallacy promoted purely by those who sought to make profit out of it."

Mr Godsiff concluded: "The ridiculous situation whereby the security for the most high profile event in the world is handed to a so-called security company who are dashing around trying to recruit the cheapest possible employees to put their uniforms on in the pretext that these are ‘security personnel’ is laughable were not so tragic.  The Head of the Army said that back in 2005 when the Olympic bid was won he offered the Government to use the Armed Forces to provide security for the Games but he was told that this would not be needed as it was a ‘civilian event’.  Now, with the Armed Forces having just been emasculated under the Government’s defence cuts we have the ridiculous situation of 3,500 troops being brought in to provide security because the promises given by the private sector security firm, G4S, had not been fulfilled." 

£50 million extra of quantative easing – a waste of money

Roger Godsiff, speaking at a meeting in his constituency, has criticised the decision by the Bank of England to ‘print more money through the process of quantative easing’ and then to give it to the banks.  Says Roger “I am not opposed to the principle of ‘quantative easing’ in order to promote growth to get the economy moving again but the billions of pounds that have been given to the banks through this process have not gone to business or to create demand in the economy but have just been used by the banks to rebuild their balances which have been depleted due to the irresponsibility and cavalier actions of the bankers which caused the original banking crisis in 2007/2008."

Mr Godsiff said “As I said in a Commons debate it would be much more sensible if the Government looked at innovative ways of getting demand back in the economy by, for example, giving everybody on the electoral register a £100 voucher which had to be spent within three months on consumer goods and which could not be exchanged  for cash.  People will have no option but to spend the money on consumer durables or else the voucher would become worthless after three months.  This would inject real demand back into the economy rather than stuffing money into the mouths of those in the banking community who have already ripped off the general public and brought the economies of the western world to their knees.”

Atos Medical Assessments - A Crude Instrument

Despite all the numerous reassurances that the DWP continues to issue about the creditability of the Atos process the reality is that it remains a crude instrument for removing both the deserving and undeserving from receipt of benefits and it is being used as such.

Glaring inaccuracies and downright injustices  by poorly trained staff using ‘tick box’ questionnaires to assess complex conditions rely on the appeal process for correction but take little or no cognition  of the added anxiety and disruption  this causes in people’s lives long after decisions have been reversed and benefits restored.

Godsiff backs abolition of House of Lords

I am not in favour of the House of Lords and would vote for its abolition.  I believe in a ‘one chamber’ Parliament with power residing in the House of Commons which is, as you know, fully elected.  There is, however, one scenario where I do believe that there is an argument for a second chamber.

In the Federal Republic of Germany there is a two chamber system.  The Bundestag is the Lower House which is elected by a mixed system of ‘first past the post’ and ‘proportional representation’ and the Upper House, the Bundesrat, consists of members who are nominated by the different Lander in proportion to the size of the population in that particular state. 

Britain does not have a fully-fledged federal system of Government but there are Parliaments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland who have varying powers and if there were to be an English Parliament as well then I believe that there is a case for each of those four regional Parliaments to appoint representatives in an Upper House in order to, as is the case in Germany, protect the interests of those devolved Parliaments.  The Bundesrat in Germany has a clearly defined set of powers but the Lower House, Bundestag, is still the predominant chamber. 

As I have said were Britain to move towards a federal system with each of the four countries of the United Kingdom having their own Parliament then I can see an argument for having a similar system involving a second chamber but under the current system we have I can see no justification for having a second chamber.

I hope this makes my views clear on this subject and I have moved the following amendment to the Bill.

Roger Godsiff MP has moved the following  clause to the Reform of the House of Lords Bill

Abolition of the House of Lords

(1)   The House of Lords is abolished

(2)   Any requirement to consult or to obtain the agreement of the House of Lords is rescinded

(3)   The Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 are repealed.

Roger Godsiff says: "Don’t risk your life by taking a barbecue into your tent”

 "Don’t risk your life by taking a barbecue into your tent” is the message from the charity Carbon Monoxide Awareness

The charity Carbon Monoxide Awareness is to launch a "national" campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning from barbecues. The campaign is being launched to help raise awareness about the dangers of carbon monoxide.

The campaign in memory of 14 year old Wilmslow schoolgirl Hannah Thomas-Jones and others who lost their lives to carbon monoxide from barbecues or camping lamps will be launched in the House of Commons on Tuesday 10 July.

The launch event will be hosted on behalf of the charity by Weaver Vale MP Graham Evans. The campaign is a joint venture between Carbon Monoxide Awareness (charity) and Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service. It is supported by CFOA and a number of major retailers including Asda, Tesco, Morrison’s, Homebase, B & Q and Dunelm Mill who have pledged to put up point-of-sale notices in their stores for barbecue equipment.

Lynn Griffiths, President of Carbon Monoxide Awareness, said: “Already this year there have been a number of camping fatalities and serious injuries resulting from people taking barbecue equipment inside their tents”. These products are designed solely for outdoor use and should not be used in enclosed spaces such as tents, caravans, campervans or home conservatories. Modern tents are designed as an integral structure with built-in groundsheets and carbon monoxide gases can rise to fatal levels in a matter of minutes if portable or disposable barbecues are used inside for heating purposes.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is difficult to detect because it is colourless and has no taste or smell. People often don’t realise that they are being overcome by fumes until it is too late. “We shall be working with Fire and Rescue services across the UK to get educational and awareness packs to the UK holiday industry for the benefit of holiday-makers. We shall also be targeting campsite owners and their staff with information on how to recognise the presence of carbon monoxide in enclosed tented areas caravans. We’ve seen too much tragic loss of life and we want to avoid it in future. 

Lynn went on to say “I would like every MP to warn their constituents about the possible dangers of carbon monoxide in the home and when going away on holiday. We don’t want to see another death or injury from a barbecue during a music festival, Olympics or summer holidays. I am also campaigning to have carbon monoxide advice prominently displayed on the packaging of barbecue’s and tents and our politicians can be very influential in making this happen.”

Exposure to the gas reduces the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen, thereby causing the vital organs to fail. Early symptoms are similar to flu or food poisoning, but these worsen as more of the gas is breathed in and CO concentrations in the blood increase. Anyone who suspects that they may be suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning should turn off all appliances, go outside and seek help from a qualified healthcare professional.

Chester Bidmead, the managing director of Hentland Group stated, this launch is critical to ensuring that the awareness of carbon monoxide poisoning is broadcasted into everyone’s lives. The importance of this campaign cannot be over emphasised and we are proud to be supporting this charity.

For more information visit www.covictim.org

The Carbon Monoxide Awareness campaign is in memory of 14 year old Wilmslow schoolgirl Hannah Thomas-Jones and others who lost their lives to carbon monoxide from barbecues or camping lamps.

Godsiff on Banking

LIBOR (FSA Investigation) Debate

2 July 2012 : Column 627

Mr Roger Godsiff (Birmingham, Hall Green) (Lab): After the nationwide disturbances last year, a student was given a six-month sentence for stealing a pack of water bottles. What punishment does the Chancellor believe would be appropriate for bankers who have stolen millions of pounds from investors through rigging interest rates?

Mr Osborne: I completely understand and sympathise with the sentiment that the hon. Gentleman is expressing: people suffer criminal penalties for offences involving much, much smaller sums of money—a fraction of the sums that we are talking about. The Serious Fraud Office, which is independent of the Government, is looking at the matter. Let us wait to hear what it has to say. It is looking at what laws are available to let it do that. I am sure that he would not want the Government of the day to undertake the criminal prosecutions themselves.

Professional Standards in the Banking Industry Debate

5 July 2012

Mr Roger Godsiff (Birmingham, Hall Green) (Lab): I strongly support the proposal for a judicial inquiry. I am sure that under the hon. Member for Chichester (Mr Tyrie) a parliamentary inquiry will do its best, but I think that for the reasons that have been advanced today there is a need for a judicial inquiry, because as the hon. Member for Dundee East (Stewart Hosie) and the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) have said, this issue goes way beyond fiddling the LIBOR rate. This is a much bigger issue, and it is the bigger issue that needs to be addressed.

Whether the inquiry is parliamentary or judicial, I have concerns about the continual emphasis on the need to do something about the culture and standards of banking, because it implies that if we change the people at the top of banking we will change the behaviour. Would that were the case. I do not believe that it is. There are of course many people who work in banks who do an excellent job. They work very hard, they do not get paid a great deal of money or share in massive bonuses, and they are as disgusted as we are by what has gone on, but even if the most pious, puritanical person is put in charge of a den of inequity, they will eventually be corrupted.

5 July 2012 : Column 1147

That is what happens when someone is put on a trading floor, and I speak as somebody who worked in a bank. Many years ago I worked for Coutts, when it did what traditional retail banks did—what the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (John Thurso) described, and what the general public want. But if somebody is put on a trading floor and deals in obscure derivatives and other financial products, they will be either corrupted by what goes on, crushed by their peers or, if he or she is very brave, turned into a whistleblower.

Of course, there is a culture in banking that needs to be looked at—the culture of remuneration and bonuses. However, it is not just banking that has a culture whereby somebody who is paid to do a job, such as a nurse, teacher or bank clerk, and then expects to get a massive great bonus for doing it, irrespective of whether they do it well or badly. This is far removed from the lives of the general public because of the amounts of money being talked about. Bob Diamond has earned £100 million, and if he walks away the question is whether he will get £20 million. Twenty million pounds is way beyond what the vast majority of our constituents can expect to earn in a lifetime, even if we add in their pension pots, so we are talking about a surreal world as far as the wider public are concerned.

To be fair to the Business Secretary, he has said that the problem can be addressed through shareholder power. That is naïve, however, because the biggest shareholders of public companies are the institutions—and many of the people in those institutions sit on other boards, so it all becomes an incestuous circle. Different remuneration committees can consist of the same people. It all comes down to, “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.”
If the Government were serious about making radical changes to the culture that I have just referred to, they could do worse than limit the number of directorships of publicly quoted companies that any one person can have. They could also change the rules so that the remuneration committees of all publicly quoted companies had a majority of small shareholders. That would really send shock waves across the institutions, but not the shareholders, who would welcome the opportunity.
Time is running out. We need to change not just the culture but the structure of banking. In 1986, the wild west came back—all the firewalls and protections put in place following the previous financial crisis in 1929 were swept away. We are all responsible in some part for that; we created the masters of the universe, who have not done us any favours. We have to go back to basics and reconstruct a banking system that is fit for purpose, serves the people and is not self-serving for a small minority.

Cooperative Funeral Care Early Day Motion

 

Roger Godsiff has tabled the following Early Day Motion

Early day motion 256

CO-OPERATIVE FUNERAL CARE

Main content

• Session: 2012-13
• Date tabled: 25.06.2012
• Primary sponsor: Godsiff, Roger
• Sponsors:
  • Campbell, Ronnie
  • Sharma, Virendra

Total number of signatures: 3

Campbell, Ronnie	Godsiff, Roger	Sharma, Virendra

That this House is shocked and disgusted by the revelations made on the Channel Four Dispatches programme on 25 June 2012 that the Co-operative Funeralcare organisation uses warehouses on industrial estates to store coffins with bodies in them rather than Chapels of Rest; notes that Co-operative Funeralcare is the largest funeral care provider in the UK with a reputation for trust, sensitivity and good customer service; is appalled that this reputation has been compromised by management directives to mislead grieving families into purchasing expensive funerals and charging customers an array of charges for services which they did not want; believes that a mutual organisation can, and should, have higher ethical standards than a purely profit-orientated company; and calls for those responsible for these actions within the organisation to be removed from their positions.