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Articles about ‘Equalities’

Local resident launches petition to tackle homophobia in schools

A local resident  from Kings Norton has recently launched a petition about the need to tackle homophobia in schools across the UK.

Addressed to the Prime Minister David Cameron, and Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan MP, it calls on the Government to make tackling homophobia in schools a top priority – including through education of pupils about non-heterosexual relationships, and training for teachers to deal with homophobia.

My constituent has raised concerns about the commonplace use of homophobic language in classroom – and the way in which Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transexual (LGBT) young people are being bullied simply for who they are. As my constituent says, what is really worrying is that this bullying often goes unrecognised.

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A “Dog Bowl in One” for Guide Dogs’ Streets Ahead Campaign

Amongst the meetings and speeches I attended at last week’s Labour Party Conference, I got to see the fun side of things by playing some mini golf!!  This was for a good cause of course – to raise awareness of the Guide Dogs’ Streets Ahead campaign which aims to help keep our streets free from clutter.

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Let’s make it work for lone parents

Today, I’m pledging my support for a campaign to boost single parent employment, run by the charity Gingerbread.

42 per cent of families in Birmingham Northfield are headed by lone parents, and many struggle to balance work with caring for their children.  As the cost of childcare increases, finding a decent job that fits in with school hours can become an almost impossible task.  Add in to this mix reduced opportunities for lone parents to get training, and it’s easy to see why many working lone parents struggle to make ends meet.

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Solving Global Hunger Starts at Home – Let’s Cut Food Waste

I am a member of the House of Commons International Development Committee (IDC.) Today, we launched a report on Global Food Security – a huge issue both within the UK and overseas.

High and volatile food prices are rarely out of the news at the moment, especially after the two recent shocks in global food prices in 2008 and 2011. Only last week I helped to lead a food drive for Northfield Life Line Food Bank to raise much needed stock as their demand skyrockets.

One of the most important messages from the report is the action we can all take to tackle hunger. It is shocking that between 30-50% of food produce worldwide is wasted while millions go hungry. The average UK household wastes 20% of their food.

The Government must take urgent action to stop this. We are calling for a public consumer campaign to raise awareness, more redistribution schemes such as FoodShare to recycle food, and a clear target for food waste that producers and retailers must meet – or face a penalty.

Food insecurity is one of the defining issues off our time, and it is a clear reminder that we can’t separate local issues from the international agenda. I hope the report helps demonstrate that we can all take action to solve the crisis.

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