FROM STEVE
BRINE MP
When we’re in Westminster, MPs attend
dozens of meetings every week, drop into
receptions and attend launches. Sometimes
(and I had better whisper this) they are not
exactly earth-shattering but occasionally an
event comes along, usually when you expect
it least, that knocks the stuffing out of you.
That happened to me recently when I
attended the launch of a new organisation
seeking to highlight the lethal risks to young
people of legal highs and so-called 'club
drugs'. Mitch Winehouse (father of the late
Amy Winehouse) joined hundreds of guests,
celebrities and MPs at the Angelus
Foundation event. It was set up by Maryon
Stewart who lost her daughter Hester in April
2009 after she took a half-dose of the then
legal GBL on a night out with friends. She
was 21 years old.
A short film was shown featuring families who
have lost a child to these ‘legal’ drugs and you
could have heard a pin drop. The Foundation
seeks to get effective drugs education on the
National Curriculum in schools throughout
the country and will very soon roll out a
national Wise Up! campaign so that young
people make smarter decisions and parents
have wiser conversations with their kids.
Losing a child is every parent's worst
nightmare but in the case of these legal highs
it can be prevented. I will be working
nationally with other MPs to raise awareness
of what can happen in the name of a good
night out and I will be liaising with parents and
schools locally to bring the Wise Up!
campaign to as wide an audience as possible.
Since my last column for Village Voice there
has been so much going on. I held a really
busy street surgery in Broad Street with your
very own Cllr Ernie Jeffs, brought the Schools
Minister to Winchester to discuss teacher
training at the University and I have spent a
great deal of time working with the new
leadership at our hospital since its merger
with Basingstoke. I backed the merger
because I think it is the only way we can
maintain a full District General Hospital in
Winchester and I have been mighty
impressed with the ambition to make these
hospitals real centres of excellence and
provide the people I represent with some
world-class services. I have also been
working hard alongside the new Care
Commissioning Group which will assume
responsibility for the local NHS under the
coalition’s health reforms. We have some
impressive people running the NHS in
Alresford / Winchester and I am determined
we will build a service here that is everything
we expect and demand from a modern
national health service.
See more at
www.stevebrine.com/prioritynhs.
If you would like to get in touch on any issue
you feel strongly about or need my help,
please don't hesitate to get in touch via
[email protected]. There is
also a huge amount of information about my
work locally and in Westminster at
www.stevebrine.com.
Steve Brine
MP for Winchester & Chandler’s Ford
01962 791110 (constituency)
0207 219 7189 (House of Commons)
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.stevebrine.com
Steve Brine TV: www.stevebrine.tv
Sign up to receive Steve’s email newsletter www.stevebrine.com
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