Newspaper column 30 December 2021 - Looking back

This is my final column of the year for 2021 and what a year it has been!

I hope you were all able to enjoy Christmas and take some time to mark this special day.

In my final column for 2021, which is written on before 23 December to fit in with the print deadlines of our local press, I wanted to look back through the year, on some of the big issues, locally and nationally that have been part of my work for you.

2021 has again been dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with restrictions and changes to our lives that we would have not considered only years ago. However what separated 2021 from the previous year was the rollout of our vaccination programme, which we were able to accomplish far more quickly than our continental neighbours now we have left the EU, and get a greater percentage of our population vaccinated, quicker than virtually every other country in the world. This is a colossal achievement and thank you to everyone in our NHS, armed forces and volunteers who have done their bit in making the programme such a success.

Away from COVID-19 the UK hosted two major global conferences this year, the G7 and COP26. Cornwall was put in the world’s spotlight in the first of these major events, with the G7 Leaders Summit hosted at Carbis Bay, and in particular the world’s media was lucky enough to be based in Falmouth for the duration. This was an incredible opportunity for Cornwall to shine, and shine we did, putting our best foot forward on the world stage and showcasing everything we have to offer. I was delighted to meet several of the world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, and it was brilliant to talk to these VIP’s about what Cornwall has to offer, as well as some of the challenges we face.

Over the summer I was pleased to once again highlight the work of an important charity, this time Cornwall Wildlife Trust, with a coast to coast fundraising walk from the sunny south coast at Portholland to the equally sunny north coast at Perranporth. This was a fantastic day and it was great to walk through so many of our communities and meet local people along the way, dropping into the Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s HQ, and talking about their work, and raising over £1,000 from generous donors. I look forward to planning another effort for 2022.

Over the summer I also ran the first of my constituency village tours, using the summer break from Parliament to hold several well-attended constituency advice surgeries in villages around our constituency  - something which restrictions did not allow me to hold in 2020 but which I hope will become a regular occurrence in the future – part of my work to make myself as accessible as possible for the people I am there to serve and represent.

Throughout the year I have been pleased to continue to successfully work with the Government to bring more funding to Cornwall, in particular funding to keep the streets safer in Falmouth and Penryn, money to upgrade and create new facilities at Tresliske, funding to regenerate Truro through the Towns Fund, money to help keep some of our most beloved attractions and culture and heritage venues open with the Culture Recovery Fund, and in particular funding for the Hall for Cornwall, which has now reopened, and the continued dualling of the A30 which is now well under way. There will always be more to do, and I am committed to doing all I can to ensure Truro and Falmouth continues to get our fair share of Government money now and in the future.

Finally I have to give a big thanks to my Constituency Office and Parliamentary team who have worked incredibly hard to support me and our constituency over the past year. They have had another really busy year, often having to work in challenging circumstances, and have responded to  over 18,000 enquiries during this time. Thank you so much to all who have worked for during this time Jordan, James, Karen, Ruth, Huw, Jack and Toni, I could not do my job without you as my support.

For next week’s column I will be looking forward to 2022 and the work I hope to be doing for you next year. In the meantime, may I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Newspaper column 23 December - Christmas message

Well Parliament has now risen for the Christmas Recess and this is my penultimate column of 2021.

What with the new Omnicron variant and the additional measures it has sadly been necessary for us all to take to help prevent its spread and assist our NHS in getting as many people to get their booster as possible, December has been a challenging month to cap off a difficult year.

Again, in the past week I have been blown away by the continued work of our local NHS, community pharmacies, and volunteers in doing their best to ensure the vaccine programme has been running at full capacity. I have requested and received walk-in booster sites in Truro and Falmouth that have been in operation regularly over the past week, and we must all do our bit to get behind the vaccine programme to ensure we can all be protected.

As of Saturday, national figures showed that more than 27million people have now had their booster vaccine, with daily figures of more than 800,000 people getting their booster jab a day. 47.2% of the population over the age of 12 have now had their booster vaccination, a colossal acheivement, and I would like to thank all those who have played their part in getting us this far.

In the last week of Parliament as well as my normal work as MP, I also spent time sitting on the Committee for the Finance Bill, the mechanism for renewing annual taxes, delivering new tax proposals and maintaining administration of the tax system, I met with the Health Minister to discuss additional support for Treliske Hospital, had the last meeting of the year of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Baby Loss, and met with the team at the Knowledge Spa at Treliske. I also had my final constituency advice surgery of the year to discuss everything from climate change to Brexit with local residents.

As Parliament has now risen for the Recess, I will be hoping to spend some time with my family over Christmas, not just celebrating the meaning of this festive holiday but also reflecting back over the past year, while looking forward to what is to come in 2022. I hope you are all able to have some time to mark the day and celebrate it in the way you choose to.

My thanks as ever, to those who will be working over this time, our emergency services, NHS, carers, and armed forces (who have also been of magnificent service with the additional booster measures), as well as others, who do their bit, now and always to keep our country running all year round.

May I wish all readers a very Merry Christmas and a happy and health New Year.

My office will be closing from midday on Thursday 23rd December and will reopen on Tuesday 4^th January. I’d like to thank my excellent Constituency and Parliamentary team for their hard work on my behalf over another difficult year. You can still email me at cheriyn.mackrory.mp@parliament.uk and my team and I will get back to you as soon as we are able to.

Newspaper column 16 December 2021 - New Covid Measures and the Booster Programme

They say that a week is a long time in politics, and this past week has also shown that this is also the case in our fight against COVID-19.

As I write this, on Tuesday 14 December, in Parliament we will, this evening, be voting on new COVID-19 regulations, which were formalised yesterday evening, and announced by our Prime Minister on Sunday night.

This was in response to the continued and rapid spread of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19. On Sunday, the UK reported 1,239 additional confirmed cases of Omicron - the highest daily rise and nearly double the previous high recorded on Saturday. As of Monday, the total number of cases of the variant stood at 3,137 in the UK.

On Monday, Sajid Javid, the Health and Social Care Secretary told us that the Omicron variant now represented 20% of cases in England - and was expected to become the dominant variant in London within 48 hours.

The measures we are voting on today (Tuesday) ’Plan B’, are:

·         The new rules on face masks which came into force last week. Under these restrictions, face coverings have become compulsory in most indoor settings, except for pubs and restaurants.

·         The introduction of a Covid pass which would ensure that someone can enter a large venue, if they can prove they are fully vaccinated or have a negative lateral flow test. This is not the same as a vaccine passport, as you do not need to prove you are vaccinated in order to attend events.

·         A measure allowing fully-vaccinated people who have been exposed to a positive Covid case to avoid self-isolation if they take daily lateral flow tests, and receive a negative result.

These measures contain very limited restrictions compared to measures in force across Europe and in particular, the final measure described above, actually provides less restrictions than we have had previously, in allowing people who take daily lateral flow tests with negative results to avoid isolation and get on with their day to day lives – this has to be welcomed.

On balance I will be supporting these measures, although I am disappointed that they need to be considered. We will review and vote again in the New Year and hopefully the situation will be different. It has taken me many days to decide what to. I have spoken to many constituents and the feeling is genuinely mixed, but the majority feel we are not out of this yet.

I don’t want restrictions to go on and on and there has to be an end point. As much as I wanted us to be there, we are not quite there yet.

Our response to the Omicron variant has to be led by our vaccination programme. The Prime Minister and NHS England have launched an urgent national Omicron appeal for the public to Get Boosted Now, all adults will now be offered a booster jab by the New Year, bringing the target forward by one month.

The NHS will be given everything it needs to get jabs in arms as the UK responds to the Omicron variant, which will include:

·         New vaccination sites set up across the country, including mobile pop-up sites, which I am pushing for additional capacity locally in Truro and Falmouth

·         Increasing opening times for vaccination sites, to 7 days a week with more appointments early in the morning, in the evening and at weekends

·         50 military planning experts will help coordinate the national effort by supporting the NHS with logistics of the rollout

·         Reprioritising the NHS workforce to deliver as many jabs as possible

·         A national call for thousands more NHS volunteers

Cornwall has a duty to do what it can to protect Treliske Hospital from becoming overwhelmed. They are doing a magnificent job. On Monday the senior leadership met with Health Minister Ed Argar to discuss what more the Government can do to support them.

The discussion centred around technical operational ideas, already being used successfully in other parts of the country and the Team at RCHT are now connected with the right colleagues in Government and around the country to help introduce some of these to improve things for us here in Cornwall.

I urge all eligible people to get their boosters through the gov.uk website as soon as possible, so we can all do our bit in beating the virus, support our NHS, and hopefully enjoy Christmas!