The resumption of Parliament has meant that important issues, that would have been sidelined during the ill-fated prorogation, are being discussed.
One subject very dear to Tim Farron’s heart is his private member’s bill, the Access to Radiotherapy Bill, which has been languishing in its first reading stage since December 2017. The resumption of parliament gave him a chance to implore the leader of the House to allow time for its second reading. This Bill is important because it would end the hell of cancer sufferers who have to take 3 hour round trips for radiotherapy day after day, week after week, in places like Tim’s constituency of Westmorland and Lonsdale:
Now that Parliament isn't prorogued lots of bills that would've fallen through can now be debated & made into law. This includes my Access to Radiotherapy Bill which would prevent cancer patients having to make devastating long trips for treatment. Shorter journeys = longer lives pic.twitter.com/3uHQ6BXnJE
— Tim Farron (@timfarron) September 30, 2019
Yesterday Christine Jardine asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer to reconsider lifting the ban on asylum seekers being able to work, so that they can contribute to the UK economy and have “the dignity which they deserve”:
Allowing asylum seekers the right to work would provide people who have risked everything to reach safety the chance to feel part of the community, and give them the dignity they deserve. Watch my question here 📺: pic.twitter.com/BauKglQWBK
— Christine Jardine 🔶 (@cajardineMP) October 1, 2019
Yesterday, in a 90 minute Westminster Hall debate, Vince Cable called for the end of “weaponising” social care:
We are witnessing a huge amount of unpaid caring as a result of this Conservative Government’s inability to reform and invest in the system of social care. 350,000 people have had to give up jobs due to caring responsibilities for loved ones with dementia.
This is getting worse. With the underpaid, and undervalued labour force struggling more than ever, stricter immigration rules – if they happen – will inflate the 100,000 vacancies we already see in the care workforce.
The issue of care has been politicised and weaponised for long enough. It is time we move forward the only way we can, with cross party consensus.
The Liberal Democrats would seek an immediate cash injection with a penny on income tax to maintain standards of social care, and a longer term cross-party solution for the future of social care.
You can read the full social care debate here.
"There are a couple of paradoxes on social care funding we've got to unravel. We all say the only way forward is cross-party consensus yet it continues to be an issue that is politically weaponsised. We all say it's an urgent issue yet it keeps getting kicked into the long grass" pic.twitter.com/ldX2ja9N3u
— Vince Cable (@vincecable) October 1, 2019
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
How four bison brought new life to ancient woodland in Kent
How many councillors has Reform UK lost since the May 2026 elections?
Alex Macfie
David Evans
Matt Wardman
Peter Martin
expats
3 Comments
Vince Cable is right, importantly because the cost has bedevilled Tories, Labour and Liberal Democrats.
Cross-party agreement is desirable because of the desirability of stability and continuity, but, in the short term people are suffering and dying.
“In the long term we are all dead.”
Jon Maynard Keynes, Tract on Monetary Reform, 1923
I wish Tim Farron good luck with his bill. However I despair that our political system can only deliver appropriate health care — matters of logistic and organisation — under the duress of primary legislation.
Now that the Government is going to prorogue Parliament again next Tuesday, surely Tim Farron’s Bill is doomed (for the second time). One has to ask why, given that it had its First Reading in the Commons on 19th December 2017, it has yet to to have its Second Reading?