The newest Lib Dem MP, Sarah Green, had her debut PMQ today.
The headquarters of the Epilepsy Society is in her constituency of Chesham and Amersham so it was fitting, during COP26, that she highlighted the need to fund research into the effect of climate change on people with health conditions like Epilepsy.
Thank you to our MP @SarahGreenLD for raising the issue of the cost of #climatechange to human health, including to conditions like #epilepsy, in #PMQs today.
Learn more about the global Epilepsy Climate Change (#EpiCC) initiative here 👉https://t.co/PtWGdsq5jI 💚💜#COP26 pic.twitter.com/Wzbvn1vzcC
— Epilepsy Society (@epilepsysociety) November 3, 2021
And Boris Johnson wasn’t even horrible in his response.
I was annoyed that so many MPs talked over Sarah’s questions. It was very disrespectful, particularly on a question that was higher quality than many asked in these sessions.
The text of the exchange is below:
Sarah Green: The Epilepsy Society is a charity and world-leading research centre based in my constituency. It started the epilepsy climate change initiative to better understand the effects of global warming on epilepsy, and the impact is already clear. A recent survey showed that in hot weather 62% of those whose seizures were uncontrolled experienced an increase in seizure frequency or severity. Will the Prime Minister join me in endorsing the epilepsy climate change initiative and commit to more funding to research the impact of climate change on human health?
Prime Minister: The hon. Lady raises a very interesting aspect of research into epilepsy. We are funding epilepsy research with another £54 million over the last few years. The issue that she raises of any particular link between hot weather or climate change and epilepsy is certainly one that we will be going into.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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One Comment
Really the speaker should step in if an MP is being talked over. It’s not only disrespectful to the individual MP but the audience who watch/listen. I wonder if the rules are being applied. I remember Paddy Ashdown was always interrupted by MPs from other parties whenever he would speak as was Vince Cable and they would just carry on. I would be tempted to say ‘can we have one conversation at a time please’ in order to shut them up but really the speaker should be doing this not just the order, order we always hear.