My monthly newsletter for
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Dear John,

THANK YOU FOR READING MY NEWSLETTER. 

 LOCAL ELECTIONS – THANK YOU!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED WELSH LABOUR ON MAY 5TH. IN CARDIFF
CENTRAL WE WON TWO COUNCIL SEATS FROM THE LIB DEMS AND ALL OUR CARDIFF
CENTRAL COUNCILLORS STANDING FOR RE-ELECTION WERE RE-ELECTED. A
FANTASTIC RESULT.

To all our candidates - both successful and unsuccessful - thank you.
It takes guts to stand for election and being a candidate and a
Councillor involves a lot of hard work. Our whole Cardiff Central
Labour team continues its work today serving and supporting our
community.

It was also an excellent set of results Wales-wide; there is now not a
single Tory majority Council in the whole of Wales.

 IN PARLIAMENT 

BORIS JOHNSON'S LAW BREAKING AND LYING 

Last Wednesday, Sue Gray’s report was finally published. We knew
there had been widespread law breaking in Downing Street but the
detailed evidence in the report was absolutely shocking. Instead of
accepting responsibility and resigning, Boris Johnson blamed everyone
else, said we all needed to “move on” and insulted the public yet
again.

It is abundantly clear that the Prime Minister has deliberately lied
to Parliament and the public. During the lockdowns whilst he and his
ministers held daily press conferences instructing us all to follow
the covid laws, he was involved in repeated law breaking and despite
his protestations, he knew what he was doing.

As we all know, the covid laws were put in place to protect us, our
NHS and to save lives. Over 170,000 families are still grieving. He is
telling them and all of us to “move on.” 

Despite what Johnson and the majority of Tory MPs think – honesty,
integrity, openness, accountability and responsibility in public life
matters, and the public has the right to expect and demand that from
the Prime Minister and all politicians.

AND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COST-OF-LIVING CRISIS, THE PRIME MINISTER AND
THE GOVERNMENT IS MORE FOCUSSED ON SAVING HIS JOB RATHER THAN TACKLING
THE PROBLEMS THE COUNTRY IS FACING. YOU DESERVE BETTER. TORY MPS NEED
TO SHOW THEIR CONSTITUENTS SOME RESPECT. THEY ARE THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO
CAN REMOVE HIM. THEY SHOULD THROW HIM OUT.

 TORY COST OF LIVING CRISIS & QUEEN'S SPEECH

The cost-of-living crisis is getting worse. Inflation is at a record
high of 9% and expected to increase further. By October, the typical
household in Wales will be paying £1500 more this year on energy
bills. We have the highest tax levels for 70 years with 15 tax rises
alone since Rishi Sunak became Chancellor, with National Insurance
contributions hiked last month. Under the Tory/Lib Dem coalition and
subsequent Tory governments we’ve had 12 years of low growth and
high tax.

In this Queen’s Speech, we needed to see urgent action on the
economy and cost-of-living - a windfall tax on oil and gas giants, the
National Insurance rise reversed and investment in climate friendly
commitments to drive our transition to net zero.

That’s why Labour called for an Emergency Budget, and why for the
past 5 months we have called for a one-off windfall tax on oil and gas
producer profits. The National Insurance rise needs to be reversed and
climate friendly investment is urgently required to drive our
transition to net zero. The country needs Labour’s plan to grow our
economy, as the Tory Government takes us into a new period of
stagflation. If the Tories had matched Labour’s record on growth in
Government, we could have spent £50 billion more on public services
without having to raise a single tax.

In the debate on the Queen’s Speech, we forced a vote on an
Emergency Budget, but every single Tory MP voted against it. We also
forced a vote on introducing a windfall tax which Tory MPs voted
against, only to see the Chancellor finally u-turn just a few days
later, conceding we were right and introducing it. Whilst he dithered
and delayed, £53million was added to our bills every single day of
that 5 month delay.

MORE BROKEN PROMISES

The Tories have promised 20 times that they will introduce an
Employment Bill that will boost workers’ rights, but again there was
no mention of it in the legislation programme in the Queen’s Speech.


This is yet another broken promise. A betrayal of working people, the
same people the government has just hit with a tax rise. A Labour
Government will write our New Deal for Workers into law within the
first 100 days - ending zero hours contracts and fire and rehire,
introducing employment rights from day one of employment and fair pay
agreements to drive up pay and conditions.

RE-WRITING THE MINISTERIAL CODE TO SAVE HIMSELF

As if the police fine and the Sue Gray report wasn’t bad enough,
Boris Johnson, ahead of the parliamentary investigation into whether
he broke the Ministerial Code, has now changed it, ending the
long-standing principle that breaking it should be an automatic
resigning offence. He has also refused to introduce the Committee on
Standards in Public Life recommendation that resignation should follow
the “most serious breaches”, setting a dangerous precedent in
which Ministers who commit offences such as bullying, sexual assault
or bribery would not automatically have to resign. Labour will force
Tory MPs to decide whether to back the Government’s attempts to
water down parliamentary standards.

WALES QUESTIONS

[My video] [[link removed]]

I was back at the Despatch Box last Wednesday for Wales Questions,
right before PMQs and the Prime Minister’s statement on the Sue Gray
report.

I asked the Secretary of State for Wales what his plan was for
tackling the cost-of-living crisis facing Welsh households, pushing
the government to introduce the windfall tax and to tell us what the
Chancellor’s plan was.

The following day, the Chancellor u-turned and introduced the windfall
tax.

[My video] [[link removed]]

IN THE MEDIA

Following the Queen’s Speech, I spoke to BBC Wales about the
cost-of-living crisis, and the lack of action to help from the Tory UK
Government: [link removed]
[[link removed]]

I gave my reaction to a strong set of local election results for Welsh
Labour on BBC news. You can watch that here:

[link removed]
[[link removed]]

NATIONAL PLAN FOR MUSIC EDUCATION

A fantastic step from our Welsh Labour Welsh Government last week -
they've just launched a national music service and trebled funding to
the tune of £13.5 million. 

Every child should have the opportunity to benefit from music
education - regardless of their background.

Support will be available for children and young people to access and
progress with music tuition, with learners from disadvantaged and
under-represented groups supported to join music ensembles. - and a
new national instrument and equipment library will be established to
support access to a resource bank across Wales.

You can find out more about the National Plan for Music Education
here:

[link removed]
[[link removed]]

GELLIGAER PARK OPENS IN CATHAYS

It was brilliant this month to finally see the newly renovated
Gelligaer Street Park in Cathays open. This follows a long-running
campaign from local ward Councillors Ali Ahmed, Norma Mackie, Sarah
Merry and Chris Weaver. The new park features brand new play
equipment, seating, a natural play area, meadow and wildflowers.

A lovely new open space for families in Cathays all ready for summer!

PASSPORT OFFICE DELAYS

I know many constituents here in Cardiff Central are facing
unacceptable delays applying for or renewing their passport.

Passport Office staff are working as hard as they can to turn around
the record number of passport applications, but if you applied for
your passport more than 10 weeks ago, need a passport urgently for
compassionate travel reasons or you’re travelling in the next two
weeks please get in touch with my office and we will try to help you.

BIG PLASTIC COUNT 2022

I took part in the Big Plastic Count last week, joining thousands of
others across the UK in submitting our results and helping to form an
action plan on what needs to happen next to tackle plastic pollution.

The Big Plastic Count is a joint initiative by organisations
Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic, where participants count up every
single piece of plastic they use in a week.

My tally for the week is in the picture above. I try very hard to
recycle as much as I can and to limit buying single use plastic
packaged products, but sometimes it seems unavoidable - contact lenses
packets for example. Despite this, I’m still staggered at how much
plastic I used up in a single week.

All the details are here: [link removed]
[[link removed]]

DEMENTIA AWARENESS WEEK 2022

I participated in Dementia Awareness Week - to learn more about the
condition and the work going into helping those living with it.

It’s estimated that over 850,000 people in the UK are living with
dementia.

Whilst the outlook for dementia sufferers, present and future, is
challenging there is light at the end of the tunnel - pioneering new
treatments, and research are moving along at pace - including the
pioneering work being done at Cardiff University's Dementia Research
Institute where I visited recently to hear directly from Prof Julie
Williams.
[[link removed]]


COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES WEEK IN CARDIFF CENTRAL

This week is Commonwealth War Graves Week - run by the Commonwealth
War Graves Commission.

Some of you may not know that here in Cardiff Central, we have two
Commonwealth War Grave locations - one in Cathays Cemetery and another
in the Cardiff Jewish Cemetery in Cyncoed.

Many of those who fought and died in the two world wars came from, and
are commemorated in Cardiff Central, in cemeteries or named on
memorials built and maintained by the CWGC.

War Graves Week is a great opportunity to learn more about them; their
stories, who they were and where they came from.

You can look through records, or try the CWGC app
here: [link removed]

ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

It was a real pleasure to catch up with Prof Michael Edmunds from
Cyncoed at an event to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Royal
Astronomical Society in Parliament. Mike has been elected President of
the Society during its bicentenary celebration, and a packed event
heard from Mike celebrating the best of their sciences, where the UK
is a world leader.

NEW TREES IN BUTE PARK

We had the good news this month that 100 new trees are to be planted
in Bute Park creating a new community orchard, replacing 50 trees
damaged by vandals last year.

This is all thanks to a community fundraising effort. I was really
pleased to be able to help my constituent and well-known local
business owner, Melissa Boothman at Secret Garden Café, make her
great idea a reality. Melissa organised and raised over £5000 to make
the orchard happen. Thank you to everyone who donated, to our Cathays
Labour Councillors and Cardiff Council’s Parks department for
assisting.

MELANOMA AWARENESS

Last week I met with Melanoma Focus
[[link removed]]  in
Parliament, at an event hosted by my Labour colleague Chris Bryant MP
to learn more about, and help to raise awareness of melanoma skin
cancer.

Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, accounting for 1% of
all cancer deaths and killing 2,300 people in the UK per year.

Chris became a Patron of the charity following his diagnosis with
stage 3 melanoma skin cancer in 2019.

Melanoma skin cancer is becoming more common in the UK with around
16,700 new cases every year (46 every day). Since the early 1990s
incidence rates have more than doubled and in males, they have almost
tripled. It is expected to continue to rise.

You can read more about the event here:

[link removed]

OFFICE APPOINTMENTS

As my constituency office is now fully back open following the end of
COVID-19 restrictions, we're operating on an appointment basis.

If you need help with an issue, please contact 02921 329736 or email
me at [email protected] for an appointment.   

You can also make an appointment to see me at one of my advice
surgeries - details of these can be found on my website here:

[link removed]

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[link removed]