Never again – confronting our responsibility

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In the first of a series of reflections on the recent Black Lives Matter protests from local Labour Party members, Grace Hardy remembers a class discussion she had at school.

In a class at school, we’d been told that The Holocaust wasn’t on the German curriculum. That wasn’t true, their curriculum has always included Holocaust education. But we unanimously agreed that if it hadn’t, it would be very wrong. After all, you would expect German children to confront the atrocities in their own history, otherwise how could they learn from them?

Sitting in that history class we had no idea that our own country is first in the queue when it comes to “not confronting our responsibility”.

Throughout my history lessons, we looked at our “glorious” role in the liberation of the concentration camps, condemned the US for their involvement in The Vietnam War, and condemned the US AGAIN for McCarthyism. Then we praised Martin Luther King for his role in the civil rights movement before heading right back to condemnation, when we decried Malcolm X for protesting “the wrong way”.

British imperfection was touched upon during WWI studies, as some Generals were depicted as bumbling and short-sighted. But that was about as close as anything came to introspection.

Yet the slightest research will lead to an understanding that Britain has a starring role in an historic and continued production oppression. It should not be left up to individuals to peel back the curtain and discover our ugly truth. We have a responsibility to reform the curriculum and give our children a much fuller picture of what it means to be British.

As it stands, we don’t teach history in our schools: we whitewash it. If we want to make lasting change, we must dare to look at ourselves in the historical mirror and say “Never again” instead of “It never happened”.

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Our MP Laura Kyrke-Smith for Aylesbury has issued a statement on the govts historic abortion amendment, immediately stopping the arrests, investigations, and prosecutions of women seeking desperate medical care.

Today I voted in favour of Tonia Antoniazzi’s abortion amendment, New Clause 1 (NC1), to the Crime and Policing Bill. 

This amendment will end the prosecution of women for ending their own pregnancies, of which there have been increasing cases in the last five years. NC1 is targeted and narrow to solve this current problem. It changes absolutely nothing regarding how abortion is provided or the conditions set out in the Abortion Act for legal access regarding grounds, time limit, two doctors signatures. 

It just excludes women from the underlying criminal law. 

NC1 protects women and abortion services and is backed by the sector - including every abortion provider and organisation that represents them in the UK - 5 Royal Medical Colleges, the British Medical Association, countless Violence Against Women and Girls groups, Women’s Rights groups and unions. 

It will immediately stop the arrests, long investigations, and prosecutions of women.

I am pleased the amendment passed today. No one should face criminal investigations for seeking medical care at the most desperate moments of their lives. This will now end.

Laura Kyrke-Smith MP
MP for Aylesbury and the villages

Our MP Laura Kyrke-Smith for Aylesbury has issued a statement on the gov't's historic abortion amendment, immediately stopping the arrests, investigations, and prosecutions of women seeking desperate medical care.

"Today I voted in favour of Tonia Antoniazzi’s abortion amendment, New Clause 1 (NC1), to the Crime and Policing Bill.

This amendment will end the prosecution of women for ending their own pregnancies, of which there have been increasing cases in the last five years. NC1 is targeted and narrow to solve this current problem. It changes absolutely nothing regarding how abortion is provided or the conditions set out in the Abortion Act for legal access regarding grounds, time limit, two doctors signatures.

It just excludes women from the underlying criminal law.

NC1 protects women and abortion services and is backed by the sector - including every abortion provider and organisation that represents them in the UK - 5 Royal Medical Colleges, the British Medical Association, countless Violence Against Women and Girls groups, Women’s Rights groups and unions.

It will immediately stop the arrests, long investigations, and prosecutions of women.

I am pleased the amendment passed today. No one should face criminal investigations for seeking medical care at the most desperate moments of their lives. This will now end.

Laura Kyrke-Smith MP
MP for Aylesbury and the villagesMy statement on today's historic abortion amendment vote:

Today I voted in favour of Tonia Antoniazzi’s abortion amendment, New Clause 1 (NC1), to the Crime and Policing Bill.

This amendment will end the prosecution of women for ending their own pregnancies, of which there have been increasing cases in the last five years. NC1 is targeted and narrow to solve this current problem. It changes absolutely nothing regarding how abortion is provided or the conditions set out in the Abortion Act for legal access regarding grounds, time limit, two doctors signatures. It just excludes women from the underlying criminal law.

NC1 protects women and abortion services and is backed by the sector - including every abortion provider and organisation that represents abortion providers in the UK, 5 Royal Medical Colleges, the British Medical Association, countless Violence Against Women and Girls groups, Women’s Rights groups and unions. It will immediately stop the arrests, long investigations, and prosecutions of women.

I am pleased the amendment passed today. No one should face criminal investigations for seeking medical care at the most desperate moments of their lives. This will now end.

Laura Kyrke-Smith MP
MP for Aylesbury and the villages
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2 days ago

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