Dear Constituents,
Welcome to my newsletter. I hope you and your family have kept well through these difficult times, and my sympathies to those who have suffered personal loss or illness. This year we have seen countries on every continent struggling to contain Covid-19, and since the beginning of the pandemic I’ve said that we will have to learn to live with the presence of Coronavirus, at least until a vaccine is found.
It was so good to see our schools and workplaces steadily opening up after the lockdown in the Spring and early Summer, as we moved from the phase of containing the virus in order to protect the NHS, save lives and stop the rapid spread, to the recovery phase which meant that we would start to rebuild our lives, protect livelihoods, our economy and our children’s education. I know that some sectors such as hospitality, travel and entertainment were particularly badly hit, and, whilst the government offered unprecedented levels of support for many businesses, I regret that there will be business casualties and this will impact on many lives in the coming months.
With every new freedom as we unlocked our lives came the risk of Covid-19 cases rising. Sadly, we are seeing cases double between every nine and 14 days nationally, which means it has been necessary to adapt our approach. We now have a better understanding of where the virus is spreading. In our city the new cases are scattered across communities, within household settings, and the measures we are taking reflect that.
As I write, Stoke-On-Trent has been placed in Tier-2 of the government’s new Covid alert measures, which means that there are new precautions we must take in the way in which we go about our everyday lives in order to avoid further lockdown restrictions. We have done this successfully in Stoke-on-Trent once already, and I have every confidence we will cope with these new measures throughout the Autumn heading into Winter.
The month has been a busy one here in Parliament. As well as a number of contributions in the Chamber I have participated in a number of Westminster Hall debates, where I have been able to draw attention to some of the big issues you have raised with me over the last year. Including raising the issue of Flooding across Stoke-on-Trent with the Environment Minister, Rebbeca Pow. You can read my full speech here.
I have been posting news on social media and on my website www.jogideon.org since becoming your Member of Parliament and now am looking to keep you updated via this monthly newsletter. I hope you find it useful and I welcome any comments as to the topics you would like me to cover. I also want to showcase the organisations and community groups or individuals that work so hard for the benefit of our local community, so please do share your stories and successes. I believe we all need to be inspired by the kindness and enterprise of others.
Yours sincerely,
