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September 2021 September 2021
NEWS FROM WESTMINSTER willows trailed their slender fingers

languorously into the quiet glistening
As I write my column this week, pupils across the waters of the Mill Pond. An
country are getting their A level and GCSE results. I abundance of bull rushes flanked the
want to congratulate them all – it has clearly been a sides of the river which meandered
very challenging year for our young people. I know its way downstream.
that universities, colleges and apprenticeship Time to change into my swimming
placements are working hard to ensure that gear and see what delights the
students get the places that they want and that are Granta or Cam (no one seemed
best for them. I also thank all the teachers who have quite sure?) held. I lowered myself
worked incredibly hard throughout the pandemic, into the cool, peaty waters and for a
and will also be working in the holidays to support

start felt the river bed mud
pupils as they decide squelch between my toes. It
their next steps. was very shallow initially so I
On the subject of eased myself out into the
education, I am going centre of the Mill Pond to find
to be very involved in some water deep enough to
the Education (Freedom swim.
o f S p e e c h ) B i l l Brooke was the unofficial
Committee when the leader of the Grantchester
House of Commons Group that used to meet at
returns in September. Orchard House for tea when
Part of my role is to help h e came to li ve i n
organise the sittings for Bill Committees. A Bill Committee is where MPs from all Grantchester in 1909 shortly
parties can scrutinise the language and structure of proposed legislation, and it before his death in the great
is also a time when outside organisations and the public can contribute to the war. Among his friends were philosopher Bertram Russell, novelist E M Forster,
debate through oral or written evidence. This is an important part of helping MPs economist Maynard Keynes, writer Virginia Woolf and artist Augustus John, a very
to decide if the laws that are being proposed are actually workable in the real distinguished group of Cambridge academics.
world, and for those people who will be affected. It is important that all there is
enough time allowed for this, so careful planning and preparation is made for It sounded an idyllic way of life with Brooke spending his days studying, running to
the Bill Committee to sit. Bill Committees are public, so they are recorded by Haslingfield in the morning, swimming in the river and commuting to Cambridge
Hansard, and anyone can read the evidence and the debate. by canoe. Life must have been rather wonderful if you were rich in those far off
days where life was led at a gentler pace and there was time to stop and stare,
Over the summer recess I have been liaising with MPs and civil servants to make perhaps even to smell the roses?
arrangements for this committee when we return to Parliament in September,
when we will spend several sessions a week over 3 weeks scrutinising the Diana was to be my backup so we agreed that I should swim downstream and
legislation. It is concerned with the important topic of freedom of speech and that she would meet me at the tea rooms. I began my swim down the river as it
academic freedom within Higher Education. You can read the full test of the Bill wound its way through glorious Cambridgeshire countryside. A blackbird tweeted
here https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2862 on the riverbank and I stopped a while taking in the cacophony of sound as the
birds were also enjoying the moment. A couple of swans glided gracefully by
As we continue getting back to normal, sadly during the pandemic scammers looking serene and elegant. At times, I had to ease my way through some rather
have taken advantage of the situation, and there has been a marked increase prolific water weed that had built up from the river bed. I am told that herons and
in scam texts and emails. There is lots of helpful advice from the National Cyber kingfishers are often seen along the banks of the river.

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