Karen Buck MP is backing the Big Wild Read, a campaign to get children along to libraries and keep them reading through the long summer holidays.

Last Tuesday Karen joined more than 100 colleagues at a reception held by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Libraries in the House of Commons.  The campaign organised by the Reading Agency aims to encourage children to visit their local libraries during the summer holiday period so they do not lose any reading skills during the break from school teaching.  To support this initiative Karen Buck will be donating books, courtesy of The Reading Agency’s publishing partners, to a local library.

Karen said: “I fully support this campaign, and my local libraries, and am delighted to be donating books to support their excellent work. Our libraries and librarians help children get the reading habit early, are a great place to spend time and learn to enjoy books.
“While children are having a great time, they are also reinforcing all the educational achievements in reading.

Karen has signed an Early Day Motion in the House regarding the recent calls to attack Salman Rushdie:

That this House deplores the reported comments of the Pakistan Minister for Religious Affairs, Ijaz ul-Haq, who apparently believes that it would be legitimate for a suicide bomber to take the life of Salman Rushdie following the award of a knighthood for his literary achievements; further deplores the resolution of Pakistan’s lower House of Parliament condemning the author’s knighthood; believes that such utterances reflect medieval attitudes which damage Pakistan’s reputation in the world; and urges the country to embrace modernity and tolerate differences in views and in religion.

Karen has co-sponsored an Early Day Motion calling for action to help those from some of our poorest communities who have lost savings as a result of the collapse of First Solutions Money Transfers Ltd:

That this House offers profound sympathy to the members of the Bangladeshi community who have lost their life savings as a result of the collapse of the First Solutions agency; recognises the devastating impact on some of the UK’s poorest communities; congratulates Baroness Pola Uddin and the Sir William Beveridge Foundation for establishing a crisis fund; urges all concerned to work together, to help those in need rather than to make political capital out of human misery; and calls on the Government to act to protect those who use money transfer agencies and prevent a repeat of this crisis.

Following on from the same theme as my last article, July 19th saw pupils from St George’s School came into Parliament to present the results of their project on young people and knife crime. We had an important discussion about why some young people are drawn towards gangs and to carrying weapons, and agreed that, while there are no easy solutions, we have to do much more to strengthen communities and build bridges between schools and neighbourhoods, with more activities for young people. Effective policing and sentencing policies are clearly part of the solution, but not the only answer.

Karen is always hugely enthusiastic about bringing groups of children and young people coming to Parliament, both to look around and to have the chance to discuss the issues of concern to them.

Karen recently signed an Early Day Motion in the House calling for more positive images of young people and encouragement of dialogue with young people on issues that affect them:

That this House supports young people’s call for an end to negative representations of youth; applauds the work of organisations such as the British Youth Council and online charity YouthNet that empower young people to speak out on issues that they say affect them; acknowledges that only a small minority of young people behave in an anti-social manner; believes that the media do not give young people enough recognition for the positive things they do; and urges hon. Members to ensure that young people’s views are represented in public debate by creating opportunities for their input such as holding youth surgeries and visiting schools, colleges and universities.

On July 17th, Karen addressed the All Party Parliamentary Group on youth affairs, introducing the Home Affairs Select Committee report on ‘Young Black People and the Criminal Justice System’. In addition to MPs, the meeting included a number of young people who had experience of the system.

Karen said, “I certainly got a great deal out of the exchange. We talked widely about why some young people get drawn into crime and what can make them change. One of the most striking things about the discussion was how often education came up, with children who had been excluded from school being far more likely to end up in the criminal justice system than those who had not been. It is obvious we have far more to do to keep these young people engaged in education- not at the expense of other pupils, certainly, but nonetheless, our failure to do so often traps young people into a downward spiral of behaviour.”

Read the report online

The Home Affairs Select Committee, which Karen sits on, recently reported on young black people and the issues they face with the criminal justice system.  Amongst other issues, it considered the problems faced by young black men with knife crime.

The report is now available to read online:

Report (part I) (html)

Report (part II) (html)