Christmas Adjournment

Martin Vickers Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

As I have done on many occasions in these Adjournment debates, I want to speak about my Cleethorpes constituency. I will focus on the wider local community of Grimsby and Cleethorpes. The central theme is something that applies to any provincial town represented in this House—one of identity.

Grimsby and Cleethorpes are in fact one town. We locals, of course, know where the boundaries lie and each town has a distinctive history. Those of us born in Cleethorpes are Meggies, whereas over the border they are Grimbarians. Councillors and MPs have the great privilege of getting around and meeting many different people who contribute to their local communities through voluntary groups, churches and the like. Only recently, I was privileged to attend services at St Margaret’s church in Laceby and All Saints church in Goxhill. After the service, chatting over a cup of tea, I realised how much local people put into their local communities. It then comes as a bit of a shock when TV programmes such as “Skint” on Channel 4, which has featured Grimsby in the past month, in many respects denigrate local communities and make them feel rather unwanted.

I do not intend to focus on the individuals who have occupied the programme’s storylines. They are characters who in slightly different circumstances could have been plucked from any part of the country. Some are struggling to come to terms with the world around them, others seem content with their lot yet, to most people’s eyes, are not achieving anything like their full potential, and others are struggling with drugs and alcohol.

Channel 4 has deservedly come under a barrage of local criticism. We cannot stop such programmes being made, but surely it is reasonable to ask whether they benefit anyone. Perhaps we kid ourselves that we are watching with the intention of finding solutions to the predicaments of the participants. The local media have reflected local opinion, which is overwhelmingly hostile, and not only to the programme makers, but to Channel 4 itself.

Although the Department for Communities and Local Government’s index of multiple deprivation statistics shows that the East Marsh ward in North-East Lincolnshire—that is where the programme was filmed—is classified as the second most deprived in England, it contains much that is good when it comes to community support, and it is communities that pull together feelings of mutual identity and provide for others. The widespread anger among local people about the one-sided “Skint” programme is fully justified, and the message has gone out very clearly from the local community: “Don’t come back. You will not be welcome.”

Last weekend I attended two events on consecutive evenings in the East Marsh ward. The first was the Christmas concert provided by the excellent Grimsby Philharmonic Society, at which the solo performer was Michael Dore, the Cleethorpes-born singer. The following evening, along with the hon. Member for Great Grimsby (Austin Mitchell), I attended the annual Salvation Army carol concert. It was notable that every time the admirable Ivan Stead, who always presides on such occasions, mentioned that we were on the East Marsh, or that here was yet another example of the community coming together, while also raising £400 for the mayor’s charity, a ripple of applause went around the hall. Clearly the community, not all of whom were East Marsh residents, were feeling rather sore about the programme and wanted to show some support.

The point that keeps coming through is identity. We are passing through a period when the electorate feel more and more remote from the political process, and the further we travel from Westminster, the more remote it can seem. I hope that the current debate about devolution to England will deliver English votes for English laws fairly quickly. However, as I mentioned to the Leader of the House when he announced his programme yesterday, I hope that we will have the opportunity to look over a slightly longer period at the structures and powers of local government, because they, too, have an essential role in community identity and in providing for local communities. It is essential that units of government, at whatever level, follow boundaries that people can identify with. If people feel no allegiance to their unit of government, we will not be wholly successful.

In my part of the world we lived through the disastrous local government reorganisation of the ’70s, with the creation of county Humberside. People felt no allegiance to it, so eventually it withered on the vine. Only last week the Scunthorpe Telegraph was again reporting that Hull city council is planning some sort of land-grab, in what appears to local people to be a reconfiguration that will recreate county Humberside. That will simply not work. Individuals need and value their sense of identity. It is not created by political boundaries, but if we can strengthen that sense of identity by creating administrative units that reflect local communities, we will all benefit.

Madam Deputy Speaker, I join others in wishing you, members of staff and all Members of the House a happy Christmas.