Contribution of Poles to UK Society
Debate between Rupa Huq and Marcus JonesWestminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Marcus Jones)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski) for securing this important debate, and I thank hon. Members for their many and varied contributions. This has been an extremely good and constructive debate.
The Polish contribution to the United Kingdom is absolutely woven into the fabric of our society. Even when we check the weather on the BBC, we see Tomasz Schafernaker, who, like my hon. Friend, was born in Poland. When we go into our towns and on to our high streets, we visit Tesco and Marks and Spencer—both companies founded by Polish Jewish immigrants to Britain. We should welcome the contribution that Poles have made and continue to make to our country. This is a long and proud relationship, born out of both adversity and entrepreneurial desire.
We have Poland to thank for one of our most famous medieval kings, King Canute the Great, who was the son of a Polish princess and the nephew of Boleslaw I of Poland. We have King Canute, ruler of Denmark, Norway and England, to thank for bringing comparative peace and prosperity to these isles at the time. By the 16th century, we imported most of our grain from Poland, and Polish merchants and diplomats came regularly to London. Poles were such an established part of everyday life by that time that even Shakespeare thought they were worth a mention in “Hamlet”. By 1608 Polish craftsmen helped the first permanent English settlement in the Americas—Jamestown—to thrive.
We can find evidence of the early Polish contribution to British society right here in London. After the battle of Vienna in 1683, a pub in London’s Soho was named after the King of Poland, and soon afterwards the street on which it stands was named Poland Street—it exists to this very day. Britain has been a place of sanctuary for Poles for centuries, including in the 19th century, when many Poles fled the Russian empire in search of political sanctuary. That cemented Britain’s place as one of safety for Poles, as well as many other communities, which continues today.
As we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham, thousands of Polish men and women made a crucial contribution to the allied war effort, which directly led to the formation of the Polish British community as it exists today. In 1940, with the fall of France, the exiled Polish President, Prime Minister and Government all transferred to London, along with the first wave of at least 20,000 soldiers and airmen. Poles formed the fourth-largest allied armed force after the Soviets, the Americans and the combined troops of the British empire. In Poland’s time of despair, they did not give up; they came to Britain in their thousands, to help to fight for the future of our continent. Poles were the largest group of non-British personnel in the RAF during the battle of Britain, as a number of hon. Members have said, and the fearless 303 Polish Squadron was the highest-scoring RAF Hurricane squadron in that battle.
Dr Huq
May I recommend to the Minister the book “Wira of Warsaw: Memoirs of a Girl Soldier”, by my constituent George Szlachetko, about his mother Danuta, who was part of the underground resistance? She was a teenage girl soldier in the war. I warmly recommend that book, which I went to the launch of recently.
Mr Jones
I thank the hon. Lady for that recommendation. With the summer coming up, that may well be a good read. I will come in a moment to a very important point about the very situation that she mentions, but first I would like to continue on the theme of the battle of Britain.
Bramcote Airbase, which was on the edge of my constituency, Nuneaton, is where the RAF was responsible for training all the bomber aircrew for Polish forces in 1940, with four Polish bomber squadrons formed there. In fact, there was an air crash around that time; in the cemetery at Nuneaton, there are Polish airmen buried along with German and British airmen. We still commemorate those losses every year, to make sure that we remember the contribution that the Polish made at that time.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Rupa Huq and Marcus Jones
Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)
West Ealing used to boast high street names, but now it is all bookies, charity shops, fried chicken chains and, most prominently, BrightHouse, which is preying on the vulnerable, with white goods at sky-high annual percentage rates and repossession for defaulters. If the Government really want to put the “local” back into local business, will the Minister tell us when he will end the rip-off of BrightHouse?
Mr Jones
I am not going to bash businesses that create jobs and growth for our economy, but what I would say to the hon. Lady is that the Great British High Street competition identified some excellent practice, where things were going well and people were working extremely hard, and we have a good practice guide. I suggest that she pop down to Pitshanger Lane in Ealing, which has a fantastic high street and which is the proud recipient of the Great British High Street competition award 2015.
Urban Regeneration (England)
Debate between Rupa Huq and Marcus Jones(9 years, 3 months ago)
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Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Mr Jones
Just bear with me, because I have very little time. The hon. Member for Wirral South made some important points, and I am doing an awful lot of work to try to introduce proposals on the issues that she mentioned. The structural problems faced by many areas, not just in the north but in pockets across the country, are significant. We need to look at those problems carefully, but we should not go back to the days of the failed regional development agencies. In my region—the west midlands—the RDA failed significantly, with fewer people employed in the private sector after the RDA finished than before it started. Gloucester is a good example of an area where the LEP is embracing its town and city centres. Gloucester city centre is benefiting from the LEP’s work, but we need to encourage the LEPs to take on board the challenges in our towns and city centres and work to support them.
The shadow Minister mentioned Government support, and Wirral South has had significant Government support. There was an £8.5 million investment in the Unilever Port Sunlight research and development project, and there is also the Wirral Waters enterprise zone, which I understand will be the largest regeneration project in the UK. Some Opposition Members fail to understand that these issues are complex. Although money is important in many situations, it is not the only solution. I am looking into the many challenges and working through the different issues that affect our town centres, and I am working with partners to try to secure solutions.
It was good to hear from the hon. Member for Islwyn (Chris Evans), who mentioned Cardiff. It would be good one day to go to see the regeneration that happened as a result of the work of Mrs Thatcher and Lord Heseltine back in the 1980s. The comments of the hon. Member for Ealing Central and Acton (Dr Huq) were reasonably negative, but I note that Pitshanger Lane in Ealing has been entered into the great British high street competition, which I welcome. I wish its supporters well in their efforts. The hon. Member for Glasgow Central (Alison Thewliss) made the important point that the UK Government and the devolved Administrations need to work together on what works well and on best practice.
I find it difficult to accept the shadow Minister’s view on cuts. Before the general election, the Labour party said that it was going to cut local government, so it is difficult for him to say now that the Labour party would not do so. On spending power, the authorities that he mentioned generally have higher spending power than authorities such as the one in the area that I represent. I certainly do not want to go back from LEPs to RDAs, as he mentioned.