Politics this week feels far more "business as usual" than it has for a very long time. I have used the opportunity to speak in a couple of debates in Westminster Hall, one to mark National Fertility Week and the second on Black Maternal Health which my Select Committee has been looking at in some depth.
There clearly is, according to all the experts, still a problem with the collection and onward transmission of health data. In some instances women's deaths were not being reported to MM-BRACE for up to 500 days after the death occurred. Which has made it incredibly hard for researchers to accurately understand trends and causes, although we do know very clearly that black mothers are 4 times more likely to die in childbirth than white.
I was also in the Chamber on Monday to participate in the Statement on conditions at Marston, the processing site for asylum seekers who have made a potentially lethal journey across the Channel. Speaking out on this issue invariably provokes racists to send me a lot of hate mail via email, and some of the views expressed are deeply shocking. I have always maintained that when speaking about immigration the language used is very important, and it is not just the words but the tone as well.
I am really looking forward to the South Coast Business Awards this weekend and holding 2 round tables for local businesses on Friday. My final comment, which may be construed as too personal, is that on Friday afternoon I have my mammogram. It is 30 years this year of the Breast Cancer Campaign and the Pink Ribbon, and in that time breast cancer care and treatment has improved enormously, but it is crucial to check your own boobs and go for your routine mammogram when called to do so.
