Some reflection on the BMF's work in Parliament
Parliament is now in recess for the summer and
it’s a good time to take stock, reflect on the 
work that the BMF
has done to represent the industry and plan our next campaigns for
when all the politicians return to Westminster in
October.
We have recently undertaken a major re-vamp of
the
Government Relations area of the BMF website and you can now
see a lot more about all that we do to represent the
industry. There were two reasons for doing this. We
want to let you know exactly what we are doing on your behalf, but
more importantly we want to encourage feedback to better inform and
support the work that we do. Please do take a look at the
website.
The Marine & Coastal Access Bill has been
the big issue over the last year. I hope you have been aware
of the issues contained in it that will have a bit impact on the
industry, particularly coastal marinas and boatyards. I hope
too that you have also seen our recent publicity about
the gains and assurances that we achieved before Parliament
went into Recess. We have put a considerable amount of work
into this Bill and it has been a real team effort with my
colleagues here at Marine House, supported by our Public Affairs
Agency, Mandate Communications, working in partnership with the RYA
at every stage to ensure that boating has had a strong voice in
Parliament.
I suppose I am privileged that my job
regularly takes me into the Houses of Parliament and it is easy to
become blasé about it. I had a strange experience earlier in
the year when I raced to the House of Commons a little late for a
meeting to find a massive queue of people at the public entrance
where us commoners all have to go through security. I stood
at the back of the queue inwardly swearing about " tourists getting
in the way of those of us who were here to do business in the
House" when I suddenly realised that the people around me were all
dressed in white. I then saw that many were carrying
beekeepers hats and a conversation informed me about the disease
crisis in the bee population that has since become national
news. They were in the queue as they had all made individual
appointments with their own MPs. My thoughts about being late
for the meeting turned into thinking it is one of the
good things about our democracy that anyone can go into
the Houses of Parliament to raise an issue with their MP.
We want more BMF members to get to know their
MPs. We have put together a programme to encourage this and
have already worked with a number of members to familiarise their
constituency MP with their business and the issues facing the
industry. Contrary to popular belief MPs do not disappear for
a nine week holiday during the summer Parliamentary Recess.
They are for a large part of that time back working in their
constituencies and that it is a good time to get them to come
and visit you and learn more about your business. If you
would like us to help arrange a meeting, please contact my
colleague Chris Ford on 01784 223625 or cford@britishmarine.co.uk
We took the opportunity of the appointment
recently of a BMF Regional Manager in the South West to write to
every MP in the region. We now have 10 MPs wanting to visit
marine companies in their constituency and we are working with
members to make these visits happen over the next couple of
months.
Politicians are more approachable than you
think and they are very open to understanding more about what is
going on in their constituency.
I hope this Blog has sparked your interest,
please do have a look at the detail of our Parliamentary work on
the BMF website and I welcome any thoughts and comments that you
may have.
Howard Pridding
Executive Director