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Workshops from the Registrar of Members’ Financial Interests

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The Registrar of Members’ Financial Interests runs workshops for Members and their staff on the following subjects together with the next available dates.

‘Openness and Registering Members’ Financial Interests’, covering:

  • How to help your Member register and declare interests
  • The rules on paid lobbying by MPs
  • How and when to register your own interests

Thursday 1 July 2021 at 2pm

 

‘How to Support an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG)’, covering:

  • Register entries
  • APPG Secretariats (volunteers, Members’ staff, outside organisations)
  • Members and Officers
  • Meetings (including AGMs, inaugrals and other formal meetings)
  • Transparency and records, including APPG websites
  • Income and expenditure statements

Thursday 1 July 2021 at 11am

Booking required.  Please contact CommonsRegistrar@parliament.uk to book a place.

Interns – looking for an affordable room in London?

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Affordable rooms in London this summer

Room for Tea is a social enterprise which connects interns looking for an affordable place to stay with hosts who have a spare room in their homes.

Our motivation is to help aspiring interns and apprentices access affordable accommodation in London during their work experience, and offer young people a fair chance at starting their dream career.

Looking for a room this summer? Room for Tea has new hosts available now! Rooms available in KentishTown, Clapham, Hackney and Wimbledon. Rent varying starting at £85 per week.

Visit our website www.roomfortea.com to access specific information about each of our hosts and register interest.

Telegraph guides: how to make customer services listen to your complaint

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Will Kirkman of The Telegraph newspaper has published a series of articles about how to get utility company customer services listen to your complaints.  You can find them on the Telegraph website here:

British Gas: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/british-gas-contact-complain-customer-service-how-make-complaint/

BT: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/bt-contact-customer-service-how-complain-make-complaint/

E.ON: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/eon-contact-complain-customer-service-how-make-complaint/

EDF Energy: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/edf-energy-contact-complain-customer-service-how-make-complaint/

NPower: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/npower-contact-complain-customer-service-how-make-complaint/

Plusnet: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/plusnet-contact-how-complain-customer-service-complaint/

SSE: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/sse-contact-complain-customer-services-how-make-complaint/

Scottish Power: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/scottish-power-contact-complain-customer-services-how-make-complaint/

Sky: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/sky-contact-how-complain-customer-service-team-cancel/

TalkTalk: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/talk-talk-contact-customer-service-how-make-complaint-cancel/

Virgin Media: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/virgin-media-contact-how-complain-customer-service-make-complaint/

Vodafone: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/vodafone-contact-how-make-complaint-customer-services-complain/

Hotline details for Opodo/eDreams

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It’s been brought to our attention that MPs’ offices have been emailing the CEO of Opodo/eDreams directly with casework.  However, Opodo/eDreams have provided an MP hotline email address, which will get a quicker response.

Please can MPs’ offices ensure that they use only the email address on our hotlines list and do not send casework to the CEO.

Do you have any new hotline numbers?

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Our list of Hotline Numbers is one of the most-used W4MP services.

Do you (or your organisation) have any MP hotline numbers that aren’t on our list?

We often get people emailing us to ask if we have hotline numbers for various organisations or Government departments, and the simple answer is “if it’s not on the list, then sorry, but we don’t have it”.

However, it’d be really great if you’d let us know any that we don’t already have, so that we can let other MPs and their staff know about them.

Time to get a new job?

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Time to move on?

Maybe you have a spare moment to think about making a move?

But where to find that new job which rewards you – not just financially but also exploits all those talents which are not properly recognised in your present post?

Yes, you’ve guessed it: the w4mpjobs pages! They are here.

We advertise hundreds of jobs, ranging from those dreaded unpaid internships (OK those are not for you) to some really well paid jobs which would be your perfect next landing.  Go on – admit it: you’ve toiled in PCH or out there in the constituency for long enough….

Brilliant as w4mpjobs is, we do acknowledge that there are a few other recruiting agencies out there which just might have your next job as well.   We made a longish list of them in this w4mp guide:
https://w4mp.org/jobs-listings-events/jobs/other-places-to-look-for-jobs/.
When you get there scroll down to ‘Other useful job search websites‘ for the complete list – many of them specialise in politics-related jobs.

Good luck!

POSTNote: Online extremism

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Extremism is possible in any ideology, including (but not limited to) politics and religion. Extremism can affect mental well-being, amplify hostility and threaten democratic debate. The global reach of the internet poses social and technological challenges for safeguarding citizens from extremism online. When the Commission for Countering Extremism surveyed over 2500 members of the public in 2019, 56% agreed that a lot more should be done to counter extremism online. This POSTnote outlines how the online environment can be used for extremist purposes, how exposure to online extremism can influence people and potential strategies to counter extremist content online.

Find the full POSTNote here: https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0622/

Daily Update 06/04/2020

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The Prime Minister was hospitalised over the weekend due to Coronavirus. Politicians across the political spectrum wished the Prime Minister a speedy recovery. His office has given no indication of when he should expect to be discharged. Despite his illness Boris Johnson continues to run the government from hospital. 

The death toll increased by 441 today, the lowest daily increasing for almost a week, bringing the death toll to 5,373. 

In the daily press briefing the Secretary of State Dominic Raab stood in place of the Prime Minister. In his briefing he stood by the government’s commitment to increase testing and pointed out that over 208,000 tests had currently taken place. The government’s target is 100,000 tests per day by the end of April.

The new leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer unveiled his shadow cabinet. The selections, which saw the ex-Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband return to the shadow cabinet as Shadow Business Secretary, has been viewed as a move towards the centre-left. 

Things to do…

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Ok, so as fun and rewarding as your job may be you can’t, and you shouldn’t, spend all of your time busy with work. Trying to avoid work can be especially hard when you’re spending so much time at home. But, have no fear, W4MP comes to you with a solution! Below are a list of fun activities to keep you busy, keep you thinking, and keep you sane. 

Online Activities to keep you busy offline during the lockdown

Here are some activities that we think will help you stay busy during the lockdown.

Moving around

  • Fitness: If you’re missing the gym, or want to get into exercise for the first time, then P.E with JOE is probably the best place to start. Joe offers a really wide array of online classes that are suited to people of all abilities.
  • Yoga: If you’re looking for something a bit more structured, then maybe online yoga is for you. Yoga with Adriene varies from soft and gentle to thoroughly exhausting.
  • Ballet: The Dutch National Opera and Ballet, as part of their stay at home series, are streaming online Ballet Classes on their YouTube page. Classes come out once a week and are about thirty minutes long.

Cooking

  • There are two kinds of people during a lockdown. People making sourdough and people struggling to find flour. If you’re in the first camp then Breadahead’s online baking course is for you. Live at 2pm (GMT) everyday on Instagram live, Breadahead teaches you how to make a wide variety of loaves from Focaccia to Ciabatta.

Hobbies