Angela supports campaign to save elephants
Angela Smith has shown her commitment to protecting elephants by pledging her support for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)’s campaign against the ivory trade.
Angela recently sponsored an event in Westminster for IFAW’s campaign ‘Dying as Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Conservation and Wildlife Group. Key speakers included Rt Hon Nick Herbert MP, Minister for Policing, and IFAW’s Asia Regional Director, Grace Ge Gabriel.
Angela can be seen posing with a large confiscated elephant tusk to highlight the issue and send a clear message that she’s wants the UK to take the lead in the international community to stop elephants dying to fuel the ivory trade.
Angela adds her support to new employment campaign
Angela is supporting The National Autistic Society’s (NAS) nationwide campaign aimed at getting more adults with autism into employment.
‘The Undiscovered Workforce’ calls upon MPs across the UK to work together with local authority services, as well as local businesses and employment providers to improve job opportunities for people with autism in their own constituencies.
For many, employment is a crucial factor in living a happy and independent life. However, NAS research indicates that only 15% of adults with autism are in full-time employment, despite the fact that 79% of those claiming out-of-work benefits told us they want to work. It is also true that 26% of graduates with autism are unemployed, by far the highest rate of any disability group. One in 100 people living in north Sheffield/west Barnsley has autism and it is therefore vital that more is done locally to support these adults into employment.
With the right support, people with autism can overcome the barriers to work that they often face. Simple adjustments like making job interviews more accessible and providing support so that those in work understand the ‘unwritten rules’ of the workplace, can unlock the potential of a whole army of people ready and willing to work.
Angela said:
“Many people with autism needlessly struggle to find and keep employment, not because they don’t have the skills or the drive, but because many employers don’t understand the benefits of employing someone with autism. I look forward to working with families in [constituency] affected by autism as well as the council and local employers. I hope I can also count on the support of individuals and businesses in the area to get behind the NAS’ ‘Undiscovered Workforce’ campaign, and help make employment a reality for people with autism.
Mark Lever, Chief Executive at the NAS, said:
“In the current economic climate, it is difficult for everyone seeking to enter the job market, but it is even harder for people with autism. We know that the vast majority of adults with autism in the UK want to work, but experience great difficulty in finding and staying in employment, often due to inadequate support and misunderstandings related to their condition.”
For more information please visit http://www.autism.org.uk/undiscoveredworkforce
Deputy Prime Minister Challanged
Angela has challenges the Deputy Prime Minister to come clean on Bus Passes
After a recent statement by the Deputy Prime Minister that pensioner bus passes should be means tested, Angela Smith wrote to Transport Minister and LibDem MP, Norman Baker, asking the government’s position on pensioner bus passes.
His response outlines a policy position that flatly contradicts that of his own Deputy Prime Minister.
Angela is now challenging Nick Clegg to come clean with pensioners over his views on free bus travel for pensioners.
In the letter, Mr Baker says it is Nick Clegg’s personal view that people who can afford to pay should, and that his comments referred to pensioners “who are clearly in a position where cost is not a vital factor in their travel arrangements and who, therefore, view the use of a bus pass simply as an additional travel option’.
Commenting Angela said,
“Nick Clegg clearly believes that free bus travel for pensioners needs to be means-tested, a position I believe is wrong. Sheffield MPs have worked hard in the past to establish the principle of free bus travel for the elderly and Sheffielders deserve to know whether or not Mr Clegg is prepared to defend the principle in future if necessary. The Deputy Prime Minister needs to make it clear whether or not he intends to accept current government thinking and drop his half-baked suggestion that would see so many pensioners lose out.