After having met Huw at the Bexhill jobs fair in March, my work with him over the last week was far from what I expected. I travelled far across what I learnt to be a vast constituency, meeting an array of interesting businesses and incredible people. An online meeting with development experts kicked off my Monday morning, in which I applied all my economics I’d learnt to keep up with the fascinating and detailed conversation about housing around the constituency. Listening in, I had to quickly pick up new terms and adjust to understand the problematic issue of housing, and can now fully appreciate the difficulty to create a solution that works for everyone. Concepts I’d never considered opened my thinking to the problems at a local scale, rather than at the national scale that we seem to constantly be immersed in. That afternoon I got pleasure of meeting the neighbouring MP for Hastings and Rye, Sally-Ann Hart, to listen to our first presentation of a community kitchen. It was great to see collaboration between the MPs who neighbour each other so closely, and for the upcoming projects which should be fantastic for Bexhill.
Meetings across the constituency with dentists, policemen and women, volunteers, carers, county councillors, local councillors, farmers, business owners and a member of National Highways opened my eyes to the breadth and depth of Huw’s encounters and the effort he makes to discuss local problems to fix or bring up in Parliament. I especially respected his effort to encourage further contact from the local people to continue to bring up their problems with him; his dedication to his role is admirable.
Picking out highlights from the brilliant moments I had across the busy week was hard, but for me two visits stand out. Delivering letters in Hurst Green for new traffic safety measures made me feel I was doing something positive, as well as having amusing conversations with the people who made my week so good: Frances, Craig, Ella and Joe. My second highlight had to be the visit to a business in rural Bodiam, GreenBlue Urban, which had incredible inventions helping to solve almost any environmental problem you could think of. It was amazing to meet such astonishing thinkers whose idea will undoubtedly become commonplace in every city around the world, learning how their business grew to a landscaping business with one lawnmower, to a futuristic firm that exports globally.
I would like to thank Frances and Huw for giving me this opportunity and effort they made to make my week so memorable- the experiences I had in so many industries will become invaluable in later life and vital as I hopefully continue my studies of politics at university.
