Ten minutes to stop tool thefts

I saw a tweet from our MP this morning that made me very, very happy. You can see my reaction to it below:

The Express article which Greg's tweet links to is here. 

This story began with a discussion on the social media group that I founded six years ago (Buckingham: What Matters to You) where a woman put forward an idea that people selling power tools on FB market places should have to show the serial number. When I saw this, the back of my neck tingled. I knew this was a cracking idea that could make a real positive difference to closing down the market in stolen goods. And so I wrote to our MP, Greg Smith on 3/11/20:

Dear Greg, You will have noticed how many tool thefts have happened from vans in recent times in our constituency. This is a national problem, of course. As I am sure you are aware from your past involvement in community safety and crime prevention, there are many ways to stop or reduce crime. The other day, a member of the social media group I help to look after, suggested what I considered to be a rather clever way of reducing this kind of theft. 

See: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BuckinghamMatters/permalink/1617314731783434 for the full discussion. 

Her idea was that FB marketplace should demand that people selling second hand tools must be required to show the serial numbers of such items. Brilliant I thought! This would potentially close down ways for people to turn their stolen goods into money - because it would facilitate crime victims, the police and insurance companies being able to track down stolen items. Building on her idea, may I ask that you consider sponsoring a ten minute rule bill or some other motion that would push government towards: making it a legal requirement that all online selling adverts for expensive items such as power tools, TVs, phones etc must show their serial number and record that number in the searchable text of those adverts. I look forward to your thoughts on this matter. Thank you.

Greg wrote back enthusiastically, promising to take the idea forward. He was not able to get a positive reply from the minister concerned so, with determination, he has taken this matter forward to a 10 minute rule bill. Hopefully, it will gain support. In due course, it should (it really should!) become law - hopefully!

I want to pay tribute to the woman who first had the idea and I am sorry that I cannot name her as the *link is broken for an unknown reason. She started this particular ball rolling and deserves credit for her ingenious piece of creative thinking. 

Also, of course, I want to thank Greg Smith MP for not giving up on this idea and taking it to this point. This is great use of political power. Whilst Greg and I disagree on many things, we both agreed on this, as we are both resolutely in support of all action that prevents and reduces crime. This shows what can be achieved when politicians of all hues and none come together in a spirit of joint problem solving. This is another example of the kind of joined up community politics I have already blogged about below: bringing together ideas, leaders and shared purpose to add to the well-being of our communities.

Finally, I would add, that this story for me, is yet more reason why I started the local social media group in the first place: as a place for local people to come together to share and debate ideas about how to improve our communities. There is just so much creativity, energy, commitment and purpose in all of our communities! We just need to find more and more ways to tap into all of this. And I think that takes a different kind of politics: one that sees the public not merely as consumers or users (and occasional voters) but one that sees the public as a deep well of the energy we all need to build a better, fairer, wealthier and healthier society - in which everyone has dreams and ambitions - and the wherewithal to achieve them... 

If you want that kind of politics too, please use one your votes for me on May 6 in a few days time. Thanks.