Sikh Lobby In The Uk Parliament Organised By The Sikh Federation (Uk) Now On Tuesday 13 December Between 1-4Pm In The Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

ITN are interested in covering the lobby from a UK perspective. We hope we get a good representation from across the UK so MPs realise Sikhs throughout the UK have common concerns.

For them the issue of the Kirpan makes the best story. The person who the Sikh Federation (UK) is dealing with is sympathetic on back of the Olympics and Lords 'victories'.

Our focus in the lobby as regards the Kirpan is on tourist attractions - London Eye, Madam Tussauds etc. where Amritdhari Sikhs continue to have problems. We want MPs to target the Department for Culture, Media and Sports as it is responsible for tourism.

Toursim in the UK is the third highest export earner and in most years is among the top 6 biggest sectors of the UK economy. It generates around £90 billion of direct business for the economy each year and is one of the biggest employers, with over 200,000 businesses, directly supporting over 1.3 million jobs.

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

Day & Night news on Sangat TV 847 will be covering the Sikh Lobby at 8pm UK time on Wednesday 14 December

[GurSa Singh]

Day & Night news on Sangat TV 847 will be covering the Sikh Lobby at 8pm UK time on Wednesday 14 December

I attended Sikh lobby yesterday in Parliament. In total 15 MPs had a presence but a very weak young Sikh turnout. Part of this was probably due to lack of notice but also most young GurSikhs do not still see the benefit of this political arena. The lack of young Sikhs gives a false perception of our issues being non-current and non-relevant.

Buller case, Bittu case and 84 Pograms were on the agenda and got an hours worth of coverage. Sikh Identity got the second half coverage.

This is prime arena to bring our current cases to the forefront such as Pal Singh as well as safeguarding against growing issues around our Identity in the West. I don't know if the petty jathebhandi issues are holding Sikhs back from using these platforms for the larger Sikh cause. I am a strong believer that we need to get out of the Sikh world and interact on a global platform. Some higher profile MPs such a Marget Becket, Simon Hughes attended as well the committee of MPs now set up for Sikh affairs. The more we are on the MPs backs the more Sikhs can exert pressure to raise the profile of the issues facing Sikhs.

The next Sikh Lobby day is provisionally booked 27 March 2012 and it's expected that some cabinet ministers will attend. It's an excellent exercise for any Sikh to build an effective relationship with the MPs and build up their own political profile in their consituancy. We've got 3 months notice to book the day off work to attend

A message to some of the more active Sikh youth. Please think about committing to attending these events and don't let any personality or jathebhandi prejudices come in the way. These lobby days are a stong platform which can make us Sikhs more politically astute, something we lack...

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

The Sikh lobby is also covered in Daily Ajit (see link below):

http://newspaper.ajitjalandhar.com/index.php?edid=6&dtid=20111215

[Azaad]

Lack of transport is the problem...Local Sikh Federation branches have not been up to the mark unfortunately....

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

Lack of transport is the problem...Local Sikh Federation branches have not been up to the mark unfortunately....

The SIkh Federation (UK) organise the lobby (make the booking, advertise the event, produce the briefing and send to MPs and Sikhs attending), but also depend on Gurdwaras, other Sikh organisations and Sikhs themselves to be prepared to support (take the day off work, travel to London etc.)

We only require a car load from each town (or more depending on number of MPs in the town) as the capacity in Parliament is usually limited (on this ocassion around 150). In some towns the demand is considerable e.g. Leicester, Wolverhampton and we discourage them from bringing coaches as Sikhs would be left outside.

There is non-attendance or limited attendance from some towns, which is very disappointing. If I had to pick out one city it would be Birmingham - so whilst we get the likes of John Spellar attending - many of the other MPs clearly get the impression that Sikhs in Birmingham are just not interested in making the effort to come to London to lobby them. However, use the briefing to follow up/lobby MPs locally on these issues.

[Aman0001]

Lack of transport is the problem...Local Sikh Federation branches have not been up to the mark unfortunately....

Sad state of affairs when you get such apathetic excuses.....

[singh211]

jagtar singh which birmingham mp's have the impression sikhs are not interested in the lobby?

agree everyone should play their part in making the lobby successful by taking time off work to attend but as you are aware it is more difficult during this time of year hope lobby dates are fixed in advance next year as proposed

for those of us who could not make it this time round can you feedback what update fabian hamilton gave on what the appg has done since the last lobby?

[JasSinghKhalsa]

Did Southall MP attend, I always thought Southall has the highest majority of Sikhs and if they had written to their MP, Southall MP might had attended?

[S1ngh]

Maybe not for this past occasion as due to limited seating but i think azaad's statement should be taken into serious consideration when it comes to future sikhi based progressive events. Lifestyle of young sikhs are bit restrictive because of lack of resources and organizations should aggressively look to find way on how to encourage sikh youth to participate in such events.