Early Day Motions (EDMs) exist to allow Members of Parliament to put on record their opinion on a subject and canvass support for it from fellow members. Our EDM No. 412 closed at the end of the last parliamentary session with 156 signatures, showing strong cross-party support for the issue.
EDM No. 263 was updated and re-tabled on 16th June 2010 by Lindsay Roy, MP for Glenrothes and Central Fife. It was co-sponsored by Nadine Dorries, MP for Mid-Bedfordshire, and Sir Menzies Campbell, MP for North East Fife, giving strong support from all three main parties.
“That this House welcomes and supports the Front Page Campaign; notes that recommended codes of practice by the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and the Periodical Publishers Association are widely ignored by newsagents and petrol stations; is concerned that this often means that sexually explicit material is displayed within easy reach of children; is further concerned by the practice of publishers paying for so-called best seller spots involving the display of sexually explicit material near check-outs; further notes that seeing such material can cause children confusion and distress and give them a false view of adult relationships; calls on the Government to introduce and enforce measures to ensure that such material is not displayed at or below children's eye-level, near children's publications or without opaque sleeving; further calls for an independent UK regulator to replace out-of-date and ineffective legislation; and also calls for magazines to be assigned age ratings such as are assigned to cinema films and DVDs.”
Check here to see if your MP has signed EDM 263.
Please write to your MP if he or she has not yet signed, urging them to do so. You may want to commend your MP if he or she has already supported our previous motions. If your MP signed EDM 412 please thank them, and ask them to sign this re-tabled version (no. 263) also. The quickest way to do this is at writetothem.com. Please note that ministers cannot sign EDMs but it is still worth bringing the issue to their attention.
The EDM was supported publicly by MSP Claire Baker, pictured with Lindsay Roy and Amy King.