During the week I’m usually tied up in Parliament all day with a diary full of meetings and debates, but this Wednesday I at least managed to venture off the grounds for an hour, albeit that the appointment was only about 200 yards away at the BBC’s Westminster studio!
I went over there after Prime Minister’s Question Time as I was a member of the MPs’ panel for Simon Mayo’s show on Radio 5. Each week three MPs discuss what happened during the Question Time, so we debated how we thought it went and what we thought of the issues.
Actually it was quite unusual as Gordon Brown hadn’t been there for Prime Minister’s Questions – as he was abroad, Harriet Harman took the questions in his place. This was quite odd in itself as it’s usually the Deputy Prime Minister who would answer, hence John Prescott standing in on the occasions when Tony Blair was away.
Harriet Harman isn’t the Deputy Prime Minister – Brown doesn’t seem to have one – but I won’t bore you with my speculations about the ins and outs of political appointments within the Labour Party. This was, however, one of the things we discussed on the panel, but more substantively we also talked about Zimbabwe, immigration, counter-terrorism and the possible teachers’ strike.
At the end of the show Simon Mayo announced that after the news he’d be speaking to David Tennant aka Doctor Who. This caused a little ripple of excitement amongst my fellow MPs, until we discovered that thanks to the wonders of modern technology he wasn’t actually in the building – although what else would you expect from a Time Lord…?
Earlier on in the week I led a debate on the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, as I felt it was timely to call for a debate about the need for the Government to follow up its words with tough action. As with the discussions about Zimbabwe during the Simon Mayo show, there was a great deal of consensus between MPs from across the political spectrum. The big question is not the horrific nature of the situation, but what it is that we can do about it.
On a slightly lighter note I went along last weekend to the launch party of Southend Radio. The great and the good of Southend were all there to celebrate including none other than Mr Michael Guy, Editor of the Southend Times and fellow well-wisher for the new radio station as it gets underway.
I also took part in the Great Pier Walk in aid of the local Rotary club along with my son Tom, who at 20 months managed to walk a third of the way out there (before getting distracted by "Thomas the Tank Engine"). I’m not sure we deserved to get a medal though, as for the second year in a row we actually got the train back to shore. Despite some ensuing feelings of mild guilt a good day was had by all. |
