Stephen's week

MONDAY 10th JULY 2006

9am meeting with architects and developers of the St Mary Le Port site. This is a key site at the junction of High Street and Wine Street. Those with an interest in Bristol's history will know that the Dutch House stood on the corner of what was the heart of the city and the main shopping centre until all was lost in the November 1940 bombing raids. I am broadly supportive of the proposals for development but spend the train journey up to London drawing up a 10 point list of issues for the developers to consider.

Lunchtime in London - give a talk and answer questions from 6th formers from two Bristol West schools, Redland High School for Girls and QEH on Jacobs Wells Road. Meet Andy from QEH who on return to Bristol is doing work experience in my Bristol office.

Later Education Select Cttee questions David Eastwood (Vice Chancellor of East Anglia Uni and soon to be chief exec of the Higher Education Funding Council for England - HEFCE) and Alan Wilson of the Department for Education and Skills. They are in to talk about the evaluation of university research. All universities were last reviewed in 2001 and the research assessment exercise "RAE" gave departments a grade from 1 to 5*.

Bristol University has several 5* departments. Gordon Brown wants to change the methodology away from the current peer review system to one that relies more on statistics - a "metrics" system. This is one of the hot topics in Higher Education at the moment. The ratings determine how much research funding each department gets from HEFCE. High ratings also make it more likely that universities will attract funding from the 8 research councils and the private sector.

TUESDAY 11 JULY

Morning spent mainly in standing committee considering the Charities Bill. Clauses being discussed are to do with minor changes to the objects of the charity. Do an interview with a pollster on attitudes to various issues. MPs are always being asked to fill in questionnaires and answer questions for "opinion leader" research purposes. A year ago I did quite a few but now I do them rarely as an hour of time is quite hard to find!

Lunchtime is our normal Lib Dem education team meeting reviewing legislation, the select committee and current campaigns. Afternoon do an interview with GWR radio on police force mergers. The merger between Lancashire and Cumbria has collapsed, mainly over council tax precept equalisation. We are saying that this means that bigger mergers must be doubtful - the govt wants to merge Avon & Somerset with Gloucestershire, Dorset, Wiltshire and Devon and Cornwall into a huge South West Police.

Then to main chamber to support a Lib Dem call for an emergency debate on the UK-US Extradition Treaty. For the Speaker to grant this he needs to hear the case (ably put by Nick Clegg), consider whether the topic is of public concern and assess whether there is enough demand from MPs for it. This means that 40 Lib Dems had to stand up - people were being hoiked out of meetings all over the estate to make sure we had the right number. Charles Kennedy came along. The Speaker granted the debate, presumably to the great annoyance of the government.

Rest of afternoon back in Charity Bill committee.

WEDNESDAY 12 JULY

Education Select Cttee had a one off discussion, at Tory member Rob Wilson's request, on the consequences of family breakdown on education. A panel of sociologists and psychologists didn't really lead to any firm conclusions as far as I was concerned. There are many types of "one parent" families and how do you separate out poverty, dysfunctional parents, illness or genetics?

To PMQs for the first time in a few weeks. Neither glowering Prescott nor scowling Brown were there but that didn't stop Cameron making jibes about who would run the country when Blair takes August off. Ming Campbell raised the curtain on the debate that was to follow by asking about extradition to the US. Nick Clegg opened the 3 hour emergency debate. I sat through the first hour then went back to my office to deal with correspondence.

I then met with the Master of Birkbeck College in London to discuss the disparity in funding between full time and part time courses.

At 3.40pm back to the Chamber to vote. The motion was one of those weird House of Commons procedures - "that this House do now adjourn" - which signals the end of business. Of course ordinarily this would inconvenience the government as they would lose some business but as it was today was a Tory Opposition day, when they get to choose the main debate. So Labour MPs were instructed to abstain, we obviously voted for our motion and the Tories went along with it. They have jumped on the bandwagon on this issue - when the treaty was originally discussed the Tories supported it but we voted against. Now they've changed their tune as they find that city financiers as well as suspected terrorists can be summoned to face justice in the US.

Back to Portcullis House to meet up with a film crew from Channel Four. They are making a series of programmes about gay issues for schools. I've already done an interview for one to be shown in October. This one is for next spring. The interviewer was a rap artist "Q Boy" who had previously been round the country talking to young people for the film. According to his web site http://www.qboy.co.uk/ he's "like Eminem but less camp". Older readers may not get this, and I'm not sure that I do either...but I thought he was quite sweet.

Off to the weekly Lib Dem Parliamentary Party. Then to the Foreign Press Association HQ in Carlton Gardens for a reception in honour of Charles Kennedy. CK has been a regular attender in the House in recent weeks. He hasn't spoken yet though he turned in an excellent performance on BBC Question Time a couple of weeks ago. I'm sure he will be back in the front line well before the next election. Incidentally, the reception was in the former home of Gladstone, so an appropriate location.

THURSDAY 13 JULY

Morning sitting of Charities Bill standing committee considered fundraising. Appropriate for the day when the arrest of Lord Levy was in the news!

Left London on a midday train for meetings in the university in the afternoon. Met two Pro Chancellors to discuss "Studentification" which is basically the issues that arise from a high concentration of students in residential areas. We get a lot of letters about student parties, parking, noise, litter, etc. The issue is also a concern in other university seats, many now represented by Lib Dem MPs. I am collating comments from my colleagues. Bristol University is probably behind the curve on good practice being adopted by universities elsewhere. I hope to meet with UWE soon to discuss their accommodation strategy. Second meeting was to discuss the research assessment exercise, following from Monday's select committee.

FRIDAY 14th JULY

To the constituency office to catch up on various issues. Then met with the Learning and Skills Council to discuss post 16 education initiatives in Bristol. To the Council House for my afternoon surgery.

Then spent the early evening at Stoke Lodge Adult Education Centre meeting course tutors. Have a look here if you fancy one of their personal development courses http://www.bristol-city.gov.uk/ccm/content/Education-Learning/Adult-Community-education/adult-learning-service.en

WEEKEND

Saturday evening had a pleasant time at the Bristol West bbq. Sunday morning joined the residents of Sefton Park Road who have been complaining about graffiti in "Happy Lane" at the rear of their properties. In the hot sun there was a community clean up. With paint, rollers and brushes supplied by the council we painted walls white and doors brown to obscure the mess caused by "tagging" - something that is a growing problem in Bristol. This was a great team effort by residents, their MP, their local councillors Shirley Marshall, Jon Rogers and Bev Knott and also by some free labour from the Probation Service, with offenders under community payback orders.

So this week I've met university senior managers, been to a reception in Gladstone's house, been interviewed by a rapper and painted some doors. This job is rarely dull! There's just one and a half weeks till recess and I'm looking forward to the physical and mental break.

Finally, Council Leader Barbara Janke would like to send out some reports about her work. If you would like to receive these emails please email Barbara.janke@bristol-libdems.org.uk and your name will be added.