Stephen's Week

Letter from W 10 Aug 2007

Dear All

Two weeks of Parliamentary recess have passed and I'm just about to have a short break. Here's a note of what I've been up to thus far - just to dispel the image that recess is one long holiday! I'm also adding a note of my last week in Westminster, which I just realised was not sent out.

Best wishes

Stephen

RECESS 27 July - 11 August 2007

I've met with a couple of Bristol's companies. Firstly Persides, based in Great George St, who design equipment for the armed forces. They've just developed a new durable camera for use in extreme conditions. I've also opened the new training centre for the construction industry, Labour Ready, on the Centre.

I launched Bristol's annual Play Day on College Green - in a rare burst of summer sun hundreds of children gathered to play games and perform various school holiday activities.

I've met with Superintendent Jon Long, District Commander of the police in Bristol for an update on various crime issues in the city.

Also met with the council's Director of Planning to discuss parking in residential areas.

Met with cllr Simon Cook and the Chair of the Bristol Old Vic appeal. We must make sure that Bristol's premier cultural venue is reopened as a refurbished viable working theatre.

I met lots of people and organisations at the annual Amnesty International Garden Party at Goldney.

I was a guest at the launch event and Night Glow of the Balloon Fiesta. We've been lucky with the weather this year! Also at the balloon fiesta on the Saturday I had lunch with the Bristol territorial army (based in Whiteladies Rd barracks and Horfield barracks) in their tent before watching a joint display with them and the medical corps involving a field gun and a helicopter. This was my second military type event of the week, along with several councillors I watched the Sea Cadet parade and mast rigging ceremony in the harbour.

I've been up to London once. This was in support of my constituent Alphonse Daudet Tuona who is facing removal by the Home Office. This has been a long running issue and I've met Alphonse several times since the summer of 2005. He plays various African musical instruments and also composes and teaches. These activities don't fit neatly into the Home Office's work permit regulations. A campaign has sprung up to support him so I joined a coach load of 50 people on a trip to London to present a 1,800 name petition and a supporting letter from me to the Minister. There was lots of TV, radio and newspaper interest.

Also on the media front in my role as Shadow Schools Minister I've done radio interviews on academies, SAT results, PFI costs of schools nationwide and also specifically the problems of falling rolls at Portway School. The next two weeks will also be busy with A Level and then GCSE results.

LAST WEEK of PARLIAMENT 23rd - 26 July 2007

On the Monday I welcomed sixth formers and teachers from Cotham School. They had a tour of Parliament, a Q&A session with me and then they sat in the public gallery for question time and ministerial statements. The afternoon meeting of Education Select Committee approved our reports on International Higher Education and on UK Skills. The international report used the experience gained on visits in the last 9 months to Australia and China. As well as saying the UK should do more to foster academic links we also recommended that the UK should copy Australia and remove the funding distinction between full time and part time students.

Tuesday morning I went for a breakfast showing of the Dutch portraits exhibition at the National Gallery. When I'm showing small groups of visitors around Westminster I take them to the gallery of late 20th century and 21st century portraits on the first floor of Portcullis House. This week there was a new addition - a portrait of Shirley Williams. She joins Roy Jenkins, Paddy Ashdown, Jo Grimond and Charles Kennedy who are also on display. In the afternoon there was a statement on future plans for the railways by new Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly. I asked her to bring forward investment in the signals around Temple Meads. This would free up space for more regular services on the Severn Beach Line and also remove one of the barriers to re-opening the Portishead line. Her response was not encouraging….

On Wednesday morning we had what was supposed to be the last meeting of the current Education & Skills Select Committee. The government's split of the department that we scrutinise into two (Children, Schools and Families and Innovation, Universities and Skills) means that there will be two committees. Also the government has replaced the unelected opaque Regional Assemblies with Regional Select Committees. We were ready with our nominees for all the Select Committees, ready for tabling in the afternoon. So were the Tories. But Labour have run into problems. Brown has more Ministers, Whips and ministerial assistants than any previous Prime Minister. The increase in Select Committees (some have also increased in size) means that Labour are struggling to fill all their places. We've had this problem for a while which is why many of us, including me, have two jobs. So Labour have pulled the plug on the changes for now and hope to sort it out when we return for the "overspill" session of the 2006/2007 Parliament in October. The new committees will then sit after the State Opening of the 2007/2008 Parliamentary session in mid November. All of this just fuels the rumour that further changes have been delayed to allow for an election in October…. On the assumption that Parliament isn't dissolved in October the existing Education Committee now has an extra few weeks of life so we decided to resurrect our abandoned short enquiry into creativity in schools.

Prior to PMQs I went along to a meeting organised by the All Party Group on Aviation. The main speakers were our own Chris Huhne plus the leader of the Greenland Inuit people Aqqaluk Lynge. He gave a compelling account of how the developed world's insatiable lust for travel is damaging the fragile ecosystem of the Arctic. Personal testimony such as this brings alive the effect of climate change and makes me more determined to speak about the change in our behaviour that is necessary to halt the damage of our planet. We can't allow an unchecked expansion of air travel, which is why I've spoken out several times against the expansion of Bristol Airport. In this session I've now heard from an Inuit and a Pygmie on the effect of our behaviour (or the behaviour of Western companies) on indigenous cultures.

The last PMQs before summer recess was a fairly calm one (apart from Cameron being laughed at for desperately trying to avoid any opportunity for mention of the Tories' disastrous showing in the Ealing by election) , followed immediately by a statement from Brown on national security.

On the final day of sitting I had meetings about the party's policy review of higher education and skills. I went along to the first Ministerial Question Time of Children, Schools and Families. This was followed by a statement on Youth Work, for which I gave the Lib Dem response. I asked about resources and pointed out that people were more important than buildings - there is a crisis in attracting youth workers, particularly men, in everything from cadets to scouts as well as formal council run youth work. I used the opportunity to point out that engaging with young people is better than slapping a dispersal order on them, such as the one just deployed in College Green. I also had a meeting with the charity Beat Bullying, about what we can do next in our campaign on this issue.

I got back to Bristol in time to attend the open air performance at Bristol Zoo of Much Ado About Nothing. The performance was very good but enjoyment was impaired by the freezing cold wind! What a strange summer we're having…

So ends a busy Westminster sitting. My office (Alex, Danny, Fi, James, Lena, and Tim, Jonny and Chris plus several volunteer interns in Westminster and Bristol) enable me to cope with a huge workload. On top of my national responsibilities for the Lib Dems I have a very demanding constituency. The demographic profile of the electorate (city centre, middle class suburbs, universities and teaching hospitals, etc) means that we get masses of mail - postal and electronic. The web site They Work for You has just published its 2006 League Table of Emails sent via their site to MPs http://www.writetothem.com/stats/2006/mps?o=s and I come in at 4th in terms of volume and TOP in terms of response rate for those with lots of messages. And as this site is only one of the ways that constituents contact me it represents just a proportion of the hundreds of emails, letters, postcards and phone calls that we get each week. We're always trying to improve our performance but I think we do a remarkable job, starting from scratch just over two years ago.