Stephen's Week

Since 2005 I have sent out a regular "Letter from Westminster and Bristol", giving an account of my doings as a new Lib Dem MP. I should have called it "Diary" because that was the way I wrote it, designed to show that being Bristol West's MP is most weeks a 24-7 job, with no day quite the same, apart from being busy. The 2005 - 2007 letters are all archived in the Stephen's diary section of the web site at

www.stephenwilliams.org.uk For the 2007/08 Parliamentary

session I'm going to make it into more of a letter or short essay style, with my take on the political week. I'm also going to start recording occasional brief video clips, for posting on my web site, You Tube, and for those of you on Facebook, there too.

My past diary writings will have given some insight into Westminster life. This week someone else could have written a fly on the wall account. In 2005 I agreed to take part in a shadowing scheme organised by the Royal Society, the country's premier body of scientists. So far two scientists, Hazel and Nic, have spent time with me in Westminster and Bristol and they have given me an insight into chemistry and physics. On Monday I met my third shadow, Daniela, an Earth scientist from Bristol University. During the week Daniela came to some of my meetings and we chatted in between. We will stay in touch over the next year and she will spend time with me on Bristol West constituency business and I will spend time with her in the university.

Daniela will have her own view of the highlight of the week but I guess watching Prime Minister's Questions from the Public Gallery must have been exciting. The current session has been pretty awful for Gordon Brown. After losing his bottle and not calling an election he's stumbled from crisis to crisis. Northern Rock may cost us all billions.

The tax authorities may have lost millions of parent and children records. And now Labour is in the mire again over hundreds of thousands of dodgy party funds. Big numbers. And our numbers man is Acting Leader Vince Cable. At this week's PMQs Vince used his forensic mind and dry humour to devastating effect. The transformation of the PM's reputation from "Stalin to Mr Bean, creating chaos out of order instead of order out of chaos..." will surely make its way into all future quotation books that lie on politicians' shelves. For the first time ever in PMQs I laughed out loud. For much of the last two years my party has been on the receiving end of derision from Labour Prime Ministers. Now Mr Brown is in danger of becoming of figure more easy to ridicule than dislike but respect, a dangerous position for any leader.

On the education front this week I went with David Laws and other colleagues to the Department of Children, Schools and Families to have an informal meeting with Ministers about upcoming legislation. I will be leading for the Lib Dems on the Bill that (amongst other things) raises the school leaving and training age to 18. We currently have grave doubts about the compulsory nature of this initiative, which the government sees as a flagship measure in this session.

On the day of PMQs I was one of the speakers at a Smith Institute (public services think tank) breakfast panel on 21st century schools.

Coincidentally for Daniela, the venue was the Royal Society. The other speakers were well known educationalists Tim Brighouse and Fiona Millar (also known as Mrs Alistair Campbell...) and Labour MP David Chaytor, someone from the other side of the House who I very much like and respect.

A bit of fun in education was a reception hosted by the Speaker for the Royal Geographical Society and Ordnance Survey on the teaching of geography in schools. The main speaker was Michael Palin. I've enjoyed all his BBC travel programmes over the last 19 years but was disappointed by the latest one on eastern Europe. I diplomatically hinted at this to him and he confessed to it being a difficult series as not many people have been to the Sahara or travelled "Around the World in 80 Days" but lots of us have now been behind the old iron curtain and have our own anecdotes to tell.

Most weeks I meet groups of Bristol West constituents who want to talk about a huge range of issues. This week I met two groups about Palestine (I hope the Annapolis talks hosted by President Bush lead to something...but what has happened to Mr Peace Envoy T Blair??) and marked World Aids Day both in Parliament Square and Broadmead. Thursday in London was a beautiful sunny day and the huge red ribbon erected in the Square stood out against a blue sky and Big Ben backdrop. But Saturday lunchtime in Bristol saw me making a speech in the most horrendous weather. With the Lord Mayor and Doug Naysmith MP we just about managed to release some red balloons, despite the rain, hailstones and wind! A sobering statistic is that about half of the world's HIV cases are now in southern Africa, despite that part of the world representing only 3% of the world's population.

My Sunday engagement this week (I told you this could be a 24-7 job) was to attend the St Barbara's Service in the Lord Mayor's Chapel on College Green and then a lunch at the TA Ground on Whiteladies Road. What's the connection?? Well St Barbara (you'll have to look her story up yourself here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Barbara is basically the patron saint of people who undermine or blow things up. So she's the patron saint of the Royal Artillery and of miners. The Whiteladies Ground is home to 266 TA Royal Artillery (I had lunch with them in August at the balloon fiesta, when they gave a major display of battle skills) and by happy coincidence my grandfather was both a miner and served in the Royal Horse Artillery in North Africa during the Second World War.

I've said in a couple of speeches and interviews now that the phrase "a week is a long time in politics" is redundant now, as events move so fast...so I wonder what's coming up next on the political roller coaster.

Best wishes

Stephen Williams MP

Bristol West (Liberal Democrat)

Parliamentary email - stephenwilliamsmp@parliament.uk

www.stephenwilliams.org.uk