Letter from Westminster and Bristol

Letter from Westminster and Bristol 24 February 2008

This letter covers two weeks. The first was when Parliament was on half

term recess, which I mainly spent in Bristol but with a foray to mid

Wales. The second was a normal parliamentary week.

During recess the Bristol Chinese Community celebrated the New Year of the

rat. So "Kung Hay Fat Choy" to everyone! I went to two functions. A

lunchtime event was held at the Bristol Overseas Chinese Association in

Lower Ashley Road. There was the traditional dragon dance, accompanied by

very loud cymbals and drums! In the evening there was a gathering of over

300 people at the Thistle (the old Grand Hotel) in Broad Street. The Lord

Mayor and I walked in with a dragon in front and behind and two sets of

cymbals. My ears were throbbing for a while!

The House of Commons half term did not match the Bristol half term so I

was able to visit several schools and colleges. I met with the Head of

Colston's Girls School for an update on their progress to state academy

status. From September this excellent school will be free to girls from

all over Bristol.

Stoke Bishop Primary has just had an outstanding rating from Ofsted. I

visited most of the classes and then sat with some children from year 6

for a question time. The school takes children from Sea Mills and Stoke

Bishop but it's a sad fact that most of them will not go on to a Bristol

secondary school, with many going to state schools in North Somerset or

independent ones in Bristol.

St Bonaventure's in Bishopston also does well for its children. I met

with both the year 6 classes. Last year I presented their predecessors

with their end of school books. The school was built in the early 70s and

is showing its age. The governors have ambitious plans for a rolling

programme of new classroom buildings.

After their stint in secondary school it is likely that many of the

children from St Bon's will go to St Brendan's Sixth Form College. I met

with the Principal in order to discuss many issues in post 16 education.

I made two visits to the city's main post 16 centre, City of Bristol

College. Firstly, I went to the end of course presentation of a group of

young people who'd participated in a Prince's Trust course. The Trust

works with young people who are out of work and sends them on an intensive

residential course to improve their life skills and confidence levels.

Later in the week I was back at the college for an evening visit to an IT

course. This was for Bristol teachers, laid on by the National Union of

Teachers. The teachers attend these courses voluntarily in their own

time. As I see on my school visits, IT plays an increasing role in

education. By chance, the session I visited was on 'excel' spreadsheets,

something I'm pretty good at myself so I was able to give some impromptu

help!

Away from education in Bristol I met up with the city council's youth

service to discuss their work with lesbian and gay young people. I also

met with the Brigstowe Project, a charity that works with people who are

HIV positive.

On the weekend between recess and Parliament I travelled to Llandrindod

Wells in beautiful Powys. The annual weekend school of the Lloyd George

Society has been taking place for over 50 years. See

www.lloydgeorgesociety.org.uk Participants hear presentations on current

political topics as well as historic events associated with the great

Liberal Prime Minister. Lloyd George has always been my political hero so

it was a delight to be the society's after dinner speaker this year. It

was wonderful to meet two of the country's most famous academics. Kenneth

Morgan is the biographer of Callaghan and Attlee and editor of the Oxford

History of Britain, as well as an expert on Lloyd George. David Butler is

the country's greatest psephologist, writing books on elections since

before I was born. On the Sunday I was also on the panel for a lively

two-hour question time.

Before setting off for mid Wales I stayed in Bristol to watch Bristol

Rovers beat Southampton and qualify for the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.

This is the furthest the club has got for 50 years and it is great to see

them doing so well. Earlier in the week I'd visited the Memorial Stadium

for a meeting with some of the club's directors. In 2006 we had our

differences over the stadium expansion plans. I want all of Bristol's

sports clubs to play at top class venues. My concern was that the traffic

and parking pressure on local residents in Horfield should be taken into

account. The club now has new plans to improve the new stadium, scaling

down the conference and restaurant facilities and opening a gym and crèche

to the public. I welcome these improvements but still urge the stadium

owners to work to minimise traffic disruption on Rovers or Bristol Rugby

match days.

Promoting Bristol Sport was one of the highlights of my week back at

Westminster. I hosted a Commons reception to launch Gloucestershire

County Cricket Club's 'World Class West' campaign. Back in July 2005 I

was among thousands of Bristolians who went to the County Ground in

Bishopston to watch England beat Australia. The club wants to host more

international matches (New Zealand are coming this year) and have

ambitious plans for upgrading the ground. Many of the club's players were

at the reception as well as MPs and council leaders from Greater Bristol

and Gloucestershire and the event was a great success. But the plans are

at an early stage at the moment, with lots of fundraising and community

engagement to go.

Nick Clegg had another good PMQs this week. This is a weekly event but

questions to other cabinet ministers and departments take place monthly.

This week saw my second outing as Shadow Secretary for Innovation,

Universities and Skills at DIUS questions. I asked about the social

divide in university admissions, whereby the children of professional,

graduate educated parents are at leas 4 times as likely to go to

university as those with parents in manual or routine occupations.

The Education and Skills Bill continues to make its way through committee.

David Laws has covered the recent sessions but I covered one this week

and spoke of the adverse consequences of compulsory education on young

people who are carers or lead dysfunctional lives.

In the skills role of my job I met with the Engineering Employers

Federation to discuss the state of UK manufacturing. I also spoke at the

secondary legislation ("statutory instrument") committee renewing a levy

on construction and engineering companies to finance training.

There was another meeting this week of MPs with the South West Regional

Development Agency. I was astounded to discover that SWRDA supports

further expansion of Heathrow Airport, believing it to be in the interests

of our economy. I point out that the expansion of Bristol Airport would

have stronger environmental and economic grounds if there were a diversion

of some international flights from Heathrow to regional airports. The

meeting was another reminder of the democratic deficit in regional

government. The so called South West Regional Assembly have actually

backed SWRDA's view on airports.

Back in Bristol on Friday I was expecting a fairly quiet day, visiting

elderly persons' home in Westbury Park and holding my surgery. But Radio

Bristol and the Evening Post were in touch asking about the leaked list of

post office closures in Bristol. I was quite shocked by this, as there

had been so many closures in Bristol in recent years that I didn't think

there was scope for more. The Post Office are proposing to shut twelve

branches in Bristol, four of them in Bristol West. On the hit list are

Derby Road in St Andrews, Alma Vale Road in Clifton, Wellington Hill

West in Henleaze and Redcliffe Hill. Ironically, a special delivery from

Post Office Limited arrived in the office mid morning, with the official

advance notice for MPs of the closures! During the day I get in touch

with each branch and disgracefully they also heard about the closure of

their businesses via the media. I will be making strong representations

about these proposed closures over the next few weeks.