Letter from Westminster and Bristol 16 November 2008

This covers the two weeks to 16th November 2008

As well as meeting many constituents in Bristol I also greet many visitors to Westminster. In this period a coach party from Bristol Rotary's breakfast club toured Parliament and I had an hour and a half question time session with them! At a reception hosted by the Attorney General I met Sarah Francis, a constituent who was being recognised for her years of community service at the Avon and Bristol Law Centre. At another reception I met with the Severnside Community Rail Partnership. This group is improving the stations and facilities on the Severn Beach Line.

Turning to another mode of transport, I met local engineers and apprentices at an event for the West of England Aerospace Forum. As I mentioned in my Maiden Speech over 3 years ago, our region is one of the world's greatest concentrations of aerospace industries.

On a sadder note, I also met two constituents who came all the way to London to tell me the story of their son who is a heroin addict and has now been imprisoned five times. In Bristol I have met with many agencies dealing with drug and other addiction problems. Unfortunately the failures far outweigh the success stories and often agencies have to concentrate on harm reduction. In this period I went to the annual meeting of the Bristol Drugs Project and also looked around their mobile harm reduction van. This tours the city providing advice and also a clean needle exchange.

Also in Bristol in the last two weeks I discussed sustainable housing with the Ashley Vale housing project. Bristol's most famous architect, George Ferguson, took me around a future housing and small business development at the old Chocolate Factory in Greenbank. In Ashley Down, I met cricket players and watched as the new ground drainage scheme got underway at

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. After I'd attended a wildlife trust

event in Westminster I met with the Avon Wildlife Trust on Brandon Hill to

hear about their work in Bristol. I also visited The Hub, an incubator

unit for new small businesses and social enterprises based in the Arnolfini building. Following up the Quartet Foundation's reception on Harbourside a few weeks ago I met with the Chief Exec (a fellow native of the Cynon Valley!) to discuss their plans for growing their endowment fund over the next few years.

Joining up my Bristol and Westminster responsibilities, I went to Bristol Cathedral, the setting for the graduation ceremony of students who'd studied for their degrees at City of Bristol College. The College offers many two year foundation degree programmes, which are validated by an external university. This enables many people to undertake distance and part time learning. Such programmes are one way of expanding the number of people who can take a degree. Widening participation in higher education was the title of the one of the House of Commons debates in which I spoke in the last fortnight. The focus of the debate was more on fair access, that is who gets in to the country's top universities such as Cambridge or of course Bristol.

I also spoke briefly in another debate, this time outside my portfolio, on the funding of fire and rescue services. Avon's fire authority has received notice of a dismal financial settlement for the next two years, far lower than many other authorities in the country.

On 4th November the minds of many people in the world must have turned to the US Presidential election. I started that evening hearing about historic events over 400 years ago. Lady Antonia Fraser, the famous historian of the Stuart period, was in Parliament of bonfire night to talk to the Parliamentary History Group about the Gunpowder Plot. Some of the points she made about the clash of religions, terrorism and torture had a contemporary ring.

After listening to Lady Antonia I set off for the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square. I have followed American politics as a spectator for about 25 years and it was exciting this year to watch a truly historic result with hundreds of London based Americans. I was too tired to wait up for President Elect Obama's victory speech but was amazed by the whole 17 minutes of it I watched on the internet later that day.

Hopefully the new President and Congress will be able to agree meaningful measures to combat climate change. This week I met with the Rainforest Foundation to discuss the continued problem of deforestation. The loss of the trees is a major contributor to climate change and is also a devastating blow to the indigenous population.

Back to more prosaic and local matters. Cutting down car journeys in Bristol would be a step towards a sustainable future. I've long believed that a controlled residents parking scheme can be a major environmental benefit as well as a convenience for inner-city residents. So it was on ITV's The West This Week that I debated the issue with the Federation of Small Businesses, who's representative opposed car parking controls. This discussion was before the details of the council's proposed scheme were announced. As I'd gone out of my way to say that I wanted the scheme to succeed I was all the more furious that City Council officers refused to brief me in advance of the media announcement last Friday. So I had to read Saturday's Evening Post to find out what was going on. Bristol City Council under its present Labour leadership seems determined to be contemptuous of elected representatives of other parties…roll on next years elections!

As Vince Cable wins another national political award it was good to see him in Bristol on the weekend talking about the economy.

Finally, this period saw the annual Remembrance Sunday parade and ceremony in the city centre. The event originally commemorated the sacrifice of those who served in the two world wars. But as I stood by the Cenotaph I thought that in every Prime Minister's Questions I have attended since May

2005 Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have begun by recording the death that

week of British service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. My

generation and my parents' generation have been fortunate not to be called upon to defend our country's liberty. But it is a time to remember that many fellow citizens are still paying the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.