Just for the record - it's gone 1am and News 24 is on in the background...
Today was a mixed bag - started off sponsoring a Save the Children knitting session, which I've mentioned several times on here before (see the David Drew pics). I persuaded Ed Balls to turn up; he's definitely a much better knitter than me, which isn't saying much. Meg Munn, the Foreign Office Minister, was there too, and Malcolm Bruce, chair of the International Development Select Committee. Most unlikely knitter was ex-miner Dave Anderson, MP for Blaydon; he turned up with a bag of hats knitted by his caseworker's mother, but ended up being persuaded to pick up some needles himself.
Then had to finish off my child poverty speech - bit of a rush job. Then a statutory instrument on DFID payments to the World Bank, then the tail end of a debate called by David Drew on the economic impact of the Severn Barrage, in time to hear the Minister's response, and then my own debate; "The Role of Local Authorities in Tackling Child Poverty". John Battle - one of my favourite MPs - turned up to support me, and I tried, but failed to get Oliver Letwin to explain what Cameron meant by his speech on poverty earlier this week.
Rest of the day, apart from a few votes, was mostly talking transport with people, including dinner with the Passenger Transport Executive Group. (Is Bristol ever going to join their ranks?) Also finally managed to have a chat with Kim Howells, the Foreign Office Minister, about his recent visit to Somaliland; have been trying to collar him in the division lobby for ages. Between votes had a 'why do we do it' chat with fellow blogger Tom Harris in the tearoom, and he explained to me what a 'lard monster' is. And Harry Cohen told me a joke: where does Amy Winehouse get on the tube? High Barnet!
Tomorrow is all about catching up with emails and post, although I'm number 16 at Treasury Qs (which means I'll be on standby but unlikely to be called - I'm asking about the Global Carbon Finance Project) and then a 3 hour Westminster Hall debate on Afghanistan in the afternoon.
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6 comments:
A three hour debate on Afghanistan, I wish I could be there. I don't think you have a clue what to do about Afghanistan, do you know that the average insurgency lasts 14 years and if you can't train the police force then the insurgents are likely to win. Have a look at the RAND report on insurgencies. Guess what in Afghanistan the police force is a shambles.The troops are still having to be ferried about in those 'snatch' landrovers (because of a shortage of helicopters) and they are getting killed because of it.
Why is it everything that New Labour touches turns to dust?
Tom Harris says on his blog:
- “The Musical Box” by Genesis (as featured on the classic album, Nursery Cryme)" -
Truly the man that taste forgot.
You obviously missed Tom blogging about his fear of his laptop being stolen and people discovering he's got Barclay James Harvest and Beverley Craven in his music library. Although he does at least admit to being embarrassed by it.
http://tomcharris.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/the-disaster-of-losing-my-laptop/
I've removed the last two comments as they weren't really comments - just links to weird sites. Can you get spam postings on a blog? That's what they looked like. Only clicked on the first link and it was an article about hacking.
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