Save the Children event*

Trouble with blogging and websites is that the busier you are, the less time you get to blog or post website items and therefore the less busy people think you are... Or maybe no-one notices?

Today was a really interesting, mixed day. Got in fairly early for some time in the office, but then chaired an event with Save the Children; they're launching a report tomorrow, which is embargoed till 00.01 so can't say much about it unless I type this post very, very slowly...

Basically it looks at child deprivation across 137 countries, as measured according to three factors: enrolments in primary education, child mortality (deaths before the age of 5), and nutrition. Britain comes out pretty well, in the top ten. Cuba comes out better than the USA! (Both quite a bit further down).

Interesting discussion about what statistics show, and how careful you have to be in interpreting them - e.g. they've given equal weighting to each of the three categories, but if a country manages to bring down its child mortality rate, it could actually see an increase in its malnutrition rating, as fewer children have so little food they starve to death but they then move into the 'not enough to eat' category.

Nutrition is measured according to whether a child is underweight, which in itself raises interesting questions: is being malnourished synonymous with being underweight? I wouldn't have thought so. Also discovered that 'underweight' is judged based on the median of American children. It was suggested that it might be better to pick a country where kids are maybe a little healthier? (I'm now trying to work out what it means for the USA's scores on nutrition if US kids are used as the benchmark. But I guess I can just leave that to someone else to answer... Try looking up median on wiki - that will really make your brain hurt). Anyway, the report makes interesting reading and will be on their website tomorrow, I'm sure.

* I really am going to have to go back to song titles soon.

That joke isn't funny anymore

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.

Wherever I lay my hat...

I'm sure David Drew MP won't mind me including this picture, showing his sterling efforts to support Save the Children's knitting appeal. We're holding a knitting session in Parliament next Wednesday. I sent out the invitations, and now I keep being accosted by MPs who seem to think this means I'm a knitting fanatic. I can't knit! But having seen David's marvellous effort, I'm going to have to give it a try.

Saturday

Assuming I'm revving on at least two cylinders by Saturday, I've got a busy day. First port of call is Get Knitted in Brislington village for a Save the Children knitting session. (I've had one lesson so might just avoid total humiliation although I think it's extremely unlikely that anything resembling a hat will emerge from my efforts). Then I'm speaking at an Oxfam event, Sisters on the Planet, at the Bristol Festival of Nature.

And then I'm off to this. In fact I'm on the guest list. Sad, I know.