Romsey Advertiser 9 March 2007

Written by Sandra Gidley MP on Fri 9th Mar 2007

I came back to the constituency on Thursday in time for an event at Mountbatten School. Some of the year 10 pupils had arranged an inter school sports competition for selected pupils from local primary schools. Some of the children involved were clearly very competitive which bodes well for the future. It was also an inspirational touch to invite Melanie Purkess who is an ex Mountbatten School pupil with good prospects of a medal at the next Olympics. It was sport at its best, every pupil engaged and no one being forced to do something they are not good at.

Most of the weekend was spent in Harrogate at our Spring Conference. On the Friday we had a consultation session on our recent health paper and this attracted a lot of attention from within the party. In due course I hope that we produce some new policy which will attract a lot of attention outside the party.

The key debate was on Trident and the result was a close call between those who are happy with the "wait and see" line and those who wanted to see a firmer commitment to moving towards disarmament and a clear stance that Trident should not be replaced at all. In the end caution won the day following a very strong speech by Ming but I have to say that I voted the opposite way to my leader - along with a number of my colleagues. Ultimately though, I was pleased that debate was not stifled. It is a nonsense to pretend that all people in a party think the same way on every issue and as a party we love to encourage debate.

All too soon I was back in London. I have been asked by one of the Health Ministers to sit on a short term working party looking at the future regulation and representation of pharmacy so had a large amount of paperwork to catch up with. It is quite a daunting prospect but a challenge I am very much looking forward to.

The main business of the week is the reform of the House of Lords. This is an issue which greatly excites many politicians but I have received very little correspondence on this matter apart from people who want to remove the automatic places for Bishops. This is not an issue we are voting for this week but will be something to debate in the future. I will be voting to ensure a large proportion of elected members in the future and I hope that this time round we will come to some firm conclusion.

At the end of the week the Health Select Committee are looking at waiting times for audiology services. This is something I have had an interest in since being first elected and local services, though not perfect, have improved. We will be quizzing the Minister who, two days ago, released a paper on audiology times. What a fortunate coincidence!!

Published with kind permission of Romsey Advertiser