The Romsey Advertiser 29 February 2008

Written by Sandra Gidley MP on Fri 29th Feb 2008

This week seems to have been one of the most manic in recent history. Last Saturday morning I met with a group of people in West Tytherley to discuss a range of issues and this was followed by a very pleasant afternoon at the Reminiscences of Romsey event organised by the Rotary Club of Romsey Test and Inner Wheel. This event is rapidly becoming a local institution and long may it continue.

On Monday morning I visited Wellow School for heading off to London. We hear so much negativity about young people but I have visited a number of schools recently and am always impressed by the young people I meet who are bright, lively and engaging.

Tuesday was a big day for the Liberal Democrats. We had tabled a motion on the European debate which called for a vote on the principle of a referendum on whether we should be in or out of Europe. We had high hopes of the amendment being selected but the Speaker decides what is selected for debate and, for reasons which are not entirely clear, we were not able to vote on the issue.

This caused us some unhappiness as we believe that this debate is closer to a vote on the old constitution than a vote on the new Lisbon Treaty would be. Our Shadow Foreign Secretary, Ed Davey, was very agitated by the whole affair and ended up being expelled from the chamber by the Speaker. We all walked out of the Chamber in support of Ed and many of us felt very angry at a system which denied us a vote on a fundamentally important issue. Talking to Ed later, off the parliamentary premises he told me that he has always been so well behaved that he was never even sent out of class at school so the whole thing was a shock to his system.

Wednesday was a little calmer but extremely busy. I had the opportunity to introduce a ten minute rule bill and chose the subject of tackling personal debt. I had to refine my speech in between various meetings which did little for my continuity of thought. The bill was presented immediately after Prime Ministers Question Time and people from all parties made supportive comments afterwards.

I didn't have much time to recover before heading for the BBC studios to take part in the World at One debate. It was good fun and there was a reasonable amount of cross party consensus.

It was then a dash back to the Commons where I was hosting an event to raise awareness of trafficking. I was very nervous about this as I had to introduce Darren Bennett of Strictly Come Dancing Fame and we were supposed to dance a few steps together. I am not known for my nimbleness of foot but he made it very easy and I now know how to salsa!

Then time to brave Central Lobby and meet constituents who had come to lobby me about supporting a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. A couple of meetings were followed by a long and tortuous parliamentary party meeting. I eventually managed to escape back to my office to catch up on weekly columns and paperwork before contemplating a busy Thursday.

Published with kid permission of the Romsey Advertiser