Letter from Parliament

Well, so far it's been one hell of a week so far - I'll talk you through it:

On Monday, I led the Liberal Democrat's response to the Border's Bill - I'll extend more about this later this week.

Tuesday was a peculiar day.  I received a phone call telling me that Patricia Hewitt MP, the Secretary of State for Health was going to contact me regarding the Parliamentary Question that I had put in about the Maternity and Child Care situation in Greater Manchester.  The reason I had done so was because Rochdale, Bury and Salford's Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee's had asked her to review the decision.  Imagine my surprise when she rang me later to confirm that her Department were going to make the big announcement in response to my Parliamentary Question.  It was interesting that some Labour MP’s had obviously got wind of the impending announcement and tried to force an announcement before it came to my question.  Now I must point out that the fact that they were doing the review was enough for me.   Speaker – Michael Martin (an old friend of Cyril Smith) made sure as usual that procedures were followed and all attempts to pre-empt the announcement were swiftly turned down.  Interestingly, an internal Labour battle came to the fore as Salford MP Ian Stewart was the most vociferous in his attempts – maybe part of the ongoing struggle with Hazel Blears for the Labour Parliamentary seat of Salford was at the forefront of his mind.

We were of course delighted and the first thing I did was contact some of the people involved in the campaign - including Councillor Jean Ashworth.  I then did a whirlwind of interviews.  I have made my views clear on the news section of Rochdale Online, but let's just say I was delighted.  The hard work continues from here and I shall be meeting campaigners on Sunday. 

Wednesday was another busy day. I started the morning having to call Councillor Alan Taylor to give my apologies for the Council Meeting that took place later on.  I hope the Council Meeting was more constructive than Councillor Ian Duckworth’s statement about Alan Lectern suggests!  Today was a debate on the Government’s Crime Record.  This was a Lib Dem Opposition Day so we had what is called a ‘three line whip’ – this meant that I had to be in Parliament, as a Whip for the Lib Dems it is even more important.  The debate was an interesting one, led my Nick Clegg, our Home Affairs Spokesperson.  I mentioned the police cuts in Greater Manchester and also the capacity and other problems at Buckley Hall Prison.  Since it transferred from a female prison to a male one there has been huge problems.

Thursday is a debate on buses – one of the issues that I have strenuously campaigning on.  As a Lib Dem Transport Spokesperson I will be playing a leading role in this debate and will be reporting back later.