Romsey Advertiser 9 February 2007

Written by Sandra Gidley MP on Fri 9th Feb 2007

Everyone here seems a little tired and crabby and most are looking forward to next week's recess.

Monday afternoon started with a meeting, at Westminster, with representatives from the Ordnance Survey. There were a number of factors which could have an impact on the organisation in the long term and it was useful to discuss them.

It was then time for yet another meeting of our health policy working group. I have never committed to a policy working group before and had not realised quite how much time it would take up but the advantage is that it is a useful opportunity to speak to a range of organisations.

It was then time to attend a dinner meeting with the Alzheimers Society. This was surprisingly well attended by MPs, all of whom had worked with the society in some way. Some of us spent part of the evening advising them not to set up an all party group and unbeknown to us the last item on the agenda was to suggest establishing such a group. Some all party groups serve a very useful function but the downside now is that there are so many of them and it is difficult for many groups to maintain an ongoing and meaningful relationship with MPs. Given the interest in the room they decided to consider a more informal way but more focussed way of working with us all.

On Tuesday I had an informal meeting with a couple of representatives of the Rank group. The group runs a casino in Southampton and were rightly concerned about the proposal for a new, large casino in Southampton because this will have an impact on their current business and their employees. On many levels I remain to be convinced of the need for new casinos. It could be argued that they bring employment and commerce to an area but I have an abiding memory of walking through a Vegas casino at about five in the morning, past many wretched individuals who were mindlessly feeding the machines with coins. That is the downside to the supposedly glamorous facility.

In the afternoon it was health questions and I was given the chance to ask a question on age related macular degeneration. Some very promising treatments are currently being evaluated by NICE but the process is slow and in the mean time people are going blind. Patricia Hewitt's answer was unimpressive but I was pleased to see that there were quite a few MPs wanting to ask a question on this subject.

It was a day for eyes because later on a meeting of the All Party Eye Health Group discussed the mobility component of incapacity benefit. Blind people can only claim the lower level when in many instances they have greater mobility problems than someone with a physical impairment.

As the week draws to a close many MPs are thinking of going home after the Wednesday evening vote as the weather forecasts are not good. The Chair of the Health Select Committee was concerned about whether we would have a quorum but some of us die hards will be there. However, I expect it will be advisable to get up early as London struggles to cope with the merest sprinkling of snow so if we are having real snow then heaven help us.

Published with kind permission of Romsey Advertiser