Romsey Advertiser - 11 July 2008

Written by Sandra Gidley on Fri 11th Jul 2008

Last Friday I spoke at the Stanbridge Earls Speech Day and had a great time presenting prizes and meeting some interesting young people. On paper the exam results at Stanbridge do not stand out but a closer inspection of what the school does reveals a very different picture because the school deals with many children who have specific learning difficulties and who have had a difficult time in mainstream education. The teachers are incredibly supportive and it is clear that many pupils feel comforted and nurtured there and the whole atmosphere is very very special.

I then took the train to Bath for a weekend off - which was with some guilt because there were many arts festival events taking place. The occasion was my daughter's pre wedding celebrations and it was nice to take some time out to relax. It wasn't a complete weekend off though because the paperwork still had to be dealt with on Monday evening.

It was all too soon time to start a new week and Monday kicked off with a meeting with a local playgroup and an interview on knife crime before heading off to London for meetings on women's representation in parliament and access to infertility treatment.

This is the time of the year when many organisations try to hold a summer parliamentary reception. I resolved this year to be try and attend fewer but it is always difficult to try and do them justice and there are always many people who want to bend an MPs ear about various issues. That said, there have been a couple of events this week which have been slightly different to the norm. One event involved trying to encourage MPs to knit and I was very impressed to see that the (male) MP from the Shetlands knew how to knit. The initiative was to encourage people to knit baby hats for children in the third world. It sounds unlikely but apparently they are sorely needed.

Another different event was a competition to find the Asian restaurant of the year. I was presenting one of the prizes and a fun bonus was the opportunity to meet Ainsley Harriot, who seems to be the same in real life as he is on the TV. I am now determined to enter a local restaurant in the competition next year.

I am looking forward to coming back to the constituency at the end of the week and taking part in some of the Arts Festival events. I am always highly impressed with what is achieved with relatively little money and a lot of passion and good will. Romsey is a very talented place.