Thanks to those who turned up on such a cold day yesterday! I'll be in Sutton on Monday and have meetings at the Exchange in the afternoon / evening. If you want to drop in then I' ll be there from 4pm. Give me a call on 07748968712 and we can arrange a time!
Wednesday is Campaign Springfield with Tim - we'll be canvassing and then going to the a cafe / pub to warm up! Can you see a theme developing here? As Tim said on Saturday "I'm looking forward to May because it's warmer!" I'm looking froward to it for a different reason....

We are meeting outside the Moseley Exchange tomorrow (Saturday) am at 11am. Please do come and help campaign to get rid of this lousy government.

Thought I would never blog about him again....but I just can't resist.
I was amazed at the way he has dodged the questions - though I suppose I ought not to be! He repeated the "if I had known then what I know now" phrase - then saying he would still have gone in!
However, in the run up to the election I was most impressed with his careful undermining of the current PM, "Whilst I was Prime Minister, I never refused the military's request for funds". Nice sideswipe at Gordon - as chancellor and current PM.
Spoke to a member of a soldier's family today who reported that the professional soldier just wanted to get on with the job. I know that is no comfort to those who have lost loved ones in war zones, but it should make us really proud of our armed forces.

OK this is a purely personal rant....
At 2.30am we were awakened by a noisy bleeping sound....turned out that the battery in our smoke alarm had ceased working (why is it always in the middle of the night?) Anyway, given the time of night we discussed this particular imposition in our lives in fairly direct terms!!!
In order to comply with building regs etc any newly converted or built home has to have a wired in smoke alarm. That's OK - it could save our lives - but we had no choice over the type - so had to struggle with a screw driver to get it open, remove the battery (not replacing it as we had no spare - who does?) and then turning off the fuse for it! A much simpler solution (and cheaper) would have been a battery only alarm, with AA batteries for easy replacement. No, that would be too easy - regulatory gold plating? More expensive solutions?

Which brings me on to HIPS. I cannot believe the govt going on about the jobs that will be lost in their own job creation scheme! It is really expensive to do the training and the rewards are not huge because there are so many people operating. More than that, if we pay a small sum for the job it may well not be that thorough. For me this has been one of the most pointless exercises the govt has undertaken, encouraging people to do the training. Roll on the abolition.

It's 65 years since the beginning of the liberation of Auschwitz. I heard a thought for the day yesterday, imagining being a little girl looking out at the world, the day before the liberation, and how it would seem just like any other terrible day there. Who knew what tomorrow would bring?

Indeed, last night I was further humbled to meet 2 asylum seekers with amazingly harrowing stories to tell. It put all political point scoring in its rightful place. I hope all of us who were at the meeting resolve to do something about our failed asylum system - whether lobbying, campaigning or volunteering. When people don't know what tomorrow will bring, in this country, in 2010, it's time to do something about it. It's good to be reminded why I got involved in politics in the first place.

100 days to the election!

I have been invited to a Question Time at Birmingham Uni this evening. I'll be speaking about our tough asylum system. The question I am mulling over today is whether tough describes it at all. How about authoritarian, random, poorly managed, inhumane?
We'll see how it goes!
Getting the campaign moving after Christmas has been really exciting. I am reminded to Blog every time I switch my computer on - but with politics there is always something urgent to be done NOW! My New Year's resolution (Chinese New Year) is to keep this diary better as we get closer to the election. Does anyone doubt it will be May 6? Or is it a socialist double bluff?
So today I am in my office in the Moseley Exchange doing casework for constituents and preparing for this evening. I was very pleased to hear form one lady this week who I have been helping with a housing issue - she has got her bungalow! Hurray! Later on, my Agent Chris and I will meet up to plan the rest of the week's visits and campaigning. This Friday we are scheduled to meet up with some of the local Hindu community with my friend and colleague Shailesh Parekh (PPC Hodge Hill). We will be out and about on Thursday and Saturday canvassing. In between all this I will try and do some of my day job! The company books are staring at me accusingly and need to get to the accountant on Friday so I will be burning the candle at both ends!