It’s a funny old job, being an MP. One moment I’m getting the mickey taken out of me for my sometimes base and fruity use of the English language in all its glorious Anglo-Saxon forms and the next I find myself invited to become a patron of the Campaign for Courtesy! I really am genuinely torn as to how to reply to this very kind request which would see me joining the illustrious company of the likes of Sir Bobby Charlton, Esther Rantzen, June Whitfield, Roy Hudd, Dr. Jonathan Sacks, and Sir Henry Cooper. Apparently I’ve been nominated by one of the members of the Campaign for Courtesy and so I must take the offer seriously. However, whilst I do try and treat the vast majority of my constituents with respect and politeness, I have been known to let rip on occasion and I am genuinely worried that it wouldn’t be long before I let the side down.

One of the things I am looking forward to when I retire from public life is having my weekends back. The weekend before last was pretty typical and saw me finish my Friday night advice surgery in Whitley at around 8.30pm followed by a full surgery on Saturday morning and then a launch of the excellent “Relay for Life” event at the Oracle which will raise much needed funds for Cancer Research UK. As usual I managed to keep Saturday afternoon free to see Reading’s lamentable performance against Notts Forest at the Mad. Stad. and on Sunday it was down to Portsmouth for a lunchtime speaking engagement. Now I love my job but after 25 years of this sort of lifestyle you can see why I’m looking forward to having some of my life back.

On Monday I wasn’t able to attend the visit of Alistair Darling to Reading as I was already committed to a Home Affairs Select Committee visit to Bristol to take evidence in our ongoing inquiry into Knife Crime. However, I was delighted that the Chancellor and other Government Ministers came to our town to find out how we are coping with the global recession and to speak directly to local people and businesses. The Government has a rolling programme of holding Cabinet meetings in different regions of the country and it never hurts for politicians to spend some time away from Westminster.

In Bristol we heard from young people about the pressure to join gangs and the fact that many of them carry knives more out of a sense of fear and, mistakenly, for self-protection rather than with the intent to commit acts of violence. The statistics show quite clearly that young people who carry knives are far more likely to become victims of knife crime themselves and that far from protecting themselves they are actually more at risk. What was particularly horrific were the stories of youngsters stabbed and assaulted purely for wandering into the “wrong” street or a different postcode area. Some of the stories we heard were almost medieval in their mindlessness. The sad thing is that far too many of our young people simply do not have strong positive role models in their lives and in some communities life on the streets simply means dragging otherwise decent people down to the lowest common denominator. I hope that our report will be hard hitting but also a serious contribution to how best we can tackle street violence in all its forms.