Wednesday

I’m not one of Parliament’s regular foreign travellers but this week, due to bad diary planning, my carbon footprint has expanded alarmingly. I woke up in Prague - an even more lovely city than Reading - as part of a Home Affairs Committee delegation ready to meet with the Czech parliamentarians and voluntary organisations concerned with the trafficking of young women and drugs across Europe. The Czech Republic hold the EU presidency and it is impossible not to admire the progress that has been made in this country since the Iron Curtain came down. However, they are on the major drug smuggling routes from Afghanistan as well as being both a source and a destination country for sex trade trafficking. I was incredibly impressed with the work of the Czech NGOs and charities in seeking to help and support women who wish to escape the clutches of the pimps and gang bosses who are profiting from their enslavement and exploitation. However, I was less impressed with the lack of joined-up working by the police forces across Europe - something that I’m sure will be reflected in our final Committee report into Human Trafficking.

We flew back into Heathrow at around 8pm and I promptly drove up to Luton to be ready to fly out again to Poland as part of the Holocaust Educational Trust’s visits to the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. This was something I really wanted to do - particularly as many students and teachers from the Reading area were booked on the trip along with my colleagues Richard Benyon and Ann Snelgrove - the MPs for Newbury and Swindon South. Obviously it would have been easier to simply travel from Prague to Poland but an essential part of the visit was to spend time with the young people and to hear the briefings by the organisers on the plane over there.

Thursday

The alarm hammers into my brain at 4am to get me up in time for the 5am check-in. Incredibly many of the students set off from Reading at 3.30am and will not be home until 1am the next day. Now that’s dedication!

When we arrived we were shown around the camp’s barracks and crematoria, and saw the registration documents of inmates, piles of hair, shoes, clothes and other items seized by the Nazis. We were then taken the short distance to Birkenau where a memorial and candle-lighting service was held to remember the 6 million Jews, and the Roma, gay, disabled, black people, and other victims of the Nazis killed in the Holocaust. In spite of having now seen it first hand, it’s still difficult to take in the full extent of the industrialised nature of the horrific slaughter that was the Holocaust. These events may have taken place over 60 years ago but as our society bears witness; we need to continue to teach the lessons of the Holocaust to the younger generations in order to fight bigotry and hatred today. I have nothing but contempt for politicians and organisations who seek to achieve power by fanning the flames of racial prejudice and demeaning minority communities. The BNP and other extremist groups are the modern day equivalent of the German Nazi Party which explains why the BNP leader Nick Griffin is a Holocaust denier who famously dismissed the murder of six million Jews as the “Holohoax”. Only by teaching young people of the dangers of racial hatred can we counter the doctrine of those who preach hate not hope.

Friday

I was up again in the House of Commons to support the Private Member’s Bill on Fuel Poverty, but sadly despite 172 colleagues signing the Early Day Motion, there were less than the hundred needed to force a closure motion to allow for a second reading vote on this much needed measure. It really is something of a joke the way good ideas can simply be talked out by a handful of committed opponents. I had a similar problem the week before with a bunch of Conservative dinosaurs who were blocking the entirely sensible plans to allow members of the UK Youth Parliament hold their annual debate in the Commons Chamber during the summer recess. Fortunately on this occasion the forces of progress prevailed.

I’m feeling pretty knackered by the evening as I driver over to Aldershot for a Labour Party fish and chip supper and fundraiser. The speech goes down well with the comrades apart from one gentleman who had clearly been over-recreating on the cheap wine!

Saturday

No surgeries this weekend - I do them every other Friday and Saturday - but I’m committed to taking part in the Citizenship Foundation’s Mock Trial competition for local schools at the Reading County Court. Surprisingly I’m the only Berkshire MP to turn up which is a pity because the young people were absolutely brilliant and gave really convincing performances in their roles as prosecutors, defendants, defence solicitors, witnesses and judges. I couldn’t help thinking how ridiculous it would have been if the Magistrates Association had been as pompous as those MPs who opposed the UKYP using the Commons Chamber and banned the youngsters from using the actual courtrooms.

Sunday

This was reserved for gardening, a Mothers’ Day meal, sleeping, and casework. I only managed the first two.

Monday

It’s 8.30am and I’m at my desk at home sifting through the paperwork I failed to deal with at the weekend. I often run out of time but this weekend I also ran out of energy. Consequently, I start the week with a backlog.

10am and I hold my regular constituency meeting with Cameron and Nick in my constituency office to catch up on the last week’s activity in the patch and to plan the week ahead. We go through casework, correspondence, diary engagements and any mail-outs or press releases which need to be done. Both these lads are comparatively new but they are learning fast and working well together.

It’s 12.05pm and I’m now five minutes late to appear on the Henry Kelly Show (yes, the bloke from “Going for Gold”) on Radio Berkshire. Henry is a real old “pro”, deeply cynical but with but with a wicked sense of humour and the hour flies past with some good banter. We even manage to confine the profanities to the “off-air” music breaks!

I then make a quick trip to the Globe Church in my constituency to check out the arrangements for the Jesse Jackson meeting in two days time and it’s a dash to get the train to London for the first of several meetings in the Commons. I grab a quick bite to eat around 9pm with my officemate Alan Whitehead, the MP Southampton Test and after the votes on the Coroners and Justice Bill its back to Paddington in time for the 10.45pm train to Reading. The papers are full of condemnation for MPs who claim the second home allowance but live within commuting distance of Westminster. Although I hate the late night train journeys I’m pleased not to be at the centre of this particular media storm.

Tuesday

I join the commuter crush to London and recover with a bowl of porridge in the Portcullis House café whilst reading my Home Affairs Select Committee papers for our morning evidence session on Knife Crime. We take evidence from both Conservative and Liberal Democrat spokesmen as well as from Home Office and Justice Ministers, Alan Campbell and David Hanson. There was a surprising amount of cross-party consensus on this worrying issue which was refreshing.

Later on I take a delegation of South East MPs to lobby Charities Minister Kevin Brennan over the plight of the children’s hospice Naomi House which has lost £5.7 million due to the Icelandic banking collapse. We get a sympathetic hearing but inevitably we will have to persuade the Treasury to be uncharacteristically flexible if progress is to be made and the fantastic hospice is to get back its full operating potential.

Then I had a meeting at Number Ten on the Gurkha settlement issue - something that is particularly close to my heart - followed by the AGM of the All Party Angling Group where I’m re-elected as Chair. I’ve always been a fanatical fisherman and I enjoy the opportunity to speak up for Britain’s three million anglers in Parliament.

Wednesday

Today is the big day and I’m looking forward to meeting the legendary American civil rights campaigner Jesse Jackson for lunch before hearing him give the final evidence to our Select Committee inquiry into knife crime. In the evening I’ve been given the honour of hosting Revd Jackson at a meeting in my constituency as long as I guarantee to fill the hall. The Globe Church holds one thousand people so no-one can accuse me of lacking ambition but I just hope I don’t fluff my speech.

It’s now 10pm and I’m sitting down with my team recovering from one of the most amazing experiences in my 25 years in public life. There were ecstatic scenes as 1,200 people went absolutely crazy when Jesse Jackson walked into that hall. This towering political figure has lost none of his charisma or iconic status. He has just called me on my mobile with the immortal words “Hey man - it doesn’t get any better than that!” And you know what? He was right.