Last Friday saw the launch of the new All Party Parliamentary Group on the Thames which grew out of the MPs successful campaign against the lock-house closures last year. Despite the fact that the launch involved a very pleasant cruise on a beautiful 90 year old Thames steamer provided by French Brothers from Runneymede to Windsor it was still a devil of a job persuading my fellow MPs to leave the bosom of their constituencies, even for a few hours. In the end we had a respectable turnout from amongst the 25 MPs who have agreed to join the group. It was particularly nice for me to meet up with my Reading West predecessor Sir Anthony Durant who has done such sterling work in his role as President of the River Thames Society. We may come from different sides of the political divide but we share a common love of rivers ad the wider Thames Valley.

I have always wanted to do a parachute jump and my big day dawned on Sunday with a 10,000 ft free-fall over the Salisbury Plain. The guys at Skydive South Coast were incredibly professional and really put us nervous first time jumpers at ease. A tandem skydive requires remarkably little training. Just a short briefing on the body positions to adopt for jumping, falling and landing. The worst part was the long wait caused by a bank of cloud that refused to move and grounded the flights for several hours. Eventually the sun broke through and, accompanied by my instructor, Gordon, and a crazy cameraman called Finch we boarded the little Cessna and began our ascent to the drop zone.

I cannot begin to describe what an incredible experience it is to leap into mid-air and travel at 120 mph towards the earth. We even managed a mid-air handshake with Finch who was falling alongside us taking pictures and laughing like a mad-man. There was an obvious sense of relief when the parachute opened but I did love that freefalling sensation and would do it again tomorrow. I’ve put the photographs on my website at www.martinsalter.com for anyone who’s interested and will also be including the video footage when it arrives.

Best of all the jump looks like raising over £1000 for the Alzheimer’s Society and I would like to thank everyone for their generous sponsorship. You can still support the appeal by going to www.justgiving.com/martinsalterMP. My next plan is to organise an annual parliamentary charity skydive where MPs can raise money for good causes and test their nerves at the same time.