As another week draws to a close, I have to say how much I’ve enjoyed my first excursion into the world of blogging for the Torygraph - every MPs favourite paper! Amongst the usual array of frothing, sleep-deprived, right-wingers that inhabit these spaces, it has been rewarding to read some of the more thoughtful comments which these early scribings have inspired. I will try to be stimulating and occasionally amusing as requested by our esteemed editor.

Even for us retiring but not so shy MPs, the weekend work goes on. Friday night means a drop-in advice surgery in one of the tougher parts of my constituency which always throws up a host of issues - some of them pretty brutal and tragic. I hope to get away in time to have a late dinner with some of the (elected) Pakistani community leaders in Reading. Saturday morning starts with another advice surgery in my constituency office - this time it’s by appointment only and therefore a little more predictable. Then it’s off to the Mad Stad to see the mighty Reading Royals dump Alistair Campbell’s Burnley out of the F.A. Cup. Oh how I hope to be able to send him a gloating text!

Because I don’t have to be at my local Holocaust Memorial event until the evening, I shall get a bit of fishing in on Sunday. Can’t decide whether to try and catch a big grayling on the River Test, a nice net of roach from the Itchen, or a couple of bold, brassy chub from the Hampshire Avon at Salisbury. These are the tough decisions facing Labour’s Parliamentary spokesman for Angling this weekend.