A little bit of history was made in Parliament this week, when when both the Government and the Opposition front benches in the Commons were defeated by a large margin by backbench MPs of all parties determined to wrest control over Commons business from the whips. The House was voting on the recommendations of the Wright Committee on Parliamentary reform, of which I was member. On the day of the big vote my job was to organise MPs to turn up and vote through a full package of reforms which would give MPs the ability to directly elect both the chairs and the members (by party) of the Select Committees of the House of Commons, and establish a Backbench Business Committee to give the Commons control over all non-Government business. All the key reforms went through in spite of the poorly organised opposition from the traditionalists in all parties. A start has been made in handing power back to the Chamber of the House of Commons which can only help to begin to restore trust in our political system.

It’s just as well I’m not standing again given the complete diary balls-up that happened to me last Monday. I was supposed to be speaking at the assembly at one school, but instead I went to another where I was greeted warmly and promptly shown into a school hall where someone else was, in fact, the guest speaker. The penny didn’t drop until all the students filed out for their lessons that not only was I in the wrong hall, but probably in the wrong school!

And a little bit of history was made in Reading as well when, last Monday, the Prime Minister visited the area. His speech, about crime and policing, went down very well. The fast vanishing Conservative poll lead has clearly put a spring in the PM’s step and the walk back from the Town Hall to Reading station was punctuated by smiling well-wishers pressing through the security cordon in order to pump Gordon’s hand. Clearly Reading residents haven’t been put off by the “Bullygate” non-scandal!

It’s not often us football supporters leave the ground with our heads held high having watched our team concede four goals but that was certainly the case for Reading fans on Sunday. For 45 minutes we outclassed and out-played Aston Villa, one of the best sides in Britain and even at 2 - 3 down in the 2nd half we could have won had two shots not been cleared off the line. New Reading manager Brian McDermott is doing a great job at both turning around a struggling team and giving us our pride back.