The run-up to Christmas is a ridiculously busy time in my constituency office. As well as the usual seasonal engagements, there is the official Christmas card to be designed and printed along with my Annual Report to constituents listing what I’ve been up to both here in Reading and in Parliament. As it is my last report, I asked my staff to dig out some retro pictures of past campaigns and, to my horror, they uncovered a photo from 1987 of my first Parliamentary election with me sporting a “pudding bowl” haircut. I included it because also pictured was my good friend and Whitley councillor John Cook, who sadly died shortly after I was first elected to Parliament in 1997, along with the late Doris Lawrence, the former Mayor of Reading.

I couldn’t help being amused this week at the contortions that David Cameron and his spin doctors are going through to try and “de-posh” the Tory Party. Apparently Conservative candidates in Tory target seats have been told by “Dave” himself to shorten any double barrelled or posh sounding names to make them seem like ordinary folk. I see that Simon Radford-Kirby (Brighton Kemptown) now has dropped the Radford from his name and Scott Seaman-Digby, the Tories’ Commercial Director, now likes to be called Scott Digby in deference to his leader’s wishes.

I couldn’t help laughing at the pathetic whinging in last week’s Chronicle from the Reading Tories because none of their number managed to get themselves on the BBC’s Question Time audience when it was held in Reading. Luckily the Wokingham Conservatives were not quite so inept and managed to submit questions and apply for tickets in the normal way. Likewise local Labour party members, councillors and candidates here in Reading put their names forward and several were selected as part of the balanced audience that the BBC always seeks to assemble.

I’ve seen Parliament at its best and at its worst in recent weeks.

There are times, I have to admit, when one of my favourite phrases “gently undulating blobs of impotence” can fairly and aptly describe many of our politicians. I’m thinking of those types who smarm their way up the greasy pole, never rocking the boat, never challenging the party line and never doing anything to put their own careers in jeopardy. On the other hand there are those characters who take risks, who make the political weather and who show leadership, courage and have the ability to inspire. These are the history makers and over the years the British House of Commons has produced some shining examples.

Whilst there is much to be said for being in the ‘twilight’ of one’s political career, I do have to confess to experiencing feelings of nostalgia. None more so than in Brighton last week, the venue for my last Labour party conference as an MP and the scene of part of my mis-spent youth.

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 to say the summer recess can’t come quickly enough as far as I’m concerned as the pace of the work here in Westminster shows no sign of abating. In the past few weeks I have been trying juggle my work as a member of the Marine Bill Committee with sittings of the Home Affairs Committee and the meetings of the new Select Committee on Parliamentary Reform, to which I was recently elected. All of this has been on top of an intensive campaign for the election of the new Speaker, and our successful campaign to achieve settlement rights for the Gurkhas.

It was a real privilege last Thursday to be invited to speak at a victory rally for the Gurkhas in London alongside Joanna Lumley and the Gurkha Justice Campaign. There was a wonderful atmosphere and a real sense of a job well done.

I have no doubt that those self-appointed guardians of the public purse at the Taxpayers’ Alliance will be pleased to hear that as an MP I get very little time to indulge myself in long-session fishing trips. The demands of both Parliament and my constituency restricts me to not much more than two or three overnighters a year. This is no problem when targeting chub, barbel and big perch from my local rivers around Reading, as a couple of hours either side of dusk is usually the best time to be on the bank. However, it presents more of a challenge when travelling to far off venues in search of a dawn feeding tench of specimen proportions.