Apologies for “going missing” for the last couple of issues but Tackle and Guns had some space problems and I lamentably failed to meet a copy deadline. This column will now be bi-monthly so hopefully I will still be able to keep T&G readers up to speed with developments in Parliament which affect shooting and fishing.

It’s a funny old job, being an MP. One moment I’m getting the mickey taken out of me for my sometimes base and fruity use of the English language in all its glorious Anglo-Saxon forms and the next I find myself invited to become a patron of the Campaign for Courtesy!

I would like to start by thanking people for the hundreds of letters and emails that I’ve had from right across Reading wishing me well following my announcement that I would be stepping down at the next election after 25 years of public life in Reading.

It’s been a memorable couple of weeks for all sorts of reasons. On Friday January 30th I celebrated 25 years of public life in Reading with a reception and party at the South Street Arts Centre. It was great to catch up with old friends and colleagues with whom I’ve worked and campaigned over the years.

I want to start off this week by congratulating my Conservative neighbour Richard Benyon - the MP for Newbury - on his promotion from the Opposition Whips’ Office to the post of Shadow Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Fisheries, Wildlife, and Rural Affairs.

The Labour Government has made good its promise to Britain’s 3 million anglers to update and overhaul our fisheries legislation when it announced in the Queen’s Speech that the long awaited Marine Bill was to be included in this years legislative programme.

Parliament returned on Monday to hear a statement from the Foreign Secretary David Miliband on the appalling slaughter in Gaza and the attempts by the Government to secure an immediate ceasefire though a British sponsored resolution of the United Nations Security Council.

The Labour Government has made good its promise to Britain’s 3 million anglers to update and overhaul our fisheries legislation when it announced in the Queen’s Speech that the long awaited Marine Bill was to be included in this years legislative programme.

As this is my last Westminster Diary before the Christmas break, I thought I would look back over the past year.

With the Commons prorogued there are normally a couple of days of relative quiet as we get ready for the State Opening of Parliament but this was shattered on Thursday evening with the extraordinary news of the arrest of ex-Reading school student Damian Green for allegedly ‘grooming’ a mole to breach his contract as a Home Office official and leak confidential and sensitive information to the Conservative Party.