They Blog For You

             Listening to Mr Clegg this morning, I was struck by the central paradox. He said the most important thing the government was doing was a short term fix to cut the deficit. He rightly argued that getting on top of the deficit was essential for economic growth and stability [...]

The government wants to do more to promote social mobility. It wants more children to enter higher paid employment from home backgrounds that brought them up on benefits or low incomes. There are many ways for young people to aspire to much higher incomes than their parents. They all entail lots [...]

  Paul Maynard the new Tory MP for Blackpool was on the next table to mine in the Terrace Cafeteria at lunchtime today. I noticed that he was shuffling some papers with intriguing pictures of power stations. He told me that he was speaking in today's final adjournment debate in which [...]

Interesting article by Nick Clegg and Iain Duncan Smith on the need for greater social mobility in today's Telegraph.  They are absolutely right to point to the problem.  What bothers me are their proposed solutions, which all seem to be about government doing more. The coalition duo begin their article by accepting that Labour's big [...]

                    I visited a public library recently. It was not in my constituency. It was housed in a great new building, in a large and well appointed room. I was told it was not about to close. It was run by friendly Council staff. Money had been found to set [...]

Gove has established quite a reputation for turning all he touches, not to gold, but to dust.   His Big Idea of course is to raise standards by spreading Academies all over the country and providing incentives for parents to set up Swedish-style so-called ‘free schools’.   It’s true that UK educational [...]

Today I have just been to speak to Ashwell School Year 6 who are here at Westminster for an educational course. The questions were excellent, all about current affairs and my life as MP. I then went to meet representatives of our local Wildlife Trust including Chair Mike Master. They [...]

Pupils from Claires Court Schools have interviewed Theresa as part of the BBC’s School Report challenge. The School Report takes place every year and gives children aged 11 to 14 the chance to make their own news reports on issues of concern to them. Theresa was interviewed by Year 9 [...]

Delyn MP David Hanson walked for water at Westminster today as part of a global campaign to raise...

Delyn MP David Hanson walked for water at Westminster today as part of a global campaign to raise awareness for the world water and sanitation crisis.   Marking the United Nations World Water Day, David Hanson joined hundreds of thousands of people across the globe who walked in solidarity with the almost [...]

What do you do when twelve students from Bedford Modern school turn up in Parliament, along with Mr Baker, the politics teacher ? (also known as a bit of a nerd due to the fact that he watches West Wing videos in his lunch hour!) You sit them on al... [...]

I have some exciting news! Last Friday I went along to Brettenham Primary School to meet with two headteachers from Babessi in the northwest region of Cameroon, Africa. Peter Tighighan and Joseph Bahtiengwe were on a brief delegation to Enfield to see what life is like being a [...]

Chloe Smith will tomorrow be joining staff and pupils of Sprowston Junior School to take part in Aspirations Week and Red Nose Day fun. Sprowston Junior School have invited Chloe Smith MP to the finale of their 'Aspirations Week' programme to talk to the pupils about why she wanted to become [...]

On Saturday I had to go to court. Before you jump to conclusions, I was innocent. That's probably what they all say, I know! But, honestly your honour, I was! I wasn't in the dock, you'll be relieved to hear, instead I was at Enfield Magistrates Court to help judge [...]

Thanks to all those who came to my residents meeting in Ward End last night – especially colleagues from West Midlands Police. We’ll post a full write up later but the three key local issues raised were; 1. Speeding and dangerous parking – especially folks dropping off children at school. We [...]

LOCAL MP, Kevin Brennan, helped kick off Fairtrade fortnight by joining pupils at Millbank Primary School for their Fairtrade tea party.The school has planned a series of events across the week with pupils awarding 'Thank You' certificates to people and shops that have been supporting Fairtrade.Fairtrade’s focus is on helping [...]

This afternoon I popped in to Farnham Castle, along with the Mayor of Farnham, John Ward, to present the first egg of the 2011 Farnham Lions'  "Easter Eggstravaganza". This is a fantastic scheme launched in 2007 to raise money for [...]

YOUNG PEOPLE ACROSS THE UK ARE CHALLENGED TO START A BUSINESS WITH A TENNER IN LANDMARK SCHEME BACKED BY DRAGONS' DEN STAR Today Chloe Smith MP has announced her support for a scheme that sees school kids encouraged to start a business with just £10 each, in the biggest ever Tenner [...]

Chloe Smith, MP for Norwich North, will on Friday 11th March be visiting the Nationwide Building Society as part of her ongoing campaign to improve financial services and advice in Norwich. Chloe has been working locally with the Citizens Advice Bureau and other local organisations in the private, public and voluntary [...]

The honest answer to the question that forms the title of this blog post is, "I sometimes wonder!" When I received a recent letter from the British Science Association informing me that a pupil at Edmonton's Latymer School had won a place in the finals of the National Science and [...]

BRITAIN'S first ever Bangladeshi MP visited Cardiff West this week to meet members of one of the city's most multicultural wards.Rushanara Ali, the Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, was invited to Riverside by local MP, Kevin Brennan, to meet residents with Kevin and Labour's candidate in the Riverside [...]