Friday 9th July 2010

08:00 At my study desk to check my emails. I can connect remotely to the parliamentary intranet so can keep up to date with urgent messages.

10:00 I am interviewed by BBC Radio Kent about the Isle of Sheppey Academy.

11:00 Visit constituency office to catch up with the ongoing constituency cases. BBC South East Today ring and want to interview me about the Sheppey Academy, I agree to meet their reporter, Ian Palmer, before my meeting with the Eastern and Coastal Kent NHS Trust at the John Wilson Industrial Estate in Whistable.

12:30 I arrived on time at the John Wilson Ind Est but Ian Palmer didn’t arrive until 12:45. He was let down by his sat nav and I had to pilot him in. Nobody could accuse our local BBC TV news team of being overmanned because Ian was on his own. Eventually we did our interview, but only with the help of a passing pedestrian who was roped in to hold the light reflector. Quite bizarre! I liked Ian, who seemed a really nice guy.

13:00 I joined fellow MPs Julian Brazier (Canterbury) and Damien Collins (Ashford) at a briefing with senior staff at the Eastern and Coastal Kent Health Trust. It was a good two way session in which I learnt a lot and managed to raise a couple of local concerns.
15:00 Back at the constituency office where I find that I am in demand. The BBC Today programme want to interview me tomorrow, as do the Weekly Politics Show and Radio Five Live. I decline to be interviewed, partly because I know that none of them are really interested in the Sheppey Academy, but are hoping that I will say something critical about the Government’s decision to scrap the Building Schools for the Future programme. I won’t because I think it is the right decision.

I met Charlotte Peters who will be part of my team during August and September. Charlotte worked during the summer holidays last year for my predecessor, Derek Wyatt, and is keen to repeat the experience. It was agreed that she will spend two days helping out in the Sittingbourne office and three days in Westminster.

16:00 I held a three hour surgery covering a number of difficult cases.

19:15 Home at the end of a long week, but I still have more work lined up for tomorrow!