GORDON HENDERSON MP

07:01 Because of the late night yesterday (or early morning, should I say!) I was tempted to have a lie in and catch a later train, but for the second day running I have visitors coming up from the constituency so I decided to catch my usual Thursday train because I wanted to catch up on yesterday’s mail.

08:30 My visitors were due to arrive at 9.30 am so, having ensured my prayer card was in position in the Chamber, and having collected that day’s order paper, I settled down in my office to spend an hour signing letters and going over correspondence.

09:00 I should have known better than to think I could finish something that I had started! At nine o’clock I received a phone call telling me that my first visitors had arrived in Portcullis House. Sioux Peto and Colin Barnard, who are members of the Swale Arts Forum and good friends of mine, were visiting Westminster to discuss with me two projects in which they are involved, before going on to the Tate Gallery. As I was greeting Sioux and Colin my third visitor arrived. Suz Elvey is a reporter at the East Kent Gazette and I had agreed to let her shadow me for the day in preparation for a feature she is writing about my early days in Parliament.

09:45 I had to attend a health-check as part of my induction process into the Parliamnetary Armed Forces Scheme, where I have been elected to join the Army for 22 days over the coming year. The medical is the first of three that will determine whether I am fit enough to take part in the more physical exercise to which I have been warned we will be subjected. I had organised for my visitors to get seats in the public gallery so I left them in the capable hands of my part-time secretary Carol to ensure they found their seats whilst I dashed off to Millbank for my MOT.

10:45 By the time I arrived back at the Commons prayers were finished and Transport questions were already under way, luckily my usual seat in the Chamber was vacant and I settled in for the remainder of the session. Question time is divided into two parts, the first consists of questions previously tabled and subjected to a ballot to determine which members should have the privilege to ask their question. Participation in the second part is also determined by a ballot of members, but these questions are not pre-determined and can be asked on a “topical” subject. Sometimes it is possible to be called to ask a supplementary question without having first notified the Speaker and today I hoped to ask a supplementary that would allow the minister to squash once and for all the idea that we could see an airport off the north coast of Sheppey.

11:30 I didn’t get the chance to ask my question and I left the Chamber slightly disappointed to join up again with my visitors. I took them on a quick tour of the House and then we had a working lunch during which Sioux was able to brief me on this year’s Litter Angels competition, an initiative that I have been running almost single-handedly for the past couple of years. Sioux is driving Litter Angels forward with her usual enthusiasm and I was really impressed with her plans for the competition’s expansion into art workshops.

14:00 After saying goodbye to Sioux and Colin I went straight into a meeting with Lisa Johnson and Liz Shannon from the University and College Union (UCU). I am currently representing a number of my constituents, who work as offender educators in the Sheppey prison cluster, who are in dispute with their employer, The Manchester College (TMC), who are imposing on them new contracts that in some cases reduces their annual salary by thousands of pounds. I am meeting TMC next week and I wanted to understand better the UCU take on the dispute. In truth I didn’t learn much that I didn’t already know from the UCU representatives.

14:45 My next meeting was with Gopra Mitra and Rachel Di Leva to discuss food supplements and how best we could improve the health of those members of my community who live in the more deprived areas of the constituency. It is worth noting that two of my wards are high up in the national list of social deprivation. Once again I am not sure I added much to the knowledge I already had!

16:00 I had a “wash up” interview with Suz Elvey before saying goodbye and returning to my office to finish off the correspondence I had started that morning.

17:00 I just got stuck back into my paperwork when there was a phone call from America reminding me I had agreed to take part in an opinion survey. Half hour later I had completed the survey (which was quite obviously sponsored by Coca- Cola, since most of the questions were related to them or their products) and Litter Angels was better off by the £50 fee I have been promised.

18:10 It had been anticipated that the Opposition would call for a series of divisions making it another late sitting, however, they seemed to run out of steam after a couple of votes and in the event the House rose almost on time. I made the 18:52 train and was home by half past eight. Whoopee!