Shirehampton Primary goes Turkish

I could have made all sorts of puns about Turkish delights in the title - and quite appropriately too.

Shirehampton Primary School put on a truly exotic Turkish Evening last night; it was a great success with brilliant performances from pupils and adults, which almost made me consider taking up belly-dancing ( The glamorous outfits could have had a lot to do with it too...)

During the interval we were served with Turkish delicacies - particularly memorable was the pistachio cake made by local mum Ruth, who is with me here. Although by the time we got round to taking a photo, the pistachio cake was long gone...

Well done all, a really great community event, superbly organised and the perfect way to spend a hot mid-summers evening!

Education Select Committee!

I've just found out I've been elected onto the Education Select Committee! For the first time, Select Committee places have not been determined by the Whips, but by an election amongst the other MPs in the party. I put myself forward for education because of my interest in it, both generally as the area which really dictates life chances, but also because there is so much happening in education here in Bristol; I thought it would be brilliant to be at the heart of things as policy is developed.


I didn't expect to get elected onto the Education Select Committee, but am delighted that I have. What is interesting, is that there is a huge number of new intake MPs elected onto Select Committees- and some really talented new people involved, -There's too many to list here, (and I'd probably mess up by missing someone off!) - but they include people with really valuable experience -including two GPs, which is great.


The great thing about Select Committees is that it is where MPs put aside their party political differences and all come together to work constructively on something. That's my kind of politics. I've always said, if I was into tribalism, I'd have got more into football, not politics!



And on that note, of football and work, I thought I'd share my latest office set-up with you. You can just see the England flag which was waving with gusto yesterday, behind me, and my desk is still relatively clear of stuff. There is suddenly a huge amount of work to do - so I wonder how long that will last...

Horfield Common Forever!

When I got elected as an MP, loads of people told me to take Sundays off and not do anything. And I tried, I really, really tried. But after my usual lunch in Cookies in Lockleaze, I stumbled upon The Horfield Common Picnic. The sun was shining, there was a live band...and a cake stall. How could I say no?!

And after the cake stall, I stumbled upon Sam Thompson, with her Friends of Horfield Common Stall, and we got talking about the Parks and Green Spaces Strategy. (Watch this space for more on that...)

They are raising concerns about plans to dispose of part of the common and are seeking comments and views from local people as to whether the land is used and valuable to the community or not.

The picnic today demonstrated just how valuable green space is for the community; and so much more could be done with it, especially since the community is so engaged and willing to make things happen.

For more information on the campaign, go to www.friendsofhorfieldcommon.com

Caleb's campaign

Sometimes you come across a person, or an event, that makes you stop and reassess things completely. Shielmor Twomey, the lady pictured next to me here, is one of those people.
When she came to see me, she explained that her son, Caleb, had committed suicide just months earlier, in January of this year. He was a lovely, bright, popular young man, who was pursuing a career in modeling - as you can see from the photo of him on the bench. But he had started taking ketamin, and he reacted so badly to it that in January, he took his own life.

His mum has bravely soldiered on, and is now starting a campaign, which I am helping her with, to raise awareness about the dangers of ketamin. This afternoon, on College Green, we unveiled a bench dedicated to Caleb, and let fly 28 balloons - one for each year of his life - with his family and friends. I've tabled an EDM ( Early Day Motion) and Caleb's mum is launching her campaign to try to prevent anyone else from going through anything like this.

Elmlea's Fair Field...

This year, the annual Elmlea School Fair had an added significance. If the Council go ahead with possible plans, it could be the last ever Elmlea Fair to be held on the existing playing field.

The Infant school is in real need of rebuilding and improvement and the Council are looking at rebuilding it on the existing playing field, and using the infant school site as the new playing field.

Anyone who knows the site will know that there will, in effect, be a significant loss of playing field land ( I'm sure some clever people are able to re-categorise things to show that there is no loss of land whatsoever, but back here in Real World, it is fairly obvious that there would be a very significant loss of playing field site.)

Let's just hope the Council see sense, think long term, and preserve this wonderful playing field for the future of the children currently at infant school, and for generations of children, and Elmlea Fairs, to come.