Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Although we are in Parliamentary recess, that does not mean MP's are not busy. It is nice, however, to be out in the community rather than stuck in Parliament for 14 hours a day! Amongst the things I have been up to, other than my visit to Sierra Leone with VSO (click HERE for details of my VSO trip) are: The "Help a London Child" 10k run in Hyde Park. It was really hard work, but good fun and all for a great cause. I was pleased to run alongside and beat Capital Radio DJ Lucio Buffone and Alesha Dixon of Strictly Come Dancing and Mystique fame, and in the process helped raised money for this excellent charity. The bad news is I was only 1791st out of over 11,000… I’m hoping to pick up the pace and do better when I run the Nike 10k later this month!
Click HERE if you want to see me struggling on the course and click HERE if you want to find out more about "Help a London Child."
I have also been to 2 of Tooting's finest restaurants. I visited Tooting's Tiffin Cup Winner, Al Mirage, to present the Head Chef with a white Tiffin Cup Chefs special jacket. Though they didn’t make the final of the national competition they were highly commended by the judges and are looking forward to competing next year and hopefully bringing the award to Tooting. You can see a picture HERE
I also had the pleasure of opening a new Indian Restaurant in Tooting, "Lahore Dreams". This new restaurant can be found at 200 Upper Tooting Rd and is a welcome addition to our family of excellent restuarants.
One of the highlights of the last month has to be attending the wedding of my good friend and neighbouring MP for Battersea, Martin Linton. He married Sara at a lovely ceremony at the picturesque St Mary's Church overlooking the River in Battersea. It really was a wonderful day and i am sure all of us who know the happy couple wish them both many many years of joy and good health.
One of the things I do each year is be a guest speaker at a leadership course run at Oxford University for young men and women aged between 18-30. This year it was held at Christ Church and the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies. Other speakers this year are Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Dominic Grieve MP, Ed Vaizey MP as well as leading figures from the media, judiciary and business.
One of the passions I have is making Parliament more accessible to constituents from Tooting. I was really keen to host Ninian Harvey and his daughter Nelly who had bit for tea on the terraces with me at at a raffle held at Ravenstone Primary School in Balham. I was delighted to give Ninian and Nelly a tour of the Palace of Westminister and the rain stopped long enough for us to go on the terrace.
If you would like to visit Parliament please do not hesitate to email me and I would be happy to set this up. There is no charge and it is great fun.
I recently took part in a programme called ‘Election’ for Children’s BBC. The programme was loosely based on ‘The Apprentice’, but with a focus on politics instead of business.
The series pits a group of children against each other, and the host, Jonathon Dimbleby, to see who is best budding politician of the bunch. In the episode I was in I had to attend two launch parties that the two teams had devised and hosted on two different campaign issues. As one of the guest judges, along with my colleague Dawn Butler MP, I had to decide which group got their message across the most effectively.
I thought the quality of ‘politicians’ in both teams was exceptional. It is amazing to see students aged between 11-14 having such mastery of campaigning techniques and of the issues.
The boys’ campaign was called "scoop the poop" and was trying to encourage dog owners to clean up after their dog whilst the girls’ team had "garbage the gum" which was about encouraging gum chewers not to throw their gum on the floor.
I am not allowed to say who won but the series looks like it will be a huge hit and is a wonderful and clever way to get young people interested in politics. Who knows I may have met a future Prime Minister!
This particular episode should go out on Thursday 23rd October at 4.35pm on BBC1 – so make sure you and your children watch it!
Click HERE if you want to see me struggling on the course and click HERE if you want to find out more about "Help a London Child."
I have also been to 2 of Tooting's finest restaurants. I visited Tooting's Tiffin Cup Winner, Al Mirage, to present the Head Chef with a white Tiffin Cup Chefs special jacket. Though they didn’t make the final of the national competition they were highly commended by the judges and are looking forward to competing next year and hopefully bringing the award to Tooting. You can see a picture HERE
I also had the pleasure of opening a new Indian Restaurant in Tooting, "Lahore Dreams". This new restaurant can be found at 200 Upper Tooting Rd and is a welcome addition to our family of excellent restuarants.
One of the highlights of the last month has to be attending the wedding of my good friend and neighbouring MP for Battersea, Martin Linton. He married Sara at a lovely ceremony at the picturesque St Mary's Church overlooking the River in Battersea. It really was a wonderful day and i am sure all of us who know the happy couple wish them both many many years of joy and good health.
One of the things I do each year is be a guest speaker at a leadership course run at Oxford University for young men and women aged between 18-30. This year it was held at Christ Church and the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies. Other speakers this year are Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Dominic Grieve MP, Ed Vaizey MP as well as leading figures from the media, judiciary and business.
One of the passions I have is making Parliament more accessible to constituents from Tooting. I was really keen to host Ninian Harvey and his daughter Nelly who had bit for tea on the terraces with me at at a raffle held at Ravenstone Primary School in Balham. I was delighted to give Ninian and Nelly a tour of the Palace of Westminister and the rain stopped long enough for us to go on the terrace.
If you would like to visit Parliament please do not hesitate to email me and I would be happy to set this up. There is no charge and it is great fun.
I recently took part in a programme called ‘Election’ for Children’s BBC. The programme was loosely based on ‘The Apprentice’, but with a focus on politics instead of business.
The series pits a group of children against each other, and the host, Jonathon Dimbleby, to see who is best budding politician of the bunch. In the episode I was in I had to attend two launch parties that the two teams had devised and hosted on two different campaign issues. As one of the guest judges, along with my colleague Dawn Butler MP, I had to decide which group got their message across the most effectively.
I thought the quality of ‘politicians’ in both teams was exceptional. It is amazing to see students aged between 11-14 having such mastery of campaigning techniques and of the issues.
The boys’ campaign was called "scoop the poop" and was trying to encourage dog owners to clean up after their dog whilst the girls’ team had "garbage the gum" which was about encouraging gum chewers not to throw their gum on the floor.
I am not allowed to say who won but the series looks like it will be a huge hit and is a wonderful and clever way to get young people interested in politics. Who knows I may have met a future Prime Minister!
This particular episode should go out on Thursday 23rd October at 4.35pm on BBC1 – so make sure you and your children watch it!
