Charity Rugby at Aylesford Bulls

At training last night it was announced that Meridian Girls had won, for the second year running, the silver medal at the Medway Sports Club of the Year awards. The club, and especially the management, deserve nothing less as they all put in hours of voluntary time to make sure that everything runs smoothly. In the meantime my girls are third in the league with a game in hand - we have a crunch game on Sunday against Bearsted...I am not sure it will decide the outcome of the league but it is pretty important!!

After training, I went to a charity Rugby match at the Aylesford Bulls between a President's XV and an Army team. The "Poppy Day Match" was played in aid of Help for Heroes and was extremely well attended by supporters of the Club, the Royal British Legion, the Parish Council and local residents. I only managed to get to the last 30 minutes but at least I saw an Aylesford try! I don't know how much the game raised for Help for Heroes but with very persuasive army personnel collecting money from the supporters I imagine it will be a significant sum.

May we never forget

I went to two different but very moving Remembrance Services today. This morning I attended the Service at St Peter & St Paul Church where the vicar had invited a serving soldier to address the congregation. The soldier from the Royal Engineers spoke about his time in Iraq and Afghanistan and the loss of two soldiers in his regiment; he then took questions from the children attending the service which ranged from how high had he parachuted from through to did he think there would be a World War III. It was poignant how interested the young children were in him, his uniform and his medals - I saw a beautiful young girl staring in awe at him from her mum's lap and it reminded me of the photographs you see of youngsters looking up at World War II veterans and wondered if today's brave soldiers will be similarly respected in 50 years time.

This afternoon I attended the Service at the Royal British Legion Village. Sadly, there were fewer men marching this year but I was told later by Edwin Boorman, President of the local British Legion that there were 250 people at the ceremony. I sat next to some veterans who were shivering as they braved the cold wind in just their jackets with their medals proudly pinned to their chests. It was clear that this Remembrance Service meant more because many had fought in World War II and had lost friends and colleagues. You could hear their voices break when they repeated the words "we will never forget".

The sombre ceremony was broken by Squadron Leader Des Butters loudly asking everyone who returned from laying their wreath if they were going for a cup of tea after - Janet, who read a poem during the service, and I found this so surreal that we started to chuckle into our scarves and coats. Des, who wears hearing aids in both ears, was totally oblivious to what he had started.

Litter picking in Luton with Tashi

After a Friday night at the Snodland Quiz, it was fabulous to get out in the Saturday winter sunshine to go litter picking in Luton with Tashi and the team. We were planning on meeting at Christchurch and heading up Luton Road, Upper Luton Road and Beacon Road but when we arrived we started speaking to the church steward Dave Boss and decided to concentrate our efforts around the church grounds and its local environment. Within an hour we had filled 10 black bags! I found £10 in a bush which I donated to the church box and Tashi stood in for Tony Goulden who hadn't arrived for his surgery when someone turned up to see him. So all in all it was a good morning!

Speaking to law students

Last night, Rehman Chishti, the PPC for Gillingham, and I were invited to speak to some law students at the University of Kent. Although I read law at University, I never went into practice despite my then-held ambition to become an international maritime lawyer! Instead I was more interested in the constitutional and philosophical side of law and so my political journey began. Reh on the other hand is a practicing barrister so whilst he was able to give them a lengthy insight into what it is like to stand up in front of a judge and what the law and Conservatism have in common, I focused my speech on the time, as Chief of Staff to the then Home Secretary David Davis, I watched a legal and constitutional nightmare unfold - i.e. the passage of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill through Parliament. I spoke of how it felt to be sitting discussing legislation that could have stripped away centuries of civil liberties, enshrined in the Magna Carta, in order to detain suspected terrorists that under legislation would effectively be put under house arrest on the say of a politician not a judge.

Preparing for the speech reminded me of the all night sitting, the tension between the Commons and the Lords, the fear from all sides that we were about to ancient freedoms, that a draconian Bill would be introduced with no prospect of any future review - it was an extraordinary 3 weeks, dominated entirely by this piece of emergency legislation introduced not because of an act of terrorism, but by a Law Lords ruling on the incompatibility of previous legislation with the European Convention on Human Rights. By talking about the Bill I hoped to demonstrate the brilliance of our system of checks and balances - the Executive were held to account by a mutinous Parliament, and then the Act when passed was considered by an independent judiciary. In this case, the emergency legislation proved (as all rushed legislation tends to be) bad legislation and so the process began again with a new Bill...

Anyway I am sure the law students found it more interesting to hear about how to address a judge but I certainly enjoyed talking to them and hope that I bought the constitutional law that they are currently studying to life.

Collecting for the Poppy Appeal

The weekend started off with the delivery of my latest newsletter in Aylesford which actually gave me an opportunity to check out the progress of the new crossings on Station Road. The crossings are a hard fought victory for Cllrs Dave Smith and John Balcombe - especially the one at the exit of Medway Court which was supposed to be built at the same time as the estate over 6 years ago. The weather held off yesterday which meant the road surfacing work was speeding along (is it wrong that I love the smell of tar?) so hopefully it will be finished within the few days.

After lunch, John and Dave joined me for the first day of the Poppy Appeal stand at Aylesford Sainsbury's. We manned the stand for a good two hours and did a roaring trade - it was not only amazing how many children were encouraging their parents to get a Poppy but also how much people were donating. A few people came over to talk about the report in the paper yesterday regarding the lack of helicopters/military equipment and others mentioned the shocking state of our rehabilitation services. I met with the Royal British Legion recently and pledged "to do my bit" for Service Personnel and their families, the bereaved, veterans and dependants. I hope yesterday I've done that little bit extra for the Appeal.

The disrespect of the anti-war protesters

I am absolutely disgusted by the story on the Medway Messenger website regarding outrageous defacing of the Poppy Appeal posters by anti-war protesters. The Poppy Appeal not only raises much needed funding to support current servicemen, women and their families but it reminds us of the heroism of those who fought and died during two World Wars to defend the very freedom that allows people to protest in this country!

There is a time and a place for a protest but the defacement of a charity poster to make a political point is not it and I find I am sickened by the disrespectful and thoughtlessness of this act.

I hope they are caught and that the guilty party/parties are made to stand alongside veterans on Chatham, Gillingham and Rochester High Streets and made to collect for the Poppy Appeal from now until Remembrance Day.

New Luton & Wayfield branch!

I have just returned home from the inaugural meeting of our new Luton & Wayfield branch! It is absolutely fabulous to have a branch up and running in what until recently had been a safe Labour ward, which of course returned its first Conservative councillor in decades in the September by-election. In all my time, and those of other political oldies at the meeting, I have never seen so many people actively involved in a branch - even in solid Conservative areas - so I feel very excited tonight by the enthusiasm and interest shown by new and old members alike to ensure the branch successfully contributes to the association and to my campaign.

Good luck Luton & Wayfield branch and welcome to the team!

What is going on in the X Factor?

Danyl in a sing off with Miss Frank.

John & Edward survive.

The world has gone mad!

KCC AGM and canvassing in the rain!

On Friday I attended the Kent County Council Conservative Group AGM followed by the annual lunch with Guest Speaker Michael Howard. It was fascinating to hear what KCC has in story for the next few years although I was horrified to learn that Kent has the highest percentage of drugs misuse in the country.

After I left Maidstone I went to see a gentleman in Chatham about the standard of dementia services in Medway. Home visits are one of the most fulfilling parts of the job of being a candidate - it gives you a real opportunity to sit down in a relaxed atmosphere and talk through the issues at length. Carers are too often forgotten but they fulfill a vital role in our society and they need our support more than we can ever fully understand. I will definitely be picking up with the local health providers standards of dementia services when I next meet them.

Then on Saturday, we had a large team out in Snodland for a canvass session despite the persistent rain. There were some interesting issues raised on the doorstep this week including Nick Griffin's controversial appearance on BBC Question Time - the whole episode has clearly divided opinion although I think whilst the BNP are a legitimate party whether we like it or not, the BBC were not wrong to give him a slot on the programme. Unless their share of the vote decreases or they are banned by the Government then they will no doubt get other opportunities in the future.

After ham, egg and chips at the Robin Hood, I headed off to Homebase - this is clearly now what my free time will consist off...