There is a sense of order settling into the Commons now, with two Bills well under way and the Education and Adoption Bill now presented at second reading.
I have been asked to be part of the team of MPs who will sit on the Committee working through the next stages of this Bill. I am not sure how the whips decide who gets onto Bill Committees (perhaps it was my confession to being a maths graduate passionate about getting more girls to study STEM), but I am honoured to be asked to contribute so soon, since educational inprovement has always been so important to me in the campaigning work I do.
It has been a week of new committees setting up, and I have become the vice-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Forestry, and co-chair with the excellent veteran Labour MP Barry Sheerman of the APPG on Maths and Numeracy. Having been elected to the Public Accounts Committee, I am now getting stuck into key areas of interest.
A group of us with rural seats are also gathering some momentum to build a stronger voice for rural broadband, and my colleague Matt Warman MP secured an excellent Westminster Hall debate at which we raised many of our last 10/5% concerns with Minister for Broadband Ed Vaizey MP. There is also an APPG being set up on mobile and broadband, so we hope to make real progress for our most rural corners of Great Britain.
Thursday and Friday were spent at our national Defence Academy in Shrivenham, being briefed by chiefs from each of the armed forces commands on military matters. I have joined the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme as I feel that I know far too little about our armed forces, and I may one day be asked to send them to fight for us. I am attached to the RAF for a year and will spend time with them at RAF Boulmer (& further afield) learning more about what they do to keep us save, and how their day-to-day lives are working with families on base.
As part of our two day briefing, we were asked to try out 7 different rifles used by our & other infantrymen across the globe, from British to US, German and Russian weapons. I don't think I would frighten too many with my success rate on the target, made worse when the instructor guffawed at me, that "Only an MP could go for the corner of a circle!" as I declared I was going to hit the right hand corner of the target.
The week has ended with a lovely thank you party for the hundreds of volunteers who helped deliver leaflets throughout the election and wider campaign. But we are all a little overwhelmed by the ghastly and outrageous massacre on a Tunisian beach of innocent British (and other) citizens. The challenges ahead for the #longtermsecurityplan for our nation, the rule of law and protection of our values of freedom, democracy, equality for women and freedom of religion are enormous, but I know that David Cameron will be resolute and determined in the face of these atrocities.
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