Celebrating 35 years as local councillor in West Berkshire!

And I really mean celebrating!  It has been an absolute pleasure representing the residents of Thatcham West over the last 35 years. The role of a councillor is certainly a challenging one but the role is quite simple, listen and respond to the best of your ability.

I have driven past the Houses of Parliament on many occasions and I could not think of a better way to celebrate than to pop down to 'head office' to see what they were up to! Through our local MP I got a ticket to observe Prime Minister's Questions or PMQ's from the public gallery.  

Michael Meacher Labour MP for Oldham West & Royton was first up and asked the Prime Minister.......

"Is the Prime Minister aware that according to the Economist, Britain is now 159th lowest in the world, in terms of business investment, just behind Mali, Paraguay and Guatemala, can he therefore please tell the house when, under his esteem leadership and that of the chancellor, Britain can now expect to catch up with Mali?"

The response from the Prime Minister was less than complimentary. Through the Speaker, Mr Meacher won a point of order and gained an apology from Mr Cameron saying that he apologised for any offence that he may have caused!

I met Mr Meacher in the cafe later and complimented him on gaining an apology from the Prime Minister! Mr Meacher declined to have a selfy photo with me for this blog, as I was from another political party and he was concerned about where the photo could end up.

Party politics aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the time observing PMQ's at the House of Commons. There were over 100 members of the public looking down on the chamber through a glass security panel following the attempt to shower Tony Blair with pink powder. The wit and humour in the chamber was outstanding and the audience was laughing to the point of bursting. The important point though was that the message in each question was very clear if the answer was less palatable!