Last weekend the Treorchy Male Voice Choir joined with the Romsey Male Voice Choir for a beautiful concert in Romsey Abbey. It is truly astounding just the volume of sound you get from the choirs, accentuated by the stunning acoustics in the Abbey. There was a rendition of the Welsh National Anthem, during which I firmly kept my mouth shut not wishing to have a John Redwood moment. I know a great deal of work and commitment goes in to putting on events like that and I felt very fortunate to have been there. There was even a rendition of Sweet Caroline, complete with audience participation, perhaps a good chance to rehearse before the looming World Cup.
This week in Romsey it has been about surgery appointments, rats, mowing, planning and the Green Belt, menopause discrimination and feeling very blessed not to be in Birmingham. I went to Finsbury Park on Tuesday to take part in a panel with expert nutritionists at Zooki, talking all things menopause. It is the awareness month this month, and the Government is due to respond to the Select Committee’s recommendations, so I suspect there may be more menopause commentary to come. Meanwhile I have a renewed pledge to cut down on sugar and caffeine. I also had a really good discussion with the British Chemical Engineering Contractors Association about future skills and how to promote diversity and inclusion in the workforce.
On Thursday I was back at the University of Sussex talking to politics students there. Was a bit of a week to have scheduled a huge number of panel discussions, including one with Women in Journalism, and in all of them the questions were pretty tough. I always fall back on the position that as a backbench MP it is my duty to scrutinise the Government without fear or favour, I think I am pretty consistent in doing that, and, whatever the fall out from this week is, I will continue to do so.
