01/06/2008 by Steve Barclay.

A varied brief is one of the interesting elements of being a Parliamentary Candidate, and the last few days has been no exception. Yesterday included a wide range of meetings, including our Homeless Action Group in Wisbech which continues to make good progress.

This group was set up in response to a plea for help from Church leaders having to cope with a number of homeless people being brought to them by the local police when they had no where else to go.  We met again at the Police Station in Wisbech, with the group comprising experts on the subject of Homelessness from the Ferry Project, the police, Citizen’s Advice Bureau, a local councillor, and the Catholic and Protestant Church representatives.  If nothing else I am determined that the issue of homelessness is not ignored or swept under the carpet.  The real test though is whether more help is available for people sleeping rough next winter.  There are no easy answers, and it is a complex issue - not least as there are different types of situation behind the homelessness from those hitting some temporary personal hardship at one end to those with more serious additions and complex problems.  Our proposals should help push this issue up the agenda of political priorities and I feel that is itself important.

By contrast tonight I was in the beautiful setting of March Golf Club for a much happier subject - presenting the golf prizes.  A great day’s golf involving over 100 competitors was generously supported by Selby & Taylor, our local pharmacist based in March.  The club has a particularly welcoming atmosphere and the members kindly went out of the way to make Karen and I welcome.  I think the secret of presenting prizes at such events is to keep the speech very short (after a long day on the golf course I cannot imagine much appetite for speeches), before dishing out the well deserved silver.  With such a hot day and large field, winning the awards was no mean feat.  Afterwards Karen and I headed over to the home of Geoff and Judith Harper in Doddington for a lovely dinner and a catch up.

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12/03/2008 by Steve Barclay.

Standing out from the crowd was not difficult today - I was the only guy present. This was because I was lucky enough to be invited to the splendid surroundings of Cobham Hall as the first ever male speaker to the Wisbech Ladies luncheon.

It is quite intimidating being the only man present in a room of 60+ ladies!  Fortunately host Janet Stott immediately put me at my ease and the lunch proved great fun.

Chatting with guests before speaking, I asked one if there were any topics that she would like me to cover. “Just keep your speech short” was the clear advice. Well it is always good to take the hint - and hopefully I managed to get the balance right.

After lunch, I visited Father John Doman and the trustees of the Rosmini Community Centre in Wisbech. An interesting discussion about the plans for the Rosmini Centre which will be a huge boost to the community.  Concerning however to learn from Father John about serious problems of homelessness. They have a number of cases at the moment which were literally dropped at his doorstep. I will not set these out now, but clearly this needs to be looked into further.  I promised him that I will do so - I will report back in the future.

Later in the evening I head off to a meeting with our Conservative Future (CF) group. CF is open to anyone who wants to get involved with the Conservative Party and who is under 30 years of age. I used to chair my local CF group and am really keen to get more young people involved in politics.  We had an interesting debate on the motion “should the government intervene on Northern Rock” and the quality of the contributions was impressive.  A really positive note on which to end the day.

Posted in Homelessness, Conservative Future | No Comments »