I returned to London on Monday and as usual took the tube from Euston to Westminster. Everybody else was taking the tube as usual. It was as if last Thursday, 7/7 had never happened. Sadly that is not true for the many families that have been bereaved, for those who have been severely injured and worst of all for those families who do not know if their missing loved ones were involved in the tragedy and may not know definitely for some time.

My wife and I were in London on 7/7 but Westminster was clear of the troubles and we were only aware of continual police car and ambulance sirens and crowded pavements but little road traffic. We did not attempt to leave London on the Thursday evening but left early on the Friday morning and got home without problems.

How do terrorists feel after causing such havoc, death and sadness and then realising that they have achieved nothing to further their aims whatever those may be?

This Monday I continued my visit to Middle Schools and at Windmill Middle School Assembly, I was asked to say a few words about my election. I quoted Abraham Lincoln's words "To give victory to the right not bloody bullets but peaceful ballots only are necessary". The Head teacher picked this up as so relevant to the bloody bombs in London.

Last week I took part in a debate on neighbourhood policing in Worcestershire. 
I had just had a meeting with one of our senior police officers and I was delighted to hear that the North Worcestershire Command Unit has been selected as a pilot site for a trial of neighbourhood policing. The difference we as residents of the area will welcome is that when the service is running we will have direct telephone access to Beat Managers or Officers in our area, and hopefully this will do away with the delays which are inherent in the current system of using the Call Centre distant from Wyre Forest. 
Perhaps even the vandalism to the Borrington Road play area could have been prevented with this sort of immediate access to local police. I am told there will be press notices when this system starts. If it is successful, hopefully there will then be funding for it to be continued beyond the trial stage and rolled out across the County.

All Party Groups and Select Committees within the House of Commons are being reformed. 
To my satisfaction I am back on the Health Select Committee which is the most valuable position possible for me. 
I limit my membership of All Party Groups because I only join groups that I can support actively. These include 

• the All Party Local Hospitals Group, 
• the Floods Group, 
• the Cancer Group and 
• the Associate Parliamentary Health Group 
  (which is an excellent organisation with over-arching views across the whole of the health spectrum.)