http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articlearchive.php Recent Press Articles from Stephen Williams MP en-GB Stephen Williams MP http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/ Prater Raines Ltd http://www.praterraines.co.uk/ (c) 2008 Stephen Williams MP 2008-09-07T17:48+01:00 United Kingdom http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000099/letter_from_westminster_and_bristol_29th_june_2008.html Letter from Westminster and Bristol, 29th June 2008 2008-06-30T15:07+01:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000098/letter_from_westminster.html The Parliamentary highlight was obviously the vote on 42 days detention for suspected terrorists. This was not quite as highly charged as the debate over 90 days a couple of years ago, when Tony Blair's government was defeated. I suspected that Brown had twisted enough Labour arms to get his new measure through, so was surprised by the narrowness of his victory. It can't be comfortable for any government to be dependent on Ian Paisley... As Shirley Williams has put it, the DUP are the undertakers of all recent governments, propping up Callaghan and Major. 2008-06-16T10:39+01:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000097/letter_from_westminster_and_bristol_2nd_june_2008.html Letter from Westminster and Bristol, 2nd June 2008 2008-06-03T10:15+01:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000096/letter_from_westminster_18th_may_2008.html Letter from Westminster 18th May 2008 2008-05-19T14:24+01:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000095/letter_from_westminster_and_bristol_27_april_2008.html Before heading back to London on Monday I paid another visit to the youth charity Fairbridge on Cheltenham Road. I met with some of the young people who had been taking part in access courses and other courses getting their learning back on track. I presented their achievement certificates. It was also an opportunity to catch up with some of the people who I'd met on previous visits. It was good to find that some of them are now in paying jobs. 2008-04-29T08:50+01:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000094/letter_from_westminster_and_bristol_21_april_2008.html This letter covers one Parliamentary week and the late Easter recess. 2008-04-21T00:00+01:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000093/letter_from_westminster_and_bristol_31_march_2008.html This letter covers the two weeks either side of Easter. The first saw the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Who would have thought back in March 2003 that British and American troops would still be engaged in combat in 2008? The events leading up to the Iraq war were tainted by spin and lies. And a certain amount of rewriting of history has taken place since. It is easy now to forget that when Lib Dem MPs decided to oppose the war that this was not a popular stance. Public opinion polls showed a majority in favour of war, taken in by Blairite spin. Charles Kennedy was vilified by the Government, the Tories and in most sections of the press. 2008-04-01T09:49+01:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000092/letter_from_westminster.html Letter from Westminster and Bristol 16th March 2008 2008-03-19T16:49+00:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000091/letter_from_westminster_and_bristol.html Letter from Westminster and Bristol 24 February 2008 2008-02-24T00:00+00:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000090/letter_from_westminster.html Letter from Westminster and Bristol, 10th February 2008 2008-02-10T00:00+00:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000089/letter_from_westminster.html This week has seen more votes on the European Treaty, a Tory MP in disgrace over abuse of allowances, a debate in Bristol about prison reform, an appearance on the Politics Show, the election for Bristol's reps at the UK Youth Parliament and as usual lots of work on education. 2008-02-03T00:00+00:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000088/letter_from_westminster.html It's been another exceptionally busy week both in Bristol and Westminster. 2008-01-28T09:50+00:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000087/letter_from_westminster.html This is my first Letter of 2008, after two weeks of the new Parliamentary 2008-01-21T10:24+00:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000086/letter_from_westminster_and_bristol.html Letter from Westminster and Bristol 10th - 16th December 2007 2007-12-17T00:00+00:00 http://www.bristolwest-libdems.org.uk/articles/000085/stephens_week.html Since 2005 I have sent out a regular "Letter from Westminster and Bristol", giving an account of my doings as a new Lib Dem MP. I should have called it "Diary" because that was the way I wrote it, designed to show that being Bristol West's MP is most weeks a 24-7 job, with no day quite the same, apart from being busy. The 2005 - 2007 letters are all archived in the Stephen's diary section of the web site at 2007-12-03T00:00+00:00