Life of Wiley

The reception hosted by Claire Ward, my local MP, at which Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for International Development spoke was very good. The reception was held in Portcullis House, just across the road from the Houses of Parliament. It was pleasing to see a few familiar faces amongst the guests of about 40. My overall impression was that Hilary Benn is very passionate about the work he is doing and cares deeply. He struck me as someone who is working very hard for change, that he does listen to what the country is asking him to do. I suspect he gets frustrated with cynicism and intransigence, particularly perhaps at the EU level. For him 2005 was very definitely a watershed in terms of public perception of and willingness to do something about global poverty.

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Over the weekend I received a letter from my local MP, Claire Ward, in which she invites me to a reception she is hosting at the House of Commons. At the reception, Hilary Benn MP, the Secretary of State for International Development, will be present and I may have an opportunity to talk with him and ask him some questions.

The problem is what questions should I ask in what is likely to be a brief encounter? So I turn to the collective wisdom of the blogosphere for advice and will select maybe one or two questions to take with me.

My invitation has come about through responding to the campaign action of the Make Poverty History campaign, but Hilary also deals with international environmental policy too.

I would urge you to read a speech that Hilary made to the Overseas Development Institute and the all party parliamentary group on overseas development entitled: An international development system fit for the 21st century.

The reception is to be held on the 19th of April so I’ll need questions by then. I’ll post his comments on this blog (if he lets me!)