I left work a little early this afternoon and went to see Des Browne, Secretary of State for Defence.  He was visiting Crawley to talk to the CLP about the decision to renew Trident.

It was a bad time to have a meeting – 4pm – but I guess he has to fit us in where he can.  I know that there is no way I could have made it if I was not working just round the corner, and the real surprise was how many Labour and trade union members also managed to attend.  I was expecting an empty room, but it was packed.

I don't think its a big secret that the issue of renewing Trident is one which is not unanimously supported in the party, I certainly have a predisposition to be against it, as do many other members of the Crawley party.  And that, of course, is why our MP invited Des Browne down to talk to us and answer questions about it.

I hadn't met him before, but I was very impressed with Des Browne on a personal level.  He is very straightforward and willing to stand his ground in the face of criticism.  All too often a politician faced with a hostile audience will be tempted to say what they think the crowd want to hear, but he explained his thoughts and his reasons for supporting the bill and he was quite happy to tackle opposite arguments head on.

Actually he made some very good arguments, and some were very persuasive.  It hasn't changed my own opinion, but I can see that the decisions were not taken lightly.  Of course it is easy to hold an opinion when you don't have to act on it and when nothing depends on you having that opinion and I recognise that its easy for me to think whatever I want.

The whole meeting was very positive, which was good to see, and carried out in an extremely civilised and good-natured way which was maybe surprising given the very emotive nature of the topic.  I felt very encouraged that we were able to have a proper debate in an orderly fashion about a topic where there are some absolutely diametrically opposed views.

At the end there was a question by Gillian Joyce, one of our county councillors, on behalf of one of her constituents, about the continuation of free postage for forces serving overseas, which appeared to be well-received by the Secretary of State, although I think he has been getting some lobbying from Laura about it already.  I'm a bit jealous really. When I was a councillor I never had the good fortune to get a letter from a constituent about something totally outside the remit of the job but then get the opportunity to raise it directly with the relevant minister anyway.

But on the other hand, Des did notice my work ID and make comments about the contribution my employers make to our defence, and more importantly (from a local point of view) the positive impact the recent spate of new naval and air force equipment has on Crawley's employment and economy.  Its just a shame he didn't pronounce it right – but very few people outside the company do.