I went out to xmas dinner with the Horsham Labour Party last night and the guest of honour was Dr Stephen Ladyman, MP for South Thanet.

It was very good of him to come along. Constituencies which are not Labour seats or marginals do appreciate it when they get some attention and its always interesting to chat to MPs informally and see them as human beings. The party took the opportunity to voice a few concerns about various issues and make sure that the problems in our area were being registered.

Its easy to imagine that an area like Horsham, with its high average wealth and consistently high scores on all the quality of life indices has no problems, but of course there is always room for improvements, with the provision of affordable and social housing being pretty high on the list.

From my own personal perspective I thought it great to see an MP who not only could make it in the real world, but has done in the past. So many MPs seem to go straight from university to parliament without experiencing the real world – being an advisor or political assistant does not count! As one of the few MPs with a background in science and a practical career in IT you feel more inclined to listen to his opinions about technology.

Not so sure about his views on the political system overall. I think thats an area where we have to agree to differ. Having said that, I can be a bit forthright with my opinions on the various archaisms and impracticalities of Westminster, which can force others into being over-defensive of them.

The real thrill (and this is a cross that he will have to bear for a long time) was having a guest who had not only driven Top Gear‘s reasonably-priced car but took it round the circuit faster than Clarkson. It must be frustrating (in fact I know it is because he told us so) to go on the Today show or get grilled by Paxman and find that nobody remembers it at all, but children in the street stop you to ask about Top Gear.

Anyway, we were pleased to have him join us and grateful to him for making the effort and coming along- its a long way back to South Thanet from Horsham. A good job he likes driving!