Friday / Saturday was spent away, doing my duties as a trustee of the Community Development Foundation. And now I do know a lot more. I am on this as it requires an MP from each of the three main parties. The Labour MP is the Chair of the Board of Trustees and the rest of the members are made up from the four nations of the United Kingdom and from a range of high-level expertise.

As this was my first meeting, I do what I usually do when I am new: I read my papers thoroughly and kept my mouth mostly shut except where necessary! The senior management of the Foundation were also with us. It was clear at the first session that a great deal of work and energy was being put into this agenda – but that the Trustees were needing more access to the business processes and issues involved.

‘Community Development’ is about empowering members of the community and growing their capacity to influence decisions being made about their lives. Many of us, we know how to complain, how to raise issues, how to engage, how to access services, etc. – but there are even more who do not. And in the end, a community can only improve if it comes from within – so it’s about building from the within. To demonstrate some of this, we were taken by coach to Gamesley – a housing estate of some 3,500 people who had been uprooted from the middle of Manchester when it was redeveloped and put literally in the middle of nowhere. With rolling hills and sheep and farmland all around, it didn’t have the dirt and grime and sort of deprivation I as a London MP are used to – but deprived it certainly was. High level of single parents and unemployment, little transport to get to it or off it, low car ownership and so on.

We were talked to by the ‘workers’ on the estate – from adult education to Sure Start, police, residents’ association, Citizens Advice Bureau, local library manager, and so on. The enthusiasm of these individuals about their purpose and task was extremely high – and their partnership and cross-working was clearly beginning to have some results in getting people to engage and acquire skills. They had produced some really great community projects that had drawn in participation from people who never usually got involved in anything – and this was clearly creating community spirit and improving the estate. Back afterwards to the hotel for more papers and discussions.

So what did I think? I agree with the principle that the more engaged and participatory a community is, the better it will function and prosper. What worried me was concerns over whether some of the good intentions will turn out to be mere rhetoric. I have seen consultation devalued because the outcome wasn’t really ever in question. I have seen councils engaging local communities through various forums, but mostly it is about presenting what the council is doing – not listening to what local people necessarily want. Still – I am glad to have been appointed to this body as it is a really interesting area of work.

As I said previously, my only real connection to this scheme before was when I was asked to give out government cheques to various community groups as part of the program. And it was not just a cheque or two – but lots and thousands and thousands of pounds. I was worried then as to whether this money would empower people and how that was assessed – indeed if it was assessed. There were no answers yet to my questions – but at least they are now in the pot. There are so many initiatives, schemes and work programs going on – and such vast amounts of money being spent on them – I want to be sure that they produce real differences for the people in communities in whose name so much is being done.

As for today, I have just been writing articles, doing emails and my Ham & High column. Watched the Sunday morning political programs to see coverage of by-elections and hear the analysis of the disastrous Tory result in Bromley. Again the media are letting Boy David off relatively lightly considering the scale of his party’s drubbing. But there’s no hiding from his problem – core voters don’t appear to like where he wishes to take the party – and I don’t think there are enough votes without them for him to gain the seats he needs. Labour too had a bad night – they are the government and in big stink at the moment. Received wisdom is that they should get a bashing in by-elections at this point – but the official opposition should be way ahead, and they certainly were not!