Meeting MPs

Haven't done much on my phud recently so a bit of diversification...

So today my colleague Lucy and I met with Norman Baker, who's been the Lib Dem transport spokesman since NIck Clegg became leader. In my experience of meeting MPs they're either completely bored and uninterested (like James Purnell), distracted by what else is happening that day (like Norman Baker today) or else actually very polite and engaged in what you've come to talk to them about (like Vera Baird).

Anyway, today's meeting was of the high speed variety though we tried to get our views across on the local transport bill and 20mph, and we're getting a PQ put down about the Manual for Streets. But the meeting brought up the problem we face in trying to improve streets for pedestrians and encouraging more walking, in that for most politicians what we say is either motherhood and apple pie and therefore not really for them to act on (like improved street design or improved walking links to public transport), or else it'll just never happen (often because of perceptions of the views of car drivers) - as with some of the demands for 20mph limits.

Which leaves us with the challenge of turning around those perceptions and demonstrating how government action impacts on what we're talking about, and how starting with walking and pedestrians is necessary when considering wider transport issues. But it was a first meeting so let's hope we can keep talking...

And as we headed out, the masses from the Campaign for Better Transport arrived to get their message across in their allotted time.