LOCAL GIRL GUIDES SPEND DAY AT WORK WITH GUILDFORD MP

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 19th Mar 2004

Two members of Wonersh and Bramely Guides, Rebecca Green and Hollie Beever, have spent the day at work with Guildford's MP Sue Doughty.

Sue has long supported 'Take your daughter to work' days and when the Girl Guides, who run the event, offered her two guides to take with her she was delighted.

Sue met Hollie and Rebecca at Waterloo station and they quickly travelled by underground to the House of Commons. After studying the day's diary and events they moved on to Sue's Westminster office. Immediately they discovered that illegal plywood from an Indonesian national park has yet again been imported to the United Kingdom. This is an issue which Sue has been campaigning on since her election and while Sue's researcher, Tim Nichols, put together a press release with Hollie, Sue and Rebeccca wrote an urgent letter to the Environment Minister, Elliott Morley.

They then went over to the House of Commons to see Sue challenge the Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, on whether increased funding for school pupils, announced in the Budget the previous day, would be passed on in full to Guildford schools.

A quick visit to see the House of Lords, which was debating electoral reform, was followed by lunch and a chance to catch up on other events. However there was no time to hang about as Sue needed to catch up with the latest messages at her desk, read her post and many emails, and work through diary invitations. Sue also needed to give a final check to her report on Hazardous Waste which exposes the government's failure to make plans for the change in the law which will stop people putting Hazardous Waste into Landfill sites.

Although the Budget debate beckoned in the House of Commons, Sue and her visitors needed to deal with a large pile of paperwork for constituents and in connection with her role as Lib Dem Shadow Environment Minister before heading back to Guildford for the opening of the offices of Digital Steps.

Rebecca and Hollie said:

"It was amazing and interesting to see how everything is run. …It's a great chance to see what MPs really do….A once in a lifetime experience… We saw what you can do in a day shadowing an MP…We are so pleased to be chosen to take part in this rare opportunity. We recommend it to anyone who has the chance."