Two key things to update you on:

• A trip to local HIV charity Body Positive. This was a fantastic experience as I sat and chatted with Bianca, the HIV nurse, and other team members and learnt a lot more about issues surrounding sexual health in Blackpool. It may not seem an obviously important issue, but it is. Blackpool alone has over 500 people with HIV, but across the country, infection rates are on the increase. Indeed, all sexual diseases – syphilis and gonorrhea, for example – have shot up over the past decade. Body Positive do great work at trying to give people the continuity of care and support they need once they have had a HIV test. They do the simple stuff – handing out free condoms, for example – but also the complex stuff in trying to ensure that people who have complex needs don’t fall down the cracks between the different service providers. Even the NHS struggles to provide a comprehensive genito-urinary medicine service locally – when we’re one of the main areas of need.  Well done, Body Positive, for doing such a great job on a shoestring and I look forward to keeping in touch. Both our two Labour MPs are patrons of the charity, but seem to have little involvement! Now I’ve written this, watch them rush down there. If it helps Body Positive, then that will be a good thing though.
• The next day was quite different – up with the great, the good and the mildly indifferent in the banqueting suite at Bloomfield Road for the match against Plymouth Argyle along side the indefatigable Steve Houghton, Greenlands councillor. I think it fair to say that the meal beforehand was better than the match, where Blackpool looked as though they lacked the desire and hunger they need at this stage of the season. Plymouth just seemed to want it more, though all is by no means lost as teams surrounding Blackpool did us a favour with their results. Gordon Marsden was in the Director’s box with the Oystons. I didn’t bother him.
• The next day was an anti-climax – I saw Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy in the Sainsbury’s in Red Bank Road. Sad, perhaps, that I should actually recognise Jim Murphy, but he’s an MP outside Glasgow so he was a long way from home. Maybe he was having an enjoyable weekend away – but his trolley was full of domestic requirements! Welcome to Blackpool, Jim. Maybe he’s thinking of retiring here once he’s out of Government. I just hope the groceries weren’t being bought on the taxpayer …