It has been the busiest Conference I have ever attended.  Whilst there has been the usual catching up with old friends and sharing ideas with people from across the country, there have been a large number of meetings.  Many of those meetings have been important in my efforts to ensure Eltham is properly represented and its residents heard.

In policy terms, there have been some very significant announcements.  Among them are serious proposals to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, and an end to the policy of putting the rights of criminals ahead of their victims.  Families and children will receive more help and there will be serious efforts to get people back into work.  Our commitment to a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has been restated and so has our intention to give troops the support - and the equipment - they need and deserve.  Our longer term commitment to cutting taxes have been repeated but only when the country can afford them.  The first priority is to get this country off its knees and back on the road to recovery.  That is a task we all have to work to achieve - and for the first time, a mainstream political party has set out how it plans to do it.  I expect there will be more concrete proposals in David Cameron's speech.  I am now going over to the conference centre to hear what they are.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Middle Park Community Centre today.  I have wanted to pay a visit for ages but finally made it when invited by one of the managers.  There was a pensioners' group there when I arrived - a good turnout I thought, though I was told it would have been much larger but for a number being away on a trip.

The work this centre does, for people of all ages but especially young people, is staggering.  Yet, the bureaucracy needed to meet the strings attached to funding - and the effort required to obtain funding - ties the limited staff down for far too long.  They need to be freed to spend more time helping their visitors, many of whom need the help and expertise these people can offer.  I applaud what they do and wish we could have more centres like this.