THIS week, I joined a group of dedicated volunteers in bedding down on the floor of St. Mary’s Church in Devizes to raise money for local charities supporting the homeless.

As a keen camper I found nothing too terrible about a night in a sleeping bag, but we had chosen the coldest night of the winter in an ancient and unheated church for the event. As the temperature plummeted to minus 9 degrees and the church mice scrabbled among us, we were all left in no doubt of the challenges faced by those without a warm, permanent place to lay their head. Getting up the next morning was particularly thought-provoking. Where do you go, if you are homeless, to wash, eat, tidy up and organise possessions? The answer in Devizes is the Opendoor drop-in centre at the parish rooms in St. John’s where those in need can get support, a shower and a hot meal, and I was also pleased to discover the government has found an extra £20million nationally to tackle what can be a very complicated problem.

* Foreign policy has been to the fore in Parliament this week with first a frisson over the Falklands. The Foreign Secretary William Hague assured MPs the problem - and solution - was diplomatic and it is notable he is the first Foreign Secretary to visit Brazil in more than six years with a mission to turn around decades of British withdrawal in Latin America. This can only be good for diplomacy but should also be good for British business given the growth rates of many South American countries.

We have also had urgent statements on the worrying developments in and Syria, and I made the point in the House that it is innocent women and children who usually suffer most in these conflicts.

Anyone who has seen or heard of the awful injuries to children living in the Syrian town of Homs will, I am sure, join in the condemnation of China and Russia’s veto of the UN draft resolution on Syria.

These countries are almost totally isolated in their position with even countries which did not support the UN resolution on Libya joining in to vote for an Arab and Western-backed peace plan which calls on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. MPs on all sides called for the utmost diplomatic and economic pressure to be put on these two countries until they see sense.