NOW that party conference season is drawing to a close, I am looking forward to Parliament returning.

People often ask me what conference is all about. The news coverage shows the big platform speeches but, for most MPs, they seldom play any part in their conference diaries.

Outside the main hall, conference is a chance for charities and trade bodies to meet and mingle with MPs.

I spent much of my time in Birmingham this year participating in six different fringe events – one of them with the Trussell Trust – and meeting representatives of organisations such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

I was, however, pleased to hear that the PM’s platform speech not only included further measures to relieve the tax burden on the lowest paid but also recognised the need to work towards graduated relief for middle earners – people like experienced teachers and senior nurses, who often sit only marginally above the threshold and miss out enormously because of it.

I rushed back from conference to hold a packed surgery and to attend meetings about the future of Public Health England in Porton and the continuing roll-out of superfast broadband. I know that, for many of my constituents, improved access to broadband can’t come quickly enough, but progress is being made and at a significantly faster pace here than in some other parts of Wiltshire.

The roll-out remains on schedule and on budget, which is no mean feat. My concern remains what alternative solutions will be made available to the five per cent of people in the remotest corners of south Wiltshire who will not be able to benefit from this government and local authority-funded upgrade.

It was a pleasure to be invited to a preview of Salisbury Museum’s new First World War exhibition, which runs until January. The museum is clearly going from strength to strength under the stewardship of Adrian Green and his team and thoroughly deserves its current success.

I have been in London for much of this week undertaking my Royal College of Defence Studies course and working on the final report of the All Party Parliamentary Group on hunger and food poverty, but I will be back tomorrow to hold my usual Friday surgery.