At the January meeting of the Salisbury and District U3A the following announcements were made:-

There are outings on February 13, to the Playhouse to see Arms and the Man;
March 29, to Bristol City and SS Britain;  
April 22, to the Bolshoi Ballet at the Mayflower;
April 24 to 28, a visit to Dublin; 
May 16, to the Houses of Parliament and the Churchill Cabinet rooms.

New courses about to start are Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, Playreading, and Sixth Form Forum.

Tom Coombes announced that the U3A carol singers collected £322 for charity in one hour in the Maltings.

Robert Key, MP for Salisbury and South Wiltshire, gave a fascinating account of his daily work. His constituency of 115,000 people turn to him with their problems, and the first two hours of every morning are spent replying to letters and e-mails. There are 140,000 hits on his website each month. Select Committee meetings cover the next two hours, and at 2.30pm he joins the other MPs in the Lower House for debates and the all-important voting, finishing about 10pm.

A one line whip means ‘appear if you can’; two lines means ‘do please appear’, and the three line whip means ‘come and vote or else!’

Constituency surgeries are on Friday, and Robert tries to keep Sunday free. As part of his duties on the Defence Select Committee, he has to visit every place where British troops are fighting, or peace-keeping, home and abroad. For the Ecclesiastical Select Committee he attends the Church of England Synod, debating subjects such as the advisability of women bishops. PM’s question time is the highlight of the week, but Robert says he enjoys every part of his work, and looks forward to it each day.