View from the house: Summer hit by war

Sep 3 2008 David Wilshire, Conservative MP For Spelthorne

Two reasons why I enjoy the privilege of being an MP are the vast variety of tasks that come your way and the unpredictably of what tomorrow will bring.

For reasons I cannot fathom, requests for help from constituents rose rather than fell this August. Other MPs report the same.

Perhaps it was the weather, or was it because the credit crunch is seriously worrying people?

Then the August calm was disrupted by the war between Georgia and Russia. This had an immediate effect on my diary by taking over several hours a day during the second half of my holiday in Alaska. Both countries belong to the Council of Europe - an organisation in which I am deeply involved as one of the UK parliament's 36 delegates to its Parliamentary Assembly.

I am the deputy leader of one of the assembly's five political groups. Its leader is a Russian - as are 22 of the other 96 members. Working with Russians is controversial but worth the criticism.

Individual Russian parliamentarians are keen to become good democrats and seek help from established democracies. Without the skills and experience we MPs take for granted they cannot provide a counter-balance to the power wielded by the Kremlin.

Sadly, both the Russian government and parliament have broken undertakings given when they joined the Council of Europe. One consequence has been the reorganisation of my diary to attend urgent meetings in Strasbourg, Paris and Brussels. Both the Parliamentary Assembly and my political group have to swiftly work out how to respond.

So much for the long holiday some people think MPs enjoy!