WILSTEAD WOMEN'S INSTITUTE

Wilstead WI Committee show off some of their 40 new mugs

Wilstead Women's Institute has 43 members and is one of the largest village branches in Bedfordshire. Nationally, the Women's Institute has over 200,000 members and is a force to be reckoned with as Tony Blair discovered in 1997 soon after his election as Prime Minister. Blair attended the National WI Conference at the Royal Albert Hall and made the mistake of patronising the large female audience and made a blatantly party political speech to a non-political organisation. His reward was slow handclapping and humiliation by thousands of women.

Recently I gave Wilstead WI a small grant from my Community Leaders' Fund to buy 40 new mugs and last week I went along to celebrate with them and enjoy a cup of tea and some homemade cake. I also enjoyed an interesting talk from Trevor Gunton, a retired RSPB officer on his travels around the UK's Offshore Islands and wildlife watching.

This has been another busy week, culminating in a visit to Essex today to see an MBT (Mechanical and Biological Treatment Plant) one possible solution to reducing the waste going into Landfill. However it is a messier and more expensive process than the modern EfW (Energy from Waste) Plant I viewed in Portsmouth, which generates electricity on site and is cost effective.