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.

BILLY SMARTS CIRCUS AND YOUTH NEWS

Last night I was invited to watch Billy Smart's Circus in Bedford, which was quite entertaining but nothing like the circuses I remembered seeing years ago as a child.

Billy Smart started his Circus in 1946, and Circus visits used to be a great treat with lots of exciting and magical acts including animals - elephants, monkeys, lions, horses etc. At one stage Bill Smart had 200 animals on tour. However over the years the vociferous animal rights lobby complained loudly about the cruel treatment of animals in circuses and in the end they were banned altogether.

Today there are no animals just human circus performers who come from all over the world - everywhere except the UK! We had Chico Rico, a Mexican clown, Russian and French trapeze artists, a Mongolian foot juggler and illusionists and acrobats from Italy and Kazakhstan.

MORE YOUTH NEWS FROM BEDFORD'S YOUTH CHAMPION

The Global and National Enterprise Week kicks off on Monday - a national celebration of business with thousands of events across the UK to inspire young people to take an interest in entrepreneurship. In 2007 there were 5,000 events involved 500,000 young people. This year's theme is 'Make Your Mark' and a week of action-packed events will be organised locally by Bedfordshire County Council, including:

Monday 17 November - Entrepreneurship Challenge (North Beds) at Marston Vale Forest Centre for talented Year 8/9 pupils to learn entrepreneurial skills by creating a visual business plan with help from local entrepreneurs.

Wednesday 19 November - Developer for a Day at Dame Alice Harpur School, Bedford. A Masterclass Workshop on opportunities for women in the construction industry for Year 9 girls.
Making Dough - at Hastingsbury Upper School, Kempston, in which 7 Upper Schools take part in an interactive programme to help young people develop finance, marketing and business skills.

Thursday 20 November - 'Dragon's Den for Young Entrepreneurs'
Competition in Flitwick for Year 10 & 13 pupils from various schools.

Bedfordshire Music
On Wednesday 12 November, 'Tenforu' one of Bedfordshire's youth chamber orchestras, was invited to take part in the National Proms Concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Tenforu comprises 10 talented young musicians playing wind and string instruments and has been successful in regional and national rounds of the National Festival for Youth during the past year.

It was a great honour for Tenforu to be invited to play in this Concert, which showcased the very best of musical talent from around the UK, and highlights the top quality young musicians we have in Bedfordshire, one of the UK's smallest counties.