Visit by Charles Hendry

Yesterday Charles Hendry the Shadow Minister for Industry and Enterprise visited Southampton. During the visit he attended The Sholing Technical College and met with many of the girls, including the four who won the ‘The great Egg race’ see clip from the echo.

Charles also met with a local post office master and heard how the closure of post offices is affecting the community and how they are struggling to survive today. One thing I learnt was that one of the new business areas for them has been the rise of e-bay which has seen more people use post offices. Yet the pressure for them to close will further erode communities.

Charles was also invited to NXP in Millbrook which was a step into the future with what is possible not just in the next generation but the one after that and even further than that. What was really good was it was not on a power point demonstration but with actual models that worked.

It was good to see and show the positives of Southampton to a vistor and to show the city has a lot to offer in the future.

We fished the day with a visit to the university where Charles spoke and took questions from an audience of mixed political views with many Labour and socialists attending and agreeing with what Charles had to say.