No. But our celebrant Chris Simm was delighted to be invited to attend a reception at No 10 Downing Street as a guest of her MP, David Mundell. Chris is an engineer by profession and the day-to-day leader of the charity GoodShare/FoodShare, which operates in Upper Nithsdale, essentially in the three ‘toons’ of Kirkconnel, Kelloholm and Sanquhar, sharing food in their communities that would otherwise end up in landfill. Her story even made it into the papers!

She was also invited to take a tour of the Houses of Parliament, and as she wrote, “The buildings were truly overwhelming and amidst countless security and police checks and in the run of normal business, I was able to see some of the highlights and get a sense of the place, in these impressive corridors of power.

David’s assistant, Christopher Barton, took me to the Central Lobby; that’s the large Octagonal Hall that most television interviews take place, I could have stood there all day and listened to the goings on. We walked through and into St Stephen’s Corridor/Chapel and sat for a few minutes on one of the built in stone benches, trying to imagine the age of that part of the building and what kinds of things were discussed back then, as we watched who came and went including some delegates from Africa and many Guided Tourists.  We went from there into Westminster Hall, where Queen Elizabeth had lain in state and I had a real sense of her presence and watched the many visitors still paying their respects. 

The Hall is incredible and Chris pointed out the structural roof timbers which made the great span possible, impressive engineering and a beautiful building!  We went outside from there to get a glimpse of Big Ben, which having recently been cleaned and unveiled, looks amazing.

Back inside we had lunch in the ‘Atrium’ and then back up to Davids Office with its spectacular views of the London Eye and the Thames. We then visited the House of Commons where ministers were answering questions on pensions, an interesting encounter. I was impressed by the acoustics and how we were able to hear every word spoken.

I just missed out on seeing the House of Lords, which was actually being security searched when we arrived and so we weren’t allowed access. I may just have nodded off myself at this point lol 😂 as it’d been a long day.

We then headed to No 10 for the reception and that’s a whole other story. It’s an impressive building – much bigger than you imagine it to be from the outside – and far more than the Prime Minister’s residence, which is only a small part of it. 

Stuart Andrew welcomed us and thanked us all for our hard work and dedication and sent us home with a warm feeling that we’d all done a good job.

It was a fine opportunity afforded our Charity by our Westminster representative and I was very happy to attend on behalf of FoodShare and share what it is we do in our Community.

We’re glad you had such a great time in the corridors of power, Chris, and very proud of you and the work you do, training so many volunteers!