Last week at Westminster

Monday and Wednesday, UK Borders Bill Grand Committee, finishing with an extra day on top of the five originally scheduled. The Government made not a single concession in some 25 hours of debate, and the proverbial observer from Mars would be left wondering why Parliament has developed such an unproductive procedure.

Tuesday we had our seminar in human rights in Bangladesh, see earlier post. It was well-attended by key experts including the Acting High Commissioner, MPs, MEPs, the Asia Director of \Human Rights Watch, the Amnesty International researcher on Bangladesh, etc.

Friday I saw the consultant haematologist at King’s. No sign of any recurrence of the lymphoma, but there is an infrarenal aortic aneurism, 47 mm diameter, which I already knew, as it had been seen in 2002. They don’t normally recommend surgery for this condition, but only watchfulness if it increases to more than 50 mm. But a routine appointment will be made with the surgeon.

Then, a meeting with a researcher from the Hansard Society who is looking at the legislative process and has chosen the Immigration, Nationality and Asylum Act 2006 as one of her case studies.

In the afternoon, a visit from my old friend Carlos Reyes, the poet and photographer, who asked me to be a trustee of a new foundation to support his work for human rights and poverty alleviation, which I am very happy to do.

This week’s ping pong games went 4-3 to John William, cumulative score 59-58 in his favour.