Rest of the week

Tuesday: meeting chaired by Martin Horwood MP to launch Christian Aid's report The Scandal of Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean, which has a chapter on Peru. Growth has been vigorous, but concentrated in the extractive industries, which don't create proportionate employment for the poor, or generate proportionate services that benefit the whole population.

Wednesday, meeting with Peruvian visitors to discuss mainly the problems cause by extractive industries, reinforcing the Christian Aid message, Presidentb Humala came into office pledged to support the cause of the poor, and indigenous people in particular, and there is still hope that he will deliver the goods. Its a matter of ensuring that the tax revenues from oil and gas, and mining, are well spent, and that personal taxation is redistributive. As in other Latin American countries, there is a very rich elite.

Thursday, I chaired a very useful meeting of the Department for Education's Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Stakeholder Group. We had the best attendance ever, and got through a substantial agenda in two and a quartr hours.