On Wednesday I went to a meeting in the building next door to the Houses of Parliament - Portcullis House. I didnt know that Westminster had seen protesting students that day. Did this explain why four policemen with sub-machine guns were protecting the entrance to PH. I joined a queue outside the door waiting to be processed by the security system - like an airport system but also with a camera to take your picture to put on your pass.

We found our way to a committee room on the first floor. The meeting was chaired by Bill Cash MP who I had down as one of the Eurosceptics who made John Major's life as misery as PM. He was there as the chairman of the all party group on Kenya. The meeting was there to consider the work of two Nigerian clerics who are in the UK for a week. One is a Muslim and the other a Christian. The started working as a team to tackle inter-faith conflict in their part of Nigeria. However when conflict broke out in Kenya after the Presidential elections they were to that country and deployed their conflict resolution method and skills.

Various MPs came and went including Stephen Timms - the MP who had been stabbed by a young woman constituent. In the end Cash invited the meeting to submit to him a proposal for a programme to expand the capability of the Nigerians - probably training up a cardre who can take the technique into hotspots. He promised to pitch this at DFID for funding.

I could have gone on to a supper with the Nigerians but I was feeling quite tired after my Oxford trip and I had an early-ish start the following day and so I went home.