My birthday .. but my age is a secret. I certainly do not feel my age! Anyway, no time for partying today and after a short time in the office it was up to London for another week. My first meeting was with the CEO of HeliOps, Steve Gladston, and a new member of the team, former Naval Captain Dan Howard. You may recall that the company has had it base confirmed for helicopter use after a Certificate of Lawfulness was accepted. In short, this recognises the fact the former SAR base is indeed one for the use of helicopters and that no change of use decision is needed. The good news is that the company hopes to extend its current contract to train German SAR pilots in their two Sea Kings. Interestingly, one of Germany's roles is to counter cross border excursions by Russian aircraft and to do that they must have SAR cover over the seas the pilots fly, hence the need for this contract. We don't want our valuable pilots drowning in the event they had to land in the sea. This is an exciting start for HeliOps, and I wish them well. As you know, the base now provides a refuelling point for incoming SAR aircraft, should they need it, both night and day. Then it was off to Sajid Javid's office to lobby for more money for our local authorities. I have done this before and we did actually get some. Several of my colleagues from the lowest funding local authorities were also there and we all pushed hard for more funding. At the end of the meeting, the Secretary of State did say he would speak to the Chancellor. I then popped into the Chamber for about 30 minutes to listen to the debate on the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill. While I support the latter, I do not support the former. I'm all for technology, but I cannot foresee millions of driverless cars on our roads in the years ahead. And where would the motorcyclists be? Banned, you can bet your bottom dollar. At 1800, I attended one of the regular meetings organised by all the SW MPs. I had invited Assistant Chief Constable Dave Lewis, formerly of Dorset Police, to talk about his new role, which is combating terrorism and serious crime. He was most interesting, and although what he said was in confidence, I can say that the threat of terrorism in the SW is clearly lower than in somewhere like London. But that's not to say we should not be on our guard and prepared for the worse. The House rose at about 2120 and off home for a late supper.