I started my day by paying a visit to the UK Disabled People’s Council (UKDPC) office in Stratford where I met with Chief Executive Jaspal Dhani and Acting Chair Julie Newman. We discussed the UKDPC’s plans to hold a Disability Arts Festival running parallel with the Paralympic Gabout and fears about Government welfare changes.  The Council organised a very impressive recent demonstration against the changes - the biggest rally of disabled people ever held in Britain.

I then met with Natasha Hart of Newham All Star Sports Academy (NASSA) at the Kitchen Table Cafe.  NASSA has been an inspiration since its foundation and now has over 460 members playing basketball at national level, making it the largest such organisation in the country.  It has been awarded an ‘Inspire 2012’ mark and the success of the programme can be seen through its many flourishing teams, as well as through its students.  One member of the U-16 side represented England so well at recent championships in Copenhagen that he was then selected for the all star international team.  Five NASSA boys play for England in the U-16 and U-15 categories.

In the early afternoon I met with Jonathan Fox, chief executive of Docklands Light Railway, to discuss plans for improvement of the service, and for a cable car Thames crossing from Newham to Greenwich, which DLR will run.  Finally my day ended not with a surgery as usual, but by a visit to Marble Arch to meet the former President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, who has announced he will return to Pakistan to contest the next Presidential election.