Last week started with the re-election of the speaker of the House of Commons. Unlike most elections, a contest to re-elect the speaker is only held if there are any shouts of dissent to his nomination. It is similar to the part of a wedding service where members of the congregation are invited to 'speak their voice' if any objection to the marriage is known. There being no break to the silence, Speaker Bercow was, as tradition dictates, ceremonially dragged to the chair and back in his old job. There then followed speeches from the party leaders to welcome the start of Parliament and us new MPs. I was struck by the words from the Leader of the Opposition, Harriet Harman, who told new MPs to ignore any advice to 'remember our place' and 'keep our heads down', reminding us that we had not been elected by our constituents to keep our heads down but to stand up, raise our voices and make ourselves heard for our constituents. Sound advice.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister invited the new Conservative intake for coffee at No 10. As there are 73 of us, it was quite a squeeze. The Prime Minister talked to me about his visit to the Bexhill link road on election week and then went on to address us all and remind us that we were elected under a manifesto, which we now needed to put in to legislation. There is much excitement that we have a majority and that those who predicted more coalition government are having to retune their crystal balls. I then went off to be 'sworn in' as an MP. The constituents of Bexhill and Battle may be surprised that as well as their votes, I also need to pledge allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen in the Commons chamber before I can be called an MP. I duly did this, and am again proud to be your MP.

I was back in Downing Street on Thursday, visiting with 30 local school children and their teachers and parents. As well as a trip to the famous No 10 door, we were able to get the children on the Commons terrace and inside the Commons chamber itself. This was the same class of 9 and 10 year olds who had invited me to talk to their class before Election Day. They were so knowledgeable, and their teachers so keen to teach them about democracy, that I was determined to take their intended aim of 'looking at the Palace of Westminster from the outside' and make it more memorable. I hope we did so and that it will set some other hopefuls on the long road to Westminster.