Robert Buckland Weblog

I must say that I was rather apprehensive, but thankfully last night’s meeting was attended by fifty people.  There was an excellent spread of expertise, enabling parents to gain access to information and support that was needed.  After an initial address by yours truly, we divided up into four groups, enabling everyone to participate.  There [...]

I am looking forward to this evening’s meeting on Special Educational Needs. I am encouraged by the telephone calls and e-mails I have received from parents and others interested in this most important of topics. I am very grateful to BBC Points West and to BBC Radio Swindon, together with the Swindon Advertiser, for their [...]

The BBC broadcaster and Newcastle University graduate Kate Adie was the guest speaker at the Army Benevolent Fund Dinner held at the St. David’s Hotel, Cardiff, on Tuesday evening. Her speech was an excellent mix of self-deprecation and a defence of the right of journalists and others to say things that may offend others. Describing [...]

As I sort out my photographs from this most memorable of trips, I am left with abiding memories of this most memorable of countries. Dinner at the King David Hotel; the sun shining on the Dome of the Rock; minarets on the Palestinian skyline; deep blue skies over a turquoise Dead Sea; furious debate and [...]

I found myself experiencing a Victor Meldrew moment yesterday. Upon our arrival at Folly Farm activity centre near Tenby, we were regaled by piped Christmas music and festive decorations throughout the shop and outbuildings. It was Remembrance Sunday. When is this madness going to end?
Christmas is a very important time of the [...]

The prospect of being 300 metres below sea level was an interesting one, but what I had not expected was the beauty of the desert.  The arid ridges and wind-blown screes of the Negev have a haunting quality that makes me understand why it was that T.E. Lawrence had such a passion for the desert.  [...]

The notion of sitting on the fence has always been an unattractive one to me, but on Wednesday, that is the position I nearly found myself in, both literally and metaphorically. Readers may have gleaned from these pages that I don’t much like the Security Fence. I don’t like it at all. [...]

Our visit to the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, was prefaced by a tour of Yad Vashem, the beautifully and imaginatively designed Holocaust Museum.  I remain an incorrigible optimist.  The lively atmosphere of the Knesset, with its intrigues, deals and arguments, is living proof of the enduring nature of the human spirit, and of the determination [...]

A visit on Tuesday to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Wailing Wall, where I wrote a note and made a prayer, was followed by a memorable walk up through the bazaars and narrow streets to Golgotha and the Church of the Holy Sephulcre, manned by members of that most wonderful of denominations, the Greek [...]

Tuesday was the day when the changing complexion of the Israel/Palestine question was brought into stark relief. Jerusalem is the symbol of all these complications, and yet it is also a World City. For Christians everywhere, it is our spiritual capital. In this holy city, I was able to meet with a [...]