By David Crausby, MP for Bolton North east EARLIER this year I was appointed to the Defence Select Committee. While the Defence Committee has traditionally operated in an amicable and non-partisan way in its own proceedings, it has not hesitated to launch some hostile reports at the Ministry of Defence when necessary.

Defence accounts constitute some of the biggest blocks of government spending, and unlike other big spenders, the Ministry of Defence actually spends its own money rather than passing it on to other bodies to spend.

The Committee workload has been more demanding than normal because of the appalling terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11, and we have been called to Downing Street and the MoD for briefings regarding strategy and aims.

We need to tackle worldwide terrorism to ensure that atrocities of this magnitude never occur again, and to deal with the immediate humanitarian crisis and help restructure Afghanistan, including a broad-based representative government.

Returning to Bolton on Friday of last week I visited Walmsley Primary School in Bromley Cross, to highlight the Nationwide "Cat's eyes for kids" road safety campaign.

Road accident statistics show that almost half (49 per cent) of child casualties are pedestrians, and that 66 people (adults and children) die each week in road accidents.

The road safety campaign involves providing each child with a reflective disc that can be worn on a coat or schoolbag. The reflector disc will attract the attention of drivers, and hopefully help our children to be safe and be seen on the roads throughout the autumn and winter months.

I was later invited to take part in a question and answer session with year six. The children were extremely well behaved and I was very impressed with the range of challenging questions posed.

On Saturday evening I attended the Amateur Community Theatre (ACT) presentation at the Victoria Hall, Bolton, along with the Mayor and Mayoress. The evening was a huge success with a wide variety of amateur entertainment, including Mallari (Diva Dance) a traditional Indian dance piece, opera classics and "A Slice of Saturday Night" taking the audience back to the swinging 60s.

We are fortunate in Bolton to have a great deal of dedication and talent in our amateur musical and dramatic societies, and I wish them every success in future presentations, and in their bid to raise the necessary funds to either adapt a building or build a theatre for the benefit of the 25 local groups contained within Bolton and district amateur musical and dramatic societies.