So the summer holidays are here and the newspapers are having fun reporting that MPs have 76 days off and cataloguing where politicians are spending our holidays this year.

Gordon Brown, with new baby James in tow, will stay put in Scotland; Tony Blair is heading for Barbados; and Margaret Beckett, our Foreign Secretary, will be caravaning in France. With events in Lebanon getting even nastier, let us hope John Prescott is not called on to make serious decisions.

As for me, I am off on a family holiday to the US for a couple of weeks. MPs spend a lot of time away from their family and it will be good for me (I hope also for them) to spend some time with my four children.

But I won't be spending the remainder of the 76 days with my feet up. First of all, there is a possibility Parliament may be recalled in September if the war in Lebanon is not resolved and if Britain - with forces stretched in Iraq and Afghanistan - decides to send troops to the Middle East on a peace-keeping mission.

But I really want to use the time away from the Commons to find out more about what concerns people on my home patch. I am taking my mobile surgery back on the road and will be visiting 50 villages. I will also be serving with West Mercia Police for several days as part of the parliamentary police scheme.

Last week I was promoted to Parliament's most senior committee of MPs - the one that scrutinises all aspects of public spending. So I shall also be doing my homework ready to ask Ministers whether they are getting value for the staggering £1.5 billion of taxpayer's money spent each day.