MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Three MPs on a week Falklands' visit

Three United Kingdom MPs will be visiting the Falkland Islands for a week in mid February in a familiarization tour. They will be accompanied by the Islands London Representative Sukey Cameron.

According to the official release the three guests are Dai Harvard, Labour MP for Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney; Daniel Kawczynski, Conservative MP for Shrewsbury & Atcham and Danny Alexander, Liberal Democrat MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey and will be arriving in the Islands February 15 and leaving on the 22nd.

The full program includes meetings with Councillors, Governor Howard Pearce, government officials, private sector representatives, a day with the British military at Mount Pleasant Complex and a weekend visiting Camp establishments.

On their first day of activity, Thursday 16, the MPs will be briefed by local government officials, visit the Fisheries Department, (could include a tour of the patrol vessel Dorada), Chamber of Commerce, Department of Agriculture and Mineral Resources, plus an office call to Governor Pearce.

The following day will be spent at the Mount Pleasant Complex and in the evening the Governor and Mrs. Pearce will host dinner at Government House.

On the week end the MPs will be flown to Hill Cove and Pebble Island to meet with Camp Councillors and residents, returning Sunday mid afternoon for a battlefield tour.

Monday begins early with a flower wreath laying at the Liberation Monument followed by a briefing at the Education Department and a tour of the Community School to meet with senior pupils. At 18:30 Legislative Council members will receive the MPs in Gilbert House followed by dinner hosted at a local hotel.

Tuesday at 11:00 hours the delegation is scheduled to depart the Falkland Islands.

Mr Havard sits on the Wales Labour Party Joint Policy Committee and holds office as Secretary on the All-Party Mountain Rescue and Search Teams Group (2004 -). He is also a member of the Select Committee on Defence, a position he has held since 2003, and has recently departed the Commons Select Committee for Regulatory Reform where he was a Member from 2001-2005.

Mr Kawczynski was elected as Member of Parliament for Shrewsbury & Atcham in May 2005. Prior to his appointment he had ten years' experience in the telecommunications industry. He travelled extensively abroad promoting British business and expresses a particular interest in Africa. Two years before his election he left the industry to concentrate on his Parliamentary Spokesman duties in Shrewsbury.

Prior to becoming an MP, Mr Alexander was Press Officer for the Scottish Liberal Democrats (1993-95) and then Director of Communications for the European Movement from 1996 to 1999 before being appointed Head of Communications for the cross-party Britain in Europe from 1999-2004. Shortly after his election to Parliament he was appointed as a member of the Lib Dem Work & Pensions team.