This was one of those weeks where I set out to carve out some time and catch up on projects that have been languishing on a shelf. Instead, event after event got in the way.

After a long few days in Westminster I was particularly looking forward to Friday with three school visits planned.

Much has been made of the return of students to school while a pandemic rages on. It is easy to make broad pronouncements (and I have!) about how important school is to children's life chances, or their mental health, and to get people back into work. But behind the scenes are Heads, teachers, staff and governors who have worked flat out to get their existing buildings into a state where children and students can safely move around from room to room and get back to the business of learning.

In all three - Greengate Junior School, Barrow 6th Form, and Sir John Barrow School - I was amazed by just how normal everything seemed. Yes, sanitiser is everywhere you turn and markers and posters remind staff and students alike about social distancing throughout the buildings, but the students just carried on and got on with it, learning, playing and socialising. Which, I suppose, is exactly the point. And exactly what I hoped to see. It's a huge credit to the teams at each school to make such a tremendous challenge appear effortless when it's up and running.

At Barrow 6th Form I faced a grilling from the first year politics class on life as an MP and some of the challenges which come with it. The question that gave me real cause for pause was from Will and was about how to effectively balance being an MP from a political party while representing your own views. It's something which I constantly wrestle with. My ability to deliver for Barrow & Furness relies on me getting Ministers to listen. If you become a rebel, they'll stop - it's that simple. So you have to find different ways to influence and nudge things in the right direction. Sometimes that's deeply frustrating, and sometimes it works. I suspect I shall wrestle with finding that balance for most of the next few years.

In Westminster this week I've bounced from meeting to meeting. Coming down the road is the Energy White Paper. It may sound dull, but that paper will set the strategy for investment in new nuclear power, tidal energy and other energy sources as we race towards a greater mix of green and renewable energy generation. So this week I've met with the Energy Minister, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and Electricity NW to set the scene for why Cumbria should be the focal point of this strategy.

When on the Summer Surgery Tour (feels like months ago, was only weeks!) I was inundated with people telling me about their woes with mobile coverage in High Furness. So this week I sat down with Matt Warman, the Communications Minister, and Zoomed with MobileUK to start the process of getting our needs to the top of their lists when the Shared Mobile Network that is designed to start filling in these gaps rolls out.

Finally, I ended the week with a visit from the Conservative Party Chairman. I showed her around Dalton and explained about our push for a local police officer, all while taking part in the Great British September Clean.

The September Clean runs from September 11 to 27. We'll be running events across Barrow & Furness in support through the month. If you'd like to join, please do let me know by dropping me an email: simon.fell.mp@parliament.uk

I'm Vice Chair of the Tidy Britain All Party Parliamentary Group so am very keen to promote this excellent initiative and to keep our local streets clean.