At last the Ukrainian Christmas celebration – very lively.

Putin loses credibility but wins seats. The big loser – the Russian people. Even on these results it is a serious blow to Vladimir Putin and those who operate with him.

I saw a ballot box which had been left unsealed allowing votes to be added and removed without altering the total. Local observers had tried to get this fixed without success until International Observers – my Danish colleague and I insisted. The local official was very anxious we saw this as “just an oversight”.

Elsewhere a police officer tried to stop us entering a polling station and asked us to go to the police station to confirm our status. I refused and in this case the local polling official was helpful and we were able to observe. Another colleague was physically prevented from entering the place where local results were totalled to give the regional totals and where fraud is very possible. In the end by complaining loudly and to the higher authorities, he was allowed in.

All these give credibility to the widespread complaints of opposition politicians that fraud was widespread.

Tony is currently in Russia as an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly official observer.

Exhibition today on Turkey which we should work with on the EU and Middle East.

A new home for Manchester’s Guru Gobind Singh Sikh Temple which I visited on Friday.

On Friday I also attended the celebratory ‘Oscars Evening’. The event showcased a intergenerational animation / filming project called ‘Animating Lives’ developed with young people living at the Manchester Foyer and older customers living at Dunston Court a Sheltered Scheme in Moston. Some great animation, Wallace and Gromit should worry.

Saturday: Viridor’s waste plant in Moston – a source of noise and unpleasant smell for locals.

Nephra Community Group’s Christmas Fayre New Moston – must be the first Xmas event anywhere but a lovely community.

Remembrance Sunday, Clayton.

A busy week started last Sunday with a speech at the TUC Rally Against the Cuts on the opening day of the Tory Conference in Manchester. Monday morning leafleting outside Deansgate Station against closure of a large number of railway booking offices, bad for the traveller and less safe too. Next I flew to Mozambique to take part in a seminar on strengthening the role of Parliament in that young democracy. Finally the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe conference on EU enlargement and the “frozen conflict” between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Asked if he was in charge of the nation, Clegg apparently replied: ‘Yeah, I suppose I am. I forgot about that … I’m holding the fort but I’m hoping to take the end of the week off with my kids. Someone else will have to do it then. It sounds more haphazard than it probably is’.

Two of my constituents were stuck in Libya with a two month old baby. They would have liked to spend time with their child relaxing safely in Britain instead of living in fear in Tripoli. Whilst Mr Clegg was taking it easy, I rang the Foreign Office asking to speak to a Minister but was told the relevant one was away. Four days on I still await that call. Cameron away, Hague away, Clegg may as well have been away. This would be funny if it weren’t incompetent.

Fortunately – no thanks to our Government – this family left on a commercial flight.

You’d wish they had made this up. Two very different views of the future of healthcare.

David Bennett, the man appointed to introduce competition into the NHS, tells us, ‘The NHS must be transformed along the lines of the deregulated gas & electricity markets. Patients can expect to see a proliferation of private healthcare providers and even Tesco-style chains of hospitals as the health service is prised open to competition.  We did it in gas, we did it in power, we did it in telecoms. We’ve done it in rail, we’ve done it in water…

Dr Hamish Meldrum, BMA: ‘Comparing the NHS to the gas, electricity and rail markets is not only completely inappropriate, it’s dangerous.’

I know whose side I am on and I know who the overwhelming majority of people would want in charge of the NHS and it’s not someone who wants to sell off our healthcare to private health companies or to supermarket chains.