September is an unusual month in the political calendar because, although MPs have had their annual holidays, Parliament is not sitting because the main political parties are having their party conferences.
So when it isn't our turn to be at our conference, we have time to work in our constituencies, reunite ourselves with the family routines and get some long-term reading done.

As readers of last week's column will know, I spent much of last week at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester. This week I've been spending some time with my young family, enjoying being able to see them in the evenings before the late-night votes kick in, and getting my head round what next week will bring.

As the junior minister for banks, it will be my job to support the Chancellor as he takes forward important long-term legislation on the reform of the banking system as soon as Parliament gets back.

In order to take Northern Rock into temporary public ownership earlier this year, it had to pass emergency legislation which will only remain on the statute book until February. That gives us a few months to try to agree the necessary permanent legislation to ensure the various authorities have the power to take urgent action when a banks collapse threatens the country's financial system as a whole and ensure people's money is safe.

Events this week have shown how important it is to have the powers to act swiftly in a crisis.

Last Saturday the Financial Services Authority decided the Bradford and Bingley bank had basically become insolvent. It did not have sufficient assets to pass the criteria required to allow it to accept deposits from the public. So the Government used the powers given to them under the emergency legislation to nationalise the bank and sell part of it to the group which owns Abbey National. The remainder, primarily the mortgage business and headquarters staff in West Yorkshire, will remain in public ownership with their jobs guaranteed for at least six months until a new business plan has been worked through.

Without the option of emergency nationalisation, the alternative would have been to allow the bank to collapse, causing chaos in an already nervous market, thousands of instant job cuts and triggering another bank run by consumers.

This way, depositors and mortgage holders are protected and we have bought breathing space to consider the best way to restructure the business. Much of Monday was spent speaking to MPs in West Yorkshire who had obvious concerns about what all of this would mean for their constituents. If any of my constituents are employees of B&B I would be happy to talk to them further.

On Tuesday, I spent some time talking to a senior official at Network Rail about our prospects for succeeding in our aim to get a fast train link to Manchester via the Todmorden curve.

As I have previously reported, this is an issue I promised to make one of my priorities (along with the new university campus in Burnley) when I was selected by Burnley Labour Party to be their candidate in 2004.

Working with the other agencies we have come a long way since then and I am holding an important meeting with the minister for railways next week to ensure the Government plays its part in supporting our plans.
At the moment I feel cautiously optimistic about our prospects, and will continue to keep my constituents informed of progress via this column.