“Sheffield Hallam is a unique mixture of rural and urban environments – a great antidote to the frenetic and insular world of Westminster.

To represent a constituency that is sandwiched between a vibrant city centre on one side, and one of the country’s most beautiful national parks on the other, is a real privilege. There are few constituencies in the country where you can go rock-climbing one moment, and see some of the best theatre outside London the next. Just last week I was walking in the snow with my family on Stanege Edge, one of the most windswept and striking vantage points in the Peak District National Park, then shortly afterwards performed in a local panto in the heart of Sheffield. Neither quite rock-climbing nor great theatre, perhaps, but still an illustration of the versatility of life in Hallam!

Sheffield Hallam has a particularly strong sense of community. It has an unusually large number of people who work in health and education – over 40 per cent of the local workforce. The two universities and large hospitals and health clinics are the mainstay of the Hallam labour market. So voters in Hallam care about public services with a passion, care about the quality of life in Hallam, and care too about wider national and international issues. My constituents are just as vociferous in objecting to local public service cuts or inappropriate planning applications as they are in campaigning on third world debt or global warming. Every day I’m reminded how local, national and international concerns are now inseparable.

Statistics suggest that residents of Sheffield Hallam are unusually well educated – the constituency has more PhD-holders than almost any other Westminster constituency in the country. Local campaigners are articulate and effective. During the course of the recent Health Bill I listened carefully – and indeed changed my position – as a result of a well-articulated local campaign in favour of a total ban on smoking in public places.
I try to bring Sheffield to the heart of my work in Parliament – on the only occasion I was called to ask the prime minister a question, I asked him why Sheffielders have to put up with the vagaries of a hopelessly under-regulated local bus service, run as an effective private monopoly by one company, when Londoners have a properly regulated bus system. Of all the issues that have been raised with me in Hallam, the failures of the local bus system elicit the most anger and frustration. If something seems to work in London, why should other cities not have the same system too?

John Betjeman called Broomhill, in the heart of Hallam, the finest suburb in England. The area has certainly produced its fair share of creative talents, from Bruce Chatwin to Michael Palin. Vibrant, diverse, part-urban, part-rural, Hallam is, in my not wholly objective view, unique. No wonder so many people who have moved there from other parts of the country never move again. I certainly feel an immense pride in representing the area at Westminster.