A flying visit to Lebanon  

During the Christmas break, I was invited on a flying visit to Lebanon with a couple of other MPs. The delegation was organised by CAABU - the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding - and was primarily a fact-finding mission to look at how the recent events in Syria are having an impact on Lebanon and the region.Although our visit was brief, our schedule was tight and we managed to meet with many people including the British Ambassador, Tom Fletcher, representatives from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, journalists, members of parliament, and, importantly, Syrian and Lebanese families.We also managed to squeeze in a couple of visits to refugee camps in Beirut, where this picture was taken and where thousands of Palestinian refugees reside.In the coming week there is a delegation of Lebanese MPs coming to Britain and I will be continuing the work we did during...