Visiting editor is guest of PM (From Swindon Advertiser)

Visiting editor is guest of PM

10:40pm Thursday 5th November 2009 in

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IT'S not every day you get to meet a Prime Minister, but Luitgard Heissenberg, editor of the Salzgitter Zeitung, caught up with Gordon Brown during a visit to the House of Commons.

Luitgard is visiting Swindon, Saltzgitter's twin town, as the guest of Advertiser editor Dave King.

They attended Prime Minister's Question Time and afterwards met the Gordon Brown and also Swindon South MP, Anne Snelgrove, who is Mr Brown’s parliamentary private secretary.

“It was a big honour to meet the Prime Minister,” said Luitgard.

“He was interested in hearing about Salzgitter and we talked about Bosch which has a big factory in the town and which is losing 500 jobs. We share similar problems.

“The Prime Minister was also very aware about Honda’s situation in Swindon.

“He was very interested and extremely friendly.”

During the visit, Luitgard was given a tour of the Palace of Westminster where she had tea with Mrs Snelgrove.

She said: “It was an amazing day “It was absolutely wonderful to see the architecture of the building and to be somewhere which represents the history of democracy.”

As part of Luitgard’s week-long visit to Swindon, she spent part of Tuesday visiting Honda and yesterday spent the morning with Swindon Borough Council’s neighbourhood team, led by Phil Thomas, the head of regulatory services, looking at litter patrols, dealing with underage sales and fireworks.