Andrew Mitchell, Member of Parliament for Sutton Coldfield and Secretary of State for International Development, has addressed the Central Sutton Coldfield Churches Together at their Lenten lecture which took place last Thursday at the Trinity Centre, off Mill Street. Mr Mitchell spoke about his experiences since being appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development, in a speech entitled: “How the Coalition Government will target Britain’s support for the world’s poorest and change the world.” Sutton’s MP then took questions from the floor in a Q session chaired by Revd John Routh. This year saw nearly 100 people attend the lecture which is always on an international development theme. Andrew Mitchell MP said, “The response of the British people to recent awful tragedies in both Haiti and Pakistan, as well as the overwhelming support of this year’s Comic Relief, has underlined, once again, a simple truth: that generosity and compassion are at the heart of what it means to be British. “Being generous is always easy in times of plenty. I can well understand those who feel less generous today given the state of our economy. But the Coalition Government believes strongly that we must stand by the world\'s poor. “So do the British people. And just as this Coalition Government will not balance the books on the backs of the least well-off in Britain, so we will not balance the books on the backs of the poorest people on the planet. Charity does begin at home, but it doesn\'t end there.”