POLITICAL editor MARGARET SMITH spoke to former novice monk and new Wycombe MP Paul Goodman to find out his thoughts after his election victory.

Paul Goodman, the newly elected MP for Wycombe, does not fit the stereotype of the traditional Conservative MP.

He is not brimming with born-to-rule confidence; he doesn't have a booming voice, or go round slapping people on the back. Neither does he laugh a lot though he will give a slight chortle occasionally. He also has been known to wink disarmingly.

He chooses his words with extreme care but was praised for giving straight answers at election forums. When he relaxes, he is good to chat to.

Mr Goodman is a 41-year-old York University English Literature graduate, former Catholic Herald reporter, former Daily Telegraph comment editor, former researcher for Northern Ireland secretary Tom King and, most surprisingly, former novice monk.

Wycombe should have been a safe Conservative seat.

After all, the former MP Sir Ray Whitney had had a majority of 17,000 in 1992.

This dropped in 1997 to just over 2,000, but if the Tories nationally had recovered more than slightly Mr Goodman should have faced an easy ride.

As it happens he won by 3,000, but the lead up to the election was full of uncertainty as Labour activists put it about that they were going to win.

It was not until the votes started to be sorted that the watchers began to whisper that Mr Goodman was doing slightly better.

As Labour smiles waned, Mr Goodman began to look less tense, but asked how he thought it would go he said he wasn't going to say anything until the result was certain. Asked if he would be a more bit more outspoken as an MP, he replied 'No Comment'.

So, a man with a sense of humour.

He spoke to me about four specific local issues.

Wycombe Hospital and its A & E department "I hope to be a champion for the health services in the constituency."

Central Railway's plans for a freight line from Liverpool to Lille, which will run through Bucks no local MP is going to support them.

Schools Mr Goodman said there was particular concern from young mothers about which schools their children would go to and he didn't mean the grammar school issue.

Development he knows there is a conflict here. "People want to live in a green and pleasant environment, but also want the environment to be a bubbling, dynamic economic zone."

The fact that he is not local to Wycombe does not worry him.

"Look at Lawrie Sanchez. He was chosen by local people. I am never going to be able to bring as much happiness to Wycombe as Lawrie, but the same thing applies."

Precisely what a novice MP in a defeated party will be able to do remains to be seen.

Mr Goodman said: "I can put a voice for High Wycombe and Marlow in Parliament. It is a problem for any MP that you are only one in 650.

"One of the first things that struck me was how diverse Wycombe is. I decided that if I was going to represent Wycombe well I would have to act on behalf of the whole community. I will be out and about and not just waiting for them to contact me."

Mr Goodman spent a lot of his time at meetings in the homes of Asian families during the campaign.

"I found concern among older Asians that the younger ones were turning away from the Mosque and assimilating some of the worst western values.

"They feel it is too easy for their children to get drugs this is something white parents may feel as well.

"Asian families have an entirely reasonable fear of the consequences of family breakdown. They support marriage and there is a very strong aversion towards homosexual practice and great opposition to government moves to abolish Clause 28."

Mr Goodman supports them on this.

He will also be backing the Kashmiri community in its struggle for self-determination in that country, and would support calls for an all-girls school for the Asian community.

On another tack, he wants less central control of local government and local schools and does not support regional government.

"If you stop the average bloke or blokes in High Wycombe and ask them which region they inhabited they wouldn't know, but they are quite clear about which county they are in."

Mr Goodman was brought up in East Sheen, London, and has a sister Anna. His father Abel made commercial films, but died in 1996 undergoing experimental heart surgery in the John Radcliffe Hospital.

After converting from Judaism to Catholicism at the age of 24, Mr Goodman tried life as a novice monk in 1989/90, before realising it was not for him.

"It is rather like standing on the edge of the swimming pool. You have to take the plunge and find out if the experience is for you."

He and his wife Fiona, a solicitor, married in February 1999 and they have a home in Terriers, High Wycombe.

There is no family yet, but he says: "Growing old without children is a sad business."