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Have you noticed your pint going up in price recently? Firstly there was the VAT rise in January, which saw an extra 6p added to the price of a pint and then at the end of March, the 7.2% increase in alcohol duty added on another 4p. I know beer [...]

The government wants to do more to promote social mobility. It wants more children to enter higher paid employment from home backgrounds that brought them up on benefits or low incomes. There are many ways for young people to aspire to much higher incomes than their parents. They all entail lots [...]

Yesterday I managed to sneak in the very last question before we ran out of time in the Business, Innovation and Skills questions in the House of Commons.We had been told the previous day by Treasury officials that the Government's flagship policy on employment and small businesses - the national [...]

Last Monday morning I went along to construction company Barclay Brothers on Nags Head Road to present awards to two apprentices, Scott Lewis and Charlie Connell. Both the apprentices are studying at Hertford Regional College while working alongside six other Enfield apprentices at Barclay Bros. The Construction Awards Alliance [...]

Conclusions of  24/25 March 2011 EU summit included the following:     2. Within the new framework of the European semester, the European Council endorsed the priorities for fiscal consolidation and structural reform. priority to restoring sound budgets and fiscal sustainability, reducing unemployment through labour market reforms and making new efforts to enhance growth. All Member States [...]

Yesterday, I doubt it will have escaped your notice, was the Budget. Despite Labour's wishes and the country's needs, it was a no growth Budget. The Chancellor claimed he delivered a Budget for growth while at the same time downgrading the growth forecast. And even though families are enduring deeply [...]

Chloe Smith, MP for Norwich North, will be running the latest seminar in the series of her 'Next Generation' business seminars. Begun last year in collaboration with City College and Howes Percival LLP, these meetings bring together Norwich students, entrepreneurs and established local firms to discuss the skills and business [...]

As is usually the case, this is a very political Budget.   It will change the economic future of this country hardly at all.   The purpose of this Budget is camouflage to distract attention from the Great Axe that is about to fall within the next two weeks and to give [...]

Tomorrow is Budget day. With the economic recovery stalled and unemployment levels at a 17 year high, the country is already approaching rock bottom and the fears are that announcements in the Budget are going to make things even worse, not better. What we need is a Budget [...]

Delyn MP David Hanson has expressed is real concern at the latest rise in unemployment across the...

Delyn MP David Hanson has expressed is real concern at the latest rise in unemployment across the UK. UK unemployment rose by 27,000 in the three months to the end of January to 2.53 million, the highest since 1994. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobless rate was now [...]

              The government has a target to cut the administrative overhead by 30% over the life of this Parliament. This is a demanding target, but one that can be hit. It will be easiest to do so, if full use is made of people leaving public service to retire or [...]

As readers will know, when public spending is rising by £90 billion a year over five years, it is difficult to see why so many think the main adjustment to deal with our overspending is being made by the public sector. The truth is, that so far all the adjustment [...]

Today the most recent unemployment figures were published. Unemployment has risen again and has now hit a 17 year high. The unemployment rate is currently at 8% - that's a staggering 2.53 million people without jobs. For young people the picture is far worse. The unemployment rate for those aged [...]

                 As an MP I have always thought I should be loyal to my constituents, to my country and to my party – in that order. I have always taken seriously what I promised electors at the last Election and done my best to further those aims. When the Conservative [...]

Chloe Smith, MP for Norwich North, today welcomed simple but significant reforms which help young people get work experience. Today the Commons passed measures to allow people who are on Jobseeker's Allowance to gain work experience without losing their benefit. This is on the same day as the principal debate on [...]

                   This week has seen at least two attempts to destabilise the health reforms. Channel 4 came up with a very sloppy piece of journalism, wrongly claiming that the whole of Parliament had failed to spot an error in the Health Bill that would allow GPs to profit from conflicts [...]

Philip Hammond on Tuesday gave the go-ahead for the £4.5bn Intercity Express Programme (IEP) and the £704m plans to electrify the Great Western Main Line (GWML). The £4.5bn programme will see the building of a combination of around 100 electric trains and bi-mode - diesel and electric - intercity trains which [...]

               Amidst the controversy over sacking armed services personnel I have today received the figures for the MOD headcount.              The total is down 1470 between May 2010 and January 2011 (full time equivalents). Over this same time period 3250 (fte) left the MOD, implying they must have hired 1780 new [...]

Delyn MP David Hanson has responded to today’s rise in unemployment by calling on the Government to...

Delyn MP David Hanson has responded to today’s rise in unemployment by calling on the Government to change course and reinstate employment support to get people off benefits and help grow our economy. David Hanson said: “Today’s job figures are extremely disappointing and show that the Government is getting it [...]

  Private Eye’s Gavel Basher’ is invited to attend all future meeting of the Public Administration Committee to add her/his entertaining interpretation to our deliberations. Last week I reproduced a verbatim account of my exchanges with him. These extracts are far more entertaining. I had forgotten the peal of laughter that [...]