This week Vince Cable has announced the results of the Government’s review on financing for higher education. This has recommended that Universities should have the freedom to charge students more, but in return provide more information to justify the extra fees and set out the likely job prospects of their graduates. The review also increases […]
This week at the Conservative Party conference the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne stated that we cannot choose the times in which we live, but we can choose how we live in those times. Certainly the new Government would rather not have taken office with the country feeling the strain of the biggest budget […]
‘I have confidence that spring will come again’ sang Julie Andrews in the ‘Sound of Music’, and from their latest report, the influential International Monetary Fund (IMF) seems to be on the same page. Back in the 1970s it was the IMF that had to bail out Britain with an emergency loan, but today they […]
The Pope’s visit to Britain was the highlight of last week in Westminster, as well as for many hundreds of thousands of people right across the country. On Friday I was fortunate to have a place in Westminster Hall representing the Folkestone and Hythe constituency, when Pope Benedict addressed the assembled members of parliament, which […]
You don’t have to look at your calendar to know we are into September, you can feel it in the air when you leave home in the morning; the slight freshness that accompanies the sunshine. When we have a few bright September days this is my favourite month of the year, not least because last […]
This Wednesday in parliament we debated some of the issues around traveller sites and temporary camps established without permission. This is an issue which can arrouse strong feelings and has been a particular recent concern to residents and businesses near to Park Farm and Shearway Business Park in Folkestone. I believe that we have to […]
There has been recent speculation in the media that the Gurkha regiment may be cut from the British army which, like many of you, I read with dismay. However, this is just the speculation of some journalists and an individual MP, and not a view that has been expressed by members of the Coalition Government. […]
Some might say that the last Government behaved like it had money to burn; the problem was it was our money. Locally we certainly have an example, not of funds going up in smoke, but being dumped into the sea. And not just a few pounds here or there, but hundreds of thousands a year. […]
Tourism is the second biggest employer in this country and our third biggest export industry. It can sometimes be easy to forget just how important it is to our economy to encourage more visitors. David Cameron has used a recent speech to highlight the work of the British tourist industry, before starting his own family […]
Today the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne has re-stated the Government's committment to new nuclear power stations. In particular, he has stated that: "We are on course to make sure that the first new nuclear power station opens on time in 2018... There are a number of sites that have […]