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The papers, which contain details of his pioneering work on artificial intelligence, are due to be auctioned very soon.

The scientist, who killed himself in 1954, created a machine at to crack messages in the German Enigma code.

Speaking in the Commons, David Cameron said: "Alan Turing was a remarkable man and we all owe a debt of gratitude to those people who broke the Enigma Code."

Turing, who has been called the "father of the computer", published only 18 papers in his short career.

The collection, which contains his first published paper, his pioneering work on artificial intelligence and the foundations of the digital computer, had a guide price of between £300,000 and £500,000. But failed to reach the guide price at auction.

Now a big campaign is underway to raise £300,000 to buy the papers for .

"They've received a lot of private donations, even Google has made a sizable donation," says , who raised the issue at Prime Minister's Questions. "There's no doubt the money will be raised, they just need a little more time to get the funds in place".

So in the House of Commons he asked: "Will my Right Honourable Friend do all he can to secure these important papers for the nation?"

Mr Cameron replied: "I would certainly like to do that... of course, I hope private donors will generously support the fund raising campaign and I'm happy to work with him to do all I can to make it happen."

Mr Stewart hopes that by getting the Prime Minister to back the campaign, it will raise its profile and perhaps encourage a few more people to contribute to the fund - and persuade Christies to delay the auction for a little longer.

Turing was once described by one of our technology colleagues as a "hero for geeks".

He was prosecuted for having a sexual relationship with a man and later committed suicide.

Last year, the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave Turing a for the "appalling" treatment he received for being gay.

Now the present Prime Minister is throwing his support behind the campaign to keep his important papers where they belong - back at Bletchley Park.

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Eric Pickles says there should be no need for councils to cut their frontline services

While councils across the East of England mutter darkly about having to cut essential services, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government can't understand what all the fuss is about.

"Yes, there will be cuts but it will all be within parameters which are sustainable and well within the capabilites of local authorities," says , who is also MP for Brentwood and Ongar.

"I believe we should be able to protect frontline services."

Instead, Mr Pickles believes it's the councils which are the villains of the peace, guilty of wasteful overspending on bureaucracy.

"We are saying to local authorities 'Look, it's the frontline that matters' and the days when you could feather your own nests, the days when you could put together excessive pay packages for your chief officers and senior staff are gone."

He admits the spending settlement he's announced is tough but believes councils can cope.

"We want people to start to merge their back office services. There is no necessity to have your own legal department, no necessity to have separate accounts departments or separate wage bills or separate planning departments. These are all support services - if they merge them, they will save many millions of pounds.

"My advice to the electorate is to ask your local council:

• Do they have their own chief excecutive?
• What services are they sharing with others?
• How are they improving their procurement?

"All these things have to be done before you start dealing with front line services."

He also disputes the claim that thousands of council jobs will be lost over the next few years.

"They don't have to (cut frontline services) and they will have to face the consequences from the electorate should they do that."

Mr Pickles clearly has highly-paid council chief executives in his sights. At the Tory Conference in October he lambasted them saying anyone earning more than the Prime Minister should be taking a pay cut of 5-10%.

did. Her opposite number in Suffolk, , didn't and neither did in Norfolk. Mr Pickles is not impressed.

"I'm sure they're charming people but at a time when services are being reduced, I don't think if I were those chief executives I could look my workers in the eye."

Councillors struggling to balance their budgets may well be outraged by Mr Pickles' views.

But the Secretary of State believes it is possible to take millions of pounds away from our local authorities and for them to still to be able to provide good frontline services.

The next few months will prove whether he is right.

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Councils across the region have finally been told exactly how much government money they are to receive over the next two years.

Our shire and unitary authorities shall have to lose £250m between them by 2013.

The east is suffering some of the highest cuts to council budgets in the country.

Some of our authorities like Norwich, Harlow, Corby, Great Yarmouth, Breckland and Fenland have been hit hardest with the maximum cut of 9%. The coalition has decided to give a transitional grant to limit the cuts to that figure.

So far these figures have been simply numbers on a spreadsheet but now the reality will hit councils who will have to decide exactly what the implications are going to be for you and me.

Labour's leader in Norwich Councillor Steve Morphew's first reaction was that the cuts disproportionally affect less well off areas. "They're clobbering the poor," he said.

Of our unitaries, Luton is the worst hit with a 5.5% cut in funding next year and an additional 5.5% cut the year after that.

loses £4.8% next year and again the year after, while is to face a 3.75% cut year on year. isn't far behind with a 3.55% cut next year and the following year.

The shires fare a little better. The biggest cut is to - 3.01% next year and the year after, while Buckinghamshire gets away with a 0.6% reduction year on year.

face a 1.6% reduction each year for the next two years, which on the face of it doesn't sound too bad. So will that mean that the people of the county will be spared some of the deepest cuts that had been planned? Alas, no, as many other funding streams, or the lack of them, have to be taken into account - the countil tax freeze for one.

agrees. The government figures reveal a cut of 2.60% for next year and the year after but the authority claim the true figure is 12.4% for next year.

Councillor Bill Parker, Northamptonshire's cabinet member for finance, said: "It appears from our initial analysis of the figures that our formula grant for 2011 has gone down by 12.4%.

"This is a devastating blow for Northamptonshire given that this settlement accounts for three-quarters of our total budget. While we anticipated a tough settlement, we are nevertheless shocked by the extent of the reduction which is even worse than anticipated.

"We now need to consider how they impact on the savings we need to make."

Many other councils will be thinking exactly the same thing.

***
Here's more from Harlow...

Cllr Andrew Johnson, leader of Harlow Council said: "We are looking at cuts of 25 per cent in our Revenue Support Grant over the next two years, 15% in 2011/12 and 10% in 2012/13*. Clearly that is tough and at the higher end of the scale in terms of the cuts Councils are facing, but it is not unique and Harlow has not been 'singled out'.

"However, we obviously face some very challenging times ahead and there will be some tough choices on services and Council jobs. Residents should be assured that we will keep doing what we have always done - and that is to ensure that front line services are protected as far as possible."

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Simon Wright, Lib Dem MP for Norwich South, voted against, while Norman Lamb, Lib Dem MP for North Norfolk, voted for the tuition fees rise.

If you needed some idea of what the student fees fiasco has been like for Liberal Democrats, you only needed to look at Simon Wright moments after he had voted.

The Norwich South MP had decided to follow his conscience and vote against the wishes of his party leadership.

He walked back into the chamber on his own looking very subdued and sat alone on the bench deep in thought. A few minutes later he took solace with fellow rebel, Julian Huppert, the MP for Cambridge, before the vote was declared.

"It had been really difficult for me to come to the decision to vote against colleagues for whom I have a huge amount of respect," he said. "It is not easy to walk through the division lobby when you know you are ".

"I had signed up to the coalition and I broke the agreement. I don't take any pride in that."

But the MP still believes he was right to vote the way he did.

"I very strongly oppose tuition fees and that was a key part of my election campaign. I felt I had been given a mandate by my electorate to defy the coalition on this issue," he said.

His fellow Norfolk MP and close friend Norman Lamb has been a passionate advocate of the new proposals and voted unhesitatingly for the increase.

"It's good that we've got this through but there's no doubting that this has been very tough for the party and I completely understand people's anxieties," said Mr Lamb.

"My argument is that when people look at the I think they'll find there's a lot that makes sense."

He spoke as thousands of students protested, many of them violently, in Parliament Square; the culmination of weeks of protests around the country. There hasn't been so much anger over an issue since the bill to ban hunting with hounds. Has Mr Lamb taken any notice of this?

"I've made a point of making myself available to talk to people. I've spoken to a number of student groups over the last couple of weeks. I engage in the argument with them and what I hope is that they'll listen to the case we put.

"This is a major reform but it's a way of ensuring we have world class universities in the future".

He says he has no animosity towards colleagues like Simon Wright who voted against the government.

"We respect the fact that colleagues have different views and we work together to make a success of this coalition because it is necessary for the national interest."

Both Mr Lamb and Mr Wright will probably not get too much flak from constituents over this issue - Mr Lamb because there are not many students in North Norfolk; Mr Wright because he listened to the large student population in his constituency.

But both accept that this issue has made it hard for many of their colleagues. Their hope is that this debacle will be quickly forgotten - students groups swear it won't.

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Offshore wind power is the way forward for the eastern seaboard, according to the Great Yarmouth MP but, he warns, we must not lose out to Scotland and the North East.

Brandon Lewis believes that the east's offshore industry will have a major role to play to help deliver the UK's target to increase offshore wind power from 1GW to 33GW over the next decade but he is calling for a level playing field.

He says that our region saw one of the first major offshore wind farm installations, with 40 turbines at Scroby Sands off Great Yarmouth. The new Greater Gabbard wind farm, off the Suffolk coast, is soon to go online with 140 turbines and the Round 3 windfarms planned in the North Sea will create the world's largest supply of offshore wind energy.

"As this market develops, the Carbon Trust estimates that over 70,000 jobs could be created or supported in the UK," he added. To that end, the Conservative MP is calling for "expansion in the available skill-base".

He wants a planned skills centre, which will act as a hub working directly with existing training providers as well as industry, to bridge the gap in skill shortages.

"Some energy companies already send staff to meet pupils in school and participation in the Forces 4 Energy initiative will help attract highly skilled engineers leaving the forces to join the industry; they are ideal candidates to retrain for key roles in the energy sector."

He called on the government to acknowledge the skill base in Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft but asked for an even playing field to ensure it will be one of the key areas creating green energy in the future.

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After weeks of keeping everyone guessing, the MP for Norwich South has finally decided how he'll vote in next week's debate on tuition fees.

"Many of my constituents wish me to use the mandate that they have given me to oppose the proposal to increase the basic cap on fees to £6,000. Because I made this a key issue in my election campaign, I have decided that I should vote against these proposals," he says in a statement.

Over the past few weeks the new MP has come under considerable pressure. didn't just sign the not to increase tuition fees - he actively campaigned on the pledge. His surprise victory in May's election over Charles Clarke (the man who first introduced tuition fees) was put down to the large student vote.

But whereas other Lib Dem MPs in University seats (like Bob Russell and Julian Huppert) were quick to say that they'd stick to their pledge, Mr Wright said he wanted time to weigh up all the arguments before reaching a decision.

Simon Wright MP

Because he is viewed as a Government loyalist and is close friends with Norman Lamb (Nick Clegg's political advisor who WILL vote for the increase), students feared that he would back the bill. That's why they've been demonstrating outside his office.

Mr Wright's predicament is a public sign of the pain felt by every Lib Dem MP over this issue.

He maintains in his statement that there is a lot in the proposals that he agrees with: abolishing up-front fees for part-time students; a fairer repayment system and generous support for young people from less privileged backgrounds.

But he also made a promise and in the post expenses/greater accountability climate MPs are expected to keep their promises. His 310 majority probably also weighed heavily on the mind.

There also appears to have been a change of heart among the party whips. A week ago senior party managers were hinting that they would get tough with those who went against the coalition agreement and voted against an increase.

Today one of them told us that Mr Wright would face no reprisals for his disloyalty. "We understand he's been under pressure. He campaigned heavily on this pledge, you can't really expect him not to stick to it."

Most Liberal Democrats will vote for the increase, the Government is confident the bill will be passed. It seems prepared to tolerate a small rebellion.

"We just want to put this behind us and move on," said the party manager.

Will it be as easy as that?

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