Ö÷²¥´óÐã

The region's councils are being given £27.5m to repair potholes.

The news will be welcomed by every local authority in the East which has been struggling to keep up with and fund repairs following the harsh winter.

The largest grant, £6.9m, goes to Norfolk. Essex gets £5.3m, Suffolk gets £4.4m and Hertfordhire £3.8m. Cambridgeshire gets £2.6m, Buckinghamshire receives £2.5m and the smaller unitary authorities receive grants ranging from £248,000 to £787,000.

"This is an absolutely tremendous result for Norfolk," said Graham Plant, the council's cabinet member for Travel and Transport.

"This will be welcomed by hard-pressed motorists in the wake of the worst winter for 100 years. The money will be spent on a mixture of pothole repairs, patching and resurfacing work."

"Of course we're pleased," said a spokesperson for , adding that the problem was so great in Essex that the council's teams was repairing 250 potholes a day.

The MP for Bury St Edmunds described the grant for Suffolk as "fantastic", adding there was a particular need to repair potholes along the A14.

"It is a vital highway between the Midlands and the continent," he said. "I am hoping these additional funds will be used wisely."

There is one drawback. The councils have been told they have to spend the money by September.

"We'll be pulling out all the stops to make sure it's spent on time," a Norfolk County Council spokesman said.

"But it's going to mean that there'll be a lot more roadworks than normal over the summer. All we can say to people is 'please be understanding and bear with us'."

Let's hope we remember that when we're stuck in contraflow with a carload of kids in a heatwave...

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

George Osborne and the Treasury team on Budget day

Good news for motorists, no not the fuel duty cut but the £100m pot to repair potholes.

We've all got our favourite one that we forget to swerve past and crunch into regularly. Most of our roads seem to resemble Swiss cheese after last winter.

commented: "Councils filled in more than two million potholes last year and, following the coldest December on record, face a difficult task to keep roads in a safe condition this year."

Imagine that, two million potholes and not one of them on my road.

Of course the headline was the 1p cut in fuel duty and the cancelling of next month's 4p rise, although the 3p rise through the VAT increase stays... are you following all of this?

According to Labour that makes you 2p a litre worse off than you were at Christmas.

According to , the Conservative MP for West Suffolk, you're 5p per litre better off than you would have been under Labour.

Fuel - will motorists be better off?

"In the run up to the Budget, the overwhelming demand I heard across West Suffolk was for help for families and businesses with the cost of fuel. The Chancellor has delivered more than I could have hoped for," he said.

South Norfolk's Conservative MP, , welcomed the £24m investment boost for Norwich Research Park.

He said: "I am delighted that the work of the scientists at the Norwich Research Park has been recognised by the Government. The Park includes the , one of the world's leading centres of excellence in biological sciences which by itself contributes over £170m a year to the UK economy."

The lion's share of the funds, raised by the Government's bank levy, will go to the in Cambridge, which will receive a cool £44m.

"This is a good budget for Cambridge," said the city's Lib Dem MP, .

No news on Enterprise Zones for the East yet, most of that money looks like it's heading north so far but Norwich North MP, (Con), is hopeful for a place in the 10 that have yet to be decided:

"I am pleased we got Norwich's name in the frame for an enterprise zone and now is the chance to work on the detail. I'm confident we can make a winning case."

But changes to planning might be the most profound for the East - the fastest growing region in the country. It will now be easier to convert commercial properties into homes and there's to be a presumption that the default answer for new developments will be a yes.

Norwich South MP, Lib Dem, , said the plans will give the construction industry a real boost:

"We've seen a real slump in first time house buyers in the last few years, and I'm pleased to see the Chancellor respond with hard proposals to address the struggle faced particularly by young people hoping to get on the housing ladder."

Residents will still need to have a say on plans that will change their towns and villages and councils will want to ensure there's a mixed economy of homes and offices. So we'll have to see how localism will play out under the new rules.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

Mirage taking part in air strikes on Libya

It's often said that parliament is at its best during times of national crisis, and during the debate over military action in Libya there were some powerful speeches from the East's MPs.

"We have crossed a threshold," said , the Conservative MP for Harwich and North Essex and former member of the Defence Select Committee.

"Honourable members should have no illusions that there is no such thing as limited war, in all its bloody terror and dirt."

(Con, Milton Keynes North), a member of the Territorial Army who has served in several war zones, declared:

"I have yet to meet a soldier who has been to war who would rush to another one. It is difficult to experience the horrors of war first hand and ever be the same again.

"I am a firm believer that jaw-jaw is better than war-war, but I accept that the time for jaw-jaw sometimes comes to an end and we must act."

But he later said something that many of our MPs agree with:

"One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was never to go into a room without knowing where the exit is. I fear that we have no clear exit at the moment in Libya. That is understandable; anyone who stood up in this House with a clear idea of exactly how we will exit the situation would be at best naive."

The lack of a clear mission and exit strategy is one that has made several MPs nervous. It is one reason why , MP for Basildon and Billericay, voted against the Government - the only Conservative to do so.

"What is the end game?" he later said. "No one really knows, what happens if Gaddafi is still in power at the end of all this? "

"I think our record of intervention has not been good and here we are yet again interfering in a Muslim country. If the Arabs want a no-fly zone, why don't they do it?"

the MP for Clacton decided to abstain in the vote because, he said: "I do not know all the answers at the moment.

"I'm not against military intervention," he said.

"I just want to know what impact it will have on the ground in Libya and are there ways in which we could achieve the same outcome by involving Arab players?

Demonstrators in Libya

"There have been popular uprisings in the two countries next door to Libya. Surely there must be people in Tunisia and Egypt who'd be prepared to overthrow a tyrant in a neighbouring Arab country?"

Back in the Commons there were more powerful speeches.

The Lib Dem MP, , who's always an advocate for the military garrison in his constituency of Colchester, reminded the Foreign Secretary that: "In opposition we constantly raised concerns about the fact that our armed forces were under strength and overstretched. We are now having cuts in the defence budget... we must be careful about what happens in Afghanistan if we get too heavily involved in Libya."

While , whose parents fled Libya, welcomed the no fly zone but the Conservative MP added that it had to go further:

"We must supply weapons to the resistance fighters. We cannot just leave them to Gaddafi's troops, albeit under a no-fly zone. We must also ensure that all kinds of humanitarian aid reaches the citizens of Tripoli and Benghazi and the surrounding areas."

Most MPs believe they are doing the right thing in supporting the UN resolution. But no one is clear about what happens once the no-fly zone is in place and Gaddafi has stopped attacking his people. And that is making some of our MPs nervous.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

Elizabeth Truss MP

Teachers are in short supply in South West Norfolk, according to , its Conservative MP.

She raised the matter in the Commons and called on the Government to extend the successful to Norfolk.

Teach First was started in 2002 and sends top graduates to teach in poor performing schools for at least two years. Although it's available in six other regions, the East is not currently one of them. thinks it should be.

She also suggested the possibility that national pay guidelines should be relaxed for subjects that have difficulty in recruiting teachers.

Such a move would make it easier for head teachers to attract qualified candidates, argued the SW Norfolk MP.

(Minister for Schools) had some interesting news. He told her: "On pay, my honourable friend will be interested to know that a further remit will be issued to the School Teachers' Review Body later this year asking for recommendations on how the pay and conditions system can be made less rigid.

"This work will build on the current extensive flexibility, which will allow schools to pay to attract and retain teachers."

Have the ears of the and other interested parties pricked up at this suggestion?

Mr Gibb praised the work of , supported by the National College, to develop local solutions to meet the demand for head teachers.

Afterwards Elizabeth Truss said: "I want all available tools, including successful programmes like Teach First, to be accessible to schools in Norfolk. It is vital that schools in South West Norfolk are able to recruit teachers in short supply subjects."

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

Haulier Robbie Green says no-one wants to protest

In the autumn of 2000 the eastern region was brought to a standstill and the country was nearly brought to its knees as hundreds of hauliers and farmers protested over the price of fuel.

Day after day slow-moving convoys clogged up the main roads, oil depots were blockaded and many garages ran dry.

Then petrol was nudging 80p a litre. Now it's getting close to doubling in price. So where are the protests?

Although there are plenty of bloggers and websites calling for direct action, it seems almost certain that there won't be. It's partly because of the economic climate: hauliers cannot afford to take time off to demonstrate and they know they'd get little public support if a drawn-out campaign started to inconvenience people.

Hauliers fearful

But we've discovered that there is another reason why they won't do anything - they're fearful of the consequences.

Several hauliers have told us that the licensing system has been tightened and they would probably be prevented from driving commercially ever again if they staged a go-slow or blockaded a refinery.

"To hold an operator's licence you need something called a Certificate of Professional Confidence (CPC)," says Robbie Green who was one of the leaders of a blockade of an oil depot in Norfolk back in 2000.

"One of the stipulations of a CPC is that you must be seen to be of good repute and what they're saying now is that if you protest, you're not of good repute, so we'll take your licence away. That's why no-one wants to protest."

Many of those who led the protests of 2000 have now left the business - partly because they could no longer afford to run an expensive truck but partly because of what happened when they went back to work. Several have told us that they started receiving visits from officials who went through their books and their bank accounts.

"It wasn't nice, it was quite stressful," says Mr Green. "The tax people investigated us to see whether we'd been paid any extra money for bribes - they were convinced we were trying to bring the government down."

John Bridge, who was a director of the at the time, agrees: "Many of our members were visited by various parts of the authorities who looked at different parts of their business including their taxation and maintenance arrangements.

"They had been demonstrating quite legally and many feel this kind of scrutiny was something they don't want to repeat."

The then government was spooked by the protests which took ministers by surprise and they vowed that such scenes should never be repeated.

The police were told to fully enforce the law - to prosecute drivers who deliberately drove slowly and ensure that picket lines were not over-manned. Plans were put in place to secure oil refineries more quickly.

Harder line

"Since 2000 the police have adopted a much harder line," says Geoff Dunning of the Road Haulage Association.

"When the price of fuel spiked in 2008 what limited protests there were were dealt with much more firmly and that's the sort of thing we have to take into account."

Even the present government would probably use the law to restrict any protests. A spokesman for the told us that under the 1992 Road Traffic Act, the Government has the right "to impose temporary restrictions on the use of roads by certain vehicles if necessary".

The industry has therefore decided to concentrate on lobbying. has attracted thousands of signatures and the support of many MPs.

"It's clear that this sort of political effort is beginning to influence the government," says Geoff Dunning. "We don't need blockades or protests."

"With the economic situation as it is, work is not as readily available to drivers and people don't have the availability of trucks to protest that they used to have," says John Bridge, now .

"That's another reason why we aren't seeing protests now. I also think hauliers don't want to hurt the public or cause any more difficulty for people."

The world has changed - drivers don't feel that large-scale protests would really work.

And following their experiences in 2000, they're too cowed to take direct action.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

Therese Coffey

It seems apt that the subject of is shipwrecks.

The Suffolk Coastal MP is delighted to be steering her Bill through Parliament.

She says: "This Bill is common sense really but I know it has taken years to negotiate with other nations. Tomorrow, the Bill receives its Third Reading and moves to the Lords. This is something I can genuinely claim that my predecessor John Gummer never achieved, as in all his years of trying, he was never drawn in the Ballot."

aims to transfer liability from the taxpayer to ship owners for the removal of shipwrecks. For larger vessels, insurance will be compulsory.

added, "I chose this particular Bill because of the importance of clear shipping lanes in Suffolk Coastal.

"Imagine if a cargo boat was wrecked just outside Felixstowe. It would be devastating for the port. This legislation puts the onus on the ship owner to remove the wreck and if they do not or are slow, it gives powers to the UK government to remove the wreck and charge the ship owner for it".

So in her first year as an MP, she has all but implemented a new piece of legislation.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

Prime Minister's Questions and David Cameron

A blast from the East blew through this week...

No less than five of the region's MPs were on their feet - it's got to be some sort of a record. The present cohort from the eastern counties are keeping David Cameron on his toes.

(Con, West Suffolk) kicked off with a question about a double killing in Suffolk. The Prime Minister agreed that everything must be done to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Then curried favour with a quote condemning AV - at the expense of , Member for Exeter - the director of Labour's 'Yes to AV' campaign. The Conservative MP for Harwich and North Essex and a leading light in the 'No to AV' campaign revealed this with a flourish worthy of a BAFTA nominee, leaving the Prime Minister exclaiming: "What can I add to that brilliant piece of judgment?"

Next off the blocks was - reinforcing his message that no more Libyan money should go to British Universities. The PM agreed that: "Universities will want to ask themselves some pretty searching questions about what they did," which seemed to satisfy the Conservative member for Harlow.

It wasn't only the Conservatives quizzing David Cameron. Labour's , MP for Luton North, compared the Prime Minister to "President Herbert Hoover, whose policies led directly to the great depression of the 1930s", before claiming Labour's leader could be the new Roosevelt.

The Prime Minister was having none of it and claimed that it was only the Guardian newspaper who backed Labour's economic policies. He parried, "You can keep your supporters and I'll keep mine".

But it was a question from , the Lib Dem member for Norwich South, that came as a surprise. A new report has showed that Norwich has the highest child poverty level in the eastern region.

Mr Wright highlighted the need for a cross-government response to tackle the root causes of poverty and deliver greater social mobility, which David Cameron accepted.

Commenting afterwards, Mr Wright said: "I wanted to raise this issue with the Prime Minister because of the shocking levels of child poverty in Norwich - the highest in the East of England."

Yes, Norwich, the historic, well-heeled tourist destination.

After the bear baiting of PMQ's is over, some facts stick in your mind.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

"We have got a massive task on our hands," she told them, revealing that with less than seven weeks to go before the local elections there was "a disproportionate number of candidate vacancies in the East".

She said the party had candidates for every seat in Thurrock, Norwich, Ipswich and Waveney but added that in many council wards in the region there was still a need for people to stand.

"We have to have Labour candidates in all of the vacancies", she said.

Ms Harman was speaking at the official launch of Bob Blizzard's report into why Labour did so badly in the East at the last general election (see earlier blog).

She said May's local elections could be a good springboard for Labour to re-establish itself.

The party might not win control of many councils, she said, but she predicted that support for the Liberal Democrats would collapse and that "the share of the vote will be a big issue".

More than 150 people attended the launch at Westminster Hall which had been organised by Gavin Shuker, one of the region's two remaining Labour MPs.

The majority of the audience were activists and councillors who had travelled from the region for the event, a sign of how much importance is being attached to Mr Blizzard's report.

Mr Blizzard revealed that he and co-author Lewis Baston had held meetings to discuss their findings with Ed Miliband, Ed Balls (described by Ms Harman as the party's "regional Tsar"), Ray Collins - Labour's General Secretary - as well as Andy Burnham and Peter Hain, who are responsible for campaigning and modernising the party.

"They have got the message, they are now taking the East seriously," said Mr Blizzard, whose report had attacked the party leadership for ignoring the region.

Everyone seemed to agree that the chances.

They also seemed to agree that not having a clear message, particularly on immigration, had let many of their candidates down.

As yet, though, there seemed few new policies or real ideas about how to attract voters back to the Labour fold despite a determination to work hard and listen more.

For now, the party seems to be hoping that the unpopularity of the coalition will be enough but as Mr Blizzard told his audience: "We will need to have some clear and convincing answers by the next general election."

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

A debate on the virtues of the Alternative Vote, with speakers from both sides of the argument putting their case.

Priti Patel, the MP for Witham, forcefully put across her arguments against the need for change: "This system would give undue influence to minority parties and the most worthless of candidates".

Andrew Smith, a former UK Independence Party parliamentary candidate, also put his case passionately: "You can't have a situation where people vote in significant numbers for a party and it doesn't get a single MP elected".

It was a good debate. Unlike the turnout.

The organisers had told us they were expecting around 40 to 50 people. Just 25 were in the audience. Once you took out family and close supporters of the speakers the number was probably closer to a dozen.

Was this because it was a Friday night and the people of Chelmsford had more interesting distractions or was it because the public are yet to get swept up by the AV referendum?

It is interesting to note that media reports are saying David Cameron has now ordered the "No" campaign to raise its game.

These are still early days. The opinion polls suggest that the public is still confused about, or unaware of, this referendum and no side wants to peak too soon.

But even the "No" campaign would have to accept that Chelmsford was a rather disappointing start.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

Gavin Shuker MP - a new role with DEFRA

tells us he's just been made a shadow minister.

He's to join the DEFRA team following the resignation of Peter Soulsby and will probably have responsibility for fish.

This is quite an achievement for someone who has only been an MP for 10 months.

It follows his success in the election, which many in the party expected him to lose following the expenses scandal which enveloped his predecessor Margaret Moran.

Sources in the party tell us that Labour leader Ed Miliband was impressed with the way he fought the campaign, with his constant championing of Luton and the fact that (as only one of two Labour MPs in the region) he's taken it upon himself to lead the Labour revival in the East.

He's most recently been PPS to Shadow Justice Minister Sadiq Khan and he's a member of the Transport Select Committee.

Some new MPs like to keep a low profile during their first year at Westminster. Not so Mr Shuker.

He admits to knowing very little about the world of and particularly fish (which, let's face it, don't feature much in Luton "except perhaps in the shops") but he's promising to get to grips with his new brief very quickly.

We now learn that Gavin Shuker didn't get fish after all. Instead he's to oversee hunting, forests, waterways and the natural environment. I'm not sure how much of a natural environment it is for a lad from urban Luton but he's confident he's capable of learning a brief.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

UKIP's 2010 election campaign - but how will the party fare in the forthcoming May elections?

has very excitedly announced that four more local councillors have decided to join its ranks.

Three Independents on (including one husband and wife team) now intend to sit as UKIP councillors.

While on a disaffected Conservative, Stuart St-Clair Haslam (who had already left the Conservative group on the council) has also decided to throw in his lot with UKIP.

The defections come at an interesting time for the party, following UKIP's second place in last week's Barnsley by-election.

Within Conservative circles there is increasing speculation at the moment about whether the party, now once again under the high-profile leadership of , could become a threat for the Tories.

The thinking goes that with the now in Government, there is no obvious home for protest voters, and with the BNP in disarray, those who feel strongly about immigration also have nowhere to go.

The party is being warned not to ignore the UKIP threat from within its own ranks and that pursuing a liberalising agenda could be a mistake.

UKIP is unable to give us the number of councillors who have defected to it over the last few years. But according to our records the party only has 10 councillors across the whole of the East. The largest number, two, is on .

With such small numbers the party is not going to make much, if any, impact on our town halls. But the party and some believe that things could be happening to UKIP's support.

The forthcoming local elections will be the test.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

The says he's "flabbergasted" that plans for a waste incinerator are moving forward.

"I'm staggered. I'm amazed. I'm flabbergasted. I am also very angry because a large number of people in West Norfolk voted with a resounding 'no'."

In fact, in a public referendum 65,000 people voted 'no' to the idea of the £600m project to build and run a waste plant at Saddlebow, near Kings Lynn.

Under the proposal the Anglo-American company would have a 25 year contract to process 260,000 tons of rubbish a year and provide power for 36,000 homes.

Local Conservative MP, , says he's very angry: "We're trying to encourage people to take part in democracy and turn up to vote. And when they do, they're blatantly, absolutely, flagrantly ignored in this way. I think it will lead to huge resentment, a lot of anger and it's a really dark, grim day for democracy in Norfolk."

The controversial plans to build the incinerator were approved by the Norfolk County Council's cabinet. It insists that it's right to move forward with the plans and the incinerator is needed - to cut down on landfill.

The company behind the energy plans says they'll have no significant impact on air quality or health.

But Henry Bellingham warns: "I'm not completely opposed to all types of incineration but I am completely opposed to this incinerator. If you're putting a county wide facility in Norfolk you don't put it upwind of the third most densely populated part of the county.

"If you drive up recycling rates to 75% then the case for an incinerator goes out of the window. What I said to the county council was that they should look at their entire waste strategy and aim at driving up recycling rates.

"People will not take this lying down."

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Robert Halfon

is a happy man.

This week the Conservative MP for Harlow posted an Early Day Motion (EDM) - which allows backbench MPs to express opinions - condemning "the £1.5m accepted by the London School of Economics (LSE) from the government of Libya in 2009".

He is delighted at the news that Sir Howard Davies, the director of the , has resigned over the University's links with the Gaddafi regime.

"I think that Howard Davies has done the honourable thing and resigned. They lost their moral compass," he says.

This week he told the House of Commons: "My grandfather was one of thousands of Jews who had to leave Libya because of Gaddafi's appropriation of Jewish businesses and homes, and he came to this country because of its democracy.

"He would have been shocked to have seen not only the close relations between the last Government and Gaddafi, but the acceptance by our distinguished universities, particularly the London School of Economics, of more than £1m from Gaddafi."

He thinks the LSE affair is just the tip of the iceberg.

"What is more worrying is that it seems that more universities were involved as well. I've done some research with the House of Commons Library and it seems that the Saudis have been giving millions to Universities across the UK, including Cambridge University which got £8m for an Islamic centre."

And indeed it did, in 2008 it announced the of Islamic Studies will enable the development of a "constructive and critical awareness of the role of Islam in wider society".

In another EDM, Mr Halfon "notes that universities from across the UK have accepted hundreds of millions of pounds from Middle Eastern dictatorships in recent years; and therefore calls on the Government to strengthen its scrutiny".

Mr Halfon believes: "British universities should not accept money from middle eastern dictators and tyrants."

He has now tabled 100 Freedom of Information requests to British universities, so expect more to come...

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

So how would the Alternative Voting system make a difference in the eastern counties?

As campaigning gets under way in the region it's a reasonable question to ask. The honest answer is that at the moment no one knows.

Opinion polls are divided, suggesting majorities for both the "yes" and "no" camps depending on the way the question is asked.

With no data on previous voting under this system, it's hard to predict how people would list their preferences.

Let's deal first with what we can be clear about: if approved by a majority of voters in May, AV would be a radical change in the way we elect our representatives.

Instead of putting a cross next to a name we would have to list candidates in order of preference.

If a candidate gets enough first preference votes to give him more than 50% of the vote, he or she wins. If not, the candidate who came last drops out and their second preference votes are redistributed among the other candidates.

That process continues until someone has the support of more than 50% of the electorate.

Another thing we can be sure of is that under AV, election counts will go on much longer!

So would it change the political make up of the region? Almost certainly, but perhaps not as dramatically as in other parts of the country.

Many of our MPs were elected with more than, or just under, 50% of the vote under the current first-past-the-post system. They would be likely to hold their seats under AV.

But what about seats where the margin of victory was much smaller?

This is where we suspend the facts and do a bit of speculating.

The Politics Show East did some back-of-the-envelope calculations last year and re-fought the .

Completely unscientific, admittedly, but there might be a kernel of truth somewhere in this exercise.

We presumed for the purposes of our experiment that UK Independence Party voters would have the Conservatives as a second preference; that Green supporters might divide between Labour and the Lib Dems for their second choice and that many Lib Dems might chose Labour second. We also assumed that Labour voters would opt for the Lib Dems as their number two.

The result, we speculated, would have been different outcomes in 11 seats.

Labour may have held on in Corby, Ipswich, both Milton Keynes seats and both Northampton seats.

Stevenage and Waveney may have also stayed in Labour hands and they might have taken Norwich North from the Tories, while the Lib Dems may have gained Bedford.

As Peter Snow would have said, "this is only a bit of fun" and we are happy to accept that our assumptions and methodology may not be accurate.

But our little game suggests that the electoral map of the region would be a little different under AV.

Whether that's a good thing or not is what this debate is all about and both sides of the campaign will be fiercely debating the pros and cons for the next two months.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

As well as being an active Conservative MP and a member of the Treasury Select Committee, South Northamptonshire's Andrea Leadsom has another cause that's close to her heart.

For the last ten years she's been actively involved in a project that helps young parents to bond with their babies and now she wants to extend it to Northamptonshire.

The Oxford Parent Infant Project (OXPIP) offers counselling and therapy services to parents and babies to help them develop more loving and secure relationships.

Ms Leadsom says that the first two years are vital in a child's development.

"The human brain is itself only partially formed when you are born", she told MP during a recent debate.

"It is the earliest experiences of the human baby that literally hardwire his or her brain, and it is these earliest experiences that will have a lifelong impact on the baby's mental and emotional health".

The average family requires ten sessions of therapy which costs £75 a week. The charity says its success has been independently proven and saves the need for more intensive financial and emotional intervention in later life.

Today, during a debate on Sure Start centres, Ms Leadsom revealed that the OXPIP project is to be extended:

"I plan to launch a pilot scheme in 2011 for a Northamptonshire parent infant project that will mirror what OXPIP has been doing so successfully for 13 years in Oxfordshire.

"Working closely with children's centres in Northamptonshire, I hope to show, prove, demonstrate, document and evaluate the value of really early intervention services in making a real difference to the quality of families' lives", she told the Commons.

The former banker has three children of her own and we're told she'd like nothing better than to see this work.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Written by the former MP for Waveney, Bob Blizzard, it draws on statistical research and interviews with former MPs from the region who lost their seats.

It paints a bleak picture of the state of the local party.

"We need to recognise that our organisation, our core vote, our local government base and our presence in the life of communities in the region are all in a worse shape than in the worst days of the 80s," Mr Blizzard concludes.

Labour, he claims, "seems to have shallow roots in the East which are easily pulled up when the Tories come into contention".

The report, "How the East was lost... and how to win again", highlights Gordon Brown's leadership and the lack of a clear message on immigration as the two main things that put voters off Labour.

It also reports a lot of anger over the perceived unfairness of the benefits system but also claims that the MPs' expenses scandal and the economy were not big factors in driving voters away from the party.

The report also claims the national party ignored the East when it came to ministerial visits, capital expenditure and appointing members of the cabinet.

'Constant struggle'

It goes on to criticise the party for picking poor candidates in unwinnable seats and giving the impression it didn't care about Labour voters in those constituencies.

"We were fighting the perception that Labour was not for the East," an unnamed candidate tells Mr Blizzard.

"It was a constant struggle to get the Labour government to pay attention to the region," says another.

Mr Blizzard believes the party can win again in this region and claims it is already picking up support as the Coalition cuts start to bite.

What Labour now needs, he says, is a clear and distinct message, better communications and more support in terms of resources from Labour HQ.

Mr Blizzard's report is only just being shown to senior Labour figures but it's interesting that Ed Miliband has decided to ask his shadow cabinet to "adopt a region".

It's now emerged that Ed Balls won't simply front this year's local election campaign, as reported in the previous blog, but will be the main face of Labour in the East in every campaign up to and including the next general election.

"We don't have many well known or recognisable figures in the region," says a source, "putting in a big hitter like Ed shows that we're trying to take the East more seriously".

Mr Blizzard accepts that Labour faces a big uphill struggle.

He recommends candidates in target seats should be selected as soon as possible, that there should be better selection of candidates even in unwinnable seats and he calls for the culture of party meetings to change to make outsiders more welcome.

His hope is that the local elections in May will be a good springboard for a Labour fightback.

But if Labour wants to consider the extent of the task ahead of them they should consider some of the stark statistics in Mr Blizzard's report.

The number of people who voted Labour in the East last year was more than the total number of voters in either the North East of England or Wales.

Yet the North East returned 25 Labour MPs, Wales returned 26 while the East has just... two.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

You may not be overly familiar with the comings and goings of Alcuin of York. I thought not.

Born in 735 he was one of the best sources of information about late 8th Century life. He was Master of the Palace School at Aachen, and built up a network of friends, students and clerics who fanned out across Europe.

Alcuin travelled to Rome, to Frankfurt, and ended his days in Tours when the average peasant would often live out his entire life within the boundaries of a single parish.

And he loomed large in the address given in his name delivered by Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the , to students at Cambridge University.

Jose Manuel Barroso wants more British nationals working for the EU

"It supports industry across Europe through research and development and technology transfer activity. It is currently working, in partnership with groups like Fiat and Siemens, with nano-magnetic materials, to create high performance magnets for electric cars that depend less on rare earth elements.

"The consequences of this research on the day-to-day lives of all Europeans could be dramatic," he said.

Mr Barroso ended his speech with an appeal to the fresh-faced ranks in front of him. "I want to highlight an issue that is high on the radar screen of the British government - the under-representation of British nationals among the staff in the European institutions.

"Only 5% of the EU's total workforce is from the UK, whereas the UK accounts for more than 12% of the EU population.

"Worse still - around half of the existing British EU officials are due to retire in the next five years; and in last year's main a shockingly low number of applicants were British - less than 1.5%."

With unemployment among young people currently running at 20%, I doubt his exhortations fell on deaf ears.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?