DECADES HAVE PAST BUT WE MUST STILL REMEMBER

THIS month marks the 69th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, the site of the largest mass murder in history.

In the weeks leading up to and after Holocaust Memorial Day, on Monday 27 January, thousands of commemorative events were arranged by schools, faith groups and community organisations across the country, to remember all the victims of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides.

The Holocaust remains one of the most horrific chapters in human history, and something we must never forget.

For my part, I had no hesitation whatsover in signing the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Book of Commitment in the House of Commons, honouring those who died during the Holocaust as well as the extraordinary Holocaust survivors who work tirelessly to educate young people about what they endured.

FIGURES REVEAL REPOSSESSION FEARS

ONE in every 95 households in Derby is at risk of eviction or repossession as rising housing costs push more families to the brink of financial ruin.

The alarming figure has been released by the homeless charity Shelter, and reveals that Derby households are at far greater risk than those across the East Midlands as a whole.

Throughout the region, around one in every 122 households is at the same risk.

Shelter also stated that in the last six months of 2013, it recorded 171 calls to its helpline from worried Derby residents – although the charity warned that figure won’t include the great many people who call anonymously.

Unforunately, the figures are reflected in the casework I deal with supporting city residents.

We are in the midst of a cost of living crisis. It is something which has become increasingly obvious to me as I help residents in my regular surgeries, and it is something which this Government is failing to address.

People are in poverty and there is an impact of that. In this case it is that families and individuals are at real risk of losing their homes because they simply cannot afford them.

FLAWED DATA PROMPTED RASH CULL

THERE was a nasty sense of de ja vu as it was revealed that a key piece of data which informed the Government’s controversial cull of badgers was based on flawed statistics.

The cost of this disgraceful cull – which I have vehemently opposed from the outset – has been reported in some quarters to be as much as £2m. Put another way, about £1,300 per dead badger.

Not only that, but the exercise, which started last summer, has been played out in the midst of an increasing abundance of scientific evidence suggesting it will not succeed in its stated aim of tackling bovine tuberculosis.

And now it transpires that, besides all that, the number of herds affected by TB were massively overestimated in the first place because of a computer glitch.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Government ministers would come out and explain themselves?

Instead, the revelation has been met by an eerie wall of silence from the same ministers who have done their utmost to mask figures on the cull since the nasty policy was first implemented.

So let’s recap:

A controversial Government decision in the face of both moral and professional advice against it;

The emergence of revelations detailing a fundamental flaw in the process;

Silent Government ministers, refusing to provide the answers the public deserve.

Ring any bells? To me it has horrible overtones of one of the greatest injustices I have witnessed in my Derby North constituency since becoming an MP – the Government’s appalling treatment of Derby train maker Bombardier.

On that occasion the moral offence was handing a lucrative £1.4bn contract overseas when the British economy was crying out for such a stimulus.

The dismissal of professional advice came in the form of industry experts identifying a whole host of errors in the procurement process which saw Bombardier overlooked.

And the revelations came as, unsurprisingly, the incompetence of ministers resulted in the completion date being set further and further back.

That particular fiasco makes my blood boil to this day, and I fear we are treading a similarly turbulent path over the badger cull.

I spoke at length on the issue in a Westminster Hall debate shortly before Christmas.

In that debate, I detailed the scientific evidence outlining the risks that the cull will not only fail to address bovine TB, but could actually make matters worse. I detailed how the public at large were opposed to the cull on principle.

As expected, my remonstrations fell on deaf ears and were disregarded in the same way that the scientific evidence and public opinion had been.

It remains to be seen whether the Government will finally do the decent thing and end the cull in light of the latest developments.

But for an administration that seems so cavalier in all it does, the fear remains that it will once again demonstrate absolute arrogance, shrug its shoulders and carry on regardless.

MINIMUM WAGE AND WESTMINSTER’S LONGEST-RUNNING ADAPTATION OF THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES

EVEN for a Government becoming increasingly renowned for its U-turns, the coalition’s change of heart on increasing the national minimum wage must have set new records for speediness.

On 15 January 2014, I took part in a debate in the House of Commons in support of a Labour motion demanding that the Government take action to restore the value of the minimum wage. Not only that, but we called for greater enforcement against employers paying below the minimum wage and for companies to be encouraged to pay the higher-still Living Wage.

Predictably, our motion was shot down by a Government who gave no real reason for rejecting its sensible demands, with the Business Secretary Vince Cable presenting a particularly unconvincing and fragmented case for the coalition. Yet, literally 24 hours later, the Chancellor decided to announce that the minimum wage would be going up after all.

Now I don’t want to give the impression that I disagree with the Chancellor’s sentiments; far from it, I will be delighted to see the minimum wage increase – and my representations in the House of Commons before the announcement demonstrates that.

But – really – what possible justification can he now offer for his coalition Government’s actions in rejecting the Labour motion just a day earlier? This coalition truly is all over the place.

On the one hand we have the Lib Dems, who had somehow managed to previously build up this image as reasonable middle-man as the ‘alternative’ party to either Labour or the Conservatives. They have been particularly shocked to find that with responsibility comes accountability, and with accountability comes the risk of criticism.

And, boy, have they faced some deserved criticism in the last three-and-a-half years, with neither the guts to deliver their own promises or the gumption to challenge those of the Tories. Then we have David Cameron and his Conservatives.

They arrogantly thought, and still believe, that control brought with it a right to impose ideology, and have inflicted some of the worst-ever cuts to low and middle earners. Yet the performance of UKIP has them visibly flustered.

They don’t know whether to stray into even more extreme policies themselves or try to take a more reasoned ground into territory they are hopelessly unfamiliar with. And it’s that unfamiliarity which makes Mr Osborne’s announcement so bizarre.

Let us not forget that the Conservatives – and many Lib Dems – actually opposed the introduction of a minimum wage to start with.

Fifteen years have passed since Labour civilised our society by introducing the minimum wage, but our opponents were wheeling out the same flawed arguments about supposed costs to the economy then as Mr Cable was erroneously repeating last week.

Those arguments are of course utter nonsense. With higher earnings come more disposable income, and that in turns prompts local spending which revives the economy. You’d have thought Mr Cable, who the Lib Dems seem to have somehow convinced some onlookers to be a sort-of wizard economist, in Westminster’s longest-running adaptation of the Emperor’s New Clothes, would have been able to figure that one out by himself.

I, for one, will be delighted to see the national minimum wage increase. Families are on average £1,600 a year worse off and the minimum wage is worth less in real terms than it was in May 2010. But I would have been a great deal happier if the coalition Government had taken on board the rest of Labour’s motion too – penalising employers who pay below minimum wage and encouraging companies to go higher still with the Living Wage.

Perhaps Mr Osborne will announce those new Tory ideas next week.

DON'T ALLOW THIS HIDEOUS COALITION TO EXTINGUISH HOPE IN 2014

LIKE every Derby County supporter, I was delighted to see the Rams head into 2014 sitting pretty in an automatic promotion spot.

When I looked at the fixtures on Sunday, I had every faith that we could get a result at Barnsley but was aware we were relying on Burnley and QPR to drop points too.

How fantastic it was to see it all happen and look on as Derby climbed into a position that would have seemed beyond aspirational just a few weeks back.

Steve McClaren has the team playing with a belief that simply didn’t seem possible not long ago, and that confidence inevitably extends to supporters like us, who find ourselves daring to dream.

And it’s that sort of thing that can really give you a lift as you head into a New Year.

It seems bizarre that we place such faith in the fact we’ve moved from one year to another, but there’s no doubt that many people find fresh hope once they get to 1 January.

Sadly, though, that picture is not universal.  There will be many in our city who will look back uneasily on 2013 and fear the worst for the New Year and beyond.

The cost of living crisis has increasingly seen people struggling to make ends meet and more Derby families living in poverty.  Many will have struggled to heat their homes over the recent festive period, never mind provide gifts and trimmings.

More families than ever have relied upon food banks.  Some children will have gone without Christmas presents altogether, while others will have received them not realising that their loving parents have not eaten properly to make it possible.

This is the alarming reality being faced by growing numbers of Derby residents as a result of the most appalling and reckless programme of austerity since the Second World War. 

Despite pre-election promises to the contrary, this Government increased VAT, means tested child benefit, scrapped education maintenance allowances, tripled tuition fees, sacked hundreds of thousands of public sector workers and decimated frontline public services.

In one of the richest nations on earth too many people are poor.  Too many are unemployed.  And too many are desperate for full-time work to support their families, but are forced instead to exist on earnings from part-time jobs.

To their shame, our ideologically-driven Government is pursuing policies that are extinguishing hope.  But we must not let that happen. 

The New Year needs to be about hope.  Whether it’s drawing a line under something bad to put it behind you, making bold plans for your future, or just wanting your local football team get back into the Premier League.

We can turn that hope into reality by pressing for a different approach.  And if the Government refuses to change tack?  Well, it’s 16 months to the General Election when we can vote for a different approach.

THE GROWING CRISIS IN A&E HAS DAVID CAMERON’S FINGERPRINTS ALL OVER IT

THE growing crisis in A&E has David Cameron’s fingerprints all over it and goes to show that you can’t trust the Tories with the NHS.

New figures out this week show that ambulance services are struggling to cope before winter has even begun.

Thousands of people are being held in  the backs of ambulances outside A&E because hospitals are full.  David Cameron has wasted £3 billion on a top-down reorganisation of the NHS, whilst at the same time the NHS has lost over 6,500 nurses since the last election.

This week Labour held a summit with A&E and ambulance staff to discuss pressures on the front line and to identify measures that may help ease the pressure.

With ambulances stuck in queues, large parts of the country are being left without adequate cover.

David Cameron can’t go on with this dangerous complacency and he must act now if all 999 calls are to receive the right response this winter. All this just proves that you can’t trust the Tories with the NHS.

GOVT'S COLD HOMES SCANDAL

YESTERDAY, the Government rejected my amendments to the Energy Bill when I called for clear and unambiguous targets to eradicate fuel poverty.  

Today I witnessed the Chancellor compounding the living standards crisis and ignoring a golden opportunity to reverse decades of underinvestment in Britain’s ageing housing infrastructure.  He could have made up for the failings of the Energy Secretary by using today's occasion to reduce the rate of VAT on domestic renovation and repair and help to get Britain's million plus unemployed young people back to work.  

The inaction of the Energy Secretary and the Chancellor has left millions of households powerless in the face of rising fuel bills.  These millionaire ministers have failed to stand up for ordinary people and have capitulated to the Big 6 Energy Companies.  

They have proved themselves so out of touch with the lives of the British public that, rather than doing something about the rising numbers of people in fuel poverty struggling to pay their fuel bills, they've simply changed the definition of what constitutes fuel poverty!  

Even though there was a 29% increase in the number of excess winter deaths last winter, ministers smugly claim they've secured a good deal for people by knocking £50 off the increase in energy bills. But people's fuel bills are still going up by at least £70, placing even more people in the invidious position of choosing between putting food on the table or adequately heating their homes.

Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the Federation of Master Builders voiced his concern this afternoon when he said: “In his Autumn Statement George Osborne says he is backing British business and British families, and correctly named housing as the general public’s top infrastructure priority. 

"However, the Government continues to focus on big-ticket projects such as road and rail, which will be years in the planning and are unlikely even to begin within the term of this Parliament. 

"The Chancellor has missed an opportunity to reduce VAT on housing renovation and repair.  This would deliver an instant economic fillip to millions of households that are struggling with the ever-increasing cost of living and give Britain’s builders the boost they need to capitalise on the recovery."

Berry added: “Householders need more help to combat the rising cost of heating their homes, and lowering the rate of VAT charged on all housing renovation and repair would do this at a stroke.

He also echoed the point I made in the House of Commons on Wednesday about diverting the £4 billion raised annually in carbon taxes that could be earmarked for a mass programme of publicly funded energy efficiency improvements.

The sad irony of this latest Government debacle is that is that money is already in the system that could be used to fund these vital programme of works.  In addition to the £4 billion to which Berry refers, the Chief Medical Officer points out that for every pound spent tackling fuel poverty, NHS spending on treating cold related illnesses is reduced by 42 pence.  This would release around £1.3 billion to invest in insulating Britain's housing stock.  

So these bungling ministers continue to blunder while kids are left languishing on the dole and millions struggle to keep their homes warm.  This is a national scandal and demands urgent attention.  That's why I will continue to press the case for a national plan to end fuel poverty and ensure that no British citizen is forced to live in a cold home.

You can read the fuel poverty debate by clicking on this link: http://tinyurl.com/ppjbfqr