Commons corner: budget does nothing to help local people into work

The chancellor’s budget had nothing to help get the 125 young people who have been out of work in Ashfield for more than a year back to work.

It had nothing to say to the 290 adults in Ashfield who have been out of work for more than 2 years.

It did nothing to improve wages for women who are now paid £26.60 less a week or the men who are paid £59.90 less a week than they were in 2010.

But I think what made me most angry was the front cover of the London Evening Standard on the night of the Budget which said ‘Osborne’s Budget boost for London’.

London is the one place in Britain which doesn’t need a boost.

I won’t be happy until I see a headline which says ‘Budget boost for Coalfield Communities’ or ‘Budget boost for the Midlands’

I don’t want to be too ungenerous though - I was pleased to see a penny off a pint but when you do the maths you’ll see - for every 300 pints you drink, you’ll get one free.

Being an Opposition MP is incredibly frustrating. There’s so many things that you want to get done, especially when you can see there’s a problem and you have a solution but don’t have the power to change it.

A single, hard-working, professional mum from Selston told me how annoyed she was that her local school could no longer afford to keep running the before and after-school club. It’s not the school’s fault either.

Unfortunately the Government has taken away the funding for after school provision and cut school funding at the same time - with inevitable results.

I can shout and stamp my feet as much as I like but if we had a different Government then I know this wouldn’t be happening.

It’s precisely why I’ve been calling for a childcare guarantee which would mean you’d get your before and after school club back.

In this job you are sometimes left scratching your head and wondering how officials come to some of the decisions they make.

One 85 year old disabled gentleman from Sutton called my office the other day because his application for his Blue Badge rejected. As it wasn’t even the first time that he was applying it for it he didn’t expect to encounter any problems – how wrong he was.

I had to write to Nottinghamshire County Council on his behalf and ask them to look at the case again - it was obvious they’d made a mistake.

I’m pleased to say common sense has now prevailed the second time and around and he’s been re-issued with a new badge.

If anyone else has had a similar problem just give me a call.

These things are normally pretty straightforward for an MP to iron out