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                           <title><![CDATA[18 March 2010 Cameron's Plans to Sever Gloucester]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[If the Sunday newspapers are to be believed then residents of Hucclecote in Gloucester could be in for a rude awakening before the year is over.   My constituency of Gloucester has around 90,000 voters registered in it at the moment. The Boundary Commission (which is independent of the government) held a review in 2002 to review Gloucester&rsquo;s boundaries, because on average constituencies only have around 60,000 voters in them.   So they recommended that the Longlevens ward be removed from the constituency. The Commission is independent, 90,000 is too large and Longlevens has clear boundaries marked out...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Mon, 22 Mar 2010 03:16:36</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[11 March 2010 Digital Economy Bill]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Broadband is an integral part of our lives. It helps us interact with friends, do our shopping, run our businesses and even watch our favourite soaps. In doing this it helps perform a social good - enfranchising people who have sometimes been left behind when new technology has been introduced.   To effectively deliver these services to places like Gloucester the Government is introducing the new Digital Economy Bill which is comprehensive and ambitious in its scope. A vital component of the Bill is the government&rsquo;s target that a universal service at the speed of at least 2mb/s will...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:00:31</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[4 March 2010 In Memory of Michael Foot]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[I was at work walking through Portcullis House on the way to the Chamber when I saw Michael Foot. They had just unveiled a portrait of him there. There was nobody around him, so I couldn&rsquo;t resist the opportunity to go and say hello to this man who I had never actually met, yet someone who had had such a big impact on my life.   His handshake was warm and welcoming and he wanted to know about Gloucester and how long I&rsquo;d been its MP. I wanted to express my admiration at how he had kept his dignity...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:55:07</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[24 February 2010 Prime Minister Apologises on Behalf of Country]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[This week the Prime Minister apologised on behalf of the whole country for one of the darkest events in our recent history. Between the 1920s and the 1960s as many as 150,000 young children were shipped away from their homes to Commonwealth countries like New Zealand, Australia or Canada. Successive governments oversaw the Child Migrants Programme. It is difficult to imagine the misery they caused for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Children as young as three were forcibly transferred abroad to the under-populated Commonwealth. Theoretically these children were orphans moving to a better life, but in...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:36:45</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[18 February 2010 Protecting our Animals]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[We are rightly proud to call ourselves a nation of animal lovers. Half of UK households own a pet and we were the first country to have a society - in the RSPCA - that campaigned for animal welfare and had success in bringing about changes in the law. Since I became Gloucester&rsquo;s MP I have worked hard to promote animal welfare issues in Parliament and I think there have been some great victories for animal rights in this time. Cosmetic testing on animals has been banned and we have legislated for the first time to make owners and keepers...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:45:59</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Saving Jobs in Gloucester]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[It&rsquo;s hard to believe that it was just a few years ago that we had to push a bill though Parliament (in the teeth of opposition) that saved British Energy from liquidation.  That could have ended 1,500 jobs at the companies national HQ here in Barnwood overnight and caused shockwaves to our local economy. Now that the company is stable, growing and taken over by EDF, Labour&rsquo;s new planning laws have created new opportunities for these much valued and skilled jobs.  Again it was in the teeth of opposition, but we now have powers to build large scale...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:08:47</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[4 February 2010 StreetGames - A Local Hero in Gloucester]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[In between the usual hectic list of meetings, casework and debates, it was my pleasure to meet a genuine local hero in Westminster this week.    StreetGames are a charity dedicated to making sport available to young people, whatever their background. They operate across the country and they do some very valuable work right here in Gloucester. Since 2008, the local StreetGames Branch has worked to get the most out of the new multi-sport facilities across Gloucester. They run continuous events to help local people become more physically active, improve their personal confidence and self esteem, and promote...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:02:18</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[27 January 2010 Decisive News on Recession]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Rupi and I needed to see some real evidence that the recession was coming to an end. So last Sunday night we persuaded some friends to baby-sit and we headed to the Guildhall.   I&rsquo;ve got to be honest with you, Cajun music is not my favorite thing to dance to, but we gave it our best shot. Aside to our clumsy footwork, the big spectacle on the last day of the local Cajun Festival was all around us. People. The hall was packed; people had come from far and wide - including Holland and the USA....]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:22:32</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[14 January 2010 Protecting the NHS in Gloucestershire]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[The downside of David Cameron&rsquo;s pledge to target more resources to areas of deprivation is that the Gloucestershire NHS is set to be one of the big losers.  Under plans which the Health Secretary Andy Burnham MP and myself scrutinized in Parliament this week the Tories would take &pound;109 from every man, woman and child in Gloucestershire and spend it elsewhere in the country. That&rsquo;s a 9% cut to the Gloucestershire NHS.  The Conservative shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley MP first announced these plans 3 years ago, when he talked about shifting money from those areas with a...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:11:30</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[1 January 2010 A Tory Tissue of Mistruths]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[This week David Cameron came to Gloucester and talked about the need to have &lsquo;honesty and integrity&rsquo; in politics. But by the following morning I was receiving phone calls from frightened and vulnerable disabled elderly people due to the most disgraceful and dishonest piece of literature imaginable, put through Gloucester letter boxes by Mr Cameron&rsquo;s local candidate for the general election.   It states: &ldquo;Government plans for a National care Service will be largely funded by scrapping the Disabled Living Allowance (DLA) currently given to disabled pensioners. Richard Graham says &lsquo;this will mean over 1,500 people in Gloucester would...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:03:57</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[30 December 2009 Gloucester Momentous Events in the Past Decade]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[We&rsquo;ve seen some pretty momentous events in our City over the past decade. When I feel worn out I sometimes think back to what it must have been like for one of my predecessors as MP for this great City of ours.  Like me, Edward Massey became the City&rsquo;s MP in his twenties. But back in the year 1643 he had the Siege of Gloucester to contend with. It was backs to the walls stuff for Gloucester when a few hundred brave men and women held out for the Parliamentary cause against thousands of Royalists who threatened to break...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:56:11</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[22 December 2009 A Decade in Review]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[This week marks the end of a year and the end of a decade. I&rsquo;d like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  For a moment, let&rsquo;s recall the journey we have been on in this decade. When you elected me in 2001 it was after a period in the 1980s and 1990s when Gloucester had been ravaged by cuts. In the previous decade the Conservative government had removed higher education from Gloucester and shut the campus at Oxstalls. One of the first things I did as the...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:51:03</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[16 December 2009 Protecting our Children]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[When school caretaker Ian Huntley murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham there was a national outcry.  Huntley had been known to the authorities for some time and yet he slipped through the net and was allowed to work in close quarters to children, regardless of what the Police knew about him. I guess the libertarians would say there was nothing in his record that could prove he would become a child killer, so just let him work. I disagree, and that&rsquo;s why I legislated to bring in a new body that could ban people like him from...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:47:47</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[10 December 2009 Fox Hunting - A Cruel Practice]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Hanging proudly on the wall of my Gloucester office is a certificate I received from the League Against Cruel Sport, for voting for the 2004 Hunting Act. Often described as simply a &ldquo;ban on fox hunting&rdquo;, this Act actually outlawed the incredibly cruel practice of setting hounds on foxes or stags for &ldquo;sport&rdquo; as well as banning mink hunting and hare coursing. The actual process of fox hunting, following a trail with horses, is thriving now that the unnecessarily cruel element has been removed.   I&rsquo;m convinced that I made the right decision. Before the vote I spent a...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:36:47</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[3 December 2009 Honouring our Service Men and Women]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[It&rsquo;s important to remember not just those who are fighting for our country in places like Afghanistan right now, but also those brave service men and women who have contributed to previous war efforts on our behalf. As Gloucester&rsquo;s MP it has been my privilege to spend time with veterans of many important conflicts, including World War Two and the Korean War. I am always struck by the modesty and honesty of these people. They never want a fuss made and always reject the label of &ldquo;hero&rdquo;.    But I think it&rsquo;s vitally important that we show these...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:29:22</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[26 November 2009 Keeping the Streets of Gloucester Clean]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[At the very outset of this piece I&rsquo;d like to thank Frank Portlock, Roy Matthews, Tottenham Alice Cooper (that is his real name), Peter Ewald and Amber Walters. When ITV called me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I would go out and do the job of a cleaner in the town centre I was hesitant.   They had done a bit of research and knew that my mother was a hospital cleaner and that she used to get me work as a cleaner in my holidays when I was a student. ITV West are doing a...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:21:18</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[19 November 2009 Maintain Focus on Issues that Matter]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[The Queen&rsquo;s Speech is certainly one of the highlights of the parliamentary calendar in terms of pomp and ceremony. It is undoubtedly a spectacular occasion and reminds us all why Westminster is acknowledged as the mother of all Parliaments.    But sometimes it can be far too easy to focus on the golden carriage or the splendour of the buildings, and miss the important policies that Her Majesty announced. There isn&rsquo;t much time before a General Election must be called, but in this time I believe it is Parliament&rsquo;s duty to work hard to make sure the best...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:14:21</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[12 November 2009 A Day of Remembrance]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[The Armistice and Remembrance have been on our minds in Gloucester and across our country with a sharper focus than at any time I can recall. In recent days I&rsquo;ve joined hundreds of service people and residents at our Festival of Remembrance at GL1, at the Gloucester Cenotaph and the Cathedral on Remembrance Sunday and at the National Cenotaph to mark the silence on the 11th hour on the 11th of November.  We&rsquo;ve seen the raw emotion of a mother whose son bled to death from his wounds challenging the Prime Minister very publicly. I may not find the...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:05:43</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[6 November 2009 A Day at the Cinema]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Thank goodness for Roald Dahl. Thank goodness for his Fantastic Mr Fox. Last Sunday morning I had just got in, cold and wet from a doorstep surgery in Podsmead. As I trundled upstairs to get on with some casework and policy replies to constituents my wife accosted me on the steps.   &ldquo;Where do you think you&rsquo;re going?&rdquo;   &ldquo;Work to do, then off to the Festival of Remembrance at GL1&hellip;got to pack a bag for London tomorrow&hellip;&rdquo;   A searing look crossed her face. &ldquo;Out!&rdquo; she said and thrust some paper in to my hand. Two...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:50:39</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[29 October 2009 UK Youth Parliament Shines in the House of Commons]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Something unique is taking place in the House of Commons today.    In the last 300 years only MPs have been allowed into the chamber, to sit on the famous green benches and debate the issues of the day. But I passionately believe that the House of Commons belongs to everybody in Britain and everybody should feel welcome inside. This is why I&rsquo;m delighted that Parliament is throwing open its doors to members of the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) for the day.   Anyone aged between 11 and 18 is entitled to vote in the annual UKYP...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:45:47</pubDate>
                           
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