Well what a couple of weeks we have had. This tired out Government is going from one mess to another and the national interest is really beginning to suffer. We have seen the Defence Chiefs slamming Labour, and rightly so, for failing to support our troops, millions of people's data have been lost by the Government and now we know Labour took hundreds of thousands of pounds of illegal donations from a big businessman. Apparently, Gordon knew nothing about it! Yeah right.

If my mailbag locally is anything to go by, there is a real mood for change. The number of people who start letters along the lines of, "I voted Labour last time but never again", is quite staggering. We have also had some very successful fund raising campaigns too; and unlike Labour, ours are legal.

I love the poster above, it really does sum up this Government. The serious point however is that our country is beginning to suffer from the current disastrous leadership. Locally, our Labour politicians never have anything serious to say, and now nationally we see the business of Government being driven off course by their own incompetence.

Having got back from Belfast, I had another busy week visiting various people and events across the area. My highlight had to be running the 'Play Your Cards Right' stall at the Brigg Primary School Christmas Fair.

For one night I got to be Bruce Forsyth, although without any glamorous assistants. Anyway, the event was packed and I got to chat to a lot of people who seemed to enjoy the event. Our stall managed to raise a few pounds which I know will be put to good use.

I also had the pleasure of speaking to a packed Hook Ladies Lunch at the Viking in Goole. I was told by the Chairman that it was their best turnout for some time. That's despite having to endure me as their speaker!

Andrew at the home of East Riding PCT

For some time now my team and I have been raising concerns about breast screening rates across East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. Presently, just 7% of women aged between 50 and 70 are receiving their screening within the 3 year target set by national Government. No wonder so many local women have contacted me regarding the delays to screening which in some cases have been as much as 10 months.

Indeed, just a couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a lady in Haxey who had to wait 46 months between screenings. With a diseases such as breast cancer delays of this kind can mean the difference between life and death and it is vital that the Humberside Breast Screening service moves swiftly to hit the target.

I have been raising this issue in every forum I can and I am delighted that neighbouring MP David Davis has raised this at Westminster. Local women deserve a first class service and we must continue to push until those important targets are met.

The striking statue above is Mother Canada weeping for her lost sons at the Vimy Ridge Memorial in France.

This morning I attended the annual Remberance Day ceremony which I try to do every year. I am always greatly moved by the ceremony and I think this year it was extra special because Remembrance Sunday fell on the 11th.

As I stood there this morning in silence at 11am, I wondered what was going through the mind of my Great Grandfathers Mapplethorpe, Theakstone and Feasey who were all in service on November 11th 1918 when armistice was declared. One of them was with the Yorks and Lancs Regiment in Italy, one with the 9th Yorkshire Regiment and the Norhumberland Fusiliers in France and one of them in France with the 142nd Field Ambulance.

With my Grandad serving in the Second World War, I grew up with a strong sense of the importance of the sacrifice made to us by our armed forces in defending our way of life. I became so interested in it that I have been researching my three Great Grandfathers first world war experiences for some time. Given that two thirds of World War One service records were destroyed by a German raid in the Second World War, this is no easy task. All three of my families records were destroyed in that raid but I did have some papers and photos for two of my Great Grandfathers and so my research was made much easier.

I have spent quite a lot of time at the National Archives in London researching their wartime experiences and just this year managed to piece together the record of my third Great Grandfather whom my Dad knew as a child but whose wartime record nobody in the family seemed to know anything about.

Great Granddad Feasey served with the 12th General Hospital at Rouen from 1914 before moving to the 142nd Field Ambulance with whom he served as a stretcher bearer through to the end of the war. He went across with the British Expeditionary Force (The Old Contemptables) and his field ambulance unit were at pretty much every major battle on the western front in the intervening years. His unit saw action on the Somme and at Passchendaele and the job of the field ambulance was particularly bloody and gruesome. The casualty rate was high and the War Diary of his unit, which I have researched a Kew, reveals just how awful it was for the unarmed men of the field ambulance. The War Diary entry for the Unit in September 1918, at what I think was the Battle of the Hindenburg Line, reveals the following, "The whole bearer personnel were working under great pressure and, although shelling was most severe, all casualties were evacuated." The War Diaries of the various units are very matter of fact about the experiences of the units but I still think this little snippet allows us to imagine just how awful the job must have been.

Imagine the huge pride I felt then when I discovered he had received the Military Medal for Gallantry along with various service medals including the 1914 star. Nobody in the family who knew him remembers him talking about any of his wartime experiences. He simply came back from war and got on with his life, actually becoming a postman. The greatness of that generation is not evidenced just in the numbers who gave their lives, it is also shown in the modesty of those who survived.

All three of my Great-Grandfathers survived, although one of them was gassed, as far as I can establish from the War Diary, at the Battle of Asiago on the 15th June 1918 by the Austrians. He never really recovered from his gassing and apparently had to spend much of the rest of his days sat near the Aga.

I try to keep my website to political issues and not personal ones, but Remembrance Sunday is a day I feel very passionate about, as any of my pupils will tell you. I am very proud of the contribution my family made in the service of our country and I continue to be proud of the sacrifices our armed forces are making today. I hope we never stop remembering.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Andrew at the threatened Eastoft Post Office

Prospective Brigg and Goole MP Andrew Percy this week posted off his response to the Government's proposals to close 5 Post Offices in the local area; West Butterwick, Reedness, Wroot, Eastoft and Westfield Avenue in Goole. Andrew was quick off the mark to defend our Post Offices and surveyed local residents to ensure their views were known.

Andrew says, "It is an absolute disgrace that Labour want to close 5 of our local Post Offices on top of the many they have already closed since coming to power. I have tried to do my best to ensure that the views of local people are taken into account in the consultation process. Hundreds of local residents have written to me expressing their anger at the proposed closures.

The Government says local people's shopping habits are changing and less people use the Post Offices than in the past. This is nonsense when you consider the fact that the reason less people use Post Office's is because this Government has taken business away from Post Offices, e.g. pension books and the sale of TV Licences.

Our local Labour MP has repeatedly voted in Parliament to support the Government's Post Office policies which have lead to the closure of over 4,000 Post Offices.

Our Labour MP is treating local people as fools and I for one will be honest about my support for local Post Offices. No wonder so many local people have expressed their anger to me at Labour's local hypocrisy."

Having just got back from a trip overseas yesterday, I was back at it today meeting with various people across the constituency. I had another lovely evening with the Belgravia Carers Group tonight and it is clear we have lots of work to do to continue the campaign to save Bart's House.

However, this afternoon I met with Mrs Fagge who lives in the Brigg and Goole constituency and has been leading the campaign for Grandparent's access rights to their grandchildren which I am pleased to support. Whilst I disagree hugely with the current MP for Brigg and Goole on many issues, I have to say that I fully support his efforts to get a 10 minute rule bill through Parliament to give Grandparents a right of access to their grandchildren.

My own Grandparents were hugely important in my life and despite losing both of them in recent years, I still think of them everyday and think how lucky I was to have them in my life. I couldn't imagine my childhood without them and even at the ripe old age of 30 I miss their input into my life every day.

That is why I really do hope that the 10 minute rule bill introduced by Mr Cawsey and supported by a group of cross-party MPs will eventually be picked up either by the Government or in a formal Private Members Bill. I will be doing all I can to champion this cause myself and I hope that all parties will work together to ensure that people such as Mrs Fagge can achieve the necessary legal protection to enable them to fulfil that wonderful role that Grandparents play in children's lives.