It would seem that the season of goodwill to all men doesn't extend as far as Scunthorpe Labour who run North Lincs Council. There is a very nasty (we've come to expect that from Labour locally) attack on our hard working Burringham and Gunness Councillor, Rob Waltham, in the Scunthorpe Telegraph tonight penned by a Labour Councillor.

The only problem with this letter is that the Labour Councillor in question has got his facts slightly wrong, well actually very wrong. He has accused Rob of lying over a bus service which Rob is paying for to take pensioners into Scunthorpe from the Hilton Avenue area on a Friday. According to the Labour Councillor, this service is being paid for by North Lincs Council. Sadly, for the Labour Clowncillor in question, it isn't, Rob is paying for it out of his own pocket at the moment. Rob was alerted to the letter by some angry local residents who rang him to express their anger at the letter.

This isn't the first Labour lie we have seen locally. indeed, they have tried to take the public as fools on a number of issues this year, such as -

• The Labour MP's claim to be against Post Office closures was exposed to be nothing more than spin when it was revealed that he had voted for the Government's Post Office policies in Parliament and never even bothered to take part in a debate on the issue on November 29th 2007.
  
  
• Labour claimed to be in favour of improved public transport and then as soon as they got into power cut back the Isle and Wold Villager services.
  
  
• The Labour MP pretended to be against the imposition of parking charges in Brigg, but then it was revealed that the very Labour Councillors introducing the charges were the same ones he had personally written to residents urging them to vote for back in May.
  
  
• Gordon Brown's Labour MP then tried to claim that NHS dentistry was improving until I revelaed figures which showed that the number of people being treated on the NHS had actually fallen since Labour's new NHS contracts were introduced.

Whilst we have been out on the streets fighting to protect our local NHS services, successfully campaigning for improved opening hours at local police stations and working hard on numerous local problems, Labour's response locally has been to orchestrate nasty letters in the local media.

I am pleased to say that if my mailbag is anything to go by, their efforts are falling well and truly flat. I had a lovely letter from an old lady in Goole thanking me for exposing the Labour MP's hypocrisy on Post Office closures, she also enclosed a very kind donation to help with our local campaigning.

We end this year knowing that we have genuinely tried to help local people on many issues. As a result we also end the year in the strongest position we have ever been in. We have more identified support, more helpers and more equipment than at any time in the past. That means that next year we will be able to step up our positive campaigning for local people and continue to call Labour out on their cheap local spin.

Most of all, we wont be responding to Labour's highly personalised style of politics. We will remain positive and ensure that local people see there is a positive alternative to the old style nasty politics and clever spin of Labour.

So Gordon Brown has gone and done it. He has signed another piece of Britain's sovereignty over to Brussels by signing the EU Constitution in Portugal.

I find it a total disgrace that we have a Prime Minister who is refusing to offer a referendum despite getting elected on a pledge to hold one. Here in Brigg and Goole, the Labour MP was elected on a pledge to offer a referendum and now refuses to support one.

Too many powers have been given to the EU already and it is about time we let the people have a say. That's why we should have a referendum on the Constitution and my poll clearly shows a majority in favour.

I have had quite a lot of letters from local people in recent months on this issue, including from a number of confessed Labour voters, or rather, former Labour voters. I take great pleasure in either writing back or going round to see them to assure them that, if I become our MP, I will fight to protect British interests rather than sell us out to the EU.

The military top brass think that this Government doesn't value our troops enough and we agree! That's why myself and Cllr Caroline Fox (pictured left posting some more cards in Airmyn) thought it was important to show our support for our troops this Christmas by sending out presents and Christmas cards to our brave troops.

We have already sent a number of parcels out, including to a local soldier from the Goole area. The others are simply sent to random British soldiers who we hope will appreciate the gifts. The Troops are apparently desperate for simple things like lip salv and talc as well as more tasty delights.

Afghanistan is seeing some of the bloodiest fighting since World War 2 and there is certainly a feeling among the troops that their efforts are not appreciated back home. Cllr Caroline Fox and I hope that the parcels we have sent will show the troops that people in our area certainly appreciate their efforts.

I hope local people will also send cards and parcels out to our troops. There are a number of ways that gifts and cards can be sent out, and so if you would like more information please e-mail me on brigg.goole@gmail.com and I will send you the details.

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!

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.

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.

  Have too many Labour MP's been following this sign?

Brigg and Goole MP Ian Cawsey claimed a whopping £144,931, on top of his £60,000 salary, in extra allowances last year. According to the Scunthorpe Telegraph, those are the highest claims for any MP in North Lincolnshire.

They also appear to be the second highest for any MP in East Yorkshire (the top being another Labour MP). Mr Cawsey has form on big expense claims; in 2005-06 he claimed the highest travel allowance of any North Lincs MP. His defence then been that he drives around the constituency a lot! If you ask me no MP should receive any travel allowances for miles travelled in their constituency, that is part of their job. Travel to Westminster yes, but travelling around your constituency no. How many teachers or nurses do you know who get paid for driving to school or hospital!

This year's whopping £144,931 claim includes £3,265 for staionery. In fact quite a number of Labour MPs in marginal seats seem to have claimed a lot of public money for postage. A cynic could claim that that is using public money to promote oneself in a marginal seat by way of mass, unsolicited (are these allowed?) mailings to local people. I will leave it to local people to decide. Needless to say, the mailings I send to local people cost the taxpayer nothing!

In other news, yesterday I chaired a really interesting panel for the Yorkshire and the Humber Tenant Forum conference on Arms Length Management Organisations for Council housing. Tenants from across the region attended and I found it very informative.

Last night was the Brigg and Wolds Branch Fundraiser in Bonby. We filled the restaurant with about 40-50 people for dinner and raised quite a lot of money. Next week's its the turn of Axholme Central Branch and the Hook Ladies. I always enjoy fundraisers, good company and we get to make money to spend on campaigning. I suppose that's a lesson some Labour MPs should learn, raise your own money instead of using the public's so much.

I am a little late in blogging this because we have been changing websites. However, last week we had a meeting of the Lower Aire Flood Action Group to decide what to do next in our campaign against the Environment Agency's proposed catchment plan for the River Aire.

That plan proposes to increase flooding in the Lower Aire region (Snaith, Rawcliffe etc) and I recently tackled the Environment Agency about their proposal. They are now re-drafting the plan but the action group were worried that this would just be a simple re-wording of the original plan. We therefore decided to continue our campaign against the plan and we will be out and about gathering signatures on the petition I started some months ago. Hundreds have already signed and we hope to get many more.

 Read more on the Campaigns tab above and feel free to e-mail in if you want to sign the petition.