Swindon Advertiser Weekly Article - 16th December

My office is a hive of activity throughout December, with lots of charities and community groups making the most of our community space.  As I write this the office currently resembles a sorting office thanks to the North Swindon Scouts busily sorting their Christmas post. In 1981 the Government announced that charities could deliver Christmas cards during the period November 25th to January 1st and make a small charge for this service. In the weeks that lead up to Christmas thousands of Scouts, Leaders, Parents and Committee Members take on the responsible job of delivering Christmas Card Post that has been stamped with Scout stamps and posted in Scout posting boxes. Each Scout group in Swindon raises vital funds (their main fundraiser!) through the Christmas post so it is a crucial way to support their activities throughout the year. It has been great to see them sorting away and with all those Christmas cards it certainly has helped us to all get into the Christmas spirit!

On Sunday I joined the 30^th anniversary celebrations for Swindon Wildcats. The club are a professional ice hockey team based in Swindon who are members of the English Premier Ice Hockey League (EPIHL). The celebrations included a match between the current Wildcats team and a Wildcats Legends team at the Link Centre, where the Wildcats have been playing their home games since their inception in 1986.  Experience eventually shone through with a 15-15 match settled by a single penalty goal edging it for The Legends.  With football, speedway, ice-hockey to name but a few, we are very lucky in Swindon to have such variety in sporting entertainment.

It has also been a busy week in Parliament. On Monday I took part in the debate on the welfare cap, an important topic as we spend more in this area than we do on our entire Defence budget.  The Welfare budget was out of control under Labour, but through our measures we are supporting the most vulnerable in society - we now spend £3bn a year more on those with disabilities and long-term health conditions. Whilst bringing down costs to the tax-payer through a combination of record employment (helping people off benefits, back into work) and clamping down on those who try to cheat the system.

On Tuesday, I asked the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy what progress was being made to ensure that action was being taken to force energy suppliers to make sure that customers are on the best tariffs, as all too often customers are left on standard variable tariffs, which cost £200 more per year than their cheapest tariffs. Finally on Wednesday, I was delighted that the Government announced further details on the new fairer funding formula for schools, scrapping Labour’s old and unfair system that had left Swindon’s pupils on average £500 a year worse off than other comparable areas.  Rightly we have set-out that from 2018 onwards, Swindon’s share of education funding will increase year on year. I have actively campaigned on this as the extra funding will be crucial in helping deliver improvements across Swindon’s schools – vital for all our local children.