Read the full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jan/26/welfare-lib-dems-nick-clegg

Nick delivered a 4,000-strong petition in support of our fishermen

Nick Perry, the Lib Dem parliamentary spokesperson for Hastings & Rye, has spoken of his concerns that the Prime Minister’s decision to use his veto at last week’s EU summit may scupper attempts to get a fairer deal for local fishermen.

Nick, who presented a 4,000 signature petition demanding fairer quotas for the under-10m fleet to Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon MP soon after the formation of the Coalition, said:

“I have been cautiously optimistic about the progress that has been made by our Lib Dem MEPs at Brussels, and by the efforts of Amber and the DEFRA Select Committee in partnership with local fishermen. I particularly welcomed the Select Committee’s visit to Hastings last week. But all this work may come to nothing if Britain loses its voice in key EU negotiations.

“We know how well the French and the Spanish advocate for their inshore fleets when the crunch comes. We need Britain to have more clout not less as the Common Fisheries Policy is reformed. I am afraid that Mr Cameron has signally failed to anticipate various unintended consequences for his veto. I only hope that our fishermen will not lose out because of it.”

Campaigning with Vince Cable: Cable & Clegg have secured £1bn to help our young people

Nick Perry, the Lib Dem parliamentary spokesperson for Hastings & Rye, has welcomed the Deputy Prime Minister’s announcement that he has secured £1bn to address the real and pressing problem of youth unemployment in the UK.

Nick said, “I know that for many local families there are real fears at the moment about our children’s prospects. Nick Clegg and Lib Dem ministers have battled hard with the Conservatives to ensure that there will be 400,000 more jobs created over the next three years, and 250,000 new work experience placements. We must make sure that Hastings & Rye benefits from this additional funding.”

Read more here

.

Nick and Philippa White post the letter to Lib Dem Minister Sarah Teather MP

Here’s the press release:

Nick Perry, the Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye, has expressed his concern that a local project funded to help excluded and hard to reach young people has 50% vacancies, despite the high levels of need and disadvantage in the town.

Finding Futures, part of the Brighton Housing Trust family of organisations, hit the local news recently after winning a Heritage Lottery grant of £500,000. However, four out of its eight intensive support places are still available, despite schools being over half way through the first term of the academic year.

Nick Perry says this is not right, and may herald potential problems with Pupil Premium funding – calculated to deliver an extra £1.5m of Government spending for Hastings & Rye young people:

“I am determined to support projects like Finding Futures to work with as many excluded and disadvantaged young people as they can. That is why I have written to Sarah Teather MP, the Lib Dem Minister for Children & Families, to ensure that the Government is very aware of the practical obstacles that can arise, even though it has earmarked money for the hardest to reach. This money must follow these learners, and I will work to make sure that it does,” he said.

The news comes as Hastings Borough Council prepares to launch a campaign in the New Year to create 100 apprenticeships in 100 days. Nick added,

“I am delighted that Hastings Borough Council is taking up Lib Dem MP for Eastbourne, Stephen Lloyd’s idea. Eastbourne businesses managed 182 apprenticeships in 100 days. I hope we will be beating Eastbourne’s tally – not least to see the look on my good friend Stephen’s face!”

The Guardian

Follow this link for the full article by Randeep Ramesh.

Nick Perry, the Lib Dem parliamentary spokesperson for Hastings & Rye said,

“As a health professional, I am very proud of the way that Shirley Williams has fought for a cross-party consensus to protect what is great about our NHS.”

Last week the Government released the final Pupil Premium figures for every English local authority, constituency and school. Lib Dem Minister Sarah Teather MP announced that every school will receive an extra £488 for each child on free school meals they have on their roll.

Schools in our constituency are getting an extra £1.548m from the Pupil Premium to improve the education of the most disadvantaged children.

The Pupil Premium is a policy Liberal Democrats devised and campaigned for, and put at the heart of the Coalition negotiations. Now it is more than good policy, it is a reality making a difference to the school down your road. It goes directly into classrooms and will benefit all pupils.

It is also a milestone in breaking the link between poverty and achievement, tackling Labour’s shocking legacy where the richest 16-year olds are three times as likely to get five good GCSEs as the poorest.

Nick Perry, parliamentary spokesperson for Hastings & Rye welcomed the news -

‘At the General Election Liberal Democrats made clear our commitment to increasing Education funding for the children in our communities experiencing poverty and social exclusion.

‘I hope that this Pupil Premium money for Hastings & Rye children will encourage teachers, parents and students that the needs of the most disadvantaged will continue to be prioritised and promoted by us, within Government. There’s no doubt that we still have a lot of work to do if we are going to meet the national target of eradicating child poverty by 2020. I know that colleagues in the parliamentary party are determined to stay on course to meet this target.’

Back in April 2009, WHAC won a famous victory for People Power when the then Conservative-run Council decided that it was not going to introduce communal bins on the West Hill after all.  See this link for the story that the Hastings Observer wrote at the time.

Now it seems that Hastings Borough Council again want to change the system for refuse collection and recycling on the West Hill, and have already started to worry residents that they will not be consulted in a proper and meaningful way.

I went to the Vicarage Road meeting of WHAC on Thursday evening.  Residents are very cross.

We have set up a Facebook Page here - please sign up in support and pass the message on to any West Hill residents you know who will be concerned too.

Speaking about the riots in language which differs markedly from that of the Conservative Party, Nick Clegg has brokered an agreement between David Cameron and Labour, and has focused his attention on the need to break the cycle of repeat offending.

He said, “We need to ensure that the treadmill, this dismal cycle of repeat crime, is stopped.

“We have thousands upon thousands of victims who are needlessly hurt because we have failed as a country to stop the cycle of repeat crime.

“We said we were going to pioneer a rehabilitation revolution to stop this downward spiral of repeat crime.

“From March 2012, every offender who leaves prison won’t just be allowed to drift back into their old life, won’t just be able to drift into a life of worklessness and repeat crime only to turn up in the same prison having been sentenced again for an even more serious offence.

“If we want to stop for good the outbreak of crime, of looting and criminality, of what we saw last week, we need to get tough on the causes of repeat crime.”