WESTMINSTER


As many will be aware, the Government are pressing ahead with their unfair bedroom tax. With this tax due to come into effect in April for tenants of working age, many people have visited my advice surgeries to say they are understandably concerned about how they and their families will be affected. This tax will cut the amount of housing


benefit that people receive if they are deemed to have a spare bedroom in their council or housing association home, potentially affecting a number of people in our constituency. Thousands of people are vulnerable to this


change including separated parents who share the care of their children and who may have been allocated an extra bedroom to reflect this. Also affected will be couples who use their ‘spare’ bedroom when recovering from an illness or operation, foster carers because foster children are not counted as part of the household for benefit purposes and families with disabled children. Those affected are likely to lose an average of £728 per year.


I believe this bedroom tax is unfair and the Government needs to think again before it’s too late.


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I was concerned to learn over recent weeks that research by the House of Commons has revealed the true cost of last week’s pensions reforms on women. Local women born in 1952 and 1953 will not


be eligible for the single tier pension since they are due to retire in 2017, before the state pension reforms come into effect. Men born during the same period, however, will qualify. The news comes after the government claimed that "we have to be absolutely transparent [about who will lose]”, yet they have failed to make clear the full consequences of the planned reforms. The unravelling of this latest pensions


announcement is the second time this government has been caught trying to hide the full impact of its disastrous policies on pensioners following the Granny Tax. I’m deeply concerned that some women will be nearly £2,000 worse off compared to men.


At the end of January, I spoke in the


Commons debate on Europe. Europe is a hugely important issue


but as the economy hurtles towards a triple dip recession, the government have decided to create economic uncertainty that could damage any


recovery and the long term prospects for economic stability. Click the play button to watch my contribution


Here in Edinburgh South, we are privileged to have the world class Kings Buildings of Edinburgh University, which are leaders in science and engineering. Some of the current crop of PhD students and Senior Researchers were shortlisted for the Parliament Science Committee’s “SET for BRITAIN” poster competition. The overall aim of SET for


BRITAIN is to encourage, support and promote Britain's early-stage and early-career research scientists, engineers and technologists who are the


"engine-room" of continued progress in and development of UK research and Research & Design, and ultimately of UK plc. Many will be Britain's future scientific and technological leaders and others will clearly be leaders in other fields. Such researchers are a vital asset and investment for the UK. SET gives them an


opportunity to present and discuss "ground-breaking" and frontier UK research and R&D to Members of both Houses of Parliament at Westminster.


It also fosters


greater dialogue and engagement between early-stage researchers and Members both in Westminster and in their Constituencies. They receive a brief introduction to Parliament and can discover also how Parliament deals with science, engineering, medicine and technology. Congratulations to all the


King's Building researchers who were shortlisted.


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