The battle to save Naomi House Hospice in neighbouring Hampshire has stepped up a gear. In fact, I’ve been undertaking the Parliamentary equivalent of a war on all fronts in an effort to get the Government to agree to establish a hardship fund to assist Naomi House following the freeze of £5.7 million assets due to the Icelandic banking collapse. Last week I led a cross-party delegation of MPs to put the case to charities Minister Kevin Brennan who seems supportive of the idea, but stressed that we’d have to get it past the Treasury. I’ve requested a further meeting with Treasury Minister Ian Pearson and I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to make him see that without special assistance, Naomi House just won’t be able to continue providing excellent care for terminally ill children and young people. The Hospice is a support service not just for Hampshire but for the surrounding area, including Reading, and I was delighted that, when I raised the issue in Business Questions to Commons’ Leader Harriet Harman, she spoke of the “absolute determination” of everyone in Government to do whatever they can to support Naomi House through this difficult time. Let’s see if they deliver!

I also celebrated a birthday this week. Not mine, but the ten year anniversary of the minimum wage. On Wednesday I attended events held by the UNISON and Usdaw trades unions and heard personal testimonies from people whose lives have been transformed by the guarantee of a living wage. In my twelve years of being an MP, this is the achievement that has made me most proud to be a member of the Labour Party and its incredible now to think that Michael Portillo condemned the proposal at the time as being “truly immoral” when, in my view, what was “truly immoral” was allowing unscrupulous employers to pay people as little as £1.20 per hour. The Labour minimum wage lifted hundreds of thousands of people who will remember that the same Tories who attacked the minimum wage are now declaring themselves ready to be trusted with the NHS and provision for the vulnerable and low paid. For all the spin I see no evidence that the Conservative Party have changed on social issues, particularly when one of the biggest critics of the National Minimum Wage was David Cameron himself.

I have recently visited two schools in my constituency that are improving fast. Battle Primary now has a great new headteacher and will soon be out of ’special measures’, I’m sure. And down in Whitley it was a real pleasure for me to join hundreds of proud parents watching the students put on impressive performances for the JMA Arts Week. Both schools are to be congratulated on their endeavours.