At a speech in Blackpool today at the White Tower, George Osborne set out our plans for a revitalised tourism industry in the UK.
The tourism industry is worth £114 billion to the UK economy every year, employs some 8% of the workforce and is our 5th largest industry.  It supports 200,000 businesses. We know how
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Alcohol has been in the news a lot recently, with minimum pricing being looked at in Scotland, Labour thinking of banning ‘irresponsible’ drinks promotions in clubs, pubs and bars across the Country and general concern about 24 hr binge drinking culture of Broken Britain.  And last week was the turn of the Conservatives to air
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They have a new innovation in the House of Commons called Topical Questions. This allows Oral Questions to Ministers to be put down nearer to the day in case something exciting happens that they want to cross-examine Ministers on.
At the moment, it seems to consist of Labour MPs thanking Ministers for visiting their marginal constituencies
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Quietly and determinedly, the Times Comment writer Libby Purves has been ‘lobbying’ through the pages of her newspapers to change perceptions of what Blackpool has to offer. She was inspired by attending “Showzam!” last year, and sees the potential for Blackpool to capitalise on its unique heritage assets.
That potential has taken a massive leap forward,
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We should always welcome potential improvements to Blackpool’s transport infrastructure, but people are right to say “I’ll believe it when I see it” when they hear the Government committing to electrifying this stretch of rail. This has more than a whiff of pre-election desperation to it. Yes, we need electrification to Preston, but we need
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A few months ago, many of you will have received from me a survey concerning the provision of health and care services. We received hundreds of responses, which I have been following up since. I now want to report back to you on what I have done.
I have met with three organisations to discuss the
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Everyone seems to be getting very wound up about the fate of the Winter Gardens. I would not have thought any of this were a bolt from the blue. Spending £1m a year subsidising a private company to keep it open is clearly not justifiable in the long-term given the change in the conference market,
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Two key things to update you on:

A trip to local HIV charity Body Positive. This was a fantastic experience as I sat and chatted with Bianca, the HIV nurse, and other team members and learnt a lot more about issues surrounding sexual health in Blackpool. It may not seem an obviously important issue, but it
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Shame on me for not blogging for a fortnight – too much happening!
But yesterday was a special day because we had David Cameron and the Shadow Cabinet meeting in Preston, and then David went on to do a Town Hall meeting in Fleetwood. I went along to the Conservative Club there with some of our
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I’m just back from Moor Park Primary and a meeting of residents the Carleton Lodge Farm Estate (aka the Herb Gardens because all the road names are herbs) which nestles between Moor Park Primary and the crematorium. The two ward councillors Steve Houghton and Julian Mineur were holding the meeting to discuss with residents a
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