Yesterday I met Alfie Dingley’s parents.

Despite the intense winter, our Gloucestershire Royal Hospital was ranked 15th out of 137 hospitals in January for their A&E performance. The Health Secretary agreed that this is thanks to the great work of the staff there.

The Labour Party claim that I voted to remove free school meals (FSMs) from one million of our poorest children is scaremongering of the worst sort, as Channel 4 has shown (see below).

Some things, when you want to improve a city, turn out to be surprisingly awkward. The temptation is to focus on easier goals - after all the electoral cycle is quite short. But I believe in persistence.

Last year I co-chaired a Joint Select Committee inquiry into the Future of Supported Housing. The government's response to that inquiry adopted almost all of our recommendations, but made no particular commitment to our specific recommendation on Women's Refuges.

An interview with China Daily also available here.

Politician acknowledges benefit of nation's growing global participation

Dog owners know training a dog, especially a young puppy, takes time and patience. But I don’t think trying to take a short cut by using electric shock collars is a good idea at all.

It was a great day for Gloucester yesterday, visited by the first female Apprenticeship Minister Anne Milton on International Women's Day and National Apprenticeship Week to present Gloucestershire College with a Beacon Award for the Promotion and Delivery of Apprenticeships.

Speaking in the House of Commons debate on the Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill last night, Gloucester MP Richard Graham said the Bill’s cap on Standard Variable Tariff (SVT) for 20 months would give certainty and lower energy prices for about 25,000 residents in Gloucester.