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                           <title><![CDATA[The Budget (31/03/10)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Last week, Alistair Darling delivered the final budget before the election. It was the climax to a huge amount of work over the past year by all of us in the Treasury. We can see clearly now that the Government&rsquo;s judgments over the past couple of years have been right. It was right to intervene to rescue the banking system from collapse. It was right to support the economy &ndash; families and businesses &ndash; through the world&rsquo;s worst economic crisis since the 1930s. As a result, we have come through the downturn with much less damage than many expected &ndash;...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:06:17</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Newham General (03/03/10)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[For some, it is a point of pride to have been born in Newham General Hospital. A rap group of some repute has gone as far as to name themselves &ldquo;The Newham Generals&rdquo; in its honour! I shall not pass judgement on the quality of the music, of course, but it is a mark of the place the hospital has in the hearts of some. Soon, more people will be able to feel proud to be a Newham General baby. Last Friday, I knocked out the symbolic first brick for an expansion of maternity services at the site. The new...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:03:40</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Tax evasion and the developing world (17/02/2010)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Last month I took the Eurostar to Paris. It was a good trip for two reasons. First, because I was able to achieve something useful. Since the G20 summit at Excel last April, there has been a big international push to tackle tax evasion and avoidance. In the UK we have signed 21 tax information exchange agreements with other countries since January 2009 &ndash; giving our tax inspectors additional information. Around the world, there has been more progress on tax information exchange in the past year than in the previous ten put together. And extra money is starting to...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:00:46</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[BeOnsite (03/02/2010)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Several hundred Newham residents are now working on the Olympic Park. 7% of all those employed there have a permanent address in Newham &ndash; much the largest share of all the London boroughs. But who are they and how have they got their jobs? Were many of them previously unemployed? You need to get behind the statistics to find out if the hopes we all had for the Olympics giving new chances to local people are being fulfilled. Just over two years ago I was visited by a couple worried about their 19 year old son &ndash; I will call...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:09:43</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Th Economy - Part II (20/01/10)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Last week, I was at a lunch sitting next to Denis Healey. At 93, he was in sparkling form, and talking about his plans for the future. He said he was wanting to write a book on &ldquo;People I have known&rdquo;. One of the people he recalled meeting was Joe Stalin! Denis is a remarkable man. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This week I want to set out measures to secure economic recovery and prepare for future growth. We need to continue to support the economy until the recovery is secure. In a recent House of Commons debate, Peter Lilley rose from the Conservative...]]></description>
                           <link><![CDATA[th-economy---part-ii-200110]]></link>
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                           <pubDate>Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:16:05</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[The Economy - Part I (06/01/2010)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Happy New Year! I thought I would start 2010 with a spot of name dropping. Sir Tim Berners Lee is the man who &ndash; working in Geneva twenty years ago &ndash; invented the world wide web. He has been helping the Government for the past few months, advising on placing Government data online, so that people can use it. In September, I took him to a meeting of the Cabinet, to explain his ideas to ministers. I think Cabinet members were quite in awe of him &ndash; rightly, given the magnitude of his invention&rsquo;s impact of on the world. In...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:14:05</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[The Copenhagen Summit (18/12/09)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[The Danish capital of Copenhagen has just finished playing host to the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Over 15,000 delegates and officials, 5,000 journalists and 98 world leaders were in attendance &ndash; together with appearances by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Prince Charles and a number of Hollywood A-listers. The scale is huge. The Prime Minister set out ahead of the summit proposals for an agreement that is ambitious, effective, and fair. Nationally, we are taking steps to reduce emissions in order to combat climate change. The Climate Change Act commits the UK to ambitious emission reductions between now and 2050. A...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:43:47</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[The ASDA Police Shop and East Ham High Street (09/12/09)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[I used to live in Dersingham Avenue, Manor Park. A couple of weeks ago I went to the 60th birthday party for one of my former neighbours. I heard how much better the neighbourhood had become since the arrival of the Metropolitan Police Safer Neighbourhood Team, based in Parkhurst Road. There were still problems from time to time, but the team responded quickly when called and the problems were dealt with. Safer Neighbourhood Teams started in 2004. Every ward in London has had one since April 2006. When fully staffed, each team is headed by a police sergeant and includes...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:28:20</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[The Queen's Speech (25/11/09)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[I recently called in at a church in Barking Road for a debate organised by Newham Age Concern about the Government&rsquo;s proposal for a National Care Service. The people taking part were elderly Newham residents who will benefit from these changes. This is one of the measures The Queen talked about in her speech to Parliament last Wednesday. This speech is an important date in the Parliamentary calendar, allowing the Government to lay out its plan of action for the forthcoming session &ndash; and action certainly is the word this time around! The words that The Queen spoke on Wednesday...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:19:32</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Fridays (06/11/09)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[From Monday to Thursday I am at Westminster. I usually spend Friday in East Ham. I thought I would describe for you a typical Friday &ndash; this was the last Friday in October. I started by meeting with a constituent awaiting the outcome of an immigration application, who is interested in doing community work to fill his time whilst the case is being decided. I used to have a lot of meetings like this at Starbucks in East Ham High Street. I am dismayed that it has closed down. This particular meeting was at Jolly&rsquo;s on Romford Road, Manor Park...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:39:42</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Is UK manufacturing set for a comeback? (14/10/09)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Before the recession, the Engineering Employers Federation was speaking of a &ldquo;renaissance&rdquo; in UK manufacturing. The Government&rsquo;s Manufacturing Advisory Service had helped thousands of companies to modernise. We were making almost twice as many cars in Britain as 25 years ago.  Production in Britain was rising fast, but it didn&rsquo;t feel much like a comeback, because the number of manufacturing workers was still falling. But is that about to change? This summer, at Florentia Clothing Village, Tottenham, I saw revived textile manufacturing. Their problem is bolstering the depleted workforce, and finding enough skilled people. Jenny Holloway is running &ldquo;Stitch...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:15:42</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Labour Party Conference (30/09/2009)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[At this week&rsquo;s Labour Party conference in Brighton we are discussing the huge challenges to be tackled over the next few years. After a tumultuous and uncertain year &ndash; global credit crunch, banking crisis and unprecedented worldwide downturn &ndash; it is clear the General Election will provide the country with a very stark choice. The events of just over a year ago, with the collapse of America&rsquo;s Lehman Brothers bank, completely changed the global economic context in which countries were used to operating. Our response has involved providing real help now, for both businesses and families, and planning ahead for...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:13:04</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[London Asian Players Sports Association (16/09/09)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[In August, the first of what is planned to be an annual football tournament was held on a ground in Redbridge. The unusual thing is it was named after me! I should explain. As West Ham Manager, Harry Redknapp said he wanted the club to be the first in the Premiership with an Asian player. Eight years after he left, there is still no Asian player in any of the top four tiers of the English game. Why such a stark contrast to the success of black players? The reasons have been long debated. But there are Asian players making...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:09:30</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Liechtenstein (02/09/2009)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Last month, I paid a ministerial visit to Liechtenstein. Nobody could remember the last time a British Government minister visited. It is a tiny country &ndash; with fewer than half as many inhabitants as East Ham! It&rsquo;s in the Alps, tucked alongside the Rhine between the borders of Austria and Switzerland. It has a hereditary prince as head of state &ndash; I called on him in his fairy tale castle above the capital, Vaduz. It has a Prime Minister, a Parliament of 25 members, and a police force of 100.  It has its origins in the purchase of the...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:05:56</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Newham Stroke Services (19/08/09)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[A year ago, on the initiative of Councillor Abdul Shakoor, Newham Stroke Club was set up. Abdul had a stroke eight years ago. I am Club patron. In July I attended its meeting at Katherine Road Community Centre on the last Wednesday afternoon of the month. Over 100,000 people a year have a stroke in England &ndash; including over 10,000 who are under 55.  Stroke is our third biggest killer, and the biggest cause of adult disability. 300,000 people in England have moderate to severe disability as a result of a stroke. There must be at least 1000 in...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:03:47</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Manor Park Temple (07/08/09)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[The old Avenue public house building still stands on the corner of Browning Road and Church Road. It wasn&rsquo;t a bad pub, but it closed down after a murder inside, and it never re-opened.  Behind it, there is a remarkable sight. There has been a Hindu temple here since the early 1980s. For the first twenty years it was quite a dilapidated building. Today, the Sri Murugan temple stands in gleaming granite with intricate carvings. Completed by skilled stone masons from India and opened in 2005, it is surely Manor Park&rsquo;s finest building ever. I have visited often, before...]]></description>
                           <link><![CDATA[manor-park-temple-070809]]></link>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:01:14</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Building Britain's Future (24/07/09)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Last month the Prime Minister announced to a packed House of Commons a vision for securing Britain&rsquo;s recovery from the global recession, under the title Building Britain&rsquo;s Future. His speech set out clear priorities for Labour in government, and major reforms to restore people&rsquo;s trust in politics. He described it like this: &ldquo;In this plan for Building Britain&rsquo;s Future we are determined to take forward the progressive reforms of the last decade. Our task after three terms in office is not merely to defend Britain&rsquo;s achievements over the last decade but to work even harder so as to meet new...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:57:49</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Update on Pakistan (08/07/2009)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Our community in Newham has particularly close connections with Pakistan. Developments there reverberate here. But events in Pakistan are also being closely observed by many Governments around the world. I was shocked to hear of the suicide attack at the Pearl Continental hotel in Peshawar last month. At least 18 people were killed. There has been a series of attacks in Pakistan since the army launched its offensive against the Taliban in the SWAT area. 2 million people have been forced to leave their homes. Barack Obama said recently: &ldquo;Al-Qaeda and its extremist allies are a cancer that risks killing...]]></description>
                           <link><![CDATA[update-on-pakistan-08072009]]></link>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:48:56</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Child Poverty (24/06/09)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[In 1999, Tony Blair committed the Government to work for an end to child poverty by 2020. The aim was to ensure that every child gets the best possible start in life, enjoys a fulfilling childhood and has the opportunities to flourish. Ten years on, there has been good progress. But more needs to be done to achieve the 2020 target. So, a fortnight ago, I presented a Government bill in the House of Commons, making the 2020 target legally binding. The background to Tony Blair&rsquo;s promise was the steep rise in child poverty under the previous Government. The level...]]></description>
                           <link><![CDATA[child-poverty-240609]]></link>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:46:34</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[British Heart Foundation, The Beatles, Primark, and Expenses (27/05/09)]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[I met recently with representatives from the British Heart Foundation (BHF). They have launched their Hearty Lives campaign, and have chosen Newham and Dundee as pilot Boroughs. Cardiovascular diseases are among the biggest killers in Newham. BHF, with local health trusts and the Council, have agreed an eight point plan to combat the problem, including greater support for heart patients and their families, and a teenage smoking cessation service. BHF is making a big funding commitment to Newham for this, and its important we make the most of it for improving health in the borough. Community groups can apply for...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 27 May 2009 10:18:35</pubDate>
                           
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