A number of constituents have engaged me on Twitter – including my friend and excellent Labour councillor Ian Martin – on the issue of cycle helmets asking why I am against making wearing them compulsory and why I usually don’t wear one myself in Exeter.

Following the furoreover Cameron’s close contacts with Murdoch’s News Corp and Tory attempts to claim previous Labour Government was similarly close, I asked DCMS to let me have details of all my meetings.

Devon and Cornwall Police warn Government cuts of 20 percent over 4 years will mean 700 fewer police on the beat and cuts of 300 in support staff. The reductions will take police numbers in Devon and Cornwall down to levels last seen in 2003 before Labour boosted police numbers to cut crime.

Devon and Cornwall will be among the worst hit counties in England by Wednesday’s comprehensive spending review according to today’s Financial Times.

The Conservative-Liberal Government’s softening up exercise for next week’s budget continues without shame.

Exeter’s 36 year campaign to have its unitary council status restored cleared its final parliamentary hurdles this week. In a hotly contested debate on Monday in the House of Lords, an attempt by Liberal Democrat Peers to kill the legislation was overwhelmingly defeated.

The decision to grant Exeter unitary status is wonderful news.It restores the self- rule that our city enjoyed for hundreds of years until 1974.

Cabinet colleagues visiting Exeter and other places in the South West for yesterday’s Cabinet meeting were universally impressed.

Britain’s Job Centres have plenty to celebrate on their 100th birthday today. As the Financial Times (no other) reported on Saturday, Job Centre Plus has “come into its own” during the worst global downturn since the 1930s.

The huge increase in young people from less well off backgrounds going to university shows Labour’s drive to extend opportunity is working.