We went to press before the Bassetlaw Council planning meeting on Vesuvius, but I would be amazed if the proposal was turned down. Mind you I was gobsmacked last time. Here we have 400 jobs immediately created and the opportunities for others to quickly follow. Who knows when the country will pull out of recession, but Worksop will have the facility for new investors ready to go.

It has long been the aim of Worksop Town to have a ground that can expand to allow the club to flourish. This site will give this. Whether at its current low level or a few leagues higher, Worksop is more than capable of supporting a club that can exist happily in the Conference and make the occasional flurry into the football league and through to the FA Cup.

Public sector workers were on strike for their pensions and in response George Osborne, the Chancellor has announced that everyone born in the 1960s and later will have to work until they are 67. The top bankers are getting pensions worth millions, more in their pension than what 99% of Bassetlaw people earn in their wage packet. I wouldn’t want a 67 year old firefighter trying to rescue me from a fire. The cuts in expenditure should be to the welfare budget due to getting people off benefits and into work.

Meanwhile immigration to Britain hit a new high last year, despite all the government’s rhetoric. In the same way that I disagreed with the Labour policy of increasing immigration, so I disagree with this Coalition. In my view we should be attempting to keep our population no larger than 60 million and we should be giving a tax incentive to those who work after the age of 65. We can all make a choice then on pensions rather than be forced to keep working.

The key to a fair immigration policy is that it is not based on race or religion and that we are generous in our approach to those fleeing persecution and violence. This does not reflect the vast  majority of those who come to Britain. They come for work and employers, especially in London, who welcome the cheap labour that this creates. My view may not be popular in Parliament, but I believe that this undercutting of wages is not the way to economic prosperity.