When Manton scouts had all their kit stolen last week. Derek  Fisher, brother of Gary,  the treasurer of Manton Club stepped in from his home in the USA and donated £4,000 to the scouts. As well as his tremendous generosity there are two additional good bits of news from this story. Firstly the reach of this paper is now worldwide (I trust that George W Bush is reading my column in the White House) and Derek has proven that there are good and decent lawyers left in the world. Thank you Derek.

Even more astonishing is the success of pension credits and the winter fuel allowance in pensioners deaths in Bassetlaw. The number of deaths due to cold homes has fallen dramatically since the day I was first elected as your MP. Better hospital ,better doctors both help. But the real reason is that pensioners now no longer live in poverty. I know many could do with being better off and I agree with them, but the basics for pensioners are in place saving over 40 pensioner lives in every recent year.

There is no better benefit than the Winter Fuel Allowance and it comes at exactly the right time as the cold nights set in. In addition every pensioner should go and get their flu jab as the most dangerous month for all of us is January and flu remains a big killer.

Ankylosing spondylitis is a disease that causes problems of the spine, neck and even the ankle. It is a very painful disease and one often not diagnosed. I had the honour of hosting an event in Westminster for those patients leading a campaign for new drugs to be quickly licenced and made available. More enlightened health trusts like our own will no doubt be the first to fund such treatment. It’s a bit of a mouthful, so I just call it AS, but it forced Mike Atherton into cricket retirement and I have made local people battling it. I am happy to involve anyone locally with this and indeed with other health campaigns.

Today is a day of action about violence against women. Research from Mansfield police suggests that domestic violence is hugely under-reported and is especially a problem at weekends after heavy drinking. No one should be put off reporting such incidents and my office is always happy to provide help and guidance as we have done before (01909 506200).