Residents in Monmouthshire are facing severe cuts to Council services as a result of a £9million cut in funding from the Welsh Assembly.

The Assembly argue that they have seen funding cuts from London but the figures tell another story. In fact the amount of money they receive from London has increased since 2012. I have challenged the Finance Minister to explain how she justifies cutting money to local councils when she has been getting an increase from London. Her answer is published on my website but doesn't throw much light on the issue.

Some of the money that the Assembly could have given to local Councils has been thrown away on a land deal, currently being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office

Until recently the Assembly owned various bits of agricultural land including one in Monmouth. These were sold off privately to a Guernsey based property developer at agricultural rates. A short while after selling the land off applications to build houses on them were submitted, at least one has already been successful. Good news for the developers who overnight have made a fortune, but bad news for taxpayers who have lost one.

Back in London I am very pleased that the government are considering a plan to limit benefits to the those who are expected to start coming into the UK from Bulgaria and Romania after January 1st in a bid to discourage further large scale immigration. Our population rose by over 300,000 last year - larger than the population of Cardiff. Concerns about immigration have nothing to do with race or racism. It is about believing that as a nation we should have a right to say that we have enough people and cannot deal with any more.

Finally I was interested to hear that the Prime Minister is promising to "cut the green nonsense" (or words to that effect). I have been calling for this to happen for the last year and will be delighted to see the end of green taxes which are hurting homeowners and damaging British businesses.