Subject: NEWS

BULLETIN FROM CONOR BURNS MP #77 Date: Saturday, 19 November 2011 10:49:23 United Kingdom Time From: To: Conor Burns MP news@localconservatives.com

In this edition:
Conor Burns MPs Diary Website of the Week: Check, Switch, Insulate & Save Photo news: Poppy Appeal 2011 Bournemouth army girl's remembrance run for heroes Conor welcomes additional funding for school places Photo news: Christ the King Primary School Energy Prices Conor starts Tweeting How to contact Conor Burns MP

Issue 77 Saturday 19th November 2011

Since the past edition, Conor has:

Attended Bournemouths annual Remembrance Sunday Service held at the Cenotaph to pay his respects to all those who died fighting in wars. Visited Christ the King Primary School. Helped to sell poppies in Bournemouth town centre to raise money for the Royal British Legion through their annual Poppy Appeal. Cheered on Bournemouth resident Captain Samantha Toop as she crossed the finish line of her 384km run for her 384 fallen comrades to raise money for Help for Heroes. Attended a meeting on the Big Society in Northern Ireland in his capacity as PPS to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Held a constituency help and advice surgery in The Triangle to meet and listen to the concerns of constituents. Appeared on Radio 4s Westminster Hour with Labour MP Lisa Nandy to talk about the weeks big political issues, including the problems with the UK Border Agency. Attended the British Retail Consortium reception for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Retail to further discuss the future of the retail sector. Informally met representatives of the Bournemouth Area Hospitality Association to talk about Business Tourism in the local economy. Participated in the first ever Parliamentary Twitter Teach-in to learn more about how to use social media to communicate and connect with constituents. You can follow Conor on Twitter at @Conor_BurnsMP.

Website of the Week: Check, Switch, Insulate & Save

The Governments Check, Switch, Insulate & Save website, which ensures consumers are better informed about the potential savings from checking on their energy deal, switching tariff and/or supplier and how they can take up these opportunities. Click here to visit the site.

Photo news:

Poppy Appeal 2011

Conor along with other volunteers selling poppies for the Royal British Legions Poppy Appeal in Bournemouth Town Centre.

Bournemouth army girl's remembrance run for heroes

Conor with Captain Sam Toop and her fundraising team for Help for Heroes and Combat Stress. Bournemouth resident Captain Sam Toop ran across the south west on a fund-raising run in remembrance of her fallen comrades from the Afghan campaign. Finishing at the Bournemouth war memorial on Armistice Day, Friday 11th November, Sam ran 1km in honour of every hero who has lost their life in Afghanistan. Sam began her run, covering the first 46km of the total of 384km around Camp Diamond in Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, at the end of her recent tour in Afghanistan four weeks ago. She completed the remaining 338km over seven days across the south west. At 48km or 30 miles each day, Sams run amounted to more than a marathon every day for a week. She was inspired to make the remembrance run following the recent loss of one of her good friends, Capt. Lisa Jade Head, the first female officer to be killed in Afghanistan. Sam and Lisa had trained together at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and were on the same tour in Afghanistan when Lisa was fatally injured following the explosion of an IED she was had been trying to defuse. Sam is raising money for Help for Heroes and Combat Stress to fund rehabilitation projects for soldiers injured in the conflict. Speaking about her challenge Sam commented, "I've been wanting to do something for a while and the death of Lisa made me decide this is what I wanted to do. It seems there have been so many people I know who have been badly injured or killed and while I cant do anything to help them, I can raise money for the ones who need help now. Hopefully we can raise some money for such a worthwhile cause." In Afghanistan, Sam was on detachment from the Royal Army Medical Corp, to the Provincial Reconstruction Team working with the local Afghan authorities to improve access to health services, particularly for women, across Helmand Province. Sam has previously completed two tours in Iraq, as a troop commander and close support medical squadron second in command. Commenting, Conor said: This is a great challenge that Sam has undertaken for a wonderful cause. Ninety-three years on from when the guns fell silent at the end of World War One, Sams remembrance run reminds us of the tremendous sacrifice that our fighting men and women continue to make and our responsibility to celebrate and look after our returning heroes.

Conor welcomes additional funding for school places

The Department for Education has recently announced an additional 500 million worth of funding for school places. This includes over 9,055,141 for Bournemouth and 5,807,231 for Poole. Commenting, Conor said: This announcement is great news for local schools in Bournemouth and Poole. The last Labour government repeatedly ignored warnings about pressure on the number of school places caused by a population rise. Just as with the economic mess, it has taken the coalition to take positive action to ensure that every local area has the school places that it needs. Alongside the governments decision to protect schools spending and to target the poorest pupils through its 2.5bn pupil premium, this money will help schools in Bournemouth and Poole and across the country to deliver a better education for all of our young people. The additional funding has been made available from efficiencies and savings identified in Building Schools for the Future projects that are continuing. The overall BSF programme, which did not include the building of primary schools and therefore did not address the shortage of primary school places, was ended by the coalition government.

Photo news:

Christ the King Primary School

Conor talking to pupils at Christ the King Primary School. He paid a special visit to class 1T to announce his annual Christmas Card Competition.

Conor enjoying lunch with some of the pupils at Christ the King Primary School.

Energy prices
Conor has welcomed steps by the Government to bring down energy prices and eradicate fuel poverty. Firstly, the introduction of the new Warm Home Discount scheme, will help more people and provide support worth two thirds more this year than the voluntary social tariff scheme it is replacing. Under Labours voluntarily scheme, different tariffs were offered to people in similar situations simply because they happened to have different energy suppliers. The mandatory Warm Homes Discount scheme will rectify this imbalance. It will offer a rebate of up to 120, increasing to 140 in four years time, to pensioners on low-incomes and to a broader group of vulnerable and low income households. This group, which includes those on low incomes who have disabilities or young children, can apply for the scheme by contacting their energy supplier. Over four years the scheme will be worth up to 1.1bn compared to the previous scheme which was worth 375m and it is estimated that it will help around two million households. The scheme is funded by energy suppliers and British Gas has guaranteed their discount for every eligible customer who applies before the deadline. Ministers are now pushing other energy suppliers to rise to this challenge. Alongside this, the Government is taking real action on the causes of fuel poverty through the Green Deal, the biggest home improvement scheme since the Second World War. This programme will increase the energy efficiency of homes, making them cheaper to run whilst providing extra support for low income and vulnerable households. Furthermore the Government is also committed to a much more active engagement with consumers to deliver an energy market that is trusted, simple and transparent. On 17th October, David Cameron brought together representatives from industry, consumer groups and Ofgem for an energy summit to focus on getting people the help they need to reduce their bills in time for this winter. Following this summit, the Check, Switch, Insulate & Save agreement has been launched. Through a shared website and campaign material giving consumer advice, consumers will be better informed about the potential savings from checking on their energy deal, switching tariff and/or supplier and how they can take up these opportunities. With the news that millions of households could save money by changing their payment method with their existing provider, suppliers have pledged to write urgently to eight million quarterly credit customers to inform them of any savings that can be made by altering their payment arrangements. The Big Six energy suppliers all offer free or cut price deals on home insulation. In light of the Governments energy summit, four million of the most vulnerable energy customers will receive supplier-funded letters informing them if they are eligible for free or heavily discounted insulation to their loft or cavity walls. Encouraging just 1 per cent of this group to both insulate their home and switch their supplier could save customers around 12m. The Government are taking steps to deal with Britains exposure to volatile world energy prices by promoting more sources of energy generated at home. By investing in more renewable energy, we will improve the UKs energy security by reducing our dependence on foreign imports. In contrast to recent reports, the costs of the Governments green agenda represent only 7 per cent of consumer bills. The Governments environmental agenda will push prices down in the long term. Commenting, Conor Said: I understand that energy prices are going through the roof at the moment and everyone is feeling the effects and suffering a lot during this time. I know that it is a real worry that is affecting everybody but it is my hope that these concrete programmes can really help to ease the added burdens that winter can bring to the disadvantaged.

Conor starts Tweeting

As reported in the last edition, Conor has recently joined Twitter in an effort to be even more accessible to local residents. To help get him started, Conor attended Twitter teach-in session with Adam Sharp leader of Twitters Government and Politics Team aimed at members of both Houses of Parliament. Adam works with Congressmen and numerous senior figures from the Executive branch and led the Obama Town Hall project with the President. After welcoming those assembled and giving a short introduction about the establishment and development of Twitter, Adam extolled the benefits of communicating using Twitter highlighting the speed and extent of coverage achieved by Twitters communication flow whilst emphasising the simplicity of tweeting (140 characters). That characters are limited encourages far more effective communication, compelling users to be succinct. Adam showed the MPs and Peers how to use twitter most effectively so that they can communicate with their constituents and contribute to national conversations. Conor is hoping to use social media to communicate with his constituents who use it. He is hoping that it will make it easier for them to see what he gets up too around Parliament and the constituency and find out what he thinks about topical issues. However, he is still learning! You can follow Conor on Twitter at @Conor_BurnsMP.

Three ways to contact Conor Burns MP:

By Phone: 020 7219 7021 By email: conor.burns.mp@parliament.uk By post: Conor Burns MP House of Commons London SW1A 0AA

www.conorburns.com
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