LAST Friday, I visited local farms and met farmers and NFU representatives to discuss issues important to them and that have an impact on all our lives.

Farmers work hard and are an important element of British life.

We must deliver a package of support that keeps farmers in business, provides economical food and protects the environment.

Changing some of the existing subsidies to achieve this will significantly challenge farmers and will present some very difficult political choices in the UK and Europe, but reform is needed.

At one of my recent meetings with headteachers, we discussed the Local Government Finance Settlement.

I am meeting them again this week.

Worcestershire has been underfunded for many years since the formula for funding was developed and I support the call for the formula to be re examined.

The Green Paper on Local Government Finance gives us the vehicle for that change.

No such proposals were ever presented by the Tories.

Extra money allocated directly to schools by this Government comes outside the SSA system and has ensured that Worcestershire schools get their fair share.

Worcestershire's schools budget, including direct grants, increased by nine per cent last year and even given this year's disappointing settlement, should receive an extra 4.8 per cent on top of this.

I continue to make the county's case to ministers but I am clear that the Tory alternative would mean the same old distribution system and no extra money

On Saturday, I am taking part in the Holocaust Memorial Day Service in Redditch.

This will be a chance to remember the horrors that befell millions of people in the name of bigotry.

It is a reminder to us that we must face down racism wherever we see it and guard against intolerance.