Now is an awful time for bad news and for people to be faced with unexpected redundancy just before Christmas is especially sad. 
Following the job losses at Sealine more are inevitable and we have heard this week about Ceramaspeed from where local manufacturing was lost last year and now the headquarters facility that remained in Kidderminster is in administration looking for a buyer. 

There is nothing of comfort to say to anyone in this situation but the Jobcentre has assured me they will try to help jobseekers as far as they are able. 
I fear they may be overwhelmed as comments from people coming to my advice surgeries are not always complementary about the consideration they receive.
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I attended the Hospital League of Friends Christmas lunch last Saturday and was amazed and delighted by the turn out of over 100 loyal volunteers who keep the coffee shop, drinks trolley and the two Second Gear shops going. Income continues and equipment and services at the hospital benefit. 
It is disappointing that while the League has been expecting to help with the updating of the Millbrook Suite (the Cancer Resource Centre) for several years the hospital authorities have so dragged their feet that the costs have tripled putting the whole project in doubt. It sometimes appears that the acute trust managers do lose sight of Kidderminster affairs.
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Because of prolonged Parliamentary business on Monday my adjournment debate on the post office closure consultations started at 11.02pm. 

At that time of night it was just a one-to-one between me and the Minister for Postal Affairs, Rt Hon Pat McFadden, MP for Wolverhampton South East. 

The title for my debate should have been "Meaningless consultation on post office closures" however the Table Office here, through which all MPs apply for this sort of debate, appears to have the right to remove certain words from the proposed title. In this case the word "Meaningless" was discarded. 
At a time when the Speaker is rather less concerned with major matters I intend to write to ask who gives the Table Office this power as it has happened to me once before when my chosen title for a debate "Healthcare rationing" was changed to "Healthcare prioritisation" very different!. 

On this occasion I made it clear that I was going to show the Minister that the post office consultation here was not only meaningless but a sham to produce the intended result. 

I was especially disappointed as we all expected much more of Postwatch. 

Also because of the failure of Postwatch to send copies of a crucial letter from them to Post Office Ltd to MPs until after the final decision had been made I did not know of the inadequacy of Postwatch's scrutiny until it was too late to do anything. 

The Minister, although he accepted that the consultation was not perfect was not prepared to re-open the whole question but promised to write to me about the efforts taking place elsewhere in the country of local authorities that are exploring ways of re-opening certain post office branches for the good of local communities.