Bill Gates arrived in Parliament today and, not surprisingly, attracted a large audience when he spoke to a combined meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Groups focusing on development issues.

As a member of the International Development Select committee we had the privilege of our own special briefing when we had the opportunity to find out how his Gates Foundation has made such an impact worldwide.  It is really interesting to hear how a man who for 14 of the last 16 years was the world's richest man and led one of the most influential businesses in the last 50 years decided to devote his time to saving lives across the world - his clinical mathematical mind gives him a unique perspective on what he believes works best.

For him, this is medical vaccinations to stop the horrific impact of disease and improving maternal health. Originally his focus was on stemming population growth but he discovered that investment in basic health rather than focusing soley on family planning was the best way to allow women to make the choice to limit family size

_{Photo top: Matthew Buxton, M.B. Photographic}

I am very concerned about the impact that the Tory-Lib Dem VAT rise will have on local pensioners and the low paid. 

Full Value Added Tax is put on most of the goods and services which we all require at exactly the same rate - no matter whether you are an office cleaner or a city banker. 

It is a highly regressive form of taxation and the decision to put it up to 20% will hit many low income households in Glasgow North hard, especially when combined with extreme public service cuts and welfare cuts.

During the General election, barely two and a half months ago, Lib Dems paraded around Glasgow asking for votes to stop the "Tory VAT Bombshell".

But they have traded in their principles for places in David Cameron's Government.

Now the Lib Dems are hitting the weakest hardest, with their very own 20% VAT tax bombshell.

If you share my view that this is the wrong decision, please take a minute to sign our declaration against 20% VAT. 

• Find out more

With hundreds of local young people leaving education this month, Glasgow North MP Ann McKechin urges the Tory – Lib Dem government not to cut support for youth jobs.

Claimant Count figures released today show that youth (JSA) unemployment in Glasgow City is now 6,640. [3]

Labour’s Future Jobs Fund has created over 15,400 youth jobs in Scotland. But the government is scrapping this help, cutting university places and abolishing Labour’s Youth Guarantee of a job or training place for any young person who has been out of work for six months. 

Under Lib Dem-Tory plans, an estimated 11,000 youth jobs in Scotland will now be cancelled as a direct result of the decision to axe the Future Jobs Fund scheme.

The scheme was targeted at areas such as Glasgow, which suffer from long term youth unemployment.

Ann McKechin MP for Glasgow North said:

“Local young people should not pay the price for this government’s unfair cuts.

“Scrapping support for youth jobs is wasting the talents of an entire generation.  That’s why I believe there should be more opportunities for young people around here to find work.”

Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper said:

“These figures show just why it is dangerous and callous to cut support for jobs and the economy.

“May's small fall in unemployment is welcome and reflects the extra support Labour put into the economy as it started to come out of recession.

“But there's still little sign of private sector job growth, with jobs in areas like construction still being heavily hit. And this is before the big spending cuts and the surge in young people leaving education this summer.

“Cutting 90,000 youth jobs and hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs while the private sector is still so fragile will condemn many people to a lifetime on the dole.

“In the 90s the Tories said unemployment was a price worth paying to cut inflation - now they clearly think it's a price worth paying to bring down the deficit.”

• Lib Dems and Tories approved 20% VAT last night in Commons vote 
  

• From January, pensioners will face a £400 million VAT tax bill which they will have to start paying months before any increase in the Basic State Pension. Pensioners face paying nearly £8 billion in VAT over the parliament.

• In 2011, weekly pension increases fall behind VAT-fuelled price rises.

• In 2012, pension rises fall behind price rises again, after the Treasury quietly changed the way the so-called ‘triple lock’ up-rates pensions in practice.

• By 2013, pensioners face cuts to Disability Living Allowance benefits, which may total £350 million a year by the end of the Parliament, alongside cuts to Housing Benefit and the lower uprating of public service pensions and benefits.

“This is a betrayal of Scottish pensioners by the Tory-Liberal government. Our retired community has paid in for a life-time and is now being hit hard in the pocket.

“I wanted a plan in place to protect local pensioners from the £8 billion VAT bill but the Liberal Democrats refused to help.

“I can't believe the Tories and Liberals are trying to disguise the tax bill with a few promises which on closer inspection just don't add up. The Budget small print says pensioners keep up on getting hit every year with a host of Treasury tricks”.