Sad news from Newhaven. Parker Pens plans to lay off 200 people from its Newhaven factory. It’s another blow to Newhaven and is very bad news for the families affected.

That many of these jobs are moving out of Newhaven to Birmingham is also disappointing. Action is urgently needed to ensure Newhaven continues to keep jobs and attract new employers and that’s why I want to see a Newhaven Development Corporation created. This corporation would help revive the town economically.

I just hope some way can be found to keep the jobs in Newhaven during Parker’s 90-day consultation on its plans.

What a week! The Labour government is in serious trouble. Northern Rock, the personal data of 25 million people lost in the post, the mistreatment of our troops and now a Labour Party funding scandal under police investigation. And I am sure other serious problems have been overshadowed in all this chaos.

The country is suffering as the Prime Minister is paralysed by events of his own party’s making.

The latest figures on house prices and the economy also make for bad news. We are not immune from the economic problems the US has faced. In fact Gordon Brown has made us more vulnerable to this instability by ignoring the warning signs and piling taxes and regulations on businesses and families.

Shadow environment secretary Peter Ainsworth paid a visit to the constituency last weekend and it was great to get his backing.

In a speech to party members he noted how my “strong campaign on the Newhaven Incinerator proves Jason’s commitment to protecting the local environment”. It’s a great boost to get such support from the shadow cabinet.

Some really bad local news is the plans to shut several Post Offices across the constituency. Post Offices in Landport, North Chailey, Polegate, Newhaven and Seaford are all set to go. It’s an outrage and will hurt older and disabled people.

These closures could of been avoided if the Labour government didn’t repeatedly block Conservative efforts to give Post Offices more freedom so they could stay profitable and open.

I find it particularly hypocritical of Norman Baker to start moaning about these closures when he voted with Labour stop the reforms our Post Offices need. Norman Baker should be ashamed of the role he played in Parliament in killing off our local Post Offices.

It’s been another week of floundering around by the Labour government.

They are unclear on the number of immigrants and they are freeing prisoners before they have served their time. Then there’s the u-turning security minister, who one minute believes there’s no evidence to back government’s latest misguided terrorism law than - after a chat with Gordon Brown just an hour or so later - changes his mind and says there’s lots of evidence.

Economic growth is also disintegrating fast and food bills are soaring. The Labour government is in for a rocky year ahead, unfortunately its us would will suffer for their mistakes.

Let’s hope we get the chance to kick out Gordon Brown and his bumbling colleagues soon.

We held the first of what I hope will be many Conservative Action Days on Saturday. We’ve already done a few smaller action days - including one against Labour’s NHS cuts - but this was event was on a different scale with more than 30 activists taking to the streets of Lewes and Newhaven.

We spent the morning in Lewes, distributing leaflets in Landport as well as meeting and greeting people in the town centre. We also gathered signatures for a new petition calling for improvements to the parking regime in the town - something that gained widespread support from the people we met. Our mobile campaign unit was also out in the town and got lots of interest.

In the afternoon we headed to the centre of Newhaven and to Denton, where the focus was on my call for the creation of a Newhaven Development Corporation to bring more investment into the town. You can read more about this in our latest In Touch magazine, which is being distributed across the constituency as we speak.

It was a great day and signalled the official start of our campaign to get results for our area. Norman Baker and the Lib Dems have had more than a decade now to get results for our area but have failed to deliver. Where are our flood defences? Why aren’t our roads safer? Why is Lib Dem Lewes District Council still missing its recycling targets year after year? Our area deserves so much better. It’s time for results. It’s time for an end to Lib Dem failure.

Today, Thursday 1st of November will be remembered as the day of the General Election that never was.

Had Gordon Brown not run away from calling it, by midnight tonight Lewes could have had a new MP, one who delivers results.

The election may have been cancelled, but the need for results certainly isn’t!