'Make us a poster child for renewal'

THE House of Commons was notably empty when Blackpool South MP Chris Webb began the final piece of business of the year at 5pm on Friday.

- By GRAEME WHITFIELD

That is something of a shame because Mr Webb's adjournment debate on the Indices of Deprivation was worth giving a bit of attention to.

Regular readers of Northern Agenda will know that Blackpool has major pockets of deprivation and, as a result, often comes bottom of many national league tables (such as news we carried last week on life expectancy).

Mr Webb said that people in Blackpool "often feel forgotten by national politics" and that Christmas was often "a period of struggle, rather than celebrations, for many in my constituency."