Well, two days after the budget and the wheels have already fallen off George Osbourne’s ‘one nation’ proposals. Analysts from both the IFS and the Resolution Foundation have shown where the crunch is really going to hit. £12bn off welfare, taken mainly from tax credits that would normally be paid to those in low-paid jobs, as opposed to £4bn being given to low-paid workers by raising the minimum wage to £9 an hour by 2020. That just leaves a little matter of £8bn being taken from the poorest people in low-paid jobs.

I wonder who is going to be paying for the cuts in inheritance tax for millionaires?

For five years of the Coalition Government we managed to keep right wingers at bay and produced balanced budgets that actually closed the income gap between rich and poor. Now the Tories are off the leash and we can see where they are going. Not that they gave any details of where the cuts would fall before the election. It was just something that they put together in the two months since the May election.

Oh, and spare a thought for the millions of public sector workers consigned to 1% pay ‘rises’ for the next four years having been on 0-1% for the previous 5 years already.

I’ve always believed that how a society treats its elderly people is a measure of how fair a society is.

In our 2010 manifesto we had a policy called the ‘triple lock guarantee’ which re-established the link between pensions and earnings; a link that had remained broken under successive governments since Margaret Thatcher’s Government of 1980. We demanded it was part of the Coalition Agreement and have delivered it in Government.

This means that pensioners in Reading are guaranteed an annual rise by whichever is the higher of earnings growth, prices growth or 2.5%. The state pension is £440 higher per year in 2014-15 than if it had increased in line with earnings from the start of this Parliament, benefiting the 18,000 pensioners in Reading all thanks to the Liberal Democrat triple lock.

Liberal Democrats are committed to building a fairer society and protecting our elderly population not just in this parliament, but for every parliament in the future. That’s why we have pledged to write this ‘triple lock’ into law, guaranteeing that pensioners get this protection in the years ahead, going further than any of the other parties.

This is the latest in a long line of Liberal Democrat policies delivered in Government that help build and safeguard a fairer society. This will offer dignity and stability to current pensioners, as well as those coming up to retirement. They will be able to better plan their futures knowing that they’ll no longer be faced with the insecurity of unpredictable pension rises.

Whilst reading today’s Independent I was struck by the definition of poverty used by government statisticians. According to the article by Jonathan Owen the poverty line for a family of four is £357 a week after housing costs which translates to £18,564 a year. That got me thinking as I, like most people I suspect, assumed that poverty meant hungry children in rags and begging on the streets. OK so we are talking about relative poverty in the UK but just the use of the term poverty seems really over the top for a person earning £18,564 a year and has his housing costs paid for. Is this really a definition of poverty? Well the government measure used to define poverty is those living in a household with an income of less than 60% of the national average which currently means £357 a week for a family of four and excludes housing costs. It cannot be all sweetness and light for a family of four living on this level of income but it also does not seem like real poverty.

What strikes me about this definition of poverty is that it is totally distorted by the huge gap that opened up between rich and poor in this country since the days of Mrs Thatcher and the acceptance of ‘greed is good’ by successive Tory and Labour governments. The average income figure is skewed by the presence of a relatively few astronomically wealthy individuals. That gap has actually been narrowed a bit by the Coalition since 2010 with measures such as raising the personal income tax allowance, the pupil premium and now the expansion of free school meals but there is still a huge difference between rich and poor in our country.

The government needs a different measure of poverty in this country, one that can provide a useful measure of those in dire straits without reference to the filthy rich. That will help future governments target their efforts at those in really desperate need.

We are proud of this government’s record in closing the gap between rich and poor in our society. It was the Lib Dems that proposed both the Pupil Premium and the sharp rises in income tax allowances that now give 25 million workwers an extra £700 in their pay packets. 1.5 million new apprenticeships are playing a key role in giving our youngsters the best starts in their chosen careers, a Green Investment Bank is now providing funds to develop our green businesses. And all this has been achieved whilst turning round our economy which the last Labour government left in a shambles.

We are also proud of this nation’s welcoming attitude to those from other parts of the world who want to contribute to our growing economy. Immigration plays a vital part in our country’s life, providing both simple labour and some of the best entrepreneurs. We want to see a Greater Britain, not a little England that disengages from the rest of the world. We want to work with our counterparts in Europe not set up barriers with our largest trading partners.

Reading has a booming economy and a fantastic kaleidoscope of a population from all four corners of the world. Our ambition is to make sure that all residents share in the rewards and that the less well off are also cared for.

Locally I am leading the campaign for 20 mph limits on all residential streets across Reading. I also want to see a much bigger emphasis on building affordable homes on any new developments in Reading.

Specifically in Tilehurst I am working with local people to oppose the ban on residents of Mayfair from parking on their own driveways, on opposing the landowners plans to sell off the allotments on Chapel Hill, supporting the road safety improvements in School Road and pushing for a much wider 20 mph zone as far as possible across Tilehurst. I also want to see much more use being made of mobile speed guns by the local police team given that one of their priorities is speeding cars.