LAST weekend we marked 100 years since the First World War ended.

In the days leading up to Remembrance Sunday I attended several events in Blaenau Gwent.

These including the Festival of Remembrance in Ebbw Vale and a trek to the top of Trefil for a service at the Cairn Memorial, to remember the six crew members of the Wellington bomber who died when they crashed on the mountain in 1940.

The Remembrance Services I attended on Sunday in Ebbw Vale and Beaufort were very well attended and felt especially poignant in light of the centenary.

- In Parliament, the start of the month saw a budget announcement which, overall, fell far short of what was needed.

There were parts of the budget which I welcomed. For example, the digital services tax for online retail giants is long overdue and something that I have been calling for since my time on the Public Accounts Committee.

In the round though, given the prime minister’s talk of ending austerity, what we heard was too little, too late.

If we want a genuine end to austerity, real help for our public services and a way to ring in the changes we need to create jobs and prosperity, we need a Labour Government.

- I gave a speech during the budget debate last week which focused on two areas.

Firstly, I spoke about last winter’s steelworker pension crisis.

The crisis, which saw thousands of hardworking people targeted by unscrupulous pensions advisors, should never have happened.

Pension pots earned through decades of toil were put at risk because of the wrongdoing of some and the inaction of others. The pensions regulators and government needs to put this right.

Secondly, I raised serious concerns about the effect pension changes will have on our already stretched police forces.

In order to meet increased employer contributions, I have been told that Gwent Police will need to save £5 million across 2019/20 and 2020/21 – a sum which is equivalent to 100 officers.

This is not right. The government needs to provide more funding for our police forces, not hit them with expensive accounting devices with barely any notice.