Phil Willis MP - Member of Parliament for Harrogate and Knaresborough

“It is time that people with serious sight loss should be able to claim the higher rates of the Disability Living Allowance (DLA)” says Phil Willis MP (LibDem, Harrogate & Knaresborough).

Phil Willis is pressing the Government to change its policy to allow blind and partially sighted people to claim the higher levels of Disability Living Allowance

“Blind and partially sighted people face some of the biggest obstacles to independent mobility” he added “It is therefore nonsense that they should not be able to claim the DLA which is available to other people.

Phil Willis MP (LibDem, Harrogate & Knaresborough) is calling on the government to require energy companies to publish information on bills showing whether consumers are on the cheapest tariff offered by their supplier

“It is estimated1 that 5.5 million households are now in fuel poverty, spending more that 10% of their income on maintaining an adequate level of heating” said Phil Willis.

“There are so many different tariffs it can be difficult to know whether you could be on a better deal” added the MP.

“This is a bitter blow not just for Leeds but for the whole county of Yorkshire” said Phil Willis MP (Lib Dem, Harrogate & Knaresborough) commenting on the closure of ITV's Kirkstall studio in Leeds.

Phil Willis has joined other MPs from across the region in condemning the decision and expressing fears for the quality of future programming.

Phil Willis MP (LibDem, Harrogate & Knaresborough) today joined with consumer groups to highlight the problem of silent telephone calls, which cause misery for thousands of consumers.

Phil Willis welcomed the campaign from communications regulator Ofcom and consumer champions Consumer Focus and Age Concern to raise awareness of silent calls and how to avoid them.

The 150th anniversary of Darwin’s book ‘The origin of the Species’, has reignited the debate over the theory of evolution through natural selection in a way that would have surprised Darwin himself. Despite the huge and impressive leaps in scientific knowledge over the past century and a half which provide compelling evidence that the planet earth and all the species on it have developed over a period of 4,000 to 5,000 million years– the sceptical belief that mankind was ‘created’ by a immortal being or ‘designed’ by superior intelligence remains a potent force in our society.

The 6th and final Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) was always going to be controversial as Vice Chancellors prepared their constituencies for outcomes which traditionally determined academic ‘bragging rights’ and future funding. The 2008 exercise was a little more tense than before with £1.5 billion in research funding on offer and the suggestion that it would be distributed more widely – rewarding research excellence where ever it was found at the expense of traditionally research intensive universities.

Heathrow Terminal 5 opens to the public today: a triumph of modern engineering. With five levels, the size of 10 football pitches, it is the largest freestanding building in Britain.