East Midlands LibDem Euro-MP Bill Newton Dunn and his MEP colleagues in New York last week urged nations of the world to "sprint to the finish line" in the race to meet global poverty-reduction targets by their 2015 deadline. Newton Dunn was one of the EU's official representatives alongside 150 heads of state and government at a three-day UN summit to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, a planetary roadmap to fight hunger, disease and maternal and child mortality, provide basic education for all and protect the environment.

Eric Pickles, Communities and Local Government Secretary has announced that local councils are to face a crackdown on the publication of free newspapers and magazines which threaten the viability of independent local press, it was announced this week.

The rules around council publicity have been too weak for too long allowing public money to be spent on frivolous town hall propaganda papers that have left many local newspapers looking over the abyss - weakening our free press - or to use 'hired-gun' lobbyists that operate in the shadows to bulldoze special interests through.

Liberal Democrat County Councillor Barrie Taylor says "The Conservatives now in control of Derbyshire County Council are proposing real cuts to the level of Social Care, the 'Home Help' service, as well as a new scale of charges.

At present adults with 'moderate' need of care at home are eligible for service, but under the new proposals only those with 'substantial' needs will get any help, to save £4 million. The national definition of 'moderate' needs is essentially an inability to carry out several personal care or domestic routines. If a service for such vulnerable people is withdrawn it is difficult to see how they will be able to continue to live at home.

High Peak Borough Council has moved planning meetings to 1:30pm after the council has been unable to find suitable alternative accommodation for its normal 5:30 meetings with the closure of Chinley site. Now the decision has been taken to move Development Control meetings from October to Monday afternoons. Meetings are to be held at Chapel Town Hall, which is unavailable on Monday evenings. An alternative of moving meetings to Wednesdays was thrown out because it was inconvenient to some councillors. The Council was also asked to look at the availability of other venues or whether part of the Chinley site could be kept open whilst a better solution was sought.

The first non-YouGov poll for three weeks has a boost for the LDs and is showing a share very different from the online pollster's recent daily polls. According to ComRes, the yellows are now on 18 per cent, up three points on the last survey from the firm. The Tories, on 38 per cent, are down one point while Labour, on 34 per cent, is up one.

Nick Clegg warned today that flood-hit Pakistan will need aid for years to come as he saw the devastation for himself. The Deputy Prime Minister said the disaster would have a "long tail", with threats from water-borne disease and opportunistic extremists. Speaking after being shown aid camps near the southern town of Sukkur - one of the worst affected regions - Mr Clegg said: "I think the sheer scale of this, it is really quite difficult to comprehend. "The terrible thing is that it has got a long tail. It has got a lot of aftershocks that are going to last for a long time."

The decision by what remains of the Labour high command to vote against legislation bringing a referendum on the Alternative Vote is one of the most hypocritical and staggeringly self-interested political decisions in recent years.

After 13 years of promising reform, in which precious little materialised, each and every Labour MP campaigned at this election on the promise of a referendum on AV. That referendum has now been proposed by the Coalition Government and a Bill to make it happen put forward, yet Labour's shadow cabinet has now decided to oppose the legislation.

In the Budget:

• Increase in Capital Gains Tax so the rich pay their fair share

• A bank levy, which will raise £2.5bn from the banks

• An increase in the income tax threshold, lifting nearly a million people out of paying tax and putting money back in the pocket of hard working families

• The pensions 'triple-lock' ensuring a fair deal for pensioners

Tomorrow, the coalition government will deliver an emergency budget to bring order back to the public finances. It will be a difficult budget - but remember, as you hear it, why we have to do this.

Labour left our country with a mountain of debt. Every minute that goes by the government spends a staggering £80,000 on interest, that's over £800 million a week. If we don't take action now, the markets will force us into even more drastic measures as they have in Greece and Spain.

Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg today announced a Government taskforce to look at ways to support families and give every child a fair start in life. Improving the life chances of children has always been central to Nick Clegg's beliefs. The new taskforce, which includes Liberal Democrat education minister Sarah Teather, will look at ways in which the Coalition Government can make a real difference to children's lives.