I'm starting to be seriously concerned about the number of young people in my constituency who are not in education, employment nor training - so-called NEETs.

It can be immensely frustrating when someone is keen to work, is doing all the right things to find a job - but just can't seem to get anything suitable.   

So why is it so tough?  The overall economic situation must be part of the explaination.

However, I suspect another reason it is more difficult for young people to find work than it once was is because government regulation of the labour market has quite simply reduced the number of jobs available.  Over the years, government has in effect outlawed employment other than on terms decreed by the state.

As a consequence, someone keen to work might find themselves prevented from doing so.  Similarly, small businesses looking to take on an extra pair of hands, might simply decide that they can't afford to.  Jobs that might suit someone starting out in life are made more scarce.

Perhaps readers of this blog might consider their own place of work.  If there weren't quite so many obligations on employers taking on new staff, might your firm have hired more people over the past few years?  Every time the answer is "yes", that's one less NEET.   

How ironic if all those measures introduced to help those with jobs actually make it more difficult for others to find work in the first place.  

Until now discussion about NEETs has tended to focus on what government needs to do to solve things.  Perhaps we might help young people looking for work if government actually began by removing some of the problems it has created?

This great pile of papers are copies of all the new laws that Brussels has imposed on us over the past six weeks. 

My friend James Clappison, the brilliant MP for Hertsmere, plonked them on my desk on his way to the European Scrutiny Committee - which can neither delay nor veto any of it.

On the day we launch a campaign for an "in / out" EU refereundum, it is appropriate that you should be able to physically see that most of the laws and regulations that govern us are imposed by commission officials - merely rubber stamped by those we actually voted for.

UPDATE:  Someone disputes my suggestion that most of our laws and regulations are now imposed by commission officials. 

Having asked the UK government the question, I know that they were unable, or unwilling, to provide an answer. 

However, in response to a similar question tabled by a German law maker, the German government indicated somewhere in the region of 75% of German law and regulation emanated from Brussels.  It is not unreasonable to assume a similar figure for the UK, too.

Slam dunk.

I've signed the pledge demanding an "in / out" referendum on the EU.

Why don't you sign up now, too? 

For decades politicians and diplomats have managed our relations with the Brussels.  I think it is time that we allow the people to pass judgement on the results with an "in / out" vote. 

Once you've signed, why not also write to your MP and ask them if they'll sign up as well?  

Sign up here now.

Another unelected expert has been brought in to government.  This time HSBC chairman, Stephen Green, has been made trade minister.

I've no doubt Mr Green is a brilliant corporate captain - and if the UK government actually had its own trade policy, he could well be perfect for the role. 

But has this appointment been approved by those we elected to the Commons? After all, executive appointments were one of the reasons we had a civil war. And if Parliament has no say in deciding such things, what is its purpose?  

For all the talk of "new politics", and making government more accountable to Parliament and the people, will there be a public confirmation hearing?

Now that the Commons committee that scrutinises Mr Green's department is freely elected, surely they should be given the chance to approve or reject him to this role?  If not, what's are they for?

Precisely because members of the Committee are no longer whips' plants, but elected by colleagues, they need to assert themselves and summon Green for a confirmation hearing before he takes office .....

Personally, I like the idea of widening the talent pool from which minister are drawn. One of the reasons I agitated for freely elected Commons committees, was to make them effective vehicles capable of approving (or vetoing) such appointments.  Doing so paves the way for a subtle shift towards a separation of powers. 

Change must mean we rediscover grown up government, not shift further towards sofa government.

Holding a referendum on changing the voting system is set to restore public faith in everything, official data shows.  News comes the day after the House of Commons voted to allow a referendum on the Alternative Vote (AV) system for Parliamentary elections.

“Until folk knew that they’d be able to vote on electoral reform next May, they sometimes doubted the integrity and judgement of politicians.  But all those decades of incompetent public policy-making have been put to one side according to our data survey” revealed Whitehall sources.

Tinkering with the ballot system means that decades of growing contempt for the political system has been replaced with glowing admiration for our law-makers. “Those MPs might still ignore the things that really matter to us – but at least they’ll be doing it with AV!” gushed one citizen.    

Officials at the Department of Progress are keen to emphasise that a referendum on AV is not the only reform ministers are planning.  “Obviously AV was a top priority on the doorstep during the election.  Especially in the posh parts of Islington.  So we had to deliver that with breakneck speed.  But change doesn’t stop there.”

“Not holding a referendum on the EU after having promised one, is just as important, too, so that we can build trust in the new politics”.   

Officials are also drawing up plans to modernise democracy by replacing traditional elections with a citizen’s jury.  “Having a citizen’s jury making decisions will cut the cost of politics.  We can all just sit down together on a few sofas in Downing Street and decide things”.

It is Coalition policy to encourage lots of new, independent free schools. 

Great.  Although it remains to be seen if the malign influence of the local education establishment will prevent all those free schools from happening without education businesses being able to get involved.

What is clear is that those free schools we do have already – many of which have been quietly run on a shoestring for years - are being hit as a direct result of changes to the Admissions Code brought in by Ed Balls in the dying days of the last regime. As a result, many schools that have already escaped the dead hand of the local education authority are now specifically barred from serving as feeders into state-run secondary schools. It is petty, vindictive and spiteful - and hits some schools really hard.

So why have we not removed these obstacles already?

“I think of AV as an anti-Carswell system.”

David Davis MP, House of Commons debate

Apparently the European Commission wants to scrap Britain's £3 billion rebate.

No doubt ministers will tell us how fiercely they'll resist. And all the while Sir Humphrey at the Foreign Office will prepare for the move, knowing how sooner or later events will make it possible.

Perhaps when the inevitable happens, it should encourage us to ask what value for money we are getting from the EU.

The UK and Germany are the EU's only two net contributors since joining. In return for giving Europe zillions, we lock ourselves into a stagnating trade block.

Why don't we just keep the money and leave?

General Dannatt writes in today's Telegraph about "the protection of vested interests" in both the industrial and political fields that are screwing up Britain's defence acquisitions - and taking the taxpayer for a ride.  

I wonder if he's thinking about the purchase of helicopters for £27 million that could have been bought for less than £10 million? There are so many such examples to choose from. 

Seems like Lewis Page, author of Lions, Donkeys and Dinosaurs was about right after all. Pity quite so many of the paid up defence "experts" and politicians seem to have missed what's been going on.  Why have they failed to act? 

Our armed forces will only be properly equipped when we've ended protectionist defence contracting. We'll only get value from our defence budget when we've smashed the power of the protectionist contractors - and driven their lobbyists from the corridors of power.

Ahead of tomorrow's debate on changing the electoral system, I thought it'd be helpful if sitting Conservative MPs could see how safe or vulnerable they'd be personally under AV .  

Click here for details of a seat-by-seat analysis by the Electoral Reform Society.