Last week at Westminster was dominated by the Chancellor's Budget, and this week seems certain to be as well. I hope to speak in the Budget Debate in the House of Commons on Monday, and the House of Commons votes on the key Budget resolutions on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Treasury Select Committee takes evidence on the Budget from the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and I shall be part of the team of 11 MPs who seek to put the Chancellor 'on the spot.'

This will, indeed, be a busy week at Westminster for me, as I also have an Adjournment Debate of my own on Tuesday (at around midnight!) on the subject of Gulf War Illness - a problem that has seriously affected a number of people in our area.

What of the Budget? Well, it was, of course, vintage Gordon Brown! There were new tax allowances and special "wheezes" designed to catch the day's headlines, but all with dubious real benefit other than to even further complicate our tax system.

As ever, there were all the Budget measures which the Chancellor did not discuss in his speech, but which were hidden away in the small print of the Budget document. Haven't all Chancellors played these games? Yes, but not to anything like this extent!

Most of the aspects of the Budget, however, were unimportant set aside the unveiling of the Government's plans to improve NHS funding.

The Chancellor announced a five year increase in NHS funding which will mean that EACH YEAR the NHS will receive about 10 per cent more cash than the previous year. This really is big money - between 1999 and 2007 the NHS will have the biggest increase in funding in its history.

I welcome the increase in funding for our health services which would be necessary whatever type of health system we had. For decades we have been spending far less on health services than most other advanced countries and this is why our waiting times are so long; many people die needlessly each year waiting for treatment or with illnesses not diagnosed; too many of our hospital buildings are a disgrace and should have been rebuilt years ago; there are shortages of key staff and too few beds; NHS dentistry is dying out in many parts of the country; and we are not able to apply everywhere the most up to date technology.

There remains the important question of whether the current structure of the NHS is the best one for delivering better results. In my view the NHS must become far more patient centred, and far less controlled from Westminster and Whitehall. The NHS is one of the biggest employers in the world, and it needs local flexibility and priority setting.

But we should dismiss out of hand the suggestion that a well-funded NHS has already been tried and failed. The problem in the last Parliament was that the Labour Government stuck with Tory spending plans for the first two years of the Parliament - which meant that over the Parliament as a whole there was only a modest boost to health funding.

The problem now is that even with the extra money there are still huge demands on the NHS - the costs of higher pay (needed to attract new staff), the costs of an ageing population, the costs of dealing with the backlog of building work, and the implications of more expensive technology and drugs.

There is a long way to go before we have first class health services in the UK, but at least the Government has made a start. It is only a pity that it has taken this Government five years to get its act together on the NHS, and that it has tried to pretend for so long that it could achieve all its objectives WITHOUT the need to increase taxes at all.

Charles Kennedy has been proved right when he said at the last Election that "you don't get something for nothing".

I would be interested in any comments readers may have about the Budget, as the Finance Bill - which implements the Budget- is now debated and potentially amended for two months before becoming law.

When I return to our area at the end of this week I shall be visiting Yeovil Hospital on Friday, calling in on Avishayes School, and holding a Roving Advice Centre in Crewkerne (Furland Road/Memorial Avenue area, 5pm-6.30pm on Friday, April 26th).

Have a good week,

David Laws

PS: My next Advice Centres are in Ilminster and Crewkerne (Saturday, April 27th), and in Yeovil (Monday, April 29th). Details from my office on 01935 423284.