It is great news that President Trump has cancelled his planned trip to the UK next month, even if made his decision based on false information. At the time of writing he was stating that he did not want to open the new Embassy because the move from the old one leased to the USA by the Duke of Westminster in Grosvenor Square to US owned premises at Nine Elms was planned by his predecessor. In fact it was George Bush Junior who oversaw those decisions, not Barack Obama. Other speculations are that he has chosen to send Rex Tillerson to cut the ribbon because Theresa May criticised him over his retweets of the Britain First videos, or that he is not willing to visit a nation opposed to his visit. In the light of the recent resignation from the Office For Students by Toby Young over a series of deeply offensive tweets it is beginning to seem as though twitter is a rather risky place for people in the public eye to display their thoughts and ideas unless they are willing to take care over what they tweet!

The fact that Theresa May now has a gap in her diary for the 26^th and 27^th of February as a result of the Trump cancellation means that perhaps she could instead use the time creatively. She could use the days to hold a summit to resolve the matter of equal pay for men and for women. The end of February may seem a long way off but the focus on equal pay goes back to the time of Barbara Castle so it has been a long time in the making. Also bearing in mind that Mrs May’s own female Press Secretary was paid £15,000 less than her male counterparts until the last General Election when she resigned suggests that Downing Street do need to get their own house in order. They also have some work to do with other parts of the state which are one step removed from Whitehall such as the BBC. The Government has already called on businesses to disclose their pay differentials by April and so late February would be a good time to meet with leaders of large and small businesses to point out why such equality is important and to offer some sticks and carrots to ensure that the call is heard clearly. A good starting point would be to expect any business awarded a public contract to demonstrate its commitment to equal pay for men and women. As part of the same summit a focus on equal opportunities to employees or candidates across the spectrum of the equality strands would also be very helpful. The challenge for people with disabilities is huge when it comes to being appointed and there are many basic areas of provision that can be introduced by business to help reduce this area of inequality. Here in Brighton we have an excellent charity called Possability People who operate across East and West Sussex with a focus on improving the prospects for people with disabilities to gain employment. Perhaps local government here in Sussex could do something similar for their own suppliers to improve the prospects of equal pay and equal access to work for residents of Sussex. I am sure that Possability would be open to such a focus.

Small and micro businesses in Sussex, those with a payroll of less than £3m should by now be in receipt of offers as a result of the apprenticeship levy which larger companies began to pay into last April. The providers of suitable training for such a resource only got selected in mid December and it is now going to take some time for the portfolio of offers to emerge. It is very frustrating that all of the Universities were prevented from obtaining such contracts even though many would have committed time and effort to apply for them. Sadly there were also a number of Sussex Colleges that failed to be awarded contracts. The loss of Universities from this new Non Levy Apprenticeship Scheme is devastating in Sussex, bearing in mind how important High Tech businesses are to our economy. Along with Brighton and Hove and Chichester which all have a sizeable number of High Tech businesses, there are many others throughout Sussex. Our predominantly rural space and poor transport infrastructure make small High Tech businesses a significant employer. For the Universities to be denied the opportunity to provide such businesses with degree level apprenticeship schemes is a major oversight by a Government which claimed that the apprenticeship levy would increase the numbers of apprenticeships by 50%. So far there has been a major drop in the numbers, let us hope local MPs are raising their concerns with the Government as you read this!