In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.

The Norfolk base is a major employer in a part of the country where the unemployment rate is higher than the Moray Firth.

It is where most of the engineering work on the Tornado is done. British Aerospace is also based there and moving all that up to Scotland would cost £50m.

And the fighter base can get to London more quickly in the event of a major emergency and reach the Middle Eastern forward operating bases without refuelling.

So why are Norfolk's MPs getting so jumpy?

After the strategic defence review they were confidently predicting that Marham would be safe. Now they're writing letters to the Defence Secretary while the local MP Elizabeth Truss is raising the issue in the house every other day (literally!).

The reason is because they're worried that high politics not economics will determine whether RAF Marham stays open or closes. And this weekend's well-attended protests in Lossiemouth, led by the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, bears this out.

"Never underestimate the power of the Scottish mafia," says one Norfolk MP. "They have the resources and the political clout to make this into a really big issue in a way we never can."

RAF Kinloss is about to close. Shutting neighbouring Lossiemouth could be portrayed in Moray as the London government kicking the Scots when they're down.

And with important elections to the Scottish Parliament just six months away the SNP would be able to make a lot of political capital out of this.

"My fear is that it may be politically easier for the government to close a base in a safe Norfolk seat rather than risk being seen as being anti-Scottish," says the MP.

That's why the Norfolk campaign has suddenly stepped up a gear. Councils and MPs are writing letters of support to the Defence Secretary. Many of the Norfolk MPs will attend an adjournment debate later in the week secured by Ms Truss.

"I hope politics will not trump economics on this issue," says Ms Truss, adding that the only sensible decision would be to keep Marham open.

The SNP is convinced that the decision has already been taken in favour of Marham. The Ministry of Defence insists that's not the case. The Defence Minister has said any decision is unlikely until the spring.

Until it is made, Norfolk's MPs will not rest easy.

Simon Wright says he will not be rushed into a decision on tuition fees

It is generally accepted that his narrow win over Labour's Charles Clarke in Norwich South (by 310 votes) was largely due to the student vote which made tuition fees a big local issue in the election.

Mr Wright didn't just sign the National Union of Students' pledge to oppose tuition fees. He made a point of reminding voters about it throughout the election campaign.

Yet as a young MP and close friend of Norman Lamb (he used to be the North Norfolk MP's agent) he is reluctant to be seen as a rebel so early on in his parliamentary career. Ever since being elected he's always known that tuition fees would be the problem for him - and they are.

The two other Liberal Democrat MPs with university constituencies in the eastern region, Bob Russell (Colchester) and Julian Huppert (Cambridge), have been quick to say that they will vote against the increase. Mr Wright will only say that he "will not be rushed into a decision".

"It is not a question of sitting on the fence," he said. "This is an important decision and it's important we get it right."

He insists that this debate is not just about tuition fees but the overall package.

"What's important is to recognise that we are making the system fairer than the one Labour left us with. There are proposals for increasing living costs, loans and grants for young people from not well off families.

"I believe we can deliver a fairer system for student loan repayments and these proposals go some way to achieving that."

That sounds as if, at the moment, he is minded to back the increase in tuition fees.

Within hours of the government's proposals being published, students from the University of East Anglia delivered more than 1,000 postcards of protest to Mr Wright's Norwich office. They intend to keep up the pressure.

Mr Wright is discovering that being in government is not always a pleasant experience.

The 3,000 jobs will go at Norfolk County Council over the next four years

Everything else is up for debate.

Norfolk County Council Deputy Leader Ian Mackie says exceptional times demand an exceptional response

There'll be fewer grants to local arts groups, fewer regular rural bus services (but more flexibuses to help the most needy get into town), no more park-and-ride subsidy and fewer school crossing patrols.

Grants to help teenage mothers set up home will probably be done away with. So too will grants to help parents with lower incomes buy school uniform.

These are only proposals for now - although they are likely to be implemented in full.

For the next three months the council will run what it's calling "a Big Conversation". It wants people in Norfolk to tell it which services it should be providing and which can be jettisoned.

Those services which remain will be radically overhauled. There will be fewer back office staff, some services will be shared with other authorities and others will be outsourced.

Three thousand jobs will go over the next four years. The council estimates that 1,700 of them will transfer with the services to the private sector. It hopes many of the remaining 1,300 will go through natural wastage but it accepts that many real people will lose their jobs.

"Exceptional times demand an exceptional response," says Deputy Leader Ian Mackie. "Only a fundamental reform of what the county council does, and the way in which it does it, will do."

Local authorities were originally established to provide services for everyone in society. With money tighter than ever before it looks like those days are coming to an end.