Author Archives: NewsHound

NewsHound

Liberal Democrats name junior doctor Aidan King as candidate for North East mayor election

By NewsHound | Fri 19th January 2024 - 9:15 am

ChronicleLive reports:

The Liberal Democrats have chosen a junior doctor as their candidate for the North East mayoral election.

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Record 420,000 patients faced 12-hour A&E waits in 2023

By NewsHound | Mon 15th January 2024 - 8:45 am

  • 1,150 patients a day faced ‘trolley waits’ in A&E of 12 hours or more last year
  • Fifty fold increase in 12-hour delays compared to four years ago
  • In some areas almost one in two patients faced delays of 12 hours or more
  • Lib Dems warn funding cuts risk “pouring petrol over the fire” of NHS crisis

A record 420,000 patients waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital from A&E in 2023, up 20% on the previous year, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats has revealed. It means an average of 1,150 patients a day faced waits of 12 hours more to be admitted to hospital last year.

The Liberal Democrats said the “appalling delays” were being caused by years of Conservative neglect, and warned Rishi Sunak’s plans to slash healthcare funding would “pour petrol” over the flames of the NHS crisis.

The latest data from NHS England shows how long people are left waiting after a decision to admit them to hospital – also known as “trolley waits.” The figures show there has been a staggering fifty fold rise in 12-hour delays at A&E in recent years.

In 2019, just 8,272 people waited 12 hours or more to be admitted to hospital at A&E, making up around 0.13% of all emergency admissions that year. This increased to 419,560 in 2023, with over one in fifteen (6.7%) patients at A&E waiting 12 hours or more to be admitted. It means the proportion of patients waiting 12 hours or more to be admitted is almost fifty times higher in 2023 than it was before the last general election. The number of 12 hour A&E admission delays last year was by the far the highest since records started being recorded in 2011.

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Liberal Democrats uncover nearly 4,000 cancer operations cancelled in past year

By NewsHound | Mon 8th January 2024 - 1:12 pm

Almost 4,000 cancer-related surgeries have been cancelled in the past year, an 8% rise on the previous year, shocking figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.

The figures show that 3,947 cancer operations were cancelled in 2022/23, up from 3,662 the previous year. Of these, 304 were cancelled due to staff being unavailable or sick, 302 due to a lack of beds and 150 because of equipment issues. Over 13,000 cancer operations have been cancelled in the past four years, the research shows.

The figures were uncovered through Freedom of Information requests with data provided by 56 of 137 acute NHS trusts in England. meaning the true figure is likely to be far higher.

The Liberal Democrats said it was shocking that cancer patients were being so “catastrophically let down.” The party is calling for a new legal right for cancer patients to start treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral, as part of a plan to significantly improve cancer care and outcomes.

North Bristol cancelled 547 cancer operations in the past year, more than any other NHS trust in the country. This was followed by Medway NHS Foundation Trust (347), University Hospital Southampton (258) and the Isle of Wight NHS Trust (254).

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NewsHound

Jamie Stone and Sarah Dyke share New Year’s Resolutions

By NewsHound | Tue 2nd January 2024 - 4:00 pm

Politics Home has been asking MPs to share their New Year’s Resolutions. Two Lib Dems responded.

Jamie Stone has pledged to offer a second constituency office in the town of Wick:

“After the boundary changes my constituency will be the biggest ever in the UK,” he said.

“Constituents deserve proper representation and support from their MPs and their teams, and that is why in the future there will be not one but two constituency offices in the northernmost mainland constituency in the UK.”

Sarah Dyke wants to “work even harder” on behalf of her constituents. She only officially entered Parliament in September and in just 3 months, she’s already spoken 36 times. That is an impressive start.

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LISTEN: Ed Davey talks about his life as a carer

By NewsHound | Sat 16th December 2023 - 12:01 pm

Ed Davey has given an interview to the Times Radio podcast What I Wish I’d Known. He talks about his life as a carer for his Mum, Nanna, son and wife.

The Times newspaper has a report on the podcast (£)

He describes how he was with his mother when she died of Cancer when he was 15, in his school uniform and how he felt afterwards:

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Mark Pack hits back at activists who called for bolder, distinctive offer to voters

By NewsHound | Wed 6th December 2023 - 1:26 pm

Last week we brought you news that 30 senior Liberal Democrats had written to the Guardian to say that the party should have a bolder, more distinctive offer to voters.

It’s only fair that we bring you the party president’s letter to the Guardian, defending the party against these claims. Mark Pack said:

Far from being too cautious, the Liberal Democrats under Ed Davey have shown incredible boldness (Lib Dems are being too cautious, say senior party members, 29 November). We are the only party committed to 0.7% on international aid, to proportional representation and to combating climate change. Above all, we are the only party to have a real plan to transform our broken relationship with Europe.

With Ed Davey as leader, our plan to get this Conservative government out of power is working, the team is united and we are winning again. Since 2020, we have taken the fight to the Conservatives – in record-breaking byelections in former safe seats from Buckinghamshire to Shropshire. We have added swathes of councillors across the country. The Liberal Democrats are the only party that wants to radically change the system from vested powers to fairer votes. We can only achieve this change through winning elections, with more MPs, more councillors, more assembly members in Wales and more MSPs in Scotland.

However, two other letters from Liberal Democrats on the same day had a different view:

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NewsHound

Alistair Carmichael slams Lee Anderson’s Orkney asylum seekers plan

By NewsHound | Wed 22nd November 2023 - 9:27 pm

Lee Anderson has become notorious for saying what many right wing Conservatives think but don’t dare say out loud.

“30p Lee” is a total embarrassment to politics and public life.

Today, he suggested that asylum seekers should be sent to Orkney rather than Rwanda.

This attracted the attention of Orkney’s MP, our own Alistair Carmichael, who said:

This is not a serious proposition. I would be astonished if Lee Anderson could even find Orkney – or in his words “the Orkneys” – on a map. His remarks show inhumanity towards desperate and vulnerable people – and disdain towards island communities to boot.

Anderson has form for brainstorming Tory policy live on air. It is a novel sort of brainstorming as it does not actually involve the engagement of a brain but instead looks more like an exercise in corralling as many prejudices as possible into one space and calling it a policy.

If Rishi Sunak cannot bring his deputy chair into line then the only conclusion is that he approves of these attitudes. Yet another attempt by a Tory MP to kick up dust and distract attention from the failure of their government to manage our asylum and immigration system.

Of course, if only there was an actual solution to the asylum system. Oh wait….

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NewsHound

Rob Blackie: Ban on laughing gas “waste of time”

By NewsHound | Wed 8th November 2023 - 11:20 am

London Mayoral candidate Rob Blackie has criticised the Government’s ban on Nitrous Oxide which, as the BBC reports, has come into force

Now categorised as a class C drug, possession of laughing gas for its “psychoactive effects” will carry a sentence of up to two years in prison.

The government says the ban will combat anti-social behaviour and reduce damage to users’ health.

Experts previously warned against a ban saying it would be disproportionate to the level of harm it causes.

Nitrous oxide is regularly used as a painkiller in medicine and dentistry. When mixed with oxygen, it is known as “gas and air”, which can help reduce pain during childbirth.

But it is also one of the most commonly used recreational drugs by 16 to 24-year-olds. It causes short-term euphoria but can damage the nervous system.

Under the new rules, those found in unlawful possession of the drug could now face a prison sentence or unlimited fine, with up to 14 years for supply or production.

Rob said:

The Conservative Government’s new ban on laughing gas is just wasting the police’s time – precious time that should be spent on serious and violent crimes.

With all the exemptions, the ban is going to be pretty unenforceable. Officers are going to spend huge amounts of time on paperwork in the office having to justify their work.

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NewsHound

Christine Jardine writes about yet another mass shooting

By NewsHound | Tue 31st October 2023 - 8:30 am

Christine Jardine uses her Scotsman column this week to write about the awful shooting in Maine last week and the culture in the US which allows these tragedies to occur on an all to regular basis.

She described a trip to an American supermarket 7 years ago

Walking into a general store and seeing rifles on open display along one wall stopped me in my tracks.

In a small town in Virginia, with the cool, laid-back vibe of a Happy Days episode, lethal weapons were on sale alongside the fruit and veg.

uddenly small-town America seemed a very strange and potentially dangerous place.

I had …

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NewsHound

What’s the media saying about Lib Dem Conference?

By NewsHound | Mon 25th September 2023 - 11:00 am

Here’s a quick roundup of some of the things that the media are saying about Lib Dem Conference:

Steve Coogan and Carol Vorderman lead rally for proportional representation. Sky

Liberal Democrats face housebuilding targets row at Liberal Democrat Conference BBC

Man pleas for assisted dying reform at Lib Dem Conference Bourmemouth Echo

Lib Dems would double shared parental leave pay and increase leave Guardian

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“People out there want the Liberal Democrats to stand”

By NewsHound | Tue 19th September 2023 - 9:30 am

Channel 4 did a preview of the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election last night. You can watch here.  Our brilliant candidate Gloria Adebo was interviewed in her garden.

Responding to a challenge that the Liberal Democrats weren’t relevant in the seat, Gloria, filmed tending her sunflowers, said:

Why would I not run? No vote has been cast yet and there’s all to grab. We speak to people on the doorstep and there was a lady who said to me “Can you not just press the reset button. We can’t go on like this. So there are people out there who want the Liberal Democrats to stand and that for me is enough.

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Tim Farron: “Scrapping nutrient neutrality is a disgraceful act from the government”

By NewsHound | Tue 29th August 2023 - 10:28 am

The Guardian reports that:

Michael Gove is planning to rip up water pollution rules that builders have blamed for exacerbating England’s housing crisis but which environmental groups say are essential for protecting the country’s rivers.

The housing secretary, with Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, will announce the move on Tuesday, according to several people briefed on the plans, alongside hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of extra funding to mitigate the potential impact on England’s waterways.

The decision will spark anger among environmentalists, who say it will further add to water pollution, as water companies are already dumping raw sewage into rivers

…

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NewsHound

Christine Jardine: Tinker, Tailor, Tartan Trews

By NewsHound | Mon 21st August 2023 - 10:35 am

Christine Jardine’s tongue is stuck firmly in her cheek in her Scotsman column this week. You can tell she’s enjoying making fun of the latest nonsense advanced by a former SNP MSP – that the reason the SNP is doing so badly is that it has been infiltrated by MI5 to discredit the independence cause.

It seems that after 16 years in power, including one term with an outright majority, the failure of the SNP to persuade the Scottish people to jump ship from the UK was all because of unionist subterfuge.

Not because of dissatisfaction with the state of our NHS, anger at failing education standards or frustration at the growing cost of those ferries. Nor the results of realising during the pandemic that the strength and size of the UK Exchequer and the economy were positive reasons for the Union. Nor was it the emotional ties we all have to family in the rest of the UK that swung the argument. No, it was spooks. British spies in the nationalist camp.

A potential new spy novel, she wonders?

A sort of ‘Tinker Tailor Tartan Trews’ expose of a pro-UK cell acting as a conduit for vital information that Holyrood would prefer to keep clear of the clutches of ‘Big Brother’ in Westminster. That, in claiming the Security Service is anti-Scottish, the originator of this particular conspiracy theory – apparently a former MSP called Campbell Martin – is actually laying the groundwork for a piece of fiction.

It might feature a handful of operatives, presumably well-trained in the love of square sausage and Irn-Bru, which has infiltrated the inner sanctum of the SNP. There they have painstakingly won the trust of the leadership and encouraged them down an independence cul-de-sac, for which they will be rewarded with a cottage in the Highlands and a new identity.

The online version of the article is illustrated beautifully with a picture of Claudia Winkleman in full Traitors get up

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NewsHound

Sewage: Investigation reveals water firms failing to admit how much sewage is being discharged

By NewsHound | Wed 9th August 2023 - 10:30 pm
  • Thames Water refused to hand over data despite saying publicly they do measure the volume of sewage discharged
  • Scottish Water make public how much sewage is discharged into rivers and seas
  • England’s water firms accused of “scandalous cover up”
  • Liberal Democrats demand water firms measure how much sewage they are discharging into waterways

Water firms are failing to disclose how much sewage is being discharged into rivers, lakes and coastlines, Environmental Information Requests by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.

The staggering admission follows public outrage at water companies destroying the environment with sewage discharges. Currently, water firms only provide the length of sewage discharges, broken …

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NewsHound

Lib Dems target seat gains on new boundaries

By NewsHound | Wed 9th August 2023 - 12:35 pm

An interesting article on Politics Home highlights how our campaign team is now targeting more seats based on the new boundaries.

PoliticsHome understands that there are a number of areas across the country where Lib Dem activists are confident that the new make-up of seats could play in their favour, generally in areas where Lib Dem council wards are merging into areas that currently have Conservative MPs or have leaned Conservative in the past, and campaigners are now specifically targeting their canvassingin patches.

They talk to Victoria Collins, our candidate in the newly formed seat of  Harpenden and Berkhamstead, who told them:

Victoria Collins, who has been selected as the Lib Dems candidate for Harpenden and Berkhamsted, told PoliticsHome that there has been a “groundswell” of movement towards her party in the area, as demonstrated by local election results over the last few years as the party have made gains.

She said that she was selected before this year’s local elections and the final results of the boundary review. “We were looking forward and saying ‘actually, how do we start building a campaign for the next general election?’,” she explained.

The article also cites how our campaign in Selby and Ainsty targeted parts of the constituency that are moving into the new Harrogate and Knaresborough seat:

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NewsHound

Christine Jardine: SNP so caught up in indy fantasies they are almost in Narnia

By NewsHound | Thu 3rd August 2023 - 9:55 am

In her Scotsman column this week, Christine Jardine calls out the SNP/Green Scottish Government for wasting public money and effort on independence rather than tackle the problems people face day to day.

I appreciate we all want familiarity for comfort in difficult times, and there can be no doubt that these are tricky times for the SNP. With internal party squabbles, broken ferries, and an ever-lengthening social care backlog, who can blame them for wanting a distraction? But why should taxpayers have to fork out for the SNP’s therapy for frustrated nationalists? Particularly when public funds are tight and so many people are worried about providing for their families.

Lsst week, the Government published a paper on citizenship in an independent Scotland. Promise heavy but reality light is probably the best that can be said about it. As Christine says:

We would all also have our new passports by ‘independence day’. Oh and the colour of these new passports would be maroon, just in case that’s of any interest. We would also somehow have rejoined the EU without the nuisance of having to meet the criteria.

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LIb Dem led Powys County Council continues free school meal holiday scheme

By NewsHound | Wed 19th July 2023 - 9:07 am

In the middle of a cost of loving crisis, any extra demands on household income can be catastrophic for some families.

The Summer holidays should be a carefree time of play and fun for children. For parents on the lowest incomes, though, it can be incredibly difficult to find the money to provide an extra daily meal if their children are on free school meals.

In Wales, the Labour (just have a think about that for a minute) Government ended the scheme to give families entitled to free school meals vouchers during the Summer holidays. This policy was, of course, introduced during the pandemic by our own brilliant education secretary Kirsty Williams.

However, three Welsh Councils, including Lib Dem led Powys, have decided to take over the scheme so that children do not go hungry during the Summer.

Our Councillor Jake Berriman said:

The late notice that councils across Wales were given about this scheme stopping would have had a detrimental impact on low-income families. Not only would they lose out on the voucher scheme but they would also have had a very limited time to adjust their family finances accordingly.

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“Lib Dems take aim at Johnson’s entire honours list”

By NewsHound | Wed 21st June 2023 - 2:53 pm

Tortoise Media reports that Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson Christine Jardine has written to the Forfeiture Committee  to ask them to rescind Boris Johnson’s entire Honours list.

In a letter sent to the committee, seen by Tortoise, Jardine said Johnson had “launched deplorable attacks on the Committee and our Parliamentary democracy”. She also raised doubts about the suitability of individuals on the list, including those “implicated in the partygate saga”.

Jardine wrote: “I am therefore urging you to open an investigation into the potential withdrawal of all of Boris Johnson’s honours which fall under the scope of your Committee. Clearly, the circumstances around this list – and the events which have occurred since its release – are unprecedented and have brought the honours system into disrepute. I believe that there are grounds for examining whether Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list can be revoked in its entirety.”

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Lib Dems are not just for the leafy suburbs – Carl Cashman

By NewsHound | Wed 7th June 2023 - 7:30 am

Recently Liverpool Lib Dem Councillors elected Carl Cashman as their group leader to replace Richard Kemp who stood down after the May elections.

The Liverpool Echo recently did a profile of the 31 year old mortgage broker who has said that he wants the Lib Dems to appeal to the whole city, not just the suburbs:

“I want to dispel this idea that if you are from a council estate or a poorer background then it is the Labour Party that you naturally identify with. The Lib Dems aren’t just here for the leafy suburbs, we are here for the whole

…

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Who should LGBT+ people vote for?

By NewsHound | Wed 3rd May 2023 - 8:44 am

PinkNews have an article asking who LGBT+ people should vote for now that the Conservatives are actively targeting marginalised groups as part of their culture war and Keir Starmer’s commitment to trans rights dilutes every time he opens his mouth. Worryingly, at Easter, for the second time, the Labour leader visited a Church which supports the idea of the inhumane and cruel conversion therapy.  Once might be seen as a mistake, twice is sending a message.

The Lib Dems come out reasonably well. There are a couple of quotes from our own Charley Hasted who is also the Chair of LGBT+ Lib Dems.

In November 2022, the party faced a revolt from LGBTQ+ members when it revised a statement on the definition of transphobia to protect “gender-critical” views.

Charley Hasted, chair of the LGBT+ Lib Dems, says that since then much work has been done at a senior level in the party to win back the LGBTQ+ community’s trust.

“The kickback against that seems to have woken a lot of people up. We’ve had quite a lot of meetings with senior people in the party to try to sort that out and I’m genuinely pleased with how it’s going. At the moment I think we’re the only party with a leader on record saying ‘trans rights are human rights’ and that’s what we need,” they told PinkNews.

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What has made Tim Farron happy today?

By NewsHound | Wed 12th April 2023 - 11:45 am

To make you laugh this lunchtime.

Tim Farron has just posted this on Twitter.

Someone had taken time out of their day to write to Viz, a Farron favourite, to say:

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LibLink: Christine Jardine We must not take peace in Northern Ireland for granted

By NewsHound | Wed 12th April 2023 - 9:07 am

As Joe Biden visits Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, Christine Jardine writes in the Scotsman that we should not take the huge step forward to peace for granted.

She started by looking at how we got to the agreement:

Progress towards the Belfast Good Friday agreement had begun shortly before Christmas 1993 with the Downing Street Declaration. The joint statement by Prime Minister John Major and Taoiseach Albert Reynolds stated it was the right of the people of Northern Ireland to decide between the UK or a United Ireland. It also acknowledged the importance of mutual consent in the north and south of the island in resolving issues.

In the following five years, there were ceasefires, cross-party talks and false starts before that historic announcement on April 10, 1998, which in essence contained three basic principles. They are: the parity of esteem of both communities, the principle of consent underpinning Northern Ireland’s constitutional status, and the birth-right of the people of Northern Ireland to identify and be accepted as British or Irish, or both, and to hold both British and Irish citizenship.

And she highlighted the dramatic reduction in loss of life and injury that has followed in the ensuing quarter of a century:

In the 25 years before the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, there were more than 3,000 deaths and 47,000 people were injured as a result of the conflict. Since 1998, there have been fewer than 200 deaths. Still too many, of course, but a reflection of changed times.

Current circumstances, she says, mean that we still have to work to maintain this peace.

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Two million patient admissions at NHS hospitals with crumbling roofs last year

By NewsHound | Mon 13th March 2023 - 7:30 am
  • Lib Dems demand this week’s Budget includes emergency funding to fix dangerous hospital roofs
  • 18 trusts have buildings fitted with roofs which NHS chiefs warn could collapse at any moment
  • Almost 6,000 patient admissions a day last year at hospital trusts with crumbling roofs

There were a staggering two million patient admissions at hospitals with crumbling roofs at risk of collapse last year, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats has found.

The Liberal Democrats are demanding emergency funding in this week’s Budget to replace the crumbling roofs at every affected hospital and prevent patients’ safety being put at risk.

18 NHS hospital trusts around the …

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Christine Jardine – Windsor Framework a hopeful sign for future relations with EU

By NewsHound | Thu 9th March 2023 - 11:15 am

In the Scotsman this week, Christine Jardine pointed out the irony of Rishi Sunak’s pronouncement on Northern Ireland’s special and unique position:

The picture became even more ridiculous when this arch-Brexiteer enthusiastically proclaimed the benefits Northern Ireland could derive from being in both the EU single market and the UK. Is that not what we all used to have?

Are what Rishi Sunak described with a smile as the “exciting prospects” for Northern Ireland not what we all used to take for granted? And yet even as the Tories basked in this self-proclaimed Brexit victory, there was just the slightest hint, a tiny glimmer of hope that our future relationship with the European Union might be salvageable.

It’s good to hear a Lib Dem actually talking about the problems with Brexit:

The reality remains that the Conservatives erected immense barriers to trade between the UK and the EU. Farmers, fishermen and small businesses across Britain remain tied up in red tape and the Conservative government are, as yet, doing nothing to help them. But in recognising the importance of creating a special agreement for Northern Ireland, they may, perhaps, have taken an important step towards reconciliation.

But the SNP saw it as an excuse to get something for Scotland:

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Ed Davey: International Women’s Day is a chance to reflect

By NewsHound | Wed 8th March 2023 - 7:00 am

Speaking ahead of International Women’s Day, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said:

International Women’s Day is a chance to celebrate women, honour their achievements, and reflect on where we still need to go.

Our country has taken many important steps towards achieving gender equality and I’m proud of the role the Liberal Democrats have played in delivering that progress.

This year, I will be celebrating so many incredible women – who have brought us this far; who work tirelessly for equality; and who will take us even further in the years to come.

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WATCH: Alex Cole-Hamilton defend Scotland’s place in the UK in Oxford Union debate

By NewsHound | Sat 4th March 2023 - 10:46 am

Alex Cole-Hamilton recently took part in an Oxford Union debate on Scottish independence. His side, opposing the motion that “This House would support an independent Scotland” won comfortably.

Watch his speech here:

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LibLink: Christine Jardine – Sturgeon’s dead cat distracts from multiple failures

By NewsHound | Wed 15th February 2023 - 9:25 am

In her Scotsman column this week, Christine Jardine highlights 3 major SNP Government failures and suggests Nicola Sturgeon’s publication of her tax returns is merely a dead cat to distract from them.

The first failing is the lack of dualling the main route to the north of Scotland, the A9. It was supposed to be one by 2025 but that is not going to happen and fatalities on this road are going up.

Failure to make the promised improvements will impact the economy as well as the health and well-being of isolated communities with poor access to vital services. But most of all it is a failure to make the main route north safe for all of us. Safety was a major factor in the decision to upgrade a road on which the number of deaths still managed to record a heart-breaking 20-year high in 2022.

Thirteen people lost their lives on the stretch from Inverness to Perth of which approximately 77 miles remain to be dualled and the tender for the latest stretch – Tomatin to Moy – was announced this week to have been delayed. Promised improvements now will have to wait while thousands continue to face the real fear of driving on a road which switches intermittently from dual to single carriage and on which you can meet a tractor or road works at any moment.

And then there is the unbelievable capacity to make a mess of a good idea that is the proposed Deposit Return Scheme. Anyone who wants to sell drinks in bottles, or cans, in Scotland after August is supposed to sign up for the new scheme by the end of this month, but businesses are saying they may not bother because of the additional costs they will incur. This weekend no Scottish Government Minister would appear on the main Sunday morning shows to defend the scheme which has even been criticised by SNP MPs.

On a practical level, retailers are unhappy that the vending machines will cost around £20,000 to install and take up valuable retail space. Producers are also beginning to ask questions, and then there are the problems of different pricing for different parts of the UK. Which raises another not insignificant problem: the Internal Markets Bill.

A leading lawyer this week claimed that Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme could create an unlawful trade barrier with the rest of the UK where a similar scheme will be introduced in 2025.

Finally, the Government is yet again delaying the full implementation of welfare powers.

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LibLink Christine Jardine: Sorry just isn’t enough

By NewsHound | Wed 8th February 2023 - 9:24 am

Christine Jardine has long been fighting for justice for those affected by the Infected Blood scandal and used her Scotsman column to say that Government needs to get much better at accepting its own failings so that victims and their families do not have to wait decades for acknowledgement of mistakes and compensation.

She outlined the tragedy and heartbreak the scandal caused.

One woman told how she had discovered that she and both of her daughters have been infected with HIV by a blood transfusion she had been given before either child was conceived. It had been passed on to them during their birth.

A father told of the pain he and his family had gone through over his son’s death. He had been given blood products contaminated by HIV in the early 1980s when there was little understanding of the condition and public fear was at its zenith. Already distraught at what had happened to their son, the family then had to deal with the lack of understanding and stigma which then surrounded HIV.

I thought about friends of my own family who had gone through the grief of losing their father to hepatitis after what had seemed like a life-saving kidney transplant. He had been given a contaminated blood transfusion during the transplant which eventually claimed his life. In a way, the system had let them both he and the donor down as he never enjoyed the full, long life that should have been the result of that amazing, selfless gift.

All of those families and thousands more have lived with pain, confusion and, in many cases, financial hardship for what is now approaching four decades.

She then looked at the failures of Government to act to help, not just on this, but on Grenfell and Hillsborough too.

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Ed Davey: Tax the gambling industry to solve the NHS crisis

By NewsHound | Tue 7th February 2023 - 8:14 am

Mark’s Monday press release round-up covered this story:

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey is today announcing proposals for a new Carer’s Minimum Wage, to tackle the huge staff shortages in the social care sector. Under the Liberal Democrat plans, social care workers would be paid at least £2 an hour more than the current minimum wage, bringing their pay up to at least £11.50 an hour today – and £12.42 from this April. The proposals would benefit 850,000 workers, making up more than half of all people working in frontline care.

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Tim Farron on decarbonising steel production and that coal mine

By NewsHound | Thu 26th January 2023 - 4:53 pm

Tim Farron spoke in a Westminster Hall debate on steel production yesterday:

Steel is vital to our green economy. As Britain decarbonises with new infrastructure based on steel, let us make sure that we also decarbonise the processes we use to make that steel.

His comments come in the shadow of the government approving the controversial Woodhouse coal mine in Whitehaven, the first deep coal mine in England since 1986.

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  • Nigel Jones
    We read in Luke's gospel that a group of Jewish people attempted to kill Jesus because he preached a message about occasions when prophets working under God aid...
  • Peter Davies
    @Roland Absolute poverty in India has dramatically declined since 1993. A new rich and a large middle class has emerged but the poor are better off too....
  • Roland
    >” witness India’s miserable economic progress from 1947 until the Manmohan Singh reforms of 1993.” Shame the economic benefits seem to have benefited...