Author Archives: The Voice

Alex Cole-Hamilton has urged the Scottish Government to do more to deal with the Monkeypox outbreak which has so far infected 71 people in Scotland.

• Whether the First Minister or Health Secretary has discussed Monkeypox with the JCVI;
• What briefings ministers have had from health officials;
• Whether it is intending to offer vaccination to all those most at risk of contracting monkeypox;
• What conversations have been had with Health ministers and officials in other parts of the UK;
• How many doses of the MVA smallpox vaccine it has access to and whether it will be ordering more.

Alex said:

During the Covid crisis we saw that government policy was better when precautions were explained to people, contingency plans laid out in public and scrutiny encouraged.

It was when the government chose to make decisions behind closed doors and failed to take the public with them that many of the worst decisions of the pandemic were made.

This is an opportunity to show that lessons have been learned from the Covid crisis. The WHO says that this is an emergency so while caseloads are still low, it’s important that ministers act.

Lib Dem Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney has demanded that the Government take action  to avoid a recession immediately after the announcement of the fall in GDP

She said:

The warning lights are flashing red but the government is missing in action.

There’s no time to waste, ministers must act now to boost confidence and avoid a recession.

Our efforts in Shropshire have not gone unnoticed.

I’m absolutely delighted to welcome former Labour Mayor and MP candidate Jon Tandy to the Liberal Democrat ranks in Shrewsbury.

We met in Harlescott yesterday to welcome Jon to the team. 👇https://t.co/ohgTDLDJjb

— Cllr Alex Wagner 🔨🟦🔶 (@alex__wagner__) August 10, 2022

This week former Labour Mayor and parliamentary candidate for Shrewsbury joined the Lib Dems and was welcomed by local councillor Alex Wagner.

From Shropshire Live:

Jon Tandy said: “I was a Labour Councillor for 16 years, and served Shrewsbury as Mayor. I even ran to be our Labour MP. Joining another party is not a decision I take lightly, and has played on my mind for some time.

“Ultimately, the Labour Party I joined 35 years ago is gone. The influence of Corbyn and Momentum is still present like a nasty hangover, especially in Shrewsbury and Atcham. I can’t sit by and stick with them when there are other strong alternatives locally.

I’m born and bred in Shrewsbury, I love this town. The Liberal Democrats are providing the community leadership that we need to keep making Shrewsbury a better place to live for everyone. They really care about our town, and I’m going to be backing the Lib Dems all the way to win votes and seats from both the Tories and Labour.”

It’s half a decade since we watched in horror as the Grenfell Tower fire took hold. At the time the Government promised that such a tragedy would never happen again, but in England alone, 10,000 buildings are still considered unsafe. Imagine the stress of being trapped in such a building, scared that it could go on fire at any time.

To mark the fifth anniversary, Lib Dem Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper and peer Kath Pinnock had called for a statutory public enquiry with the power to summon witnesses to give evidence under oath and demand disclosure of any relevant evidence.

Daisy Cooper said:

The horrific events which led to the loss of 72 people five years ago today will never be forgotten.

After the tragedy of Grenfell, this Conservative Government said ‘never again’. Yet five years on, tens of thousands of people are still trapped in homes which aren’t safe and they cannot sell, and lessons have not been learned.

Families living in homes with unsafe cladding and other dangerous fire safety defects are facing unimaginable stress and anxiety while the remediation programme stutters along at a glacial pace.

It’s simply shameful that five years down the line from this tragic disaster, the big changes needed to stop it from happening again simply have not happened.

A separate public inquiry into the Government’s handling of this building safety crisis is frankly long overdue and is nothing less than what those still living in unsafe homes deserve.

Kath Pinnock said:

As if people weren’t already struggling with just about everything going up very steeply in price, Ofgem said today that further pain is on the way. A further rise in the energy price cap means that households could be paying another £900 per year come October. This would be an almost doubling of the cap in 6 months and would be disastrous for people who were finding impossible to afford the basics before April’s rise.

Ed Davey has called on the Government to declare a national emergency and convene a special energy COBRA meeting to chart a way forward.

He said:

It is now or never to save families and pensioners on the brink. The government must declare the cost of living crisis a national emergency.  Boris Johnson has sat on his hands for months, he cannot waste a single second longer.