Tag Archives: agriculture

15 November 2022 – today’s press releases

  • ONS earnings figures: Economic mismanagement is leaving pay packets stretched further than ever
  • Vaughan Gething Qatar Press Briefing – More Soundbites Rather than Real Solidarity
  • Liberal Democrats Raise Concerns Over the Impact of Australian and New Zealand Trade Deals on Wales
  • Conservatives failing to count cost of windfall tax loophole

ONS earnings figures: Economic mismanagement is leaving pay packets stretched further than ever

Responding to the latest ONS labour market and earnings figures which show pay falling in real terms, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

This Government’s economic mismanagement is leaving pay packets stretched further than ever before just as bills spiral out of control.

This is the worst cost of living crisis in a generation and Thursday is judgement day for the latest Conservative Chancellor in post. He cannot make the same mistakes as his predecessors who crashed the economy and left families to pick up the bill.

Thanks to the Conservative party’s botched budget and reckless mismanagement of the economy, homeowners are being forced to pay hundreds of pounds more a month on their mortgage whilst their take home pay is eaten away by inflation. The public will never forgive Conservative MPs for this.

Vaughan Gething Qatar Press Briefing – More Soundbites Rather than Real Solidarity

Responding to Vaughan Gething’s press conference where he continued to defend the Welsh Labour Government sending a delegation to Qatar during the World Cup, Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds said:

I am not convinced by the arguments set out today by Vaughan Gething nor previous arguments from the Welsh Labour Government seeking to justify this morally unjustifiable trip.

The Welsh Government should be upfront about its intentions going to Qatar, it is not to ‘support Team Wales’ but is to seek investment.

These tainted investment opportunities are going to come at the cost of providing diplomatic legitimacy to Qatar’s hosting of this tournament despite the country’s atrocious human rights record that has left over 6,500 migrant workers dead, punishes being gay with execution or imprisonment and treats women as lesser human beings.

Vaughan Gething has stated that the Welsh Government will “proactively use Wales’ place in the World Cup in Qatar to promote our strong Welsh values”, yet today has again not provided any evidence on how the Government will do this.

The last time I checked, unless the three ministers have been promote to Team Cymru itself and are going to be on that pitch, their presence isn’t going to affect how our national team performs and our national team are already upholding our values.

If Labour actually wanted to show solidarity with those living under Qatar‘s poor human rights record, or the families of the victims that have died during the construction of World Cup stadiums, they would cancel their unjustifiable trip immediately and instead join the vast majority of fans who will be watching the games from home, and to show some consistency on “saving them air miles” that was used to justify the Welsh Government not attending COP27 last week.

Posted in News and Press releases | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 1 Comment

Federal Policy Committee launches Food and Farming Policy Working Group

The decision by Federal Policy Committee to launch a Food and Farming Policy Working Group comes at a time when food security is back on the global agenda for the first time in maybe three decades. The Russian invasion of Ukraine came at a point where grain prices were already causing problems in lower income importing countries. Last week WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that the conflict could cause widespread hunger. Countries such as Egypt and Sudan are already struggling for supplies. With Russia also the world’s main exporter of nitrogen fertiliser, input costs have risen even faster than …

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged | 8 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 30 March 2020

I’ve been looking back at Liberal Democrat Voice past over the weekend, and jolly interesting it has been too – the archives are a glimpse into a rather different political party and, indeed, a rather different Liberal Democrat Voice. As for us, we’re not the same people we used to be, indeed, the Editorial Team of ten years ago bears little resemblance to today’s lineup.

But something drew my eye, and so, in magpie style, I’m stealing it, or perhaps more generously, recycling it. The Daily View feature ran in 2009 and 2010, and was meant to be an early preview …

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged , and | 6 Comments

The Agriculture Bill is Not Good Enough

At Autumn Conference I had the opportunity to speak with the National Farmers Union, receiving an in-depth briefing on farming issues in North Devon. I have been keenly following the passage of the Agriculture Bill through Parliament, knowing that this legislation will affect thousands of farmers up and down this country.

The Agriculture Bill seeks to provide for a range of enabling powers to ensure “stability” for farmers as the UK exits from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and compliance with the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Agriculture. It also introduces new measures

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 7 Comments

Ros Scott speaks out against food waste

Food waste 215 million tonnes of food wasted in the UK each year.

122 million tonnes wasted in the industrialised world (which makes the British contribution of an eye-wateringly high proportion).

The latter figure is equal to the entire food production of sub-Saharan Africa.

It’s a far cry from the days when we were growing up. Any waste at all horrified my Granny. She went to the shops every day and bought what she needed for that day and no more. Most of what she bought was relatively locally produced, unprocessed and fresh.

Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 25 Comments

Time for urgent action to reverse bee decline

The ‘minister for bees’ must announce an urgent plan to save Britain’s most precious pollinating insects

Bees are in decline. 47 of our wild bumble and solitary bees are listed as threatened, we’ve lost some bee species already and according to the British Beekeepers’ Association, last winter was the worst on record for the loss of honey bee colonies, with more than one-third not surviving hibernation.

Their decline is worrying – especially the wild varieties that don’t live in managed hives – they are one of our most valuable pollinating insects. Scientists at the University of Reading recently estimated that were …

Posted in News | Also tagged | 8 Comments

Farron backs ‘Get Better, Get British’ campaign to get more UK food into our hospitals

Tim Farron in his constituencyFarmers Weekly reports:

Liberal Democrat president Tim Farron has called for a parliamentary debate based on Farmers Weekly’s campaign to get more UK food into our hospitals. Mr Farron, who is also MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, launched an early day motion in support of the Get Better, Get British campaign on 5 June. The motion calls for MPs to debate the issue at the earliest opportunity and calls on the Department of Health and DEFRA to support the campaign’s aims.

And here is early day motion

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Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore writes regular columns for local newspapers in his constituency. Here’s this week’s edition.

Scottish Questions and the Referendum

 My work in Westminster was particularly busy last week with Scottish Questions and a session at the Scottish Affairs Select Committee. Unsurprisingly, the Scottish Government’s independence referendum was high on the agenda at both, with numerous questions being raised on the timing, the question and the SNP’s plans for an independent Scotland.

During Scottish Questions I highlighted the concerns felt by many people across Scotland that the SNP have not spelt out what an independent Scotland …

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