Tag Archives: tata steel

30 April 2024 – yesterday’s (other) press releases

  • Suspected drug deaths up by 11%
  • Welsh Lib Dems criticise Tata’s “heavy handed” approach to steel workers concerns
  • Cole-Hamilton speaks in abortion safe access zones debate
  • UK Governments Rwanda plans are “cold and callous”- Welsh Lib Dems
  • Blackie: scrap business rates, boost our high streets

Suspected drug deaths up by 11%

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today warned that the country’s drugs crisis continues to “end lives and blight communities”, as new quarterly statistics revealed that suspected drug deaths have increased by 11%.

Figures published today show that between December 2023 and February 2024, the total number of suspected drug deaths was 278, which is 11% higher than the previous quarter in which 267 suspected drug deaths were recorded.

Public Health Scotland also confirmed that: “Based on the latest post-mortem toxicology testing, nitazenes were detected in 38 deaths (from the first detection in June 2022 to 31 December 2023).”

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

Scotland’s drug deaths emergency continues to end lives and blight communities.

We are also seeing increasing evidence of nitazenes, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin, contributing significantly to that crisis.

I have joined with campaigners in warning that these substances represent a growing part of the drugs death crisis, highlighting that their presence in Scotland will require an immediate response. That’s why I asked Humza Yousaf about nitazenes during First Minister’s Questions in early January.

Despite these emerging threats, the Scottish Government have delivered a brutal real-terms cut to drug services.

Well-meaning words and promises just won’t cut it. As well as delivering radical and transformational action to help all those suffering, I want ministers to protect and strengthen the drug and alcohol budget so that everyone can access care when they need it.

Welsh Lib Dems criticise Tata’s “heavy handed” approach to steel workers concerns

Today in the Senedd, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have called out Tata Steel for threatening to withdraw redundancy packages from workers at their Port Talbot site if they decide to go on strike over potential job losses.

The company also rejected plans submitted by the unions which would have kept at least one of the blast furnaces running at the site.

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

19 March 2024 – today’s press releases (part 1)

  • London Lib Dem Launch – Blackie slams Khan record on crime
  • Cole-Hamilton: Patients deserve better than the SNP’s new normal
  • “Our Welsh workers are not collateral damage”-Welsh Lib Dems call for clarification on jobs following Tata Steel oven closure
  • Cole-Hamilton attacks SNP ministers as opioids continue to blight Scotland

London Lib Dem Launch – Blackie slams Khan record on crime

Mayoral Candidate, Rob Blackie, has launched the London Liberal Democrat today with a pledge to ‘fix the Met’.

The party launched its campaign at Pop Brixton, located in the neighbourhood Rob has spent much of the past 20 years raising his family.

Blackie told the media and a group of close supporters that Sadiq Khan does “not deserve” a third term due to his record on crime. He also dismissed the Conservative chances, accusing the party of giving up on London after selecting a Trump-backing candidate.

Blackie said Sadiq Khan’s failure on crime is the reason he is standing as mayor.

Seasoned campaigner, Blackie, 50, described how he became a victim of crime himself. His neck was broken in a vicious gang mugging in Vauxhall, and he now has a titanium neck.

Speaking to journalists in Brixton this morning (Tuesday), Blackie said:

My top priority is crime and policing.

Sadiq Khan’s failure on those issues is the main reason I am standing against him.

Violent crime has risen by 30 percent in London since Mr Khan has been in office.

Sexual offence clear-up rates have halved in the last eight years.

Let me just read one shocking sentence from Baroness Casey’s report on the Met Police, published last year – the account of a serving police officer, who said: ‘If you look at our performance around rape, serious sexual offences, the detection rate is so low you may as well say it’s legal in London.’

Just let that sink in… ‘You may as well say it’s legal in London.’

It is just shameful.

Sadiq Khan blames everyone else for this but himself. The buck stops with him and we will call him out in this campaign.

In his speech, Blackie described how he grew up in London playing on the street with neighbouring children from all over the world. He added:

I love living and working in the most cosmopolitan city on the planet.

That is the London I love, and the London we want to ‘get back’.

He also took a swipe at the London Conservatives, describing Susan Hall as “beyond the pale”. He said:

Far from embracing London, she attacks it. Liking tweets that call our city Londonistan and venerate Enoch Powell.

Does she even like London? She certainly doesn’t love our great city. When the Conservatives chose her as their candidate, they gave up on this election.

Cole-Hamilton: Patients deserve better than the SNP’s new normal

Responding to new figures showing only 65.2% of people attending A&E were seen within the 4 hour target in the week ending 10th March, while 2,943 people waited over 8 hours, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

Posted in London, News, Press releases, Scotland and Wales | Also tagged , , , and | Leave a comment

18 January 2024 – today’s press releases

  • Sunak press conference: Out of touch and out of ideas
  • UK Stats Authority criticises Sunak over asylum backlog claim
  • “The Tories have failed Port Talbot” – Welsh Lib Dems

Sunak press conference: Out of touch and out of ideas

Responding to Rishi Sunak’s press conference on the Conservative government’s Rwanda policy, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

This Conservative government crashed the economy, sent mortgage rates spiralling and has made it almost impossible to see a GP.

Instead of tackling these major challenges, Rishi Sunak’s government is too busy fighting over an unworkable and expensive policy that is destined to fail.

It just confirms how desperately out

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

LibLink: Miriam Gonzáles says free trade has won: adapt or die is the only option left to us

Writing on the Tata steel crisis in the Guardian, Miriam Gonzáles, who is a partner at the global specialist law firm, Dechert LLP, specialising in international trade, writes:

The Tata Steel sale has revived the battle between protectionists and free traders, a debate that became particularly acute in the run-up to the creation of the World Trade Organisation in 1995, which marked the success of “free traders” all around the world.

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 11 Comments

Farron and Williams say UK Government must intervene on steel

Tim Farron and Kirsty Williams have said that the UK Government must intervene to be the lender of last resort for Tata Steel.

The Liberal Democrat leader said that the Westminster Government should be prepared to step in and act as a temporary buyer for the plant if required, and also offer financial support to ensure key staff are retained during any sales process.

Tim Farron said:

The Conservative Government in Westminster has let down Port Talbot, not least because of Sajid Javid’s disgraceful veto of measures at an EU level to stop the dumping of cheap Chinese steel that is destroying the UK steel industry. Their actions have helped escalate this crisis while the Labour Government in Cardiff bay has failed to stand up for steelworkers in their own backyard. It’s now time that both Governments started acting in the best interests of workers at the plant and our steel industry.

The Port Talbot plant is the crucible of the British steel industry. It is a proud beacon of our industrial heritage and part of the reason we are a world leader in manufacturing. Generations of families have worked at the South Wales steelworks which still employs thousands of people and provides work for thousands more in supply industries.

That is why the Government should be prepared to step in as an investor of last resort, to bridge any gap between Tata’s ownership of the plant and a future buyer. Our steel industry is of strategic interest to Wales and the whole of the UK and if temporary nationalisation is needed to protect it then the Government should be prepared to act.

Kirsty WIlliams highlighted the importance of Wales’ steel industry:

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 22 Comments

Lib Dems call for Welsh Assembly to be reconvened over Port Talbot steel decision

Peter Black, Welsh Liberal Democrat Finance Minister, has e-mailed First Minister Carwyn Jones calling on him to ask the Presiding Officer to reconvene the Assembly over the announcement that Tata Steel is to sell its UK interests including the plant at Port Talbot. 5,500 jobs are at risk in Wales.

The Assembly’s Standing Order 12.3 states:

If no plenary meeting is timetabled for a particular date or time, the Presiding Officer may, at the request of the First Minister, summon the Assembly to consider a matter of urgent public importance.

Peter Black AM said late last night before Tata confirmed their plans:

If true, these reports are truly devastating and our thoughts go out to Tata employees and their families.

This is clearly a matter of urgent public importance and therefore it is inconceivable that the Assembly doesn’t reconvene.

Ministers in both governments need to act fast. Simply holding up their hands and saying they are out of ideas is simply not good enough.

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Advert



Recent Comments

  • Katharine Pindar
    It was good to see our Leader put a question about youth mobility in Europe in PMQs yesterday, and to read of further questions usefully raised by two of our wo...
  • Jack Nicholls
    Mick - I agree. I don't want us to be anything like reform; my social-civic liberalism extends to almost not believing in borders. I think we can take them on e...
  • Nick Baird
    Netanyahu's aim must surely be to goad the US into attacking Iran on it's behalf, and some of the recent rhetoric from our own Government has me wondering if we...
  • Mary Fulton
    As a former member of the Liberal Democrats - I won’t rejoin as a result of how I felt when the Liberal Democrats agreed to back the Tories in government in 2...
  • Nonconformistradical
    "You don’t get rid of reform by becoming more like them as the Tories are doing." You said it!...