Europe, a long-awaited goal too precious to lose
"A day will come when you, France... you, Russia... you, Italy... you, England... you, Germany... all you nations of this...
30 Jan 2016
National News
Reaction to Cameron's announcement on unaccompanied children
We are proud of Tim Farron who has said of the Government announcement yesterday to take in some unaccompanied children from Syrian camps but not Europe:
30 Jan 2016
Putting our faith in ‘Leaders’ – There are lessons to be learned
The recent acquittal of the former Executive Head of the Priory Chain of Academies and his Director of Finance appears to have caused a few raised eyebrows in many areas. It is not my intention to pass my own personal judgement on the rights and wrongs of the case. What concerns me more is the fact that the Department of Education considered there to be sufficient grounds to ask the local police to conduct an enquiry which eventually led to a court case that is set to cost the taxpayer a considerable amount of money. This is not the first time that so called 'Super Heads' have made the headlines following revelations about their conduct. If you add to that the affair in 2013 of Lincolnshire's Acting Chief Constable, who was first suspended by our Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), was exonerated by an enquiry and then reinstated with an apology from the PCC at a cost to the taxpayer of around £160,000, you can see that putting our faith in the judgement of individuals without effective and stringent checks
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30 Jan 2016
Mental health and policing
In 2014, 37% of the demand on the Suffolk police force was related to mental health*. In July 2014, at a public meeting in...
30 Jan 2016
Front Bench Spokesman visits SpArC
Lib Dem Front Bench Spokesman Lord Mike Story visited Bishops Castle on Friday (22nd) to highlight the importance of leisure centres like SpArC are to rural communities as they are facing huge cuts to their budgets. Lord Storey said "I was really impressed with the breadth of services SpArC provides to the community from swimming for pensioners and the local primary schools, exercise on prescription, sports club use of the Sports Hall through to the well-used theatre. The big challenge facing centres like this one is how to make good the shortfall caused by the Government and Council scrapping the 'joint use funding'* and Council cuts. Local Shropshire Councillor Charlotte Barnes added "Numbers using SpArC are on the rise unlike some other centres in Shropshire and we are looking for greater support from Shropshire Council to help make the building energy efficient to ensure that it continues to exist and thrive." · Joint Use Funding channelled some money from the education budget into leisure centres to a
30 Jan 2016
EU bulletin 30th January 2016 Trade deal between EU-China edges closer. Could UK do this alone?
US and EU negotiators are facing a long weekend to finalise a new Safe Harbour data-transfer agreement, with both sides voicing cautious optimism, reports EUobserver: https://euobserver.com/justice/132067
PMEM
30 Jan 2016