UK signs up to fight human trafficking

Police forces across Europe will have more power to crack down on human traffickers after the UK signed up to support tougher measures today.  Tameside’s Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies, who has campaigned for the UK to sign up to the new anti-trafficking directive, said:

“The UK has long been a leader in the fight against human trafficking and today’s announcement sends a powerful message that we intend to maintain that position.

“Along with fellow MEPs I helped to lobby the Government to opt in to this directive after they initially decided against doing so. Certain issues are more easily tackled by 27 countries acting together than by each acting alone. Had the UK failed to opt in, efforts to curtail this abhorrent practice would have been hampered.

“EU involvement in this issue may have caused arguments within the coalition but as a Lib Dem I welcome this as a victory for the protection of vulnerable people.”

Keep the cheque!

Lorely Burt MP

Co-chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee on Business, Innovations and Skills, Lorely Burt, together with her parliamentary colleagues MP for Cheadle, Mark Hunter and MP for Bradford East, David Ward has been leading a campaign to prevent the phasing out of cheques.

Commenting ahead of the delivery of a ‘save the cheque’ petition to No 10 today, Lorely Burt said: “Last year alone there were over one billion cheque transactions which shows just how widely used this form of payment still is. For tradesmen and small business, cheques are an essential method of payment as other methods can be expensive to administer. “For many older or vulnerable people, particularly pensioners or those who are housebound, cheques are a necessary alternative to keeping wads of cash under their pillow and leaving themselves at a greater risk of theft and burglary.

“Our petition has received support from thousands of people from all across the country, of different ages and walks of life. Today we’re calling on the Government to acknowledge that banks have a social responsibility to serve and protect their customers, and that retaining cheques would mean little or nothing to banks but a great deal to millions of their customers who still rely on them.”

‘Save Our Fish’ Group Formed

Chris Davies MEP

Chris Davies MEP

A cross-party campaign group of European MPs has been formed to prevent the “hijack” of plans for radical reform of EU fisheries policies. Tameside Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies took the initiative to create the ‘Fish for the Future’ group. He says its objective is to ensure that there are more fish in the sea and more jobs for fishermen.

The new body already has the support of MEPs from 14 countries, including Tameside Conservative Sir Robert Atkins and Labour’s Linda McAvan (Yorkshire). With up to 80% of fisheries being managed unsustainably the European Commission intends to propose major policy reforms later this year.

EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki has already announced that she wants a science-led approach and aims to ban the wasteful practice of discarding fish into the sea, dead, when quotas have been exceeded. Fisheries management will be transferred from Brussels to regional organisations involving local fishermen, food companies and environmentalists.

But Chris Davies warns that the reforms are likely to face tough political opposition and are at risk of being hijacked. He said: “In many European waters there are too many boats chasing too few fish. Capacity must be reduced and that will be fiercely resisted.

“Our seas are capable of supporting many more fish than now exist after so much overfishing. We cannot allow the agenda to be set by short term thinking that ignores the need to ensure that we have fish on the table in 50 or 100 years’ time.”

The MEP claims that support for reform has the support of all parties in Britain but faces likely challenges from MEPs and ministers representing Spain, France, Italy and Portugal.

He said: “The Coalition Government’s fisheries minister, Richard Benyon, is arguing the case for change at every opportunity, but the extent of opposition he faces will become known only when the European Commission publishes the details of its plans.”

Your share of the bank bailout

Today co-chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Treasury committee Stephen Williams has announced policy proposals to give shares in RBS and Lloyds to the British people.

In his pamphlet “Getting your share of the banks” Stephen Williams argues that the mass distribution of stakes in the banks is the fairest way of giving taxpayers a share of the rewards while ensuring the Treasury returns its investment.

Commenting, Stephen Williams said: “There is danger that when the banks return to the private sector, it is business as usual. There is a general feeling in this country that we need to get something positive in return for the bailout.

“HM Treasury needs to recover the approximately £66 billion it spent bailing out the two banks. There is a general feeling in the country that we need to get something positive in return for the bail out.

“This pamphlet puts forward an idea for giving us all a stake in the banks, for HM Treasury to clear its debt and restore public confidence in the state owned financial institutions.”

Click here to read the pamphlet

Live Music Bill? Cheers!

Today the Government announced that it would be supporting Liberal Democrat peer, Lord (Tim) Clement-Jones’ Live Music Bill, which seeks to remove the bureaucratic burden from small venue owners, such as pubs and community halls, who want to have live music play for their guests

Lord Clement-Jones said: “There is clear support across all parties to reform the current system as the Licensing Act has had a deadening effect on the performance of live music in small venues.

“The Live Music Bill will benefit hundreds of small pubs, restaurants and church and community halls who want live music at their venue by generally removing the need to apply for a complicated licence.”

“I’m glad the Government has responded so positively to this Bill and I look forward to working with them to fulfil the Coalition Agreement’s pledge to put an end to red tape and bureaucracy.”

Restoring hard-won British liberties

An array of sweeping reforms will put an end to unwarranted local authority snooping and unnecessary scrutiny of individuals.

Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today welcomed the publication of the Protection of Freedoms Bill. The Bill steps up the coalition government’s commitment to restore hard-won British liberties. An array of sweeping reforms will put an end to unwarranted local authority snooping and unnecessary scrutiny of individuals. It will see: (more…)

Nick Clegg speech to Public Services Summit

Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today addressed the Guardian Public Services Summit – the full text of the speech can be read below.

Nick Clegg MP

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg MP

The questions that confronted me, when I came into government, were these:

How can we reinvent and strengthen our public services at a time of anxiety and stretched resources?

And how can we preserve the public sector ethos as we move to a more plural, diverse and personalised way of running our public services?

There will no doubt be some sceptics in this room about whether those things are possible.

It is a Guardian event, after all, and I think scepticism is in the drinking water over there.

Many of you have been through reconfigurations, redesigns and redeployments so many times you’re probably sick to the back teeth of them.

And you probably groan at the prospect of further reform. But change in the circumstances of today is not a luxury its essential if we want to ensure the best days for our public services are ahead of us. In fact pressure on spending in public services without change would produce the worst out come of all.

We can’t just wait and hope for the best when children are still being let down, and when the poorest are being let down the most.

We can’t just wait and hope for the best when health inequalities are rising

And we can’t just wait and hope the best when, because of the deficit, there simply isn’t the money to paper over cracks and inefficiencies any longer.

We have to modernise our public services.

And we can make them better if we do. (more…)

Our bonus for British business

Business Secretary Vince Cable writes for Comment is Free following the ‘Merlin’ agreement between the Government and the banks.

Britain will take years to recover from the near-collapse of the banking system and its rescue by the state. This government acted swiftly – setting up the banking commission; imposing a bank levy; cracking down on banks’ tax avoidance; and signing up to tougher international rules on capital, liquidity and remuneration. But some policy issues have yet to be confronted, especially the structural questions being addressed by the banking commission and its chairman, Sir John Vickers: how to deal with banks that are “too big to fail”.

…………….

There will be complaints that the government’s failure to put leading bankers before a firing squad, let alone tolerate bonuses, is an abject surrender. On the other side there will be sniping from the City at the banking commission: complaints that tougher disclosure rules and tax will drive bankers from our shores.

I shall keep fighting for British business and British taxpayers. But now we have a ceasefire, and I have decided to decommission my stockpile of banker jokes and hide them in a hole in the country. We still have plenty of weapons to deploy. And in less than nine months the government has done more to put banking right than 13 years of failed laissez faire under Labour. And our work is not yet done.

Read the original article in full here