Les Bonner

During February, I posted a number of articles on this website about the monthly crime figures for North East Lincolnshire. January was an historic month, with crime levels at an all time low.

At this moment in time North East Lincolnshire is seeing a major impact of some very good partnership working and month on month since the middle of last year crime levels have fallen dramatically, and once again we have gone one better in February – outstripping Januarys’ best ever performance!

Last month, Chief Superintendent David Hilditch said:

“January’s figures come on top of excellent figures for October, November and December which made 2009 a very good year for us. February has got off to a good start as well. 

“I would hope that we would all want to see a safe and prosperous area with low crime levels and so I am disappointed that some people choose to assume that good results for North East Lincolnshire can’t be true. We’ve got something to celebrate here. 

“The story behind the figures is that we have relentlessly been targeting the top offenders and some of the prison sentences we have seen in the last year have been very pleasing. At the other end of the scale we have been working very closely with the Youth Offending Service and many other partners to keep kids out of trouble.”

The Chancellors’ Debate will take place on the 29th (Channel 4) March

We want to celebrate these debates and get people involved, meeting, discussing and debating. So why not set up your own ‘Debate Nights’ party for people to get together and watch the debates; whether this be a party at home, in your local town hall or pub, or online.

How to

It’s easy, find a place, set up a TV, get some food and invite people.

Promote your event

We’ve created a flyer to help you spread the word of your event: Click Here to download it.

We want you to take part by organising your own, whether just getting together with a group of friends, your local party or just throwing the doors open for any takers. Take part online too using the Twitter hashtag: #gonick or on comment here on ACT.

Let us know

If you want to advertise your debate night you can create an event here on Act or on Facebook. Let us know about your event whether you wish to advertise it or not and we’ll list all the parties happening across the UK.

For the first time in British political history, the leaders of the 3 main political parties will go head-to-head for live televised debates. The opening up of political debate in the lead up to the 2010 General Election will mean you can get a better insight in to the policies, styles and personalities put forward.

The Leaders’ Debates will take place on the 15th (ITV), 22nd (Sky) and 29th (BBC) April 2010

The Chancellors’ Debate will take place on the 29th (Channel 4) March

We want to celebrate these debates and get people involved, meeting, discussing and debating. So why not set up your own ‘Debate Nights’ party for people to get together and watch the debates; whether this be a party at home, in your local town hall or pub, or online.

How to

It’s easy, find a place, set up a TV, get some food and invite people.

Promote your event

We’ve created a flyer to help you spread the word of your event: Click Here to download it.

We want you to take part by organising your own, whether just getting together with a group of friends, your local party or just throwing the doors open for any takers. Take part online too using the Twitter hashtag: #gonick or on comment here on ACT.

Let us know

If you want to advertise your debate night you can create an event here on Act or on Facebook. Let us know about your event whether you wish to advertise it or not and we’ll list all the parties happening across the UK.

In the last 48 hours members of 38 degrees have sent more than 10,000 complaints to their MPs expressing their concern overomy Bill.

This week politicians said that those opposing the bill are “web anarchists”, which is a convenient way for them to avoid the many concerns the public has about this bill, but the fact remains that many people have strong concerns that the government is forcing a complex bill through Parliament without addressing legitimate concerns from many people.

The government is planning to use a special ”fast track” process designed for the weeks before an election, that is intended to pass urgent and uncontroversial measures, to force thorough these controversial new powers.  This process is problematic at the best of times because it removes the normal democratic checks, and removing scrutiny and debate over such a complex bill that gives unprecedented new powers to the Government is deeply worrying.

The bill contains list of new powers that would (amongst many things) give the government power to disconnect millions of people, block websites, create the potential for back-door censorship and could mean the end of open WiFi.  Even  Schools and libraries could have their internet connection cut off if people infringe any copyright.

One group that is very keen on to see the bill approved is the music industry. Early this month it was discovered that parts of the bill have been copied word for word from a draft “suggestion” which was written by the music industry lobbyist group, the BPI.  

It was recently reportedin the Guardian that the same lobbyists admitted the only way to get the bill through would be to rush it through without any proper parliamentary debate.

Those opposing the bill are a growing and powerful movement of companies, libraries, consumer groups and of course us, the public. Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Virgin, Orange, eBay and BT who came together earlier this month to express their concern over this bill.

38 egrees have joined with the Open Rights Group (ORG) to oppose the bill.  As Jim Killock, ORG’s Executive Director says:

“At the fag end of this Parliament, disastrous laws to disconnect families from the internet and introduce web censorship powers that we haven’t even seen, could get passed into law without proper debate.

Serious laws, that would disrupt people’s freedom of speech and their daily lives, and potentially create new web censorship powers, deserve proper scrutiny and debate. Anything less is undemocratic and unaccountable, not to mention deeply irresponsible.

That is why 38 Degrees is joining the Open Rights Groups’ call for a proper open debate on this Bill. Please write to your MP now to demand that this Bill is properly debated.”

The Government is right to attempt to tackle the many issues surrounding the internet, but to rush these complex new measures through Parliament is wrong. To think that Labour might rush them through before a general election without anyone noticing is wrong. This law needs a proper debate and proper scrutiny. That’s why ten thousand people have written to theirr MPs.

If you haven’t done so already now is the time to write to your MP and tell them why we oppose the Digital Economy Bill: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/digital-economy-bill

“Executives, unions and politicians need to start acting like grown ups and get this sorted before the public declares a plague on all their houses,” said the Liberal Democrat Shadow Transport Secretary.

Commenting on railway workers voting in favour of strike action, Norman Baker said:

“In all the political mudslinging over who is to blame for strike action by BA or railway workers, it is the passengers who are suffering the most.
 
“There is no need for any of these strikes to go ahead. Management at British Airways and Network Rail need to get back round the table with the unions to sort this mess out before people’s holiday, business and travel plans are ruined for no good reason.
 
“There is far too much macho posturing and cheap political point scoring going on all sides of these disputes. Enough is enough. Executives, unions and politicians need to start acting like grown ups and get this sorted before the public declares a plague on all their houses.”

“Today’s announcement has shown us yet again that for all of Cameron’s posturing, the Tories can’t be trusted to deliver on the environment,” said the Liberal Democrat Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary.

Commenting on the Conservative’s Energy Security Green Paper, Simon Hughes said:

“Blindly pledging to build a new nuclear plant every 18 months is a recipe for disaster.

“Nuclear power has always required huge amounts of public money and David Cameron’s signal that the Tories are ready to turn on the taps of taxpayer support risks billions that we simply can’t afford.

“Nuclear energy is not clean energy. A new generation of nuclear power stations would leave us with a legacy of deadly radioactive waste that will take hundreds of years and billions of pounds to clean up.

“As David Cameron himself said only four years ago, not having a plan to deal with this toxic legacy is completely irresponsible.

“Today’s announcement has shown us yet again that for all of Cameron’s posturing, the Tories can’t be trusted to deliver on the environment.”

A report from the National Audit Office has warned that the student loans and grants system in England is at substantial risk of being hit by delays again this year.

According to the National Audit Office, it is anticipated that the Student Loans Company will have to process twice as many applications this year, but there is no guarantee that it will be able to cope with the  demand.

Last autumn tens of thousands of students faced delays before receiving their grant and loan payments last autumn after the Student Loans Company struggled to keep up.

The National Audit Office’s report on last years shambles found less than half of applications (46%) were fully processed by the start of the academic term last year, compared with 63% in 2008.  Applications had been arriving faster than the Student Loan Company was able to process them, and by September 6 there were 241,000 applications that had not been fully processed.

When the start of term approached, the report found that calls from students enquiring about their applications rose, with four million made to the Student Loan Company last September, and in spite of having a target of no more than 14% of calls being abandoned, 87% were left unanswered during the month.

Between February 2009 and January this year, only a fifth (21%) of calls were answered in 60 seconds, and more than half (56%) were left unanswered.

The findings showed the SLC took 33% longer to process an application in the 2009/10 academic year, than it had taken local authorities in 2008/9, and on average, it took 12.4 weeks for an application to be processed in 2009/10, compared to 9.3 weeks in 2008/09.

The SLC took over processing applications by new students from local authorities for the first time in 2009, for the academic year 2009/10, but the report was criticised the Student Loans Company and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), saying they had underestimated the challenges of centralising the service.

This year, the SLC will handle applications from students starting university this autumn, as well as continuing to deal with applications from students who started last year.

The report concludes:

“The company expects to process at least twice as many applications in 2010, when it becomes responsible for applications from both first and second years, and it is unproven whether it has the capacity to provide a good service this year.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills said:

“We welcome this report which provides further background to the processing issues at the Student Loans Company (SLC) last summer. As soon as the department became aware of the problems, both ministers and officials acted immediately including making more resources available.

“Last year we commissioned Professor Sir Deian Hopkin to carry out an independent review of the lessons learned and the SLC and the Department fully accepted the recommendations in the report and are implementing them.”

Liberal Democrat Spring Conference 2010

If you didn’t make it to Birmingham last weekend, you can still watch all of the keynote speeches, including those from Chris Huhne and Vince Cable, as well as Nick Clegg’s inspiring closing speech. You can also access the full conference agenda with updated motions and policy. Find out more >

Election an opportunity to win back privacy

Nick Clegg yesterday said in a speech to Privacy International that the election this year is “an opportunity for the British people to vote to take their privacy back.”
Read more >

We’ll be the change that works for you

This week we made our conference soundtrack - ‘We’ll be the change that works for you’ - available for download on iTunes. It draws on our new slogan for the General Election, with all proceeds going towards our campaign. Download now >

Tory immigration policy worst of both worlds

The Liberal Democrats this week called for tougher immigration control in densely populated areas like London and the South East while allowing more migrants elsewhere. 
Read more >

Debate nights – be part of it

A major part of the campaign in 2010  will be the live televised debates broadcast on ITV, BBC and Sky.

Why not hold a party at your local pub, town hall or even at home to get your friends together. We’ve created a host of materials and ways to get involved both on and offline.

Find out more >

The next meeting of the Yarborough Action Group will take place on April 1^st, 2010 at the same venue as the last one, which is the Community Room, Queens Court, Cambridge Park at 6.30 pm.

Anyone who has an interest in trying to make the Yarborough Ward of North East Lincolnshire a better place to live in, work in, or visit is welcome to attend.

The agenda for the meeting will include:

·         Progress report on issues raised at the last meeting

·         Any new issues

·         An assessment of neighbourhood policing priorities

·         A member of e factor will also be present to give information of the support available for anyone who is thinking of becoming self – employed

A record of the last meeting can be found by clicking here: yarborough-community-meeting-notes-110210.pdf