The independence referendum inspired me to get into politics
Ryan McCuaig came to the SNP as a former Labour voter and is now President of SNP Strathclyde. Here’s his story. read more
Author Archives: GovWorldMag
Richard Burgon responds to new Ministry of Justice figures on Drugs in Prisons
Commenting on new figures released by the Ministry of Justice showing 225 kg of drugs were recovered across the prison estate in England and Wales in 2016, Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon said:
“It’s clear that we have a crisis in our prisons system, with drugs use and violence continuing to be all too common.
“The Chief Inspector of Prisons recently said that our prisons are dangerous for prisoners and staff alike and are failing in their duty to rehabilitate and reform prisoners.
“These new drugs figures are yet another example of how drastic Tory cuts to prison budgets and staff numbers are driving this prisons crisis.
“Labour would begin to solve this by recruiting 3,000 new prisons officers and improving staff retention by improving terms and conditions for prison officers”
Ends
Inner Mongolian forest fire extinguished
About 4,000 firefighters from Inner Mongolia and neighboring Heilongjiang Province try to extinguish the lightning-induced fire. [Xinhua] A lightning-induced fire engulfing 1,500 hectares of forest in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north Chi… read more
China pledges enhanced heritage protection cooperation
A senior cultural official said Sunday that China should shoulder more responsibility for world heritage protection and promoting international cooperation. With more inscriptions, comes greater responsibility and more duties, said Liu Yuzhu, head of … read more
A different take on the summit to the BBC
Last night the BBC summit report was bizarre. It was anti UK, anti Mrs May and anti the USA. It was from the Merkel fan club. So here’s some balance, reporting on Mrs Merkel as the BBC do on Mrs May and Mr Trump.
“Mrs Merkel chaired the summit badly hampered by her lack of authority at home. She failed to win a majority at the last election and has to govern in coalition with her main political enemies, the SPD, the German Labour party equivalent. She soon faces another election when she is widely expected to fail again to win a majority. She visibly lost control of the streets of Hamburg, the city hosting the summit, and had to break off from chairing the sessions to deal with the problem of many injured police and civil disturbance on a worrying scale.
Aiming for a diplomatic triumph, she had lectured the USA on the need to reach an agreement with the others and set the whole summit up as a device to tame Mr Trump. Instead she failed to get his buy in to her wishes.
Her main policy of promoting the end of carbon fuels was seen as burdening the world with dear energy. As a result China has insisted on being able to expand her carbon energy use and the USA has refused to join the Treaty to limit it.
It emerged from detailed questioning that the EU/Japan trade deal is far from agreed, with continuing rows over the enforcement mechanisms and limited progress on tariff reductions.
Meanwhile Mr Trump confirmed the work now underway to create a US/UK trade deal and expressed enthusiasm to get it through quickly.”