APPARENTLY this week is Maritime London week. Yes news to me too, which is surprising given the Port of London has moved east to Thurrock!What a great opportunity to showcase and celebrate our port industries. What a depressing failure of civic leadership that these opportunities are not grasped.
PROTECTING our planet is very important, but the focus on climate change must be done in a way that is economically sustainable. I do not believe we currently have the balance right here in the UK. The dash to renewable energy is costing jobs and will cost us all in higher prices.
I HAVE just returned from my holidays. This year I visited Romania. Bucharest is a fascinating place to visit. In 1989, when the Iron Curtain fell and communism was defeated, it was Romania which was the scene of the most brutal revolution. It culminated in the execution of the dictator Nicolas Ceausescu and his wife, Elena.
FOR many residents, the only service they feel they get from the council for paying their council tax is getting their bins emptied once a week. When that goes wrong, they feel justifiably aggrieved and expect someone to be held to account. People elect councillors to ensure the local authority machine delivers the services residents have the right to expect. The introduction of cabinets into local councils has undermined this accountability.
THE Government continues to fix the welfare system so it’s fair both for the people who need its support and the hard-working people who pay for it. Last week the Chancellor announced that benefit claimants will have to take language lessons if they don’t speak English – or have their benefits cut.
LAST week my father reached the age of 65 and can now look forward to retirement. As someone who has spent his whole working life as a bricklayer and labourer, the last few years have not been easy for him. He has been in and out of work – there being no shortage of construction projects in Sheffield, but a preference on the part of employers to give the work to Eastern European gangs. But he didn’t give up.
