Council asks 'affluent' residents to help others
An appeal fund has been started by Buckinghamshire Council to help people facing a cost-of-living crisis. It is working with the charity Heart of Bucks; about £17,000 has been raised to date. Martin Tett, its Conservative leader, said the county had some ‘relatively affluent’ people; he was asking them to make a donation for those struggling to get through the winter. Through the Helping Hand programme, advice, financial help, and information is being offered to people ‘to cover the food and energy costs to households in crises. He said, ‘In the council area not everyone is literally down to their last farthing. If you can afford it, if you can help other people, to help them get through the winter, particularly struggling pensioners and people on very low incomes, we'd like you to consider making a donation towards our crisis fund.’ The council also has Welcoming Spaces programmes, opening libraries for people to spend the day somewhere warm.
Kickstart fracking revolution?
Liz Truss is being urged to relax the limits on earthquakes caused by fracking to kickstart an energy revolution. She is poised to end the fracking freeze, to make Britain energy independent by 2040. Fracking businesses are lobbying for limits on seismic activity to be substantially increased to kickstart the industry. Currently drilling must stop if tremors of 0.5 occur. Experts say those occur naturally and are often imperceptible above ground. Cuadrilla want equality with other industries. Geothermal energy can create earthquakes of higher magnitudes than 0.5. The USA allows magnitude 4 tremors. A 2012 report said magnitude 3 tremors were ‘felt by few people’. But when Cuadrilla’s Lancashire test caused a 2.9 tremor, homes shook and objects fell off of shelves. A petroleum geologist at Newcastle University said fracking had thus far not been a major source of earthquakes; coal mining had caused many times more.
Therese Coffey and Liz Truss: moral issues
A charity has criticised the decision to make Catholic MP Therese Coffey the secretary of state because of her views on abortion. The newly-appointed deputy PM voted against extending ‘pills by post’, allowing women to take abortion pills at home, instead of a clinical setting. Ms Coffey said she would never condemn someone for having an abortion, but she would rather they did not have the procedure. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service said that a health secretary who would place their personal beliefs above expert clinical guidance is concerning’. Meanwhile, Liz Truss said she shares the values of the Christian faith but is not a practising religious person. She abstained or was absent from parliamentary votes on legalising suicide and abortion, and voted to impose abortion on Northern Ireland. She also voted for same-sex marriage.
Isle of Man and Guernsey: politics
400 Isle of Man teachers are demanding a pay rise and have stopped covering breaks or setting or assessing work to cover other teachers' absences. They are balloting on industrial action, including strikes. The department of education has made a pay offer which would see island teachers paid 1% more than their counterparts in England. It was rejected. Pray for the Manx government to come to an agreement with teachers so that schools are kept open and safe and young people receive consistent education. A policy review by Guernsey’s Home Affairs Committee found staffing essential services could only be maintained if more people immigrated there. There need to be government changes to allow extensions to short- term employment permits’ and review birthright privileges, as well as removing recruitment restrictions and building more houses for migrants to live in. Proposed changes will be debated next month.
