At the Confucius Institute National Congress hosted by the All Party Parliamentary China Group at Portcullis House today, we heard of how the organisation has grown from scratch in 2004 to having 350 institutes in 104 countries.
The Food Standards Agency is warning people not to consume certain branded foods that have been linked to an outbreak of botulism in France. Botulism is a rare but serious illness that causes muscle weakness and breathing problems, and can be fatal.
Just because there are no votes in the issue is no reason to ignore the plight of Europe's homeless, Liberal Democrat Euro MP Liz Lynne told the European Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday. Wolverhampton's MEP spoke out in a debate held last night to follow up a written declaration adopted by Parliament last December in favour of an EU-wide plan to support member states in developing effective national homelessness strategies. Liz Lynne was one of a number of MEPs to press the Commission to spell out their plans to follow up the declaration. She urged them to promote best practice, highlighting pioneering projects supported by the EU's Daphne programme such as a scheme dealing with the high number of women rough sleepers in Wolverhampton. In her speech Liz Lynne said "Homelessness has never been a politically popular subject, maybe because there are not many votes in it. That is one reason why it is important to involve people from all parties and none in national, regional and local policymaking, service
Local MP Tim Farron has today welcomed news that local residents can now be elected to National Park authority boards. Tim has for years spearheaded the campaign to democratise our national parks.
Councillor Jack Cohen, Leader of Barnet Liberal Democrats, called for the scrapping of the One Barnet Programme at tonight's full Council Meeting. Cllr Cohen accused the Barnet Tories of "wasting millions of tax payer money chasing an illusion driven by dogma. There is not a shred of evidence that the Tory plans to outsource and privatise all of its main services will work." Cllr Cohen also condemned the Conservative Council Administration for its gung ho approach to employee /employer relations: "what is becoming clear to me is that there is a sustained and systematic attempt by some leading Tories to denigrate Council Employees to justify getting rid of them"
Congratulations to Lib Dem Cllr Nigel Clarke and his Tory protege Cllr William Lloyd on their win over a Tory/Labour team tonight at the Councillor Scissorhands Challenge in aid of the Brentwood Mayor's Charities.