Tag: Vow

The environment secretary, Michael Gove, is to pledge that British food standards will not be lowered “in pursuit of trade deals”. There have also been warnings that high tariffs on beef and lamb imposed after the UK’s departure could wipe out some farmers who rely on exports to the EU. Gove will tell farmers: “We have been clear that we will not lower our standards in pursuit of trade deals, and that we will use the tools we have at our disposal – tariffs, quotas and legislation – to make sure standards are protected and you are not left at a competitive disadvantage.” The government is to announce its proposals for tariffs in a no-deal scenario this month. Britain is discovering the difficult truth about trade deals | Phillip Inman Read more Minette Batters, the NFU president, who has been highly critical of Gove in the past, will use her speech at the conference to call for a high-level expert commission to be set up to make sure imported food meets the same standards as British produce after Brexit. I don’t want it written in blood. I want it written in ink. “The issue of maintaining our food standards is critical. Which is why I am asking for a high-level commission to be convened, bringing together government officials, industry representatives, civil society groups and experts in food and farming.” Batters has frequently expressed concern that the government does not take the consequences of Brexit to the agriculture and horticulture sector seriously enough. Last year she warned that exporters would in effect be locked out of the EU for up to six months if no deal was struck. “Warm words are nice but we need firm commitments and clear actions.”

Henry McMaster pledged in his State of the State address to “change everything” to fix South Carolina ailing schools, promising to back administrative changes proposed by the General Assembly this year meant to improve a system long ranked among the country’s worst. “Send me these reforms, and I will sign them into law,” he said amid a loud applause from the joint session of the Legislature. The push to improve South Carolina schools in the Statehouse comes after The Post and Courier’s Minimally Adequate series that detailed how the state’s education system is failing students, teachers and businesses. The governor and legislative leaders agreed to have state economists develop a new schools funding model after calling the current one “outdated, inefficient and confusing” and one which fails to “provide the accountability, efficiency and transparency.” McMaster’s budget included a 5 percent pay raise for teachers that will push average salaries above the Southeastern average and $100 million to attract economic development to state’s poorest school districts. The governor proposed $34 million for pay raises, new hires and bonuses for state law enforcement officers and firefighters and nearly $50 million to cover health insurance increases for all state employees. McMaster wants the additional money for education and employees while cutting taxes. McMaster praised the House and Senate for working to change the state’s tax structure. McMaster used the address to call for the sale of state-run electric utility Santee Cooper, which saw its debt grow to $8 billion in debt after a failed nuclear project north of Columbia. “Ladies and gentlemen, that means we will not have offshore testing or drilling off the coast of South Carolina.” In the Democratic response, State Sen. John Scott of Columbia shared a message of working together with Republicans while pointedly demanding that McMaster to take action to fix South Carolina’s problems. Scott, who was part of a Democratic ticket running for governor last year, called for some changes that McMaster included in his executive budget released last week — raising teacher and state employee pay, improving public schools, curbing college tuition hikes and boosting development in rural areas.

Labour would scrap free schools and bring academies under greater local democratic control as part of a plan to unwind Conservative education reforms that it says have created a legacy of “fragmentation and privatisation”. The new policy will be unveiled by Angela Rayner at the Labour party conference on Monday, the first time that the shadow education secretary has presented her own structural reform plan in her two years in the job. “Labour will end the forced conversion of local schools to academies, scrap the inefficient free school programme and instead focus on delivering what works to get the best results for pupils.” Labour said that it would allow local authorities to build schools again and halt the free school programme, a flagship initiative of Michael Gove when he was education secretary under the coalition government. Conference at a glance: Labour nears consensus on Brexit Read more Local authorities will be allowed to take control of failing academies or what it calls “zombie academies” without a sponsor if they wanted to. The party says that there are 124 academies which have been earmarked for transfer to another trust, usually because of performance concerns. “The Tories’ fragmentation and school system has created zombie schools – caught between academy chains who are under no obligation to take them on and a government that simply washes its hands of the problem, refusing to step in and take responsibility,” Rayner will say. The education spokesperson also called for social media companies to ban anonymous accounts, complaining at a fringe event organised by the Guardian in Liverpool that most of the people that abused her online did so without using their real names. Rayner said that social media firms should take greater responsibility for their users and complained in particular that Facebook seemed to have indicated that politicians should accept a higher level of abuse. When asked what she thought about social media, Rayner said: “One of the first things they should do is stop anonymous accounts. It’s almost as if politicians should accept a certain amount of bullying and abuse online,” Rayner said.

When Wesley Bell declared victory in the battle to become St Louis county prosecutor last month, it came just two days before the region came together once again to honor the life of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager killed by a white police officer, sparking months of protests in Ferguson, Missouri. The vote, decided by a large margin, was seen as an indictment of McCulloch, on whose watch the Ferguson officer Darren Wilson was cleared of all charges in Brown’s killing. Lawyer urged prosecutor after Ferguson shooting: 'Do the right thing' for police Read more “People with different politics came together, people were making phone calls around the clock, knocking on doors. It was an across-the-table effort,” says St Louis native Tef Poe, a rapper, organizer and Harvard fellow. McCulloch, even despite his infamy in the eyes of many, also had the advantage of looking like the majority of St Louis county and the majority of prosecutors nationwide. I was seeing a lot of people on the other side of law enforcement,” said Bell, who went to high school near Ferguson. That’s how wild the system is,” Poe said. “It’s a chance now for us to engage with power differently than in the past,” Poe said, “I don’t put my faith in candidates, I place all of my faith in the people. And in the people’s ability to push candidates to enact change.” “It’s hard, though, to get too excited for someone in the same party as McCulloch. “It’s certainly a victory for the organizers who worked so hard on his campaign,” he said.

The message was that the issue involving migrant children shouldn’t be about politics; therefore, it should solely be about the children. “Go see a four-year-old child sitting at a table, drawing a picture of a turtle, wondering where his mom is,” Representative Dan Kildee said. Four politicians toured the Bethany Christian Services building Thursday, where dozens of children who were separated from their parents at the border, are being cared for. "Obviously, we're not going to agree on everything,” Kildee said. “But we all agree these children ought to be reunited." Michigan Congressmen Dan Kildee was joined by Congressman Bill Huizenga and Debbie Dingell. The Michigan lawmakers were also joined by Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan. "I want to make sure the border integrity that we need to have is part of that solution,” he added. It was to put politics aside and do right by these children. "We all care about our kids,” Dingell said.

BANGKOK • Thailand's junta will lift a near four-year ban on political activity in June, an official said yesterday, as space for debate slowly expands in the kingdom with polls promised for next year. Political gatherings of five or more people have been outlawed since Thailand's army grabbed power in a May 2014 coup, booting Yingluck Shinawatra's elected government from power. The generals, who have repeatedly backtracked on promised returns to democracy, insist an election will be held "no later" than February 2019. Politicians have demanded that the ban be lifted, and critics accuse the junta of buying time to bolster the chances of new army-linked parties in the upcoming election. A defence ministry spokesman said the moratorium would soon be lifted, confirming comments the junta's No. 2 made to the local press on Thursday. "The initial plan is that the ban would be lifted in June so that newly set-up parties are ready," Lieutenant-General Kongcheep Tantravanich told Agence France-Presse. The restricted climate has left questions swirling about leadership shuffles in Thailand's biggest bloc - the toppled Pheu Thai party, which has dominated elections for a decade but has been repeatedly cut down by coups and court rulings. The exiled pair, former prime ministers and siblings Yingluck and Thaksin Shinawatra, made a rare public appearance at a book launch for a Japanese minister in Tokyo on Thursday. The next administration will also be straitjacketed by a "legally-binding" 20-year policy plan hatched by the junta.

[BANGKOK] Thailand's junta will lift a near four-year ban on political activity in June, an official said Friday, as space for debate slowly expands in the kingdom with polls promised for next year. Political gatherings of five or more people have been outlawed since Thailand's army grabbed power in a May 2014 coup, booting Yingluck Shinawatra's elected government from power. The generals, who have repeatedly backtracked on promised returns to democracy, insist an election will be held "no later" than February 2019. Politicians have demanded the ban is lifted, while critics accuse the junta of buying time to bolster the chances of new army-linked parties in the upcoming election. A defence ministry spokesman said the moratorium would soon be lifted, confirming comments the junta's number two made to the local press on Thursday. "The initial plan is that the ban would be lifted in June so that newly set-up parties are ready," Lieutenant-General Kongcheep Tantravanich told AFP. The restricted climate has left questions swirling about leadership shuffles in Thailand's biggest bloc - the toppled Pheu Thai party, which has dominated elections for a decade but has been repeatedly cut down by coups and court rulings. The exiled pair, former premiers and siblings Yingluck and Thaksin Shinawatra, made a rare public appearance at a book launch for a Japanese minister in Tokyo on Thursday. It was one of Yingluck's first public sightings since she fled Thailand last August ahead of a verdict in a court case she decried as a political witch-hunt. The next administration will also be straightjacketed by a "legally-binding" 20-year policy plan hatched by the junta.

President Trump said Thursday he will push for comprehensive background checks “with an emphasis on mental health” for gun sales, saying that the age of purchasers should be raised to 21 and bump stocks should be banned. “I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks! Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue — I hope!” I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health. Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018 Lawmakers and activists are pushing for gun control after 17 people were killed at a school shooting in South Florida last week. The 19-year-old suspect in the shooting allegedly used a legally purchased AR-15 to carry out the attack, placing the rifle in the center of the debate. Trump on Tuesday directed the Justice Department to put forward regulations to ban bump stocks, a device used to increase a semi-automatic rifle’s rate of fire. Activists and lawmakers had pushed for a ban on bump stocks after last year’s Las Vegas shooting. The weapons used during that attack on an outdoor concert were reportedly outfitted with bump stocks, though the device was not used in last week's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.