Commenting on today's [Monday] Healthcare Commission report criticising the quality of healthcare services for people with learning difficulties, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb MP said:
New figures have been released showing huge variations in the amount of carbon emitted per person across the UK. This is the third year Defra have published these statistics by local authority but the Government say the estimates are not comparable with either of the datasets published previously, due to improvements in the source data and methodology used. The figures estimate that 6.7 tonnes were emitted for each person in the Wolverhampton in 2005, Birmingham is 6.8 tonnes, Dudley is 6.0 tonnes, Sandwell is 7.9 tonnes and Walsall was 7.5 tonnes (the UK figure is 9.3). This compares to a global average of around 2.5 tonnes per capita (2003 figure).
Charities report that crime against the disabled is worryingly common. But two years after a law targeting disability hate crime came into force, the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are only now facing up to the scale of the problem.
Jo Swinson MP, Lib Dem equality spokesperson, has marked World AIDS Day by joining a coalition of charities in Parliament Square calling on the Government to strengthen its efforts to tackle HIV and AIDS. She has pledged support for the Stop AIDS Campaign - a coalition of over 80 UK-based NGOs - and has written to Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander on the issue.
Liberal Democrat South East Region MEP Sharon Bowles is playing host to more than 30 Liberal Democrats from the Shepway area this Monday. The trip from Folkestone will be visiting Brussels and will then visit the European Parliament building itself on Monday, before returning to the UK.
The Liberal Democrat Party's deputy leader, treasury spokesman and now acting leader has proved exceptionally adept at the job. Gone are the panto-style groans that have greeted previous Lib Dem leaders when they stand to take their turn in the Commons hurly-burly of question time. Instead this week he brought the House down, with his quip about the "prime minister's remarkable transformation in the last few weeks from Stalin to Mr Bean, creating chaos out of order rather than order out of chaos". It was the kind of ridicule politicians fear as it might just stick.
