Biden and Sunak Are On The Verge Of A Major Deal

The Prime Minister hopes to reach an agreement with Joe Biden this month that could see the US supply billions of cubic feet of natural gas to Britain in the coming months to help reduce the energy crisis triggered by Vladimir Putin.

The deal, which was initiated by Liz Truss, would shore up the UK’s energy supplies and lower the chance of blackouts, which the National Grid has warned are likely this winter.

Ironically, this would make the United Kingdom more reliant on gas produced by fracking, just weeks after Rishi Sunak reimposed a prohibition on the controversial technology in the UK.

Around two-thirds of US gas is now produced by hydraulic fracturing, which has turned America back into a net exporter of energy in current years.

Andy Mayer, energy analyst at the Institute of Economic Affairs think tank, said exploiting the UK’s vast reserves of shale gas would be more environmentally friendly than importing supplies from the US and would generate enormous tax revenues and economic activity.

He said banning UK fracking while striking deals to import US-fracked gas prioritised climate posing over climate action and it reduced our energy security, risked higher bills and undermined public finances, and he said that imported gas, cooled and sent in vast tankers, had a higher carbon footprint than gas drilled at home.

He said that anti-fracking campaigns were not environmentally sound when we remain reliant on fossil fuels for 75 per cent of our primary energy and that Downing Street confirmed talks about a deal were underway but refused to comment on the details.

The PM’s official spokesman said the US was a country where there was more that they could do together to tackle energy price spikes. He added that they were still consulting with the US on what the right approach might be.

One government source said Rishi Sunak was likely to discuss the issue with Joe Biden at next week’s G20 summit in Indonesia. The United Kingdom is also in talks with both Norway and Qatar about long-term gas supply deals.

Ministers hope the new energy security partnership with the US could be sealed as early as this month. Meanwhile, former Cabinet minister Lord Frost also said there was a degree of hypocrisy in attempting to import more fracked gas while banning its extraction in the United Kingdom.

We have plenty of our own fracked gas, but evidently, it’s not environmentally friendly, but it’s okay to buy it from the US, that’s bonkers. Let’s not make our own energy, let’s ban it and then spend double somewhere else.

Rishi Sunak is off again giving billions away. Meanwhile, people can’t afford to put their central heating on, while Rishi is wealthy enough to heat his own pool and buy from Waitrose, he’s not one of us and never will be.

Ah yes! Let’s abandon our own self-sufficiency and make other countries richer to appease the swampy people holding this country hostage.

Words just can’t express my frustration with this government. How can Rishi Sunak tell us with one hand that we’re facing a 40-50 billion Armageddon hole, but then send billions overseas to help them cope with climate change and anyone who proposes Net Zero should be ostracised? And it looks like the US has got us over a barrel, just like Vladimir Putin.

Fracking is not ideal, and getting it from the US is even worse, but the United Kingdom possibly will be in blackout this winter if something isn’t done soon, and I would rather that a deal was secured so that British homes will remain warm this winter. It of course also boosts Joe Biden’s odds of winning a second term as President of the United States.

Star Of Carry On, Leslie Phillips, Best Known For His Catchphrases ‘Ding Dong’, ‘Well Hello’, And ‘I Say’, Dies At Age 98

Carry On star Leslie Phillips, who brought laughter to living rooms across the country, has passed away aged 98.

Known for his ‘Ding Dog’, ‘Well, Hello’, and ‘I Say’ sayings, the actor had been suffering from a lengthy illness.

Younger fans might remember his voice from the Harry Potter movies, in which he did the voiceover for the Sorting Hat.

Actor Leslie Phillips, who starred in 150 movies, suffered a life-threatening stroke in 2015 and had been recuperating at home.

He would fondly remember how generations of fans would ask him to repeat his famous sayings ‘millions of times’.

Leslie Phillips, instantly recognisable for his harmonious, RP tones, had an original London accent but received elocution lessons to improve it, but despite his light-hearted humour, he had a tragic private life.

His ex-wife Penny Bartley, who he stayed in contact with after their divorce, was killed in a house fire in 1981, and in 2011 he was rocked by the suicide of his second wife, the former Bond Girl Angela Scoular, but he discovered love again and married third wife Zara Carr in December 2013.

During a seizure in 2015, after a stroke, Zara Carr gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Paying tribute to her late husband, Zara Carr, now 63, said that she’s lost a wonderful husband and that the public has lost a truly wonderful showman, and she said that he was quite simply a national treasure. People adored him, and he was mobbed everywhere he went.

Tottenham-born film legend Leslie Phillips was still performing before the stroke, voicing the Sorting Hat of the Harry Potter movies and acting in several British TV dramas including the Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Revolver and Agatha Christie’s Marple.

He was born on April 20, 1924, into a working-class family and made his first film appearance as a child in the 1930s.

He’s thought to be the only actor still alive who performed at Pinewood Studios in its first week after opening in 1936.

During the Second World War, he was commissioned in 1943 as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery and transferred to the Durham Light Infantry in 1944, but his death, almost two years after Barbara Windsor passed away, means only Jim Dale is left from the Carry On films that made him a huge star.

Despite his brilliant personality and well-lived life, he was always the gentleman playing the scoundrel.

All of my life this man brought laughter into my home, but now we’ve lost one of our loveliest old luvvies. His personality was never spiteful or snide to get a laugh and he really knew how to flirt which was the sense of his fun.

Wasn’t he just amazing and he gave so many people so much joy with that fabulous dirty voice of his?

He was great with that old-school charm of his, but sadly today, that wit of his would be cancelled.

He was indeed a credit to our entertainment industry and a pleasure to watch on TV.

A Couple’s Wedding Is Canceled Because The Venue 300 Miles Away From Channel Will Be Used For Asylum Seekers

A couple told of their devastation after their wedding in a luxury hotel 300 miles away from the English Channel was cancelled due to the venue being secured by officials to accommodate asylum seekers.

Simon Pritchard and Lucy Campbell, 28, were just five weeks away from tying the knot at the four-star Hilton Garden Inn in Snowdonia before being notified via Zoom the event had been called off.

Reacting to the news, Lucy Campbell said that when they were told the venue was being cancelled, they were both completely gobsmacked, and that they’d been counting down the days for the wedding to happen, and that when they told them they just couldn’t believe it, especially the reason they gave them.

A string of local councils is now taking legal action against the Home Office to prevent the Government from using hotels in their area.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said this was only a temporary measure and officials were urgently looking for more basic accommodation.

He said the hotels were not a sustainable solution and that they want to ensure they leave the hotels as quickly as possible and to do that they would need to disperse individuals to other forms of accommodation.

He said they may need to take some larger sites to provide decent but basic accommodation and of course, they will need to get through a backlog so that they can get more people out of the system.

According to a newspaper outlet, using campsites is one of the alternatives being considered.

Mr Pritchard and Ms Campbell, from Towyn, Conwy, were expected to marry in front of their three children on December 10.

They’d made the booking a year ago, but were told it had been cancelled.

Ms Campbell said that she didn’t blame the staff, the people who had to tell her because it was out of their hands, but she wasn’t sure how to take the claim that the hotel had no choice in the matter, the Home Office just demanded it.

Local Conservative MP Robin Millar has criticised the use of the £146 to £300 a night to house asylum seekers and pledged to raise the problem with Home Office ministers.

He said that he would be clear because he was concerned about the practicality of the property, in its location for the purpose it will be used, and that the hotel wasn’t a detention centre, and that it was remote and unsupported by the appropriate services.

Venues that profit from illegals at the expense of our own citizens should be boycotted permanently, but there isn’t much this couple can do about it, not really if the Home Office has commandeered the hotel, although it’s extremely unfortunate for the wedding couple.

It’s also extremely sad for the hotel because rooms will be destroyed, and then the hotel will have to clean up after these migrants who won’t care how they leave it after they’ve left, and the only people who can take them to court is the hotel proprietors themselves, but you can bet they’ve been paid very charitably for their services.

It’s time councils, particularly in London objected to housing the raft brigade. There are literally thousands, standing outside nice warm hotels, in Primark tracksuits, all smoking, laughing and having a fantastic time, it’s an absolute disgrace.

They should be prevented from accessing benefits, health care, and free housing. If that stopped I wonder how many would come over then? And in the meantime, British people can’t afford to put their central heating on – you couldn’t make this up if you tried!

Britain Faces ‘More Friction And Less Trade’ If It Overwrites The Brexit Deal For Northern Ireland With A New Law

Britain was warned of more friction and less trade with the EU if it goes ahead with unilateral action to reduce political tension over Brexit in Northern Ireland.

The European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic said the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill would be Ulster’s unique entrance to the EU market with 450 million consumers at risk.

Speaking in Westminster he told British and European parliaments that the UK was entitled as a free nation to change its own laws as it desires, but he added that more divergence would carry even more costs and would also exacerbate the barriers to trade between the EU and the United Kingdom and that more divergence would mean more friction and less trade.

The NIP Bill was presented in the summer with the purpose of sweeping away key parts of the Brexit agreement, adding a check-free green channel for goods from mainland Britain and stripping control from the EU court.

It would also ensure that VAT changes from Westminster apply to the province, allow state subsidies, and give ministers wide-ranging powers to cancel more of the divorce terms thereafter if needed.

It came as Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen agreed to work together to end the row over the Northern Ireland Protocol when they met for the first time at Cop27 in Egypt.

In Egypt, the new Prime Minister met the European Commission president as both attended the Cop27 climate conference on Monday, with Rishi Sunak highlighting the need to find solutions to the very real problems caused by the post-Brexit arrangements in the region.

Rishi Sunak inherits from his predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson the problem of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is vocally opposed by unionists who argue it cuts off the region from the rest of the United Kingdom.

The post-Brexit solution, designed to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, is cited as the Democratic Unionist Party’s primary reason for refusing to return to powersharing.

The instability in Northern Ireland has raised concerns in Dublin, Brussels and Washington, and the row between the United Kingdom and the EU offers few signs of coming to a prompt conclusion, despite indications of a more optimistic tone from the British side in recent weeks.

Ms von der Leyen called it a good first meeting.

Brexit has been a catastrophe, and most people knew that it would be but Britain never learns and never will, and to be fair, I can’t name one good Brexit benefit because there are none.

The only thing that we got from Brexit was migrants coming in, day in and day out, and we don’t need to build a hard border in Ireland again, that will only stir up trouble again and it definitely won’t go down well.

We will now pay for this Brexit catastrophe with a more increased cost of living, overinflated prices and pensions that are now worthless, and if the United Kingdom wasn’t in dire straits before, it definitely is now.

We could blame earlier Prime Ministers for this complete and utter debacle, but then it wouldn’t matter who was in power, none of them can see the wood for the trees because they’re all inept civil servants who have all failed the British people, but for the good or the bad we now have to make the best of things, but they definitely haven’t turned out too well.

We have left the EU, people voted to leave, some people voted to remain, but people still can’t quit complaining that we’re now not allowed access to the tariff-free easy trade we had before we left. It’s time to realise that Brexit has done nothing but make this country economically poorer, but I guess it’s hard to come to terms with when all those Brexit promises haven’t materialised.

Before Christmas, Thousands Of Nurses Will Strike

Thousands of nurses will strike before Christmas after union’s members voted in favour of a first-ever mass NHS walkout.

Britain’s nursing union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), closed its historic strike action ballot of its 300,000 members on Wednesday.

The union is demanding nurses receive a cost of living pay rise of 5 per cent above inflation which presently sits at 12.3 per cent.

It’s set to be the first national walkout in the 106-year-old history of the RCN.

A union source told a newspaper outlet that this will see the majority of services taken out, and picket lines across the country.

The NHS is also gearing up for possible industrial action from other staffing groups with junior doctors, midwives and non-clinical workers like cleaners and porters also considering union action.

It comes as NHS hospitals in England were ordered to plan a military-style operation to prepare for protentional devastating walkouts this winter.

Officials have been told to ensure each part of the service is prepared if historic, NHS-wide industrial action goes ahead, an operation dubbed Exercise Arctic Willow.

Widespread industrial action could see thousands of operations and appointments cancelled.

The Tories have warned that the walkouts would be criminal and risk lives, although the NHS unions dispute this.

The operation, an extension of usual routine winter exercises carried out by trusts to prepare for happenings like flu outbreaks, will take place in mid-November.

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said the Government’s current proposal, around £1,400 per nurse, in fact, makes a difference to a nurse’s wage of 72p an hour.

This, the union argues, is forcing nurses to exit the NHS for better-paid positions in retail and hospitality, further worsening staff shortages.

The RCN is demanding nurses get a wage uplift of five per cent above inflation. This would give the average nurse, who makes approximately £35,600 each year, an additional £6,150.

The RCN will be expected to maintain a minimum staffing level to ensure patients have access to emergency care, and urgent diagnostic procedures and they’re not at risk of death or disability.

Like other workers, NHS staff can’t legally be sacked if they partake in official and lawful industrial action.

Nurses could be joined by midwives later in the year, with the Royal College of Midwives set to launch its own ballot next week.

The British Medical Association, a union representing 160,000 GPs, consultants, and junior doctors, has also warned industrial action by the profession was inescapable.

Well, if the nurses are going on strike I do hope people with cancer, that they’re cancer goes on strike as well, but of course, it won’t, and most of these people wouldn’t get through their treatment without these incredible nurses, so pay them what they want so they can carry on working.

Nurses don’t get the credit that they deserve or the wages that they deserve. They work extremely long hours which can be extremely stressful, and they’re taken for granted. I bet they won’t be taken for granted now once they go on strike. Although I’m not sure it was the right decision for them to strike because by striking there will be patients that will need life-saving treatment, cancer treatments and dialysis et cetera and they won’t get it.

Nurses are worth their weight in gold, so they should be given what they’re asking and without them, we’re basically stuffed, but this is what the Tories want. Private Health Insurance so that they can ditch the NHS, and those that afford it will prevail, those that can’t, will die.

In The Description Of Plant-Based Vegan Imitations, The Words Sausage, Bacon, And Steak Should Be Banned, According To Farmers

The use of the word sausage, bacon and steak to describe plant-based vegan replicas should be prohibited, say, food advisors, retail professionals, agriculturalists and butchers.

In the week of World Vegan Day on November 1, plant producers were accused of using meat terms as a marketing gimmick to increase sales.

Experts said Britain should follow France, which is shifting towards a prohibition on words such as sausage and steak for the vegetarian version of meat products.

Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research, who lived as a vegetarian for 20 years, said that there should be a new rule saying vegan products can’t be called sausages, steaks or bacon and that we should follow what the French are doing.

He said that you’d think Trading Standards would have been onto it already, as what it says on the container is what should be inside.

He said this wasn’t an argument against people eating vegan food, but the idea you can call a product whatever you like, irrespective of what’s inside which goes against labelling laws, and that research shows some vegan products are extremely refined.

He said that calling something a veggie sausage was a sales tactic as the producer believes it will sell more than if it’s called a vegan stick, and he said that it was equal to if you said a product was made in France when it was actually made in Wales, the authorities would come down on them like a ton of hot bricks.

Nellie Nichols, one of Britain’s leading food consultants, who works with manufacturers and retailers, said that producers should be forthcoming about which products are used and that they should admit that it’s not a meat product but a vegetable product and try not to pull the wool over consumer’s eyes.

She said they need to make it explicit that the product they’re copying is from pea or soya protein and not say it’s a version of a sausage.

This is a marketing challenge and will likely become a legal challenge. However, the smart way around it is to say that something isn’t what you believe it is by stating ‘This isn’t…’

As things stand we should be eating more than twice as much veg as we do.

But now farmers have called for clear, detailed labelling to help shoppers understand where the products have come from so that they can make informed decisions on the food that they purchase.

But while people are whining about plant-based gimmicks, what we should be talking about that people eat every day of the week is mechanically reclaimed separated meat that you get in most shops – how about labelling those up as well?

No one owns the word sausage or burger, it’s just a word which is simply illustrative.

I mean, what is a sausage? It’s a cylinder shape, loaded with animal flesh or plant-based ingredients, but if it’s plant-based, then it should say that it’s plant-based and there is no meat in it. What you call it is irrelevant so long as it says on the package that it has no meat.

To be fair it sounds like farmers are feeling slightly threatened – they should but not because it’s plant-based but because eventually farmers will not exist with all the GMO foods and reconstituted foods that we see in our supermarkets, but eventually we will see no meat at all.

The Elizabeth Line Opens For Sunday Services

Sadiq Khan has called the huge success of the Elizabeth Line as Sunday services and more direct routes were opened.

The Mayor of London joined transport leaders to ride the £19 billion railway from Stratford to Paddington.

The trip marked the opening of direct routes across the line as well as a seven-day service for the first time since the line opened in May.

The railway has so far operated in three separate sections, requiring passengers to trek for several minutes to switch trains at Liverpool Street and Paddington.

As of Sunday morning, passengers could travel across the whole line extending from Reading in Berkshire and Heathrow Airport in southwest London, to Abbey Wood in southeast London and Shenfield in Essex without changing platforms.

Sunday services are also now operating after they were stopped in the London tunnels almost every weekend since the line opened on May 24 to allow more testing to take place.

Talking at Paddington, Sadiq Khan said that it was wonderful news, not just for the Elizabeth line but also for the south of the country.

He said that London benefits but also if people live in the west in Reading or in Shenfield if you live in Essex or in Windsor you benefit as well.

Sadiq Khan met several transport leaders, including Transport for London’s acting commissioner Andy Lord and transport minister Richard Holden, at Stratford Station on Sunday morning.

The group boarded the 10.16 am train, which took slightly over 18 minutes to get to Paddington after the removal of the interchange at Liverpool Street.

They could be heard discussing the complicated signal system, the size of platforms and the confusion around the Elizabeth line not being part of the Tube network.

At Paddington, the group was welcomed by two trainee railway workers and posed for photographs.

Sadiq Khan called the Elizabeth line a huge huge hit but also asserted Government to invest more in London’s infrastructure, including projects like Crossrail 2, which has been suspended indefinitely. 

He said that he believed what the Elizabeth line shows is that if they invest, people will use it, adding that 60 million journeys had been made on the railway since it opened in May, and he said that it demonstrated the difference good public transport can make but that actually the great news was that as a global metropolis we now have a new piece of infrastructure, and that we can’t simply stand still and that when he talks to associates in Singapore, in Hong Kong, in Paris and New York, they’re investing in infrastructure.

Council Tax Is Set To Soar

Council tax bills could skyrocket next year under government plans to reduce the strain on public finances.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is looking at relaxing the decade-long cap that presently allows town halls to increase their annual bills by just 2 per cent a year for their core services.

Although the move would not directly raise funds for the Treasury, officials believe it could allow Jeremy Hunt to squeeze central funding to local authorities, as they would then be able to make up the difference from local council taxpayers.

A government source told a newspaper outlet the idea was being examined as an option as ministers scramble to find £50 billion in tax rises and spending cuts by the time of the Budget on November 17.

The source said that it didn’t bring in money directly, but that if went ahead it would allow the Treasury to provide less money centrally, and that it was an option that was being examined.

The plan could allow local authorities to impose the first double-digit hikes in council tax for more than ten years.

Some ministers are resisting the move, asserting that it would pile pressure on families already facing the worst cost-of-living crunch in decades, but councils are pushing for the freedom to set their own bills without constraint, saying their ability to deliver core services was being eroded by inflation.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has warned ministers that councils face a £3.4 billion funding gap next year just to maintain services at pre-COVID levels.

In a submission to the Treasury, the LGA said that to fill the void using council tax alone, bills would have to increase by well over 10 per cent next year. The organisation, which represents councils across England and Wales, said rises on this scale would be neither sustainable nor desirable.

Despite this, it called for the existing cap on council tax increases to be rescinded to give them the power to raise more money to protect or enhance local services.

Under existing regulations, councils had to win a local referendum if they wanted to increase council tax by more than 2 per cent.

In recent years they have also been allowed to levy a precept for social care of between 1 and 3 per cent.

Last year, total average bills increased by 3.5 per cent.

The Treasury is now looking at options to increase the percentage rise at which authorities are required to win a referendum.

The existing 2 per cent cap could be increased to 5 per cent or more, although ministers are nervous about ditching it.

What this Government should start funding is the giant black hole we have by eliminating foreign aid and illegal immigrants, but of course, they have no intention of doing any of that, and Jeremy Hunt always has that smirking smile.

Council Tax should be only for the people who were born in this country and that the council serves, and it shouldn’t have any connection to Foreign Aid or immigrants et cetera. They should also reduce the House of Lords and any Royal expenses, and if the Royal Family want these extra indulgences they should be paid for by themselves.

Does Jeremy Hunt want us to sell the shirt off our backs too?

How on earth is anybody supposed to make ends meet with this joker taxing us dry?

Basically, he’s putting millions of people into serious financial misery, and if he allows the councils at a time like this to hike up Council Tax bills, where the councils will waste money as badly as our Government, then the Tories deserve every bit of punishment they get in the next General Election.

Asylum Seekers From Manston Stranded In Central London By The Home Office

A newspaper outlet revealed that the Home Office left asylum seekers from the Manston immigration centre in central London without accommodation or warm clothing, as officials tried to ease acute overcrowding.

A group of 11 asylum seekers from Manston were left at Victoria railway station on Tuesday evening with nowhere to stay, without winter coats, many of them in flip flops, according to volunteers with the Under One Sky homelessness charity, who supplied them with emergency supplies of food and clothing.

Danial Abbas, a volunteer with the charity said that they were worried, frightened and totally disorientated. 

The group who were from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq were covered in blankets to keep them warm, and they were confused about what they were meant to do, they were also extremely hungry.

According to a witness, approximately 50 asylum seekers from Kent were also deposited from a bus by Victoria coach station at about 11 pm on Saturday.

The eyewitness said they were still on the street at midnight, trying to work out what to do, or where to go. They had no cash, they hadn’t even been told where they were.

Hundreds of asylum seekers have been rapidly moved out of the Manston centre in the past two days amid heavy criticism of overcrowded conditions at the immigration centre, where this weekend around 4,000 people were being kept at a site designed for 1,600.

The immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, said the number of people at Manston had dropped substantially on Tuesday, but on Wednesday evening he admitted that there were still almost 3,500 at the centre.

Appearing on ITV, he told Robert Peston that they gripped this immediately when they appreciated the scale of the challenge at the weekend and that it was now falling extremely rapidly and he expected that they’d get down to an acceptable level within about seven days.

The 11 men left without accommodation on Tuesday told charity volunteers they’d been driven from Kent to London earlier on Tuesday afternoon as part of a larger group of approximately 40 asylum seekers.

Other members of their group had family members or friends they were able to contact and stay with, but 11 were left by the station without anywhere to spend the night.

One of the men, a 29-year-old economics student from Iraq, said he’d been held at Manston for 21 days after arriving in the United Kingdom by boat. He said there were so many people there, and that they were given food but very little, and then on Tuesday afternoon he was told that he was being taken to London, and they were told they should go to their families or friends. He said that he didn’t have any family or friends here in the United Kingdom.

Even migrants have a human right to express their concerns, but the Home Office has denied it’s to blame for asylum seekers being left stranded in London, yet Danial Abbas, a volunteer with Under One Sky, a homelessness charity that helped the asylum seekers, said that someone from the Home Office told him that a huge mistake had been made.

The Home Office didn’t provide a comment for the story, but then issued a statement, which said that 11 asylum seekers had been left stranded, but they said that originally those asylum seekers who were left stranded had originally told staff they had somewhere to stay in London and that it was, therefore, wrong to say the Home Office had made a mistake.

The Home Office said the individuals were transported to Victoria coach station, London because they said they had accommodation in that location which would not leave them destitute, and that they told them that they had accommodation with friends and family available to them.

However, if they had accommodation available to them in the first place, wouldn’t they have gone there rather than go to Manston, and wouldn’t they have been picked up by family or friends when they got off the boat?

The Home Office said any suggestion there was a mistake in transporting the individuals to Victoria was wrong, and that when they found out, the Home Office worked at a pace to find accommodation for the individuals when they were informed that 11 of them didn’t, in fact, have a place to stay.

The Home Office also said the group were only in London for a few hours before accommodation was found for them.

It’s unlikely to be the last word on the matter, and in other developments, Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister said that the government was facing legal action over the conditions in which people have been held at Manston and that four Commons select committee chairs (two Tories, one from Labour and one from the SNP) had written an open letter to Braverman demanding answers to a string of questions about the bad conditions at Manston.

‘Extremely Limited’ Rail Services Continue To Cause Travel Chaos For Rail Passengers Today

The UK’s rail service will be harshly disrupted across the country today despite an 11th-hour decision to suspend strikes while negotiations between the RMT union and train companies continue.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) and Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) were due to stage strikes in the coming few days in a long-running dispute over employment, pay and conditions.

Employees were preparing to walk out today, Sunday 6, Monday 7, and Wednesday 9 November, with Tube staff due to join them later in the week. The walkout on Sunday was expected to be for train managers exclusively, but passengers will still encounter problems travelling as train operators say the change was announced at the last minute to reinstate regular services.

RMT strikes on November 10 affecting the London Underground and Overground services are still set to go ahead in the continuing dispute over wages and working conditions.

Last night the RMT said it had secured unconditional talks with Network Rail and the promise of a pay offer from the train operating companies, meaning 40,000 employees are no longer set to strike, but RMT boss Mike Lynch acknowledged train strikes could continue beyond Christmas if a deal isn’t found.

It comes as new Transport Secretary Mark Harper confirmed he was happy to meet with trade unions, a marked departure from his predecessor Grant Shapps’ approach.

Mark Harper said that the negotiations were clearly going to take place between the unions and the employers: Network Rail and the train operating companies, and he said that he believed it was helpful for ministers to meet trade union leaders and to listen to their concerns, and that he was extremely happy to do that, and that his department would be reaching out to those trade union leaders in due course.

The RMT said last night it had made rail bosses see sense but added that if they have to take strike action during the next six months to secure an agreement, they will.

The union said the dispute remains very much alive and it is continuing its re-ballot of members to secure a fresh mandate for action with the result due on November 15.

But transport chaos is still anticipated after the last-minute cancellation left train operators unable to reinstate a full timetable at such short notice.

So, it seems the strike is off, but still no trains, rail workers get a day off, fully paid, and the general public still suffers.

It sounds like a new tactic to me. Call off the strike just when it’s impossible to reschedule, which doubles the impact and the unions will just say they called it off, but it caused disruption.

The only thing this action has accomplished is chaos and suffering for working people.

It seems it’s like everyone for themselves to survive in Tory UK.

There’s an unending crater of funds available to support war-torn countries and the pampering of boat arrivals, with hotel stays, free legal aid, dental and NHS services are thrown in as a Golden Hello, but people who live in the United Kingdom are struggling to get through the month because of inflation.

Our Government need to prioritise and stop saving the world, and they need to look a tad closer to home.

Once the economy has recovered, if it ever recovers, and everyone can properly access a GP, then we can endeavour to continue with pet projects, but these walkouts are doing immeasurable damage to people’s trust in the rail service.

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