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6 LondraGazete.com/English Londra Gazete, 18 August 2022

Shapps considering creating

20mph speed limits for cyclists

TRANSPORT Secretary Grant
Shapps has flagged changing road
laws so cyclists have to abide by
20mph speed limits or face pen-
alties.
Less than a fortnight after vow-
ing to create a “death by danger-
ous cycling” law that will treat
killer cyclists the same as motor-
ists, Mr Shapps said he wanted
to stop certain behaviour on the
Truss and Sunak reject roads.
The Welwyn Hatfield MP told
indyref2 the Daily Mail: “Somewhere
where cyclists are actually not
breaking the law is when they
LEADERSHIP candidates Liz not allow another independence speed, and that cannot be right,
Truss and Rishi Sunak have re- referendum if she was elected. so I absolutely propose extend- you actually track cyclists who do Mail, adding: “It’s a fantastic way
jected a second Scottish inde- The SNP said it was "depressing ing speed limit restrictions to cy- break the laws.” to travel. We’ve seen a big explo-
pendence referendum at a hus- watching for Scots". clists. The Highway Code and Road sion of cycling during Covid and
tings in Perth. For nearly two hours, the final “Particularly where you’ve got Traffic Act speeding limits only since, I think it has lots of health
Mr Sunak said it's "quite frank- two candidates pitched for the 20mph limits on increasing num- apply to motor vehicles and their benefits.
ly barmy" that any government votes of Scottish Conservative bers of roads, cyclists can easily drivers. While local authorities “But I see no reason why cy-
would focus on an independence members. exceed those, so I want to make clists should break the road laws,
referendum during the cost of liv- The UK will find out its next speed limits apply to cyclists. can impose speed limits on cy- why they should speed, why they
ing crisis. prime minister in less than three “That obviously does then lead clists, it has been rarely done. should bust red lights and be able
And Ms Truss said she would weeks on 5 September. you into the question of: ‘Well, The Department for Trans- to get away with it.
how are you going to recognise port refused to provide comment It comes after Mr Shapps
the cyclist? Do you need registra- to the PA news agency on Mr pledged to create a “death by dan-
Union anger over 26% cut to tion plates and insurance? And Shapps’ interview. gerous cycling” law to “impress
that sort of thing.’
“I don’t want to stop people on cyclists the real harm they can
civil service redundancy pay be a review of insurance and how Transport Secretary told the with lack of care”.
“So I’m proposing there should from getting on their bike,” the cause when speed is combined
TRADE unions have reacted an- threat of 91,000 job cuts, these
grily to government plans to cut proposed cuts to our members'
civil servants' redundancy pay by redundancy terms add insult to UK set to receive shipment of Australian gas
an estimated 25.9%. injury.
It comes as ministers seek to re- He added that his union would THE UK is expected to take de- a small fraction of its gas from natural gas (LNG) cargo to Europe
duce civil servant jobs by 91,000. "fight these proposals as we did livery of a shipment of gas all the Russia before the conflict began, in at least six years, according to
The PCS trade union accused in 2017". The plans to cut redun- way from Australia next week, as the country is connected to the Bloomberg, which first reported
the government of wanting "to dancy pay, outlined in a govern- the pressure on European energy European gas network. Continen- the news. Australia's decision to
get job cuts done on the cheap". ment consultation document, supplies grows. The liquid nat- tal Europe is much more reliant sell to Europe could also be part-
But a Cabinet Office spokesper- include limiting payments to ural gas (LNG) is due to arrive on Russian gas, and deliveries via ly due to reduced demand from
son said that in a time of "high three weeks' pay per year of ser- on 22 August, according to com- the Nordstream pipeline have al- China, where Mr Cox said repeat-
national debt and increasing cost vice, down from one month, with modities analysts Kpler. Austral- ready been curtailed. ed Covid lockdowns had reduced
pressures" the Civil Service Com- ia doesn't usually sell gas this far Moscow has been accused of us- the need for energy. The UK gets
pensation Scheme should be "af- payments capped at 18 months' afield, but European countries ing gas as a political weapon and about half of its gas directly from
fordable" to the taxpayer. salary for voluntary redundancy have been seeking alternatives to there are fears it could cut sup- the North Sea.
The government previously (down from 21) and nine months Russian gas following the inva- plies to European countries alto- A further third comes via pipe-
tried to reduce redundancy pay- for compulsory redundancy sion of Ukraine. The UK stopped gether, if there is no resolution lines from Norway and it also
ments in 2017, but was forced to (down from 12). importing gas from Russia in to the crisis. This is the first time buys LNG from Qatar, the US and
scrap its plan when unions suc- Proposals to cut 91,000 civ- April. While the UK bought only Australia has shipped a liquefied a handful of other countries.
cessfully took court action. il service jobs were announced
PCS general secretary Mark earlier this year, with the gov-
Serwotka said: "Coming on top of ernment saying it wanted to see
a derisory 2% pay offer and the staffing return to 2016 levels. Labour loses nearly 100,000 members

LABOUR lost nearly 100,000 dundancy packages to cut costs ty had balanced the books, leav-
members in 2021 and ended the in the long-run contributing to ing a small surplus of £17,000.
year with a £5 million financial the financial black hole. Labour's The Conservative party, whose
deficit, the party's newly-pub- income from membership fees accounts were also published to-
lished accounts show. A mass ex- fell from £19.3 million in 2020 day, made a £319,000 surplus in
odus of supporters saw the par- to £16.2 million in 2021, a £3.1 2021. The Tories do not put their
ty's membership – which stood at drop in income which made up membership numbers in their ac-
523,332 at the end of 2020 – fall the majority of its £5.2m deficit. counts, but income from Conserv-
to 432,213 by the close of 2021. The size of the party's loss rep- ative membership fees remained
The party Treasurers' report de- resents a significant increase on broadly stable at £1,989,000 in
scribes 2021 as a "difficult and 2020, when the party had a defi- 2021, compared to £1,999,000 in
demanding year", with staff re- cit of £1 million. In 2019 the par- 2020.