Exeter Chamber of Commerce welcomed guest speaker, local Labour MP Ben Bradshaw to its monthly Networking Lunch, which this month was held at The Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) on Tuesday 23 July with over 100 members and guests attending.
Ben updated members on his work for Exeter and Westminster and took questions from attendees. Ben highlighted the increased resilience Exeter has shown during the last few years considering the economic climate and said he remains optimistic about Exeter’s sustainable growth with some big retailers like John Lewis and IKEA coming to the city...
Trainees on a pilot scheme to refurbish and re-sell bicycles in Exeter have been demonstrating their skills to MP and cycling enthusiast Ben Bradshaw.
The project, run by city charity Exeter Community Initiatives (ECI), is designed to give training and skills to the unemployed as well prevent unwanted bikes from being dumped in landfill.
Mr Bradshaw said he was very impressed with what Exeter Community Bikes had achieved so far and felt it was an excellent idea for a social enterprise. “I think this is a fabulous project because it does so many different things.
Staff at Diligenta's in Clyst St Mary, Exeter, have been told today that the financial services company is set to pull out of Winslade Park and another site in Salisbury by February 2015, affecting 470 employees over both sites and 340 staff in Exeter alone. The first potential redundancies could take effect from as early as February 2014.
Diligenta is a UK business process outsourcing provider for the Life and Pensions industry, which last year commenced a 15-year contract with Friends Life. However, a Friends Life spokesman said: “Friends Life can confirm that the recent...
The House of Commons has voted in favour of allowing gay marriage in England and Wales after the third reading of the bill today (21 May).
The latest two day debate over the controversial bill witnessed a number of passionate speeches for and against as well as several failed amendments.
The issue has added to the considerable tensions between David Cameron and many grass roots activists and backbench MPs who, stirred by the debate over Europe, have been further angered by their leader's support for marriage equality between gay and straight couples.
The Culture Secretary, Maria Miller, said this week she would fight hard in the forthcoming spending review for Arts and Culture. That’s an improvement on her predecessor, Jeremy Hunt, who seemed to take pride in the size of the cuts he offered up to the Treasury and was the first Minister to settle in the last spending round.
Investment in arts and culture is tiny - less than 1% of overall Government spending. Yet it goes a long way in terms of jobs and economic growth. Sometimes wrongly seen as a fluffy luxury, arts spending is central to Britain’s economic future. Independent...
The long periods of disruption to rail travel between Exeter and the rest of the country during the recent wet weather seems finally to be registering with the Government.
I first raised concerns in Parliament during the flooding in late November and early December. This week, following the further disruption in over Christmas and up to New Year, a fellow South West MP raised the problem at Prime Minister’s Questions.
I have a question to the Transport Secretary on the Commons order paper and have written to both Network Rail and First Great Western requesting meetings to...
The South West TUC has called on the NHS pay cartel to disband after the government rejected plans to introduce regional pay.
Unions are concerned the 19 health trusts in the region who have set up the cartel will ignore yesterday's announcement from Parliament and press ahead with tearing up the national pay agreement, replacing it with worse pay and conditions for NHS staff.
South West TUC Regional Secretary Nigel Costley said: "Unions have been instrumental in putting forward the arguments against regional pay and, as the government has now admitted, these arguments have...
Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw has defended the former BBC director general George Entwistle who resigned amid growing criticism over a Newsnight report which wrongly implicated the former Conservative treasurer Lord McAlpine in allegations of child abuse.
Mr Bradshaw said Mr Entwistle, who will be paid a £450,000 pay off, was badly let down. In a BBC News interview Mr Bradshaw said he was also not confident anyone else would have done a better job. Mr Bradshaw said: "I think this is a terrible mistake and I think George Entwistle has been done a real injustice. He's only been in the job...
Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw has led a Parliamentary debate on the proposed introduction of regional pay by the South West Pay Consortium.
The motion reads: That this House believes national pay agreements are an important part of the infrastructure that underpins a national health service; notes the statement by the Deputy Prime Minister ruling out regional pay in the main public services; notes with increasing concern attempts by twenty trusts in the South West of England to opt out of national agreements by reducing staff pay and changing terms and conditions; notes with...
