Markyate Monthly Article, October 2008
Parliamentary Diary
Total UK climbdown over Buncefield
Good news from the Buncefield liability trial. I am delighted that Total UK has withdrawn the ludicrous defence that it is not responsible for damage caused beyond a radius of 451 metres from the depot’s pump pad area.
The only sad part is that it is nearly three years since peoples’ lives devastated by this and they have received no interim payments whatsoever because the oil companies were disputing the case.
The victims deserve to have been treated better and I urge the oil companies to settle the outstanding claims as soon as possible.
Our money’s gone to Iceland
Herts County Council has announced that it has £28million invested in Icelandic banks and the Police Authority has a further £3million. No one is suggesting that Herts or any of the other 100 or so local authorities has acted improperly – all investments were with Government-approved institutions – but whatever the case, the money is at risk and in Parliament last week I called on the government to take quick action.
Every day the councils are losing money they would have earned in interest. This money is already spent or allocated so will have to be made up somehow.
Because of the large number of local authorities involved and large sums of money involved a Minister should have come to the House to tell MPs what they plan to do. People rightly fear that this is going to cost them more in council tax and I have been calling on the government to ensure that taxpayers are not left out of pocket.
Luton Town Football Club
I got the chance to quiz the Sports Minister over the treatment of Luton Town Football Club in the House of Commons last week. I raised my concerns over the extreme penalties (forgive the pun) imposed on Luton Town FC. The club has been landed with a 30-point deduction – 10 points by the Football Association for breaching regulations over agents’ fees and 20 points by the Football League for failing to agree a Company Voluntary Agreement with creditors.
This has put them in the impossible position of starting the season on -30 points. Surely this makes it almost impossible for them to avoid relegation from the league altogether (at time of writing they have clawed this back to -18).
These harsh penalties are particularly frustrating for fans as well as the new management of the club, who have done everything by the book. All the fans want to see is good football. The old management have moved on elsewhere, but the fans stay and have to pay the price as they watch their team fall out of the league – not through bad football but through bureaucratic point deductions.
I don’t believe the FA would have done that to Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester United; they should not be doing it to Luton Town.
