Tag: Daniel Zeichner

Daniel Zeichner Cambridge Labour Questions Government Growth Statistics As Marshall Aerospace Release 200 Staff

08:22 Thursday 14th November 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: Up to 200 jobs are at risk at one of Cambridgeshire’s major employers, but bosses are reassuring staff that there’s unlikely to be more losses than that. Marshall Aerospace Defence Group currently employ around 2,200 people, but now it’s reducing to what it calls normal levels, following an increased workload over the past few years. Here’s Terry Holloway. He’s the Group Support Executive at the company.
(TAPE)
TERRY HOLLOWAY: We would like to hope this is it. One operates in a volatile world. We’ve seen the tragic events in the Philippines, which have had a terrible effect on people working over there. We’ve conducted a review within our company, and this is it. We’re doing it in a one round issue, and of course the other part of it is at Mildenhall. We’ve come to the end of two very successful contracts to build vehicles for the Army, and we announced at the same time today that we’re closing the Mildenhall site, which has been expected. It’s been coming ever since we started our first contract. That developed into a second one, so we lose 39 jobs there.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: That was Terry Holloway, Group Support Executive at Marshall’s. Cambridgeshire’s Labour Parliamentary candidate is Daniel Zeichner. Morning.
DANIEL ZEICHNER: Morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: How much of a blow is this for Cambridge itself?
Continue reading “Daniel Zeichner Cambridge Labour Questions Government Growth Statistics As Marshall Aerospace Release 200 Staff”

A14 Toll Road Not Certain Under Labour

17:07 Monday 23rd September 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: The future of one of our most important road links has been thrown into doubt by the Labour Party. The plan to replace a busy stretch of the A14 through Cambridgeshire with a toll road has been put out to consultation. Many respected organisations have expressed their concerns. Here’s Stephen Joseph from the Campaign For Better Transport.
(TAPE)
STEPHEN JOSEPH: The effects of putting on this toll haven’t been thought through. The evidence from tolls elsewhere, from the M6 toll road, is that actually there’s quite a lot of diversion. People go quite a long way not to pay a toll. So our concern is that the A14 road won’t solve the problems on the A14, and it might make things worse over a much wider area.
(LIVE)
CHRIS MANN: Well now Labour says it could scrap the plan if it wins the next election. MP Maria Eagle the Shadow Transport Secretary has been speaking to BBC Look East’s Andrew Sinclair at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton. And here’s what she had to say.
(TAPE)
MARIA EAGLE: Well I’m concerned about the potential, in a small and densely populated island, of the capacity for people just to go off, increasing congestion on other routes. And so I think that they’ve got to be careful. What they’ve come up with isn’t at all convincing. It’s not convincing that it would be better, or that it would work. And so I think that we would certainly be wanting to have a look at whether or not what they’re proposing is the right way forward.
ANDREW SINCLAIR: Would you go as far as to say you would scrap the toll road if you win the next election?
MARIA EAGLE: Well I think we need to look at how far they’ve got – there are things getting delayed out of the Department for Transport – and let’s see in detail what they’re proposing, and whether or not we think it would work. I think there’s some unconvincing evidence. For example the M6 toll has never made money, and people just use other roads that are nearby. So I think we need to have a close look at whether what they’re proposing will actually do what they say it does, and whether it will work. We will certainly do that.
ANDREW SINCLAIR: Can I just ask you a bit more about this congestion business? Because your concern, from what I gather, is that it will just lead to congestion on other roads. I just wondered if you could explain what your concern is really.
MARIA EAGLE: If we look at what’s happened where we’ve had tolls like the M6 toll, everybody just stayed on the old M6, and they run up onto other roads, many of which aren’t designed for heavy traffic. And so you get displacement, you get more congestion, you get worse air quality. So I think we need to look at whether their proposals would actually work. And I don’t think they’ve been very convincing so far. And so I think we would have a close look at how far they’ve got, what they’re saying, whether or not it would work.
ANDREW SINCLAIR: The Government says it will be a very low toll, about a pound, one pound fifty for every car, the hope being that everyone will want to use the toll.
MARIA EAGLE: The evidence of toll roads, the M6 toll for example, people avoided it. So I think we have to have a look very closely at what they’re proposing, and see whether or not we think it will work. (UNCLEAR) have to do that when we get to the Election. I don’t think that they’re going to have got very far with this by the time we get to the Election. So it will give us an opportunity to have a closer look at what the right way forward is.
ANDREW SINCLAIR: But if a toll road isn’t they way forward, how do you afford the improvements for that road?
MARIA EAGLE: Well look I think we need to have a close look at the entire situation. The thing is they have allocated money for improvements to roads, and new road building. I think we need to do this in the context of the entire programme that they’re proposing, not just deal with a road one at a time. certainly I don’t expect them to have got very far with this, and so that does give an opportunity to have a proper look at the right way forward.
ANDREW SINCLAIR: And so you’re saying that they could easily afford it if they really wanted to.
MARIA EAGLE: No. What I’m saying is I’m not convinced by their proposals, and that I’m perfectly willing to have a proper look at the best way forward for the A14, and some of these ideas more generally, once we get to the Election.
(LIVE)
CHRIS MANN: That’s Maria Eagle, the Shadow Transport Secretary talking to BBC Look East’s Andrew Sinclair. .. Let’s bring in Cambridge’s Labour Party Candidate, that’s Daniel Zeichner, who is live from Brighton at the Party Conference there. Daniel, hello to you.
DANIEL ZEICHNER: Hi Chris.
CHRIS MANN: Let’s try and flesh this out. What exactly is Labour saying? You’d scrap the whole plan, rethink the whole thing?
Continue reading “A14 Toll Road Not Certain Under Labour”

Ed Miliband – Man Of Integrity

17:20 Friday 5th July 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Labour have called in the police over alleged irregularities in the selection of their General Election candidate in Falkirk. Britain’s largest union, Unite, is accused of trying to manipulate the process, a claim it vehemently denies.. An internal Party investigation has already led to two people being suspended. Earlier, Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey said he had no trust in the Labour Party leadership. Conservative party Chairman Grant Shapps says Labour are still in thrall to their trade union paymasters. (AUDIO OF GRANT SHAPPS) . But are the Tories making political capital, or is the Labour Party really at war with its biggest union backer? In a moment or two we’ll be talking to the Labour candidate for Cambridge, who himself is a member of the Unite union. But first of all I spoke to the Labour MEP for the Eastern Region, Richard Howitt. (TAPE)
RICHARD HOWITT: Well I think it’s really great that Ed Miliband has done the (UNCLEAR) and he’s stepped in and he’s said no, I’m not going to be party to anything that isn’t fully above board and fair and open. And he’s suspended two people from the Labour Party and he’ll sort it out. Of course no-one wants these local difficulties in any political party, but the important thing is if they come to light, they’re dealt with. And that’s what Ed Miliband has done.
CHRIS MANN: The police are now involved. Could it get any worse? Continue reading “Ed Miliband – Man Of Integrity”

No News Is Good News – Cambs Agog On A14 Upgrade

17:19 Wednesday 26th June 2013
Drive BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

JULIAN HUPPERT: I think it’s a nationally important road, and it should be funded nationally, because it’s national taxes that will benefit. I don’t think a toll is the right thing to do. We’ll hear tomorrow about the tolling.
CHRIS MANN: Is that a hint that it might not happen?
JULIAN HUPPERT: And and and I think we will have to ..
CHRIS MANN: Oh. It is a hint that it’s not happening.
JULIAN HUPPERT: Wait and see what happens tomorrow.
CHRIS MANN: Ok. Are you in the know Julian?
Continue reading “No News Is Good News – Cambs Agog On A14 Upgrade”

This Blessed Plot

07:25 Monday 24th June 2013
Bigger Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: For decades, when it comes to housing, politicians have only provided short-term fixes, according to our country’s chartered surveyors. They say the UK is at risk of creating another house price problem, (and) that the Government should be aiming to build twice the number of houses than it’s currently aiming for. But is that going to happen? Sean Farrington is from our business unit. Morning Sean.
SEAN FARRINGTON: Morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: We’d all like more houses built, I think. Every council in Cambridgeshire would like to build more houses, but there ain’t the money around.
SEAN FARRINGTON: Well you say we’d all like more houses, but of course if there was all of a sudden a plethora of new houses all across the country, that would mean house prices probably wouldn’t go up as quickly as they might already. And it’s a question that everybody really has to answer themselves. Do you want to see house prices going up? If you own one, do you like the idea of it, but if that means your child can’t afford one, or you’re in the market for one, you don’t really want to see them going up any more. And actually what the chartered surveyors say is that Government policy over decades now has been based around people owning homes. That has helped push prices up. And that is not a healthy way to have a housing market strategy.
PAUL STAINTON: The Government’s announced several housing schemes, part-buy, part-this, part-that. They’re sort of working, aren’t they, in the short term? Continue reading “This Blessed Plot”

Daniel Zeichner On David Cameron’s Costly Garden

07:54 Friday 26th April 2013
Bigger Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: Let’s take a trip into David Cameron’s garden. The current Conservative Party has a fierce reputation for creating a culture of cuts of course, but not apparently when it comes to the garden at Number 10 Downing Street. It emerged yesterday that about £50,000 a year is being spent on maintaining the PM’s Downing Street garden. Alan Soady is the BBC’s Political Reporter. He’s been taking a closer look at the receipt from B&Q. (TAPE)
ALAN SOADY: The half an acre plot behind Number 10 is a perk of the job for Prime Ministers, but looking after it cost taxpayers more than £47,000 last year, and £49,000 the year before. But the Government has defended it, saying even more was spent when Gordon Brown lived there. It’s not the first time David Cameron has faced questions over the cost of pruning his plants. In 2009 he repaid £680 he’d claimed in Parliamentary expenses, partly for the clearing of wisteria from his chimney. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well Cambridge’s Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate is Daniel Zeichner. Morning.
DANIEL ZEICHNER: Morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: So what’s your instant reaction to the fact that we’re spending £50,000 on David Cameron’s pruning and roses and plants and things? Continue reading “Daniel Zeichner On David Cameron’s Costly Garden”