Tag: Conservative Party

The press release issued by the Conservative Party on 25 June 2024.

As a result of ongoing internal inquiries, we have concluded that we can no longer support Craig Williams or Laura Saunders as parliamentary candidates at the forthcoming general election.

We have checked with the Gambling Commission that this decision does not compromise the investigation that they are conducting which is rightly independent and ongoing.

The press release issued by the Conservative Party on 13 December 2022.

Well done England on reaching the Quarter-Finals of the World Cup. We’re delighted by and proud of what you have achieved and we’re sad it wasn’t to be this year.

The Conservatives are making major investments in football infrastructure to support our communities now and help the next generation of footie stars flourish, just as you have done.

Funding has been granted for many different projects, including:

Traditional grass pitches. The improvement of grass pitches is a key focus area for the Football Association (FA) in order to improve the consistency of matches across the season and to allow the players a better surface on which to play the game and develop their skills.

3G pitches: Third Generation synthetic surface. 3G pitches are suitable for playing various sports including football, rugby, Gaelic games and lacrosse, so they are very versatile community assets. Being synthetic, 3G pitches can be used all year round and can help reduce demand, and therefore wear and tear, on grass pitches.

Floodlighting. So sport can be played whatever the time of day or season.

Indoors football and Multi-Use-Games-Areas (MUGAs). So that poor weather doesn’t prevent playing opportunities and players have a decent pitch to train on.

Changing rooms. So players have good facilities. Many projects supported focus on provision for female and disabled sportspeople.

Other small capital projects. So players are supported as necessary. Projects supported include pavilion upgrades, pitch maintenance equipment, new goal posts, and security measures like fencing. Where possible, sites in highly deprived areas have been backed.

Funding has been provided across our great United Kingdom:

England

The total Football Foundation Grant awarded was over £51 million; the Grant includes contributions from The Department for Culture, Media and Sports, Sport England, the Premier League and the English Football Association. Projects supported:

52 3G pitches. For example:

£6 million was granted in Barking to support a new site with 3 full size 3G pitches, a gym, and a large social area including a café, in an accessible design – helping address social challenges in a deprived area.

£100k invested in Liverpool (Fazakerley) for 3G pitches – helping boost activity in lower socio-economic communities and to get women and girls to engage with football.

15 grass pitches, a typical project is:

£25k for Accrington Stanley Football In The Community in Hyndburn to make the pitch available for more hours of play and ensure that play time is not affected by bad weather or poor drainage.

29 changing rooms improvements. For example:

£247k for Rastrick Juniors Football Club in Calder Valley so they can build a new pavilion and clubhouse, supporting high growth in the number of teams who can be accommodated by the club.

6 MUGAs. For example:

£183k for Manchester City in the Community to deliver a floodlit MUGA – in a highly deprived area lacking in structured activities for the local community.

13 small capital projects. One such project is:

£25k for Tiffinian Association in Elmbridge to buy pitch maintenance equipment, which will mean the community can use the pitch throughout the year, and there will be hundreds more opportunities to play on a decent and well-maintained surface.

Scotland

£2 million has been provided for 18 projects, including:

£200k for Gala Fairydean Rovers Football Club / Community Trust in the Scottish Borders to resurface the pitch. This will allow the facility to be used by a wide variety of groups including football training and matches, Walking Football for the over 60s, Para Football and children’s soccer.

£150k for Drumchapel United in Glasgow. The Club is a lynchpin of the community, providing much more than just football: food poverty programmes, visiting care facilities in the area, Christmas toy collections, the period poverty campaign, and many other initiatives.

£150k for Buckie Thistle Football Club in Moray. The local school’s 3G pitch is used by the local school as well as the football club. Resurfacing work will ensure that it continues to be used by the school and club, and to ensure it contributes to the social, economic and environmental well-being of the wider community.

Wales

More than £1.3 million has been invested in 17 projects, including:

£33k for Bangor University’s Treborth Playing Fields in Arfon, to upgrade the pavilion and changing rooms, so they are fit for all and provide equal access for female participants. This will grow female participation and allow multiple events whether football, rugby or athletics.

£185k for Llanrumney Community Sports Hub in Cardiff to construct a community multi sports pavilion, with new gender-specific changing rooms. This will help create a more welcoming place to exercise for women in particular, and support the growth of female sports.

£98k for Pontarddulais Town FC in Swansea, to renovate and return to use an old changing room block to include female facilities and allow other community groups to benefit from the extra new space.

Northern Ireland

£700k spent on 26 projects, including:

£30k for Saintford United Football Club in Strangford for a multi-phase development plan to provide a better experience for players and supporters alike and encourage more people to get physically active.

£26k for Belfast Celtic CIC in Ulster for carpark improvements to help disabled people access the pitch. There is a wider project ongoing to upgrade the pitch to 3G and support the women’s game with new dugouts.

£20k for Enniskillen Rangers in County Fermanagh to upgrade the floodlights at their training pitch, so they can open the facility all year round. This project was started as a result of consultation with the local community.

The Conservatives are providing level playing fields across the UK, backing local communities to level up through sport, and giving the sports stars of the future the facilities they need to flourish.

The press release issued by the Conservative Party on 13 February 2001.

Brussels rebukes booming Ireland

Irish rebuke by the European Commission gives valuable ammunition to British opponents of the euro

OPPONENTS of British membership of the euro were given valuable ammunition yesterday when Ireland was “reprimanded” by the European Commission for not doing enough to control inflation and Gordon Brown was ticked off for allowing the British economy to move into the deficit.

The Chancellor made plain that he would take no notice of the Commission’s strictures and continue to increase public investment, while the Irish Finance Minister, Charlie McCreevy, voiced anger at being told to change his plans for the booming Irish economy to prevent it overheating.

Mr Brown called for a “sensible interpretation” of the growth and stability pact that lays down the rules for eurozone countries to keep their budgets broadly in balance.

Countries inside the euro face sanctions if they allow their budget deficits to go beyond 3 per cent of GDP. Those outside can be mildly rebuked.

Francis Maude, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, said the more that was learnt about the euro, the more the reasons to keep the pound mounted up. The Commission should not have the right to tell the Britain what levels of borrowing it should undertake, he said.

The press release issued by the Conservative Party on 19 February 2001.

BYERS: UK FINE WITHOUT EURO

Cabinet member concedes that Britain is thriving outside the single currency

TRADE supremo Stephen Byers yesterday performed an incredible U-turn on the single currency.

Mr Byers – the Cabinet’s euro cheerleader – admitted it will be virtually impossible to persuade voters to ditch the Pound because it would jeopardise the economy.

And for the first time, the Trade Secretary declared there is no end in sight to the record number of foreign firms rushing to set up shop in Britain.

His change of heart shows the massive doubts at the highest level of government over the crucial issue of signing up to the euro.

And it is a bitter blow to pro-euro campaigners but a clear sign Tony Blair wants to kill off discussion about the Pound’s future in the run-up to the election.

Mr Byers had warned that £51billion-a-year of foreign investment in Britain would dry up and millions of jobs would be at risk unless we scrapped the Pound.

But yesterday Mr Byers said: “It is a great irony that in terms of convincing the British people to join the single currency, one of the problems is the success of our economy.

“Because people will say we are the fourth biggest economy in the world, inflation is down at 1.8 per cent, interest rates are coming down, unemployment is down to the lowest it has been for 25 years. And people will say, ‘Are you going to put all that at risk by joining the single currency?’”

He added: “I think it will be a hard campaign – if there is a campaign – when the tests are met, to persuade people joining the single currency is going to be in the long-term interests of our country.

“I genuinely can’t see any sign of inward investment dropping off because of Britain not being in the euro. How long that will last for, I don’t know.”

The press release issued by the Conservative Party on 24 November 2000.

56,000 WEIGH IN WITH `KEEP THE POUND’ CALL

Conservative MP Richard Shepherd today presented a Keep the Pound petition signed by a massive 56,286 people to the Commons

The petition, carried into the chamber in boxes marked Keep the Pound, urges the Government to listen to the people and retain Britain’s currency.

We the people are being led into a federal state which we do not wish to be part of. We wish to remain an independent sovereign state with the economy run for the benefit of our own citizens,” the petition said.

Mr Shepherd (Aldridge Brownhills) said: “The petition has been gathered and signed by people supporting all the political parties and those supporting none.

It is a genuine expression from across the West Midlands of deep concern for democracy and our control over the economy. It expresses a sense of country.”

The press release issued by the Conservative Party on 29 November 2000.

Eddie George warns of dropping £.

The euro would mean a return to the dark days of the 70s, warns Bank of England boss Sir Eddie George.

Workers face being thrown back to the dark days of the ’70s if Tony Blair dumps the Pound, Britain’s leading moneyman suggested yesterday.

Bank of England boss Sir Eddie George warned there could be tough rules on wage rises and higher taxes as the Government battled the inflation caused by a switch to the euro.

Experts said it would be just like the depressed ’70s when Britain was the sick man of Europe.

Then, the Government had to introduce rules to keep WAGES down as inflation soared to 26 per cent.

There was a year-long waiting list for MORTGAGES and HOLIDAYMAKERS were only allowed to take £50 out of the country.

Even getting a LOAN for a car, like the popular Ford Capri, became a problem due to restraints.

Unemployment rose to more than a million for the first time since the 1940s.

The crisis was fuelled by outrageous pay demands from hardline union bosses.

Britain ended up on a three-day week, there were picket lines and power cuts.

Then in 1976, Labour Chancellor Denis Healey went cap in hand for a loan of $2.3billion to the IMF to avoid bankruptcy.

Sir Eddie, giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, said that once Britain joined the euro “the techniques for influencing domestic inflation would have to look more to fiscal rather than monetary policy.”

He said that would bring about a “need to control inflation.”

His remarks are the clearest sign yet that he believes the euro zone’s one-size-fits-all economy – where interest rates are set for 11 countries by bankers in Frankfurt – would be a disaster for Britain.

Andrew Haldenby, of Business for Sterling, said: “In a few crisp sentences Eddie George has summed up the entire case against joining the euro.

“Giving up control of interest rates, the central lever of economic management, would take us back to 1970s-style tax rates and pay policies.

“If we had joined at the start, Britain would now be suffering a job-destroying inflationary boom.”

And Shadow Chancellor Michael Portillo said: “If we joined the euro, Britain would be forced into adopting these failed policies that produced boom and bust in the 1970s.”

Ireland has already been forced to strike a three-year wage restraint deal with unions after joining the euro. The country has seen its inflation rocket to a 15-year high of 6.8 per cent since it signed up.

Sir Eddie recently blew a hole in the PM’s drive to ditch sterling when he insisted Britain MUST keep the Pound. He told world bankers the UK is thriving and the Pound’s future is a purely political issue.

Mr Blair says the decision to join the euro will only be based on economics. This week a poll showed a record 71 per cent of Britons want to keep sterling.

The press release issued by the Conservative Party on 30 November 2000.

Foreign Firms Flocking to Britain

New report shows Britain is no.1 for overseas investment – proving we can thrive outside the euro.

The latest research from leading business information group Dun and Bradstreet concludes that 28,777 foreign-owned companies are doing business in Britain compared to 23,300 in 1998. The report knocks Tony Blair’s warnings that we risk our economy unless we ditch the £.

The number of French firms doing business in Britain rocketed by a third and Dutch business rose by a quarter.

Investment in Britain from Holland, France and Germany has shot up since they joined the euro 18 months ago as high taxes and red tape cripple businesses. American firms make up the biggest slice of foreign input, followed by Holland, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, Australia and Canada.

This report comes only 2 days after Honda decided to double car production at Swindon. Last year outside companies ploughed £252.2 billion into Britain – up from £204 billion in 1998.

This trend is echoed by finance experts who predict that Denmark’s economy will be boosted by a No vote in next month’s euro referendum.