The readership and commentators on The Lincolnite website were quick to castigate Lincoln’s Labour MP, who has done everything she can since being elected to stop us leaving the EU, when she quickly submitted a column yesterday to try and justify her latest actions in the House of Commons to stop us leaving the EU.
I was very active for the leave Campaign in 2016, and for many years before the Referendum. On the opposite side of the campaign was Karen Lee and her acolytes campaigning to Remain. Whilst Lincoln was a slightly smaller majority to Leave than many other constituencies across Lincolnshire, the c.60% of people who voted to Leave in the Lincoln constituency sent a strong democratic message: ‘to Leave’, to both myself and Karen Lee (who left the Count in 2016 within an hour along with all her Labour supporters, once they saw the level they had lost by).
Like many involved in politics, I do not have any ill-will towards those that disagree with me – I don’t even think they are bad people – I just agree to have a different opinion on an issue and move on. I respect everyone’s opinion, even those I vehemently disagree with. In politics you have to be pragmatic in order to get things done. The ongoing refusal to accept the Referendum result has not been the finest hour for those who have refused to allow us to leave the EU, and who we elect to represent us.
Since that night in 2016, Karen Lee, on may occasions – including in a video interview with The Lincolnite (which many have seen and continue to watch) – claimed and said that she accepted the Referendum result and would abide by the decision of Lincoln (and UK) voters. That is clearly and demonstrably a lie, and she has tied-in her recent justification for voting against the deal and defeating the ‘programme motion’ in Parliament yesterday as it was because the Government was giving insufficient time for MPs to scrutinise the legislation. However, any Labour figure making this claim needs to explain why, if their colleagues were so keen on scrutinising the Bill yesterday, a full three quarters of an hour before the debate came to a conclusion, there were no further Labour MPs wanting to speak in the debate, meaning the final backbench contributions were a series of speeches from Conservative MPs? A paper tiger and a tissue of lies as ever from Miss Lee, especially as in the past three and a half years over 500 hours has been spent ‘talking’ about Brexit in the House of Commons.
Earlier today, Labour Leave’s Brendan Chilton had a warning for those in the Labour Party still pursuing the ambition of UK membership of an EU customs union post-Brexit. He cites a number of reasons on the BrexitCentral website as to why it would be a bad policy per se, but goes on to point out – and Karen Lee and some of her former city council colleagues would do well to take heed:
“In order to win the next general election, Labour must win seats from all parties, but the bulk of those seats we need to win voted Leave by a very significant margin. Seeking to maintain British membership of the customs union would not ensure Labour is able to gain the support of those voters when the election comes. If Labour MPs continue to support amendments that seek to hinder the progress of Brexit or water it down, we will face the consequences at the ballot box from an already angry public.”
The Prime Minister and the Conservative Party are very clear. Last night, MPs backed our new deal (which is the only deal that have secured a majority in Parliament) which could have guaranteed we would have Brexit done on October 31. But once again, Labour voted for more dither and pointless delay. Ordinary people, from across society, including business owners and leaders, are exasperated – they want Brexit done, and wish for our country to move on and for Parliament to move on too.
The Prime Minister and his colleagues in the Conservative Government have done what many said he could not; we have renegotiated a great new deal which allows us to leave the EU without disruption and has now won the support of the House of Commons. But because Labour and the Liberal Democrats failed to back our timetable to have Brexit done on October 31, we now face further uncertainty as a country and the EU must now make up their minds over how to answer Parliament’s request for a delay – our policy remains we should not delay, and we should leave the EU on October 31.
As a result, we are taking the only responsible course of action and accelerating our preparations for a no deal outcome. Only by getting Brexit done can we address the issues that matter to people and move on with delivering the brighter future all residents of Lincoln and the country deserve.
And if there is to be a General Election, I am ready for one.
Karl McCartney was the Conservative Lincoln MP between 2010 and 2017. He is now the Conservative candidate for the city for the next general elections.
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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