So why are we having a general election? Because we haven’t delivered Brexit? No not entirely, but maybe partly – we as Conservatives were nearly there – but the opposition parties, led by the Labour party, stopped the will of the people after the Referendum in 2016, being enacted.
They have had multiple chances, and have chosen every option and on every occasion to block Brexit – and the Labour MP for Lincoln has voted to deny the Referendum result at every turn in the last two and a half years – despite saying she would uphold the democratic will of around 60% of the people in Lincoln who voted to leave the EU in the 2016 Referendum.
The Conservative government, and then eventually Parliament itself, joined the UK electorate of our country in realising that a general election is the only way through the deadlock that had been created by Labour and the Lib Dems.
I am naturally a positive person, my record in Lincoln as the member of Parliament for seven years proves that. I was told we couldn’t do things – an Eastern Bypass, talked about since 1916, ‘would never happen’ – as everyone can see, it now is. I was told in 2010 that Lincoln would have to ‘suck it up’ and carry on being the only city not connected to our capital by a fast, direct train connection. It took some time but we soon had one train a day to London and back and I fought long and hard to secure six daily trains down to London and back up again were included in the East Coast Franchise as it was drawn up from 2012-2014.
A new Engineering School and more recently a new Medical School at the University of Lincoln, succeeding in assisting Bishop Grosseteste to elevate itself to being a university in its own right, a new bus station costing £11 million from a Conservative Government, ensuring Network Rail paid for two footbridges over our city centre level crossings, and that no 12ft walls were built, nor grey metal box bridges were imposed on our landscape and ‘public realm’ – all achieved when I was told we wouldn’t.
I also ensured our schools, colleges, roads, cathedral, castle, prison, businesses and hospital received much needed funding from central government to enable improvements in the lives for the 70,000 electors and their families who are resident across our constituency of Lincoln.
I had and still have a positive vision for Lincoln and its place in the county of Lincolnshire. This election also offers the opportunity to be positive, and to ‘get Brexit done’ – and most of us who voted to leave, and a fair proportion even of those who voted to remain, tell me that that is what they want too – they want Brexit done and the businesses in Lincoln tell me they need the certainty too – as they make investment decisions and seek to continue to expand and excel at what they do.
Conservatives are the party of pragmatism and also reform and improvement. I offer what my track record shows – I want to see Brexit done and I want to see improvements to the City of Lincoln, to make it an even better place than it already is, whether that is for people who live, work, study or visit our wonderful, beautiful and inspiring city.
Lincoln has an exciting and interesting past, and I believe the same can be said of its future, with a Conservative member of Parliament. If you want to see Brexit done, and you want to see further exciting improvements to our city and county, you just have to compare my positive record ‘putting Lincoln first’ and that of Boris Johnson the Prime Minister, to the negativity and unhappiness of Jeremy Corbyn and his keen supporter Karen Lee.
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