WIREDGOV

techUK has responded to the government consultation on future drone regulation and the Home Office considers potential practical uses of drones.

techUK says drones can & will be revolutionary for the UK and should be viewed as part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution alongside other technologies defining our future such as AI/Machine Learning, robotics, autonomous vehicles, cloud services, Blockchain, the Internet Of Things, immersive technologies, biotech and ultrafast connectivity.

A recent report from PwC indicates drones could be worth £42bn to the UK economy by 2030 and we’re seeing more & more enterprises & public sector bodies taking advantage.  They are almost an essential for engineering firms and the user cases are only growing, as can be seen from a conference earlier in the year.

Meanwhile the Home Office comments that a new fleet of robots & drones designed to test for chemical agents, provide 3D mapping and identify casualties have been put through their paces by troops, police officers and scientists for the first time.

Tests of the cutting-edge multi-£m project, co-funded by the MoD and the Home Office, included robots that can ‘read’ & climb stairs and miniature drones weighing less than a bar of soap which could soon come into service to rapidly assess hazardous scenes.

Figures published last week show that ‘routine child vaccinations’ coverage declined for 9 of the 12 routine vaccinations in England compared to the previous year.

Coverage for the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine for children reaching their second birthday fell to 91.2% in England in 2017-18 compared to 91.6% in 2016-17, according to the NHS Digital report, Childhood Vaccination Coverage Statistics.

This is the fourth consecutive year that MMR coverage has decreased.  The World Health Organisation (WHO) target is 95%.  Coverage for this vaccine fell in 6 of the 9 English regions.

The report shows coverage for the 5-in-1 vaccine at 12 months has fallen from 94.7% in 2012-13 to 93.1% in 2017-18.  It is the fifth successive year coverage for the vaccine for diphtheria, whooping cough (pertussis), tetanus, polio and Hib disease has fallen in children aged 12 months.

A BBC survey last week highlighted the various rules councils have for whether households can & cannot recycle certain plastics.

The survey found that there are 39 different rules applied by councils over what plastics can and cannot be recycled.  It shows that 99% of councils will recycle plastic bottles and around 75% will recycle margarine tubs, while only 10% councils will recycle plant pots and around 1% will recycle polystyrene trays – underlining the need for a national scheme as recommended in the UK’s first ever National Infrastructure Assessment.

Social research undertaken for the National Infrastructure Commissions also highlighted how households find this confusing and frustrating.

Students going / returning to university this autumn and renting a home for the first time don’t have to put up with rogue landlords, thanks to government rules.

When things go wrong with rented properties, students have the right to get them fixed – and the government has published How To Rent guides to help out.

Government legislation protects students and their money from rogue landlords & agents. And new laws coming into force on 1 October 2018, around the time when a new term starts, will mean landlords must provide adequate size bedrooms and sufficient rubbish bins.

It seems that virtually all the ‘demands for information now’ are coming from those who wish to stop a successful Brexit, but the mainstream media ought to be asking for ‘answers from Remainers’ as well, such as;

To the SNP;

• If the ScotGov is given powers to administer its own immigration system, how will they compel those immigrants to stay in Scotland and not just move to rUK as soon as they find another job?  

• If they do move ‘south’ despite saying they wouldn’t (and being told they couldn’t  under the terms of entry) who would be responsible for ‘punishing them’ and meeting any financial consequences if they didn’t move back to Scotland or their country of origin?

• How will they be identified so as to facilitate the tracking of ‘agreement breakers’?

• Why should the English taxpayer be expected to pay an increased sum under the Barnett formula because of the increased population in Scotland when the newcomers will be working to increase the Scottish economy?
  Edit. Comnt: By how much should England ‘subsidise’ Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland?
• If there was a successful second Scottish independence referendum would these new workers be compelled to remain in Scotland (and how).
  Open Europe:  What does the MAC report mean for future UK immigration policy?
  PXwelcomes “typically hard-headed and balanced” MAC report  
  Similar schemes have worked before

To ‘Remoaners’;

• Would a second referendum result of ‘Leave’ be binding on all politicians with no if’s but’s & maybe’s?
• Would ‘Remoaner’ politicians in both HoPs support the government negotiations and stop ‘nit-picking’?
• Would they also support the UK government in pointing out that NI is part of the UK and not an independent unit run by the EU?
• Will they also accept that even the EU’s own research showed that ‘technical barrier is a perfectly workable solution for the RoI / NI border ?
  Edit. Comnt.: We know it could work, but we don’t want you to gain your ‘freedom’ to do trade deals or stop having to contribute £bns to the EU!
• Also, why still no mention of why the RoI and NI need a ‘frictionless’ border for trade (Common Travel Area RoI / UK citizens already agreed (Citizens' rights: UK 7 Irish nationals in the Common Travel Area ... ) when 80% of goods carried in Irish registered HGVs between the RoI and Europe pass through Welsh ports?  In 2016, 524,000 lorries passed through major Welsh ports to & from the Irish Republic?
  Are the EU 27 fully prepared for Brexit? ~ Edit, Comnt.; The HoL needs to explain why they haven’t apparently highlighted these points of negotiation in their debates!
• Do you really understand the ultimate legal aspects of what the EU are proposing with the ‘Backstop’ arrangements.  Consider what was not highlighted in the with regard to legal interpretations of the Lisbon Treaty (just one example) until many years later.
  BfB:  The Irish Backstop and UK Sovereignty ~ BfB: A Modest Proposal For the Irish Border by Richard Tuck ~ BfB:  A Border Once Again by Dr Graham Gudgin
• Remember this from earlier this month; On 12 September 2018, on the occasion of his State of the Union Address, President Jean-Claude Juncker said:  "We must improve our ability to speak with one voice when it comes to our foreign policy. This is why today the Commission is proposing to move to qualified majority voting in specific areas of our external relations.  Not in all but in specific areas: human rights issues and civilian missions included.  This is possible on the basis of the current Treaties and I believe the time has come to make use of the passerelle clause which allows us to move to qualified majority voting – the "lost treasure" clause of the Lisbon Treaty."
  Edit. Comnt:.; No comment from Remainers about ‘How & Where’ EU is heading according to the Junker Plan!

To both the SNP and Remoaners;

• Have you really considered the impact on the democratic process of trying to ‘force’ the holding of follow-up referendums just because you didn’t like the result the first time?
  Editorial commentary; How many Referendums does it take to come to a final decision? ~ Edit. Comnt.; Time to return to the Supreme Court? ~ BfB:  Brexit -  pollsters and press play bait & switch by Bob Edwards ~ BfB:  7 reasons why another Brexit referendum is a bad idea by Tom Simpson ~ BfB:  Would a Second Referendum disrespect the First?