First hour: news review: with LibDem councillor for Knowle Gary Hopkins and Labour member and author Mal Sainsbury - Advertising; Bristol parks; Bristol Cabinet under Mayor Marvin Rees curtailing scrutiny of Future Business; Bristol Arena front man and Merchant Venturer Colin Skellet â The City was stunned when Filton Arena front man Colin Skellett was arrested. But the head of Wessex Water says the seven-figure sum which appeared in his Stoke-on-Trent bank account is not a bribe - YTL, with no experience of the European utility industries and with little understanding of how they were regulated, began to talk about incentives to keep the chief executive on board. Skellett was offered a five-year "lock-in" contract to carry out consultancy work on YTLs business development, not least because the Malaysians wanted to buy more companies in Europe and elsewhere. The lock-in payment, which was around £1m, was - somewhat unusually - made up front. It was in Skelletts bank account by mid to late July but, because there has not been a board meeting since, his fellow directors were unaware of the payment. It was the transfer of funds which apparently did for Skellett, because it was the bank, rather than a corporate whistle-blower, which seems to have tipped off the authorities. Skellett may therefore be a victim of the Governments crackdown on money-laundering and terrorist financing, which forces banks to report any unusual movements of cash in or out of accounts.; homeless and hostels â Universal Credit; John McDonnell speech at Labour Conference â the economy; effects of austerity on society â nationalisation; Bristol Council targeting people in debt; Jeremy Corbyn and anti-Semitism slurs â Norman Finklestein, who wrote The Holocaust Industry, discusses what he thinks of Dame Hodges saying Labour and Corbyn are anti-Semitic; Jeremy Corbynâs speech at Labour Conference â social justice - privatisation and outsourcing failures.
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