Archive 21
UkTabloid
The People's News Portal
Sunday 23rd August 2009
Labour's War on Crime! Eh?
Teenage muggers and burglars can escape jail by carrying out as little as ten minutes of community service a week, it has emerged.
Courts are being encouraged to hand young criminals so-called 'referral orders' as an alternative to custody. The community work is seen as 'reparation' for their offending.
But the statutory guidance on the use of referral orders, issued by Justice Secretary Jack Straw and Children's Secretary Ed Balls, reveals this could constitute as little as ten minutes of work a week.
According to the documents, this happens if a three-hour reparation order is spread over a period of four months.
The guidance also reveals that the details of the young criminal's punishment must be 'negotiated', not imposed
Some of the 'interventions' suggested by ministers may include 'sport', 'leisure programmes' or even 'a requirement to attend school'.
Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'The public will be shocked to learn that ministers are suggesting young offenders get as little as ten minutes of community service a week.
'Young offenders need help to steer them away from crime, but a few minutes of community service each week and more time on leisure activities is sending offenders the wrong message and will do little to reduce re-offending.'
Referral orders are a form of community punishment in which the court refers a young offender who pleads guilty to a youth offending panel.
The panel is composed of one person from the youth offending team and two community volunteers. The panel is responsible for formulating a contract with the offender which must include elements of 'reparation' and 'intervention' to address re-offending.
The guidance says that 'contracts should be negotiated with the young people, not imposed on them'. If the young offender does not agree a contract, the case can be referred back to the court for re-sentencing.
The orders are normally suitable for first-time offenders as an alternative to custody.
But some youngsters with previous convictions could still qualify. The note says 'in exceptional circumstances, on the recommendation of the youth offending team, where the offender has previously been referred, the offender may receive a second referral order'.
The orders last for between three and twelve months, depending on the seriousness of the offence.
Incredibly, a yob who commits a crime while serving an order could simply have the term extended.
The guidance note says: 'If during the period of the referral order a young offender is convicted of another offence, the court may sentence by way of an extension to the existing referral order.'
It comes at a time of mounting concern over levels of teenage crime. The number of offences committed by youngsters aged ten to 17 in the past year was 277,986 - more than one every two minutes.
A report from the Youth Justice Board said that robberies committed by youngsters surged by 29 per cent over three years to 6,669 last year. The 2008 figure included more than 30 carried out by children aged just ten.
Offences of violence against the person surged by a fifth from 44,988 to 53,930, while drug crime and criminal damage were both up by 12 per cent.
But despite these increases the use of custody fell from 6,862 cases four years ago to 6,853 last year.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: 'This is a unique sentence as its terms are decided by representatives of the local community and it is based on a restorative justice approach proven to be effective for young people.
'Offenders are monitored and if they break the terms of the contract more severe terms will be imposed.' News Source
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Just What has the UK Become under years of Marxist Rule?
A very Depraved, Sick and violent society!
A girl of five who is battling cancer is recovering today after two boys sprayed an aerosol in her face and tried to set her alight.
Scarlett Hellewell had to be rescued by neighbours when the boys pinned her down and sprayed the deodorant in her face in Halifax, West Yorks. She escaped with just bruises after the deodorant failed to ignite.
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: 'It is reported the girl was playing when she was approached by two young boys who kicked and punched her before spraying an aerosol in her face and attempting to set her alight. The match did not ignite.' The two young boys, believed to be only 10 and seven, ran off when someone came to Scarlett's help on Tuesday evening. Scarlett's mother Paula, 38, a home support worker, said she was hoping to move away from the estate where they live.
She told the Yorkshire Post: 'The sooner we move from here the better. 'I was disgusted when I heard what these boys had done, though this is not the first time they have attacked her.
'Scarlett's brain tumour is getting bigger and this was the last thing we needed to happen.' Neighbour Adele Brearley, 30, told the Yorkshire Post: 'Scarlett was really upset and her eyes were sore where they had sprayed deodorant. 'If they had managed to light the matches it would have been a lot worse.' Scarlett is suffering from a tumour which has left her blind in one eye and with marginal sight in the other.
Earlier this month the youngster revealed that she and her siblings are selling off their toys to pay for a family holiday before she goes blind.
Scarlett and brother Nathan, 19, Kai, eight, Finlay, six, and sister Hollie, 16, have put their favourite teddy bears, bikes, go-karts, rugby balls, even a Ben-10 pencil case for auction online. 'I want to play on a sunny beach and splash in the sea,' she told the Metro. 'I am selling my bunny rabbit bag and hope to get a pound for it and my doggie that the teacher gave me. I want to raise £2.60 for him.'
Scarlett was born with neurofibromatosis, which normally lies dormant until adult life, but it has struck early.
It causes numerous tumours to grow and one had formed in her brain, affecting her sight and her growth, so although she is only four, she is the size of an eight-year-old. The youngster is currently undergoing chemotherapy and her family hope that she will be well enough to travel if they raise enough money. News Source
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Many Lloyds TSB customers are being hit with charges of up to £200 a month if they go into the red - while Muslims who use the bank are only being charged £15.
The part-nationalised bank has been accused of religious discrimination over the disparity between overdraft charges on its standard current account and its Islamic account.
The Islamic account was set up by the high street bank to attract Muslim customers by allowing them to keep faithful to their religion.
Sharia law does not permit the payment of interest so the 'typical' Islamic account at Lloyds TSB has been set up without an overdraft facility.
If a Muslim customer who has insufficient funds in the account tries to make a payment, it is blocked and a 'return item fee' is charged.
However, on some Islamic accounts such a payment is authorised and an 'unplanned overdraft fee' of £15 is then levied.
The bank says this is a management fee, not a payment of interest, so does not contradict Sharia law.
Meanwhile, customers with standard current accounts who go into the red by at least £100 without authorisation are hit with an 'unplanned overdraft fee' of £20 a day for a maximum of ten days. This could mean a customer has to pay £200 in one month.
The Islamic account is available to all customers at Lloyds TSB. In theory, anyone who does not need a permanent overdraft facility could switch to this account to avoid being hit by interest charges for going into the red.
The disparity between the two accounts emerged after the bank sent its customers a booklet this month explaining its charges.
Graham Milne, a customer and chartered accountant from Norham, Northumberland, said difference in fees was tantamount to 'religious discrimination'.
He added: 'This means that all the non-Islamic account holders are subsidising those with such an account. It strikes me as something which is bordering on illegal.
'One cannot help feeling the organisation is bending over backwards to help Muslims to the detriment of everybody else.
'The man in the street would say this is a form of theft. Whether you call it a management fee or an interest fee, it makes no odds because they mean the same thing.'
In the past few years, millions of customers at all the major high street banks have demanded the return of money which has been taken from their account in various forms of bank charges.
Many got their money, or the majority of it, back. A test case - designed to rule if such charges are illegal - is going through the House of Lords.
Until it is resolved, the subject continues to remain hotly contested.
A Lloyds TSB spokesman said: 'The Islamic current account is for customers who cannot receive credit or debit interest due to their religious beliefs.
'All of our Islamic accounts comply with Islamic law and are available to anyone regardless of background or faith.
'These accounts are structured differently to our traditional accounts and are designed to help prevent a customer slipping into the red. A comparison with the overdraft charging structure on other accounts is meaningless.'
Earlier this month, it emerged that losses at Lloyds had escalated to £13.4billion - largely due to the reckless lending of Halifax Bank of Scotland, which it bought for £9.6billion in January.
The disastrous merger led to a £17billion taxpayer bail-out. The newly-formed Lloyds Banking Group is 43 per cent owned by the taxpayer. News Source
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The release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi was linked to trade deals with Britain, Seif al-Islam, the son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, said in a interview.
Megrahi, who has always maintained his innocence, said separately in an interview with The Times he would produce evidence showing that he suffered a miscarriage of justice.
"In all commercial contracts, for oil and gas with Britain, (Megrahi) was always on the negotiating table," said Islam, interviewed late Thursday as he accompanied Megrahi on the flight back from Scotland to Libya.
"All British interests were linked to the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi," Islam said in an interview broadcast by Libyan TV channel Al Mutawassit on Friday.
Megrahi is the only person convicted for the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people in the air and on the ground in the Scottish town of Lockerbie.
Sentenced to life in prison in 2001, Scottish authorities released Megrahi Thursday on compassionate grounds as doctors treating the 57-year-old for prostate cancer said he had no more than three months to live.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Downing Street office firmly denied that Megrahi's release was linked to Britain's interest in Libya's oil and gas reserves.
"There is no deal," a spokesman told AFP.
"The position remains the same as we have been making clear: this has always been a matter for the Scottish executive and ministers," he added.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office also rejected the allegations.
"No deal has been made between the UK government and Libya in relation to Megrahi and any commercial interests in the country," a spokesman said.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Friday angrily refuted suggestions that the British government wanted Megrahi freed so that commercial relations with oil-rich Libya could be improved.
"I really reject that entirely," he said. "That is a slur both on myself and the government."
Speculation that there had been some form of agreement was fuelled by the disclosure that Britain's Business Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson met Seif al-Islam during his recent holiday on the Greek island of Corfu.
Islam said Megrahi's case was raised each time former prime minister Tony Blair visited Libya.
Tony Blair last visited Libya as prime minister in May 2007, when British energy giant BP signed a 900 million dollar exploration deal.
Washington has strongly objected to Megrahi's release.
US President Barack Obama called the red-carpet reception Megrahi received in Tripoli, where hundreds of flag-waving well-wishers cheered his arrival, "highly objectionable" and said Libya should keep him under house arrest.
Islam called Megrahi's release a "victory that we offer to all Libyans."
Megrahi said: "I never imagined that I would one day be able to return to Libya," in a brief interview with Al Mutawassit recorded during his flight to Tripoli.
"I have waited a long time for this moment. One can only thank God," he said.
In an interview with the The Times conducted at his family home in Tripoli, Megrahi denied suggestions he had pressured by Scottish or British authorities into dropping an appeal against his conviction, afraid that it would expose a miscarriage of justice.
"If there is justice in the UK I would be acquitted or the verdict would be quashed because it was unsafe. There was a miscarriage of justice," Megrahi was quoted as saying.
The Times said Megrahi promised that before he died, he would present new evidence through his Scottish lawyers that would exonerate him.
"My message to the British and Scottish communities is that I will put out the evidence and ask them to be the jury," he said, refusing to elaborate. News Source
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The British Government has come under mounting pressure to explain its role in the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Al Megrahi, amid claims it was linked to a lucrative trade deal.
Opposition parties said that ministers had "serious questions" to answer after Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, claimed that the decision to free Megrahi was tied to a trade agreement.
The Foreign Office issued a strongly worded statement insisting there was no such deal and that Megrahi's release was purely a matter for the Scottish government.
However Libyan television showed pictures on Saturday of Col Gaddafi himself meeting Megrahi and praising "my friend" Gordon Brown and the British Government for their part in securing his freedom.
He said: "To my friends in Scotland, the Scottish National Party, and Scottish prime minister, and the foreign secretary, I praise their courage for having proved their independence in decision making despite the unacceptable and unreasonable measures that they faced.
"Nevertheless they took this courageously right and humanitarian decision.
"And I say to my friend Brown, the Prime Minister of Britain, his Government, the Queen of Britain, Elizabeth, and Prince Andrew, who all contributed to encouraging the Scottish government to take this historic and courageous decision, despite the obstacles."
Shadow Foreign Minister David Lidington said it was essential Mr Brown now answered the questions put to him by Tory leader David Cameron as to whether British ministers had at any time suggested or requested that Megrahi should be released or transferred to a Libyan jail. Continued
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The war in Afghanistan is descending into a bloody farce.
Our brave troops are being pulled ever deeper into a barbaric tribal conflict that has absolutely nothing to do with Britain. Deprived of equipment, numbers and leadership, they have been grievously betrayed by a Labour Party which treats them as odder for its globalist ideology.
Ministers in charge of the campaign have been both incompetent and deceitful. Not only have they systematically failed to provide sufficient resources for the fight but they have also lied to the public on an epic scale.
Their rhetoric about the importance of the war in fighting terrorism within Britain has been hollow propaganda while their endless boasts about military progress have been continually defied by the mounting death toll.
Within the army there is now real and justified anger at the Government, with a growing number of senior officers privately calling for the resignation of Bob Ainsworth, the woefully inept Defence Secretary who is patently out of his depth. If he had one ounce of integrity he would resign.
This week the ill-conceived operation has plunged to new levels of folly as the Afghan people go to the polls to elect their president. In theory today's election should represent a triumph for Western liberal values, the beacon of democracy shining in a land once under the totalitarian darkness of rule by fundamentalist Islam.
IN practice this hopelessly flawed contest only exposes the failure of the British and American mission.
Oppression of women is as strong as ever. Fearful of the brutal patriarchs only 38 per cent of Afghanistan's female population has registered to vote and an even smaller number is expected to turn up.
Corruption is rife with voting papers openly on sale. The influence of tribal warlords is as strong as ever. Contrary to the upbeat noises from Labour the Taliban still controls large parts of the country.
So serious is the threat of violence that coalition forces have been instructed not to attend the polling stations for fear of acting as a magnet for terrorist attacks, an order that makes a mockery of the West's promise to uphold security.
The favourite to win the election is incumbent president Hamid Karzai, who won the Afghanistan presidency in 2004.
Initially he was hailed across the world as the hero of a new democratic age for the liberated country. But he has turned out to be a disaster.
His only real success has been in expanding the wealth of his extended family and supporters, many of whom are believed to have earned a fortune from bribes and the drug trade. Instead of challenging the Afghan warlords he has reached dirty deals with them in his determination to cling on to office.
But by far the most sinister aspect of his rule has been the return to the brutal subjugation of women that so notoriously characterised the Taliban.
In an attempt to win back radical Muslims, Karzai recently signed a law which effectively legalises rape within marriage, allows a husband to starve his wife if she refuses him sex, lets rapists pay to avoid being rosecuted and requires women to seek permission from their husbands before they look for work.
So this is what our courageous young men are dying for: the right of Afghan men to rape.
All the excited talk of women's freedom turns out to have been bluster. In effect British soldiers are sacrificing their lives to prop up a corrupt Afghan government that glories in superstitious, primitive savagery. It is impossible to imagine a more shameful use of British troops. They joined the armed forces to defend our country, not keep a discredited, Islamic regime in power.
We should bring home all our services personnel immediately.
President Karzai should be left to sink in his quagmire of foul corruption. But there is no sign of such a move. The Government continues to trumpet its commitment to this pointless war.Indeed, in true Labour style politicians are smearin g those who dare to question their handling of the operation.
Outgoing head of the British army General Sir Richard Dannatt has been subjected to clandestine whispers about his entertainment allowance, denigration that has arisen from his willingness to challenge the Government's reluctance to provide enough troops and equipment.
The plotting against Dannatt, which had not a shred of credibility, is another black mark in this shabby saga. Yet it is regrettable that more of the top brass have not followed Dannatt's example in standin g up to the Government.
Far too many of our military leaders have behaved like Labour politicians, veering wildly between unrealistic optimism about the long term while failing to act in the short term.
Incoming head of the army General Sir David Richards is typical, proclaiming that Britain would have to remain in Afghanistan for the next 40 years. He should look after the immediate needs of his men, not indulge in such ridiculous projections.
The Afghan war amounts to a vast exercise in perfidy. Our national interests, our troops and the promise to fight oppression have been betrayed. It is time to end the nightmare. News Source
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EU agriculture subsidies worth billions of pounds under the CAP are being paid out to businesses and multinational corporations with little connection to traditional farming.
New information gathered by the researchers Farmsubsidy.org since May this year has shown that over 13 billion euros (£11 billion) - about a quarter of the £47.5 billion spent under the EU's Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), is paid to big business and industry, not farmers.
The CAP consumes 42 per cent of the EU's budget at a annual cost to every citizen of £95, a bill of £380 a year for the average British family.
Ligabue, an Italian caterer, serving luxury cruise ships and airlines, received 148,000 euros of export subsidies in 2008 for the dairy and creamer sachets consumed by international travellers.
Haribo qualified for 332,000 euros in farming subsidies for the sugar used in its "gummy bears" produced in Germany.
In France, the EU country that benefits the most from farm subsidies, over 103 million euros every year boosts the profits of sugar manufacturers - companies that do not own any farms.
Groupe Doux, a French chicken processor, raises no poultry itself but pocketed 62.8 million euros.
In Britain, Tate & Lyle Europe benefited from the taxpayer to the tune of 134 million euros in 2007.
Arids Roma, a Spanish construction company, received 1.59 million euros for road-making materials under EU rural development budgets that are a growing part of the CAP.
Another Spanish construction company, Pasquina, also benefited for EU farm cash, getting1.13 million euros for an asphalt factory.
A report from the European Court of Auditors last December found that serious problems existed in the accounting for EU rural development projects worth £10 billion a year.
The data gathered by the campaign group Farmsubsidy.org has also found a significant shift in agriculture subsidies away from farmers to some of Europe's richest landowners, including the Royal family and the Roman Catholic Church.
The Queen and other European royals, as well as aristocrats, including the Duke of Westminster, have also shared in the payments.
The Queen qualified for £473,500 in farm aid in 2008 for Sandringham Farms, her 20,000-acre retreat and home to four generations of British monarchs since 1862.
The Duke of Westminster, Britain's third richest person with a fortune estimated at £6.5 billion, benefited from a public EU subsidy of £486,534. His Polish dairy businesses, Top Farms, benefited by more than 8 million euros in subsidies from 2006 to 2007.
Jack Thurston, a founder of Farmsubsidy.org, said that for the first time this year the EU's 27 governments have provided varying degrees of information on the beneficiaries of farm cash payments.
He is critical of the European Commission of failing to compile complicated and patchy data to give the public a clearer picture of how money is spent.
"The idea of publishing is that European people can have the information so debate about CAP and how it spends money is well-informed," he said. News Source
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A coalition of left-wing parties in Germany’s parliament have ridden roughshod over the conservative Christian Social Union’s attempts to have additional brakes put on the Lisbon Treaty following a Constitutional Court decision earlier this year.
The German Court ruled that the Bundestag needed to protect Germany’s rights more before the Lisbon Treaty could be ratified. The CSU, which is the Bavarian ally of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Chancellor Angel Merkel, demanded a further 14 concessions in the legislation.
The CSU demands included the right to hold national referenda on major EU decisions and the addition of a clause stating that the Lisbon Treaty would only be valid according to the German Constitutional Court’s interpretation of it.
The most likely result of the inclusion of a referendum clause would have been a popular vote on Turkey joining the EU. Opinion polls indicate that this would be defeated in Germany and the liberal parties therefore wished to avoid giving the German people the chance to vote on the issue.
The coalition of Social Democrats, the CDU, the Free Democrats and the Greens refused to support the CSU’s proposals and they were swept from the board, with Matthias Groote, a Social Democrat member of the European Parliament gloating that “We have made clear to eurosceptics that they stand no chance.”
It is not all bad news: in terms of the legislation upon which the parties have agreed which conforms to the court ruling, the Bundestag will be given a greater role in Brussels decision-making than before.
The new law also states that the Bundestag must approve any decision that would shift responsibility to the EU in any new policy area.
The position of German cities and municipalities with regards to Brussels has been strengthened and the government is now obliged to inform the Bundestag about negotiations on global trade agreements at the World Trade Organization.
CSU spokesman Hartmut Koschyk said his party didn’t “feel like we’re the losers. All in all, we are strengthening the Bundestag’s rights.”
The legislation is expected to be put before a vote in the Bundestag in late August or early September. News Source
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The inconvenient but obvious truth is that community sentences do not protect the public as effectively as prison does.
In an interview last week, Phil Wheatley, the head of the Probation Service, accepted something that his predecessors have been reluctant to admit: criminals on community sentences commit further crimes.
A statement of the bleeding obvious, you may say: "community sentences" involve keeping criminals out of prison and leaving them in their own homes. The "punishment" part involves varying amounts of unpaid work and visits to probation officers, both of which leave those on community sentences with plenty of free time to commit crimes – so, of course, some of them do so.
The reason why officials and ministers have tried to deny the obvious is that to recognise it exposes the inconvenient truth that community sentences do not protect the public as effectively as prison does. A criminal who is in prison cannot commit offences against members of the public while he is serving his time; but a criminal on a community sentence obviously can. That's why the justification for community sentences has to be that they are much more effective than prison at reducing reoffending. If those who get community sentences reoffend at about the same rate as those released from prison, community sentences won't cut crime: they will help to increase it.
Unfortunately, the evidence for their reforming power is not encouraging. A study of "community justice initiatives" published last month concluded that those who passed through the system were just as likely to reoffend as those who do not. An evaluation of all existing research on reforming persistent offenders found that the only approach that had any significant chance of making a difference to persistent offenders' behaviour was putting them through drug rehabilitation programmes, either in prison or outside it. The same survey found that other techniques – for example, unpaid work or meetings with probation officers – didn't have any significant benefits.
Having recognised that probation often has no effect, Mr Wheatley concludes that the courts should stop sending so many criminals to the Probation Service, and fine them instead – because "community sentences involve the Probation Service doing things with people".
Well, yes – but not very many things. As The Daily Telegraph reported yesterday, young offenders given a sentence of three to four months' "community supervision" will be required to do just over 10 minutes of unpaid work a week. How much rehabilitation can possibly be achieved in less than a quarter of an hour? About as much as can be expected from 10 minutes a week with a probation officer – which is all that many of the convicted criminals on community sentences get.
For those sentences to have a chance of being effective, they have to involve very intensive supervision. But intensive supervision is very expensive, and ministers advocate community sentences only because they are under the delusion that they are a cheap option. "Cheap" is relative: the budget for the Probation Service was almost a billion pounds last year. The service recently acquired a new headquarters, and underwent a major reorganisation, at a cost of another billion – which, for comparison, is more than 50 times the amount spent on drug rehabilitation programmes.
So, we have ended up with the worst of both worlds: convicted criminals living in the community, and taxpayers charged for an expensive probation system that does next to nothing to improve criminal behaviour. Given the dire state of the public finances, perhaps the cheapest option is the only one available. But ministers should stop trying to fool us into believing that community sentences cut crime. They don't. Ministers only endorse them because they cost a lot less than prison. The result is that we don't get justice, but they pretend we do. And no one benefits – except, of course, the criminals. News Source
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Healthy people with mild symptoms of swine flu need not be given Tamiflu, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said, appearing to call into question how the drugs are given out in this country.
Most people will make a full recovery in a week without the drug, according to the WHO.
The advice appears to contradict the approach taken by the National Pandemic Flu Service to give the drug to all those complaining of flu-like illnesses, regardless of the severity of their condition.
However, the WHO does recommend that patients whose symptoms are severe or whose condition starts to deteriorate should receive the anti-viral drugs.
The medication should also be given as soon as possible to children and adults with underlying health problems and pregnant women.
Tens of thousands of courses of Tamiflu, also called oseltamivir, have been given out to patients complaining of the flu, 135,000 in the last two weeks alone.
The drugs can cause side effects, including vomiting and nightmares in children.
Researchers from Oxford University warned earlier this month that children with mild symptoms of the virus should not be given Tamiflu because its harms outweighed the benefits.
Experts have also expressed concern that overuse of the drugs could encourage the H1N1 virus to become immune to their effects.
The latest WHO advice, from a panel of international experts, did find that Tamiflu can reduce the risk of developing pneumonia and the number of patients hospitalised.
The advice states: “Healthy patients with uncomplicated illness need not be treated with antivirals.”
However, the WHO also warns that underlying health conditions do not always predict which patients will be the most seriously affected by the virus.
Worldwide around four in 10 of severe cases now occur in “previously healthy children and adults, usually under the age of 50 years”, it warned.
Some patients experience a sudden and very rapid deterioration usually on day five or six of symptoms, it added.
Doctors and patients should be aware of warning signs that the illness is becoming more severe, including difficulty breathing, turning blue, chest pain and high fever and use Tamiflu.
All children under five should also receive the drug, it warns, as they are at increased risk of more severe illness.
The Government insisted it was following a “safety first approach”.
A spokesman said: “The WHO recommendations are in fact in line with UK policy on antivirals.
"We have consistently said that many people with swine flu only get mild symptoms, and they may find bed rest and over-the-counter flu remedies work for them.”
A new study suggests that most patients hospitalised with the virus do not actually have swine flu.
Only two of 28 patients in one ward dedicated to the H1N1 virus actually had the disease.
Other patients were found to have illnesses ranging from meningitis to tonsillitis.
The study looked at one ward in the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.
Figures released this week suggest that just one in ten people in England who contacted the Pandemic Flu Service or their GP over the previous seven days actually had swine flu. News Source
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A simple thing. Another blood test, some more investigations into whatever flawed gene or missing protein might be the cause of my daughter's troubled life, with her terrible seizures, her blindness, her inability to walk or talk or eat unaided.
Over the past 15 years, there have been many such attempts to identify her condition. One year later, we asked the doctor, a top geneticist at one of the world's most famous hospitals, what had happened to the results.
His office told us a rambling story about financial restrictions and the need to send such tests to a laboratory in Germany. They said there was little he could do, but promised to pursue our case.
It was a bare-faced lie. The precious vial of blood had been dumped in storage and forgotten. The following day it was dispatched to a laboratory in Wales and 40 days later the specialists came up trumps. They identified her condition, an obscure genetic mutation called CDKL5.
The breakthrough was rather mind-blowing, giving us some peace of mind and the chance to talk to families of the hundred or so other children worldwide identified with the condition.
It was also life-changing, since it means our other child and close relatives are in no danger of passing on the condition. Indeed, had we known sooner we might have even tried for more children.
But the most shocking thing was not the lying. Nor even the incompetence. It was our total lack of surprise at the turn of events, since after 15 years suffering from the failings of the National Health Service, we are prepared for almost any ineptitude. Of course, everyone loves the NHS now. It is officially sacrosanct. Our doctors are deities, our health care the envy of the world.
And anyone who says anything different is an unpatriotic schmuck who should go and join those losers in the United States. (Although American doctors terrified of litigation would have done all the tests possible on my daughter if I had sufficient insurance, and would think twice about lying to patients.)
So forgive a harsh dose of reality. I used to share these delusional views, wrapped in a comforting blanket of national pride over Aneurin Bevan's legacy. But that was before the birth of our daughter sent us hurtling into the hell of our health service.
Since then, hours and days and months and years have been spent battling bureaucracy, fighting lethargy and observing inefficiency while all the time guarding against the latest outbreak of incompetence.
Despite my daughter being under palliative care, my wife spends two hours a day struggling against the system, to say nothing of the endless appointments that go with being primary carer of a severely disabled child.
Right now, following some dramatic hormonal and physical changes, we are waiting to talk to one of our daughter's doctors: the first call went in three weeks ago, followed by three more phone calls and one email. No reply yet.
Or take the request for a bigger size of nappies, urgently needed because of our daughter's sudden weight spurt. A simple thing to sort, you might think.
Not in the parallel universe of the NHS. It has taken four weeks, three phone calls, two home visits from community nurses to assess our needs and fill in the requisite forms - and still looks like being one more week before there is any hope of delivery.
It might seem comical, but the result is a distressed child and endless extra laundry. The warning signs of what lay ahead came on our first visit to Great Ormond Street, when there was a young couple who had travelled down from the North-East of England in front of us, their tiny sick baby almost lost in its blankets.
'Didn't anyone tell you - your appointment's been cancelled?' the receptionist told them breezily. They looked at each other despairingly.
Such insensitivity is typical. When my daughter was seven, she underwent a major review at a specialised unit in Surrey, spending three days and nights with sensors connected to brainscanning devices glued to her head, under constant video surveillance while my exhausted wife comforted her and stopped her ripping off the electronic pads.
Sunday Roundup
of the News this week
The true extent of the huge influx of foreign workers into Britain is revealed in an investigation by the Daily Mail. In some parts of the UK there are more migrants searching for jobs than native Britons - even at this time of soaring unemployment.
Heroin and crack cocaine addicts are raking in up to £1.6billion a year in benefits, it was revealed last night. Some 350,000 collect Incapacity Benefit, Income Support or Jobseeker's Allowance. Figures calculated by the Lib-Dems show that if each of them claimed the highest rate of Incapacity Benefit - £89 a week - the payout would be £1.6billion.
Mrs. Davies’ 21 year old son is a soldier in a Welsh Regiment which recently began an eight month tour of duty in Afghanistan. For many Mothers with sons on active service for their country, it can be a constant worry until they return safe, and whilst TV news of ‘another soldier has been killed yesterday’ may cause many of us to mourn their loss and curse dishonest Labour politicians, for a Mother it can be a heart-stopping moment. It is of great significance then, to be able to go to her local post office to send her son a parcel from home. Video Here
Brown’s fondness for going missing when a tough decision has to be taken has become legendary in Westminster. Allies of Tony Blair nicknamed him Macavity – after the vanishing Mystery Cat in T.S. Eliot’s poem.
Traditional lightbulbs will disappear from our shops in just ten days. All conventional pearl, incandescent lightbulbs are being banned by the European Union to slash energy bills and carbon dioxide emissions. The move covers every type of frosted traditional bulb, from the 60 watt pearl bulbs used in table lamps to more specialised opaque 25 and 40 watt bulbs shaped like golf balls and candles.
The political fallout over the release of the Lockerbie bomber intensified today after the hero's welcome for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was described as 'sickening' and 'stomach-churning' Megrahi arrived back in Libya to be greeted by thousands cheering and waving Scottish flags but which government was responsible for his release was thrown into confusion after Colonel Gaddafi's son praised the 'courage' of the British and SNP governments.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has been accused of lying over his pledge to take action if Baroness Jenny Tonge made antisemitic remarks “on my watch”.
A system involving social workers, police and courts took a child away from loving parents for no apparent reason, writes Christopher Booker. Two weeks ago I reported as shocking a story as this column has ever covered. It described how a loving family was torn apart when the parents were arrested by police on what turned out to be wholly spurious charges, so that their three children could be taken into care by social workers.
Auditors have been unable to find 6.6 billion pounds ($13 billion) worth of British military equipment including vehicles, weapons and radios used by troops, a report said Thursday.
These are the horrific injuries inflicted on an elderly Second World War veteran by a mugger hours after scattering his wife's ashes. Retired civil servant George Gibb, 85, needed hospital treatment after he was hit round the back of the head by a robber trying to steal his briefcase.
Thousands may be using the national flu line to land themselves 'swine flu sickies', it was claimed last night. Every Monday the number using the hotline or associated website to get Tamiflu is more than double that of the day before, Government figures show.
Labour's immigration policy has led to thousands of low-paid foreigners getting jobs here at the expense of British workers, its own chief migration adviser admitted yesterday. Professor David Metcalf said he was worried that firms were using the scheme to ship in cheap foreign labour without bothering to find British workers and under-cut the country’s wage structure. And he warned that some firms were fiddling pay arrangements by paying allowances in lieu of salary to give tax breaks to staff from overseas – despite the recession pushing down wages and sending unemployment in the UK soaring.
Gordon Brown, what have you done? The man who used to mercilessly berate the Conservatives for presiding over “the bills of social failure” has constructed an economy where six million adults of working age do not work and are sustained by taxpayer-funded benefits.
First, credit where credit is due. Not everyone is worse off after 12 years of Labour. Some have done quite nicely, thank you. Yeah Mp's, Peers, Quango's, and those running institutions such as Trevor Phillips head of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission! (Ed) All that effort has paid handsome dividends. For them, success is measured in pounds, and things can only get better. They are progressive – progressively richer.
One in seven scientists report that they have known colleagues to falsify or slant the findings of their research, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and published in the journal PLoS One.
A council has spent £143,000 roundabout sculpture made of three farmyard gates. The scheme has been hit by a series of mishaps, the latest of which has seen pranksters mocking the gates with cardboard cutouts of sheep.
Two teenagers who carried out a serious sexual assault on a 14-year-old girl in the grounds of a community centre are being sought by Gwent Police.
About 80 per cent of last year’s robberies were committed by gangs of Asian and afro-Caribbean people, he said. Of last year’s attacks, 44 included the showing or threat of a knife. Some 73 were stopped and searched this year. This led to five arrests on drugs charges. He said: “It is unusual to see so many people involved in a robbery.”
Is there any connection between these things? A Foreign Secretary who volunteers to go on the radio to praise a grisly old Stalinist and says terrorism is sometimes justifiable; a Defence Secretary who once flirted with Marxism, and presides over a military operation incompetently directed, wasteful of life and lacking in serious or coherent purpose - a war which damages our national interest and causes an increasing number of casualties? Yes, I think there is, and I'll explain why.
Defence minister Kevan Jones is at the centre of a 'squalid and cowardly' smear campaign against the chief of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, it has been claimed. Political blogs alleged the junior minister was leading a plot to expose how much the Chief of General Staff had spent wining and dining guests at his Kensington official residence.
Cameron said this week that the armed services had “the support and admiration of the entire country for their courage and their sacrifice”. His sentiment is to be applauded. In a cohesive and decent country with a universal understanding of the obligations of nationhood the Tory leader’s words would hold good.
British troops have lost one of their priceless Chinook helicopters in Afghanistan after it was hit by insurgent ground fire and destroyed by a Nato jet bomber to keep it out of Taleban hands.
This week, it's ham that's bad for us - apparently, we shouldn't let our kids get a taste for it because in adults it might be linked to bowel cancer. Last week it was mouth cancer and alcohol. Next week it'll be something else we really like being linked to something else really nasty. Next month perhaps ham will turn out not to be so bad after all. Alcohol will be reported as doing you some good. And so on.
A Dad's Army of retired police officers could be called on to fill key roles in the event of a mass swine flu outbreak, it has emerged. At least one force admitted senior officers have discussed drafting in former staff.
Two countries, two weddings, two outcomes. In the first instance, a minister in the British government has been accused of bad manners for leaving a Muslim wedding in east London when he was asked to sit in a separate room from his wife.
British Muslim fanatics sparked fresh fury last night by praising Taliban “heroes” for sending our troops back from Afghanistan in body bags. Dozens of homegrown “jihadis” have posted website messages cheering last weekend’s carnage in Helmand province that saw Britain’s death toll rise to 204 soldiers.
The shameful website involved stoked up hatred as it emerged that one of two soldiers killed trying to save their mortally wounded commander had recently got married before deploying to Afghanistan.
The grieving families of the latest British servicemen to be killed in Afghanistan spoke yesterday of their pride in their loved ones and their immense sadness at their loss. But amid the sorrow there was also anger from some at the way the men and women fighting for their country are being let down by the Government.
Darren Jarrad, 28, was told by immigration officials that his wife Chantel could not make a home in Britain due to fears she would claim benefits.The couple met in 2006 when Mr Jarrad was a private in the Royal Anglian Regiment on a training exercise in Canada and their daughter Shyanne was born in April 2007.
However:
The death of the two hundred and first British soldier serving in Afghanistan must serve as a galvanising moment for the public to start vociferously demanding that this dangerous, vile and lie-based war come to an end, said Peter Mullins, British National Party spokesman on defence.
Soldiers off the street is a new organisation setup by a group of dedicated people, to help ex service personnel that have found themselves homeless and living on the streets throughout the United Kingdom, we think it is a national disgrace (but we will not go down that road at the moment). We intend to do our best to help as many as we can regain a normal life off the street.
East is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet” wrote Kipling. But clearly he’d never seen a “burkini.” The burkini is notionally a cross between a saudi-style burka dress and a bikini. and when I first saw a photograph of one I thought that it must be some kind of satirical joke; a spoof, mock-Islamic, female version of that hideous “mankini” you see sacha Baron Cohen bulging out of on the posters for Borat, perhaps.
New scientific research has shown that it is possible to fake DNA evidence, raising fears that people could “engineer crime scenes”. In experiments, a team of Israeli scientists were able to obliterate all traces of DNA from a blood sample and add someone else's genetic material in its place. The process was so successful that it fooled forensic scientists who carry out DNA fingerprinting for American courts.
Supermarket bills for young families have risen by 4.4 per cent in a year. The price of nappies has soared by more than a third, while the cost of rusks has increased by 17 per cent, a study shows.
A senior Conservative has called for MPs' pay to be doubled - in return for scrapping their second home allowance. Sir Patrick Cormack says MPs annual pay should increase from £64,766 to more than £130,000.
Civil servants responsible for cutting Britain's carbon emissions have scrapped an energy-saving plan to switch off their air conditioning and open the windows instead. The trial was abandoned after three days because officials complained about noise from building works, security risks and 'the wrong kind of breeze'.
A seven-year-old girl dialled 999 while her mother was being stabbed to death by an asylum seeker and told the operator: 'A man is trying to kill my mummy', a court heard.
Luton: Police and media cover up Mass-Racist attack
The only report of this mass racist incident was reported in the Sun Newspaper and even then only six paragraphs were devoted to this article which should have made Front page News. Political Correctness means keeping truth away from the Public and give the impression we are living in some form of utopia in cloud cuckoo Land!
We live in amazing times, times in which our leaders sell us down the river, leave us to a miserable fate and work feverishly against our interest, a case in point happened quite recently by all accounts.
Planning laws are deliberately biased in favour of gipsies and travellers, a Government minister has finally admitted. After years of official denials on the issue, Communities Secretary Shahid Malik confessed that travelling families are treated differently from 'the settled community'.
Six million are out of work and claiming benefits, according to research which lays bare the true scale of joblessness under Labour. The figure dwarfs the official rate of unemployment, which this month hit 2.4million, and is four times the number claiming Jobseeker's Allowance.
A mother has written to magistrates in disgust after four teenagers who viciously attacked her son walked free from court. Mary Jordan has demanded an explanation after the gang admitted to the unprovoked assault.
In an extraordinary attack, the Magistrates’ Association said it is a “certainty” that officers will misuse powers because they cannot be “relied on” to handle them appropriately.
The mother of Britain's 200th casualty in Afghanistan branded Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth 'stupid and arrogant' last night.
Gordon Brown stood accused of snubbing Britain's wounded soldiers yesterday, as latest figures showed troops in Afghanistan now face an almost one-in-ten chance of becoming a casualty.
Despite the rising number of British personnel killed and wounded and signs of fraying public support for the mission, ministers are expecting a request for reinforcements from General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, who is reviewing the mission.
Bronze memorials to British soldiers killed in the world wars have been stolen in north London by thieves thought to have sold them for scrap.
Over and over again, British people — and Europeans generally — are told that they must “accommodate the minorities” in their countries. Yet the worldwide reality is that European-origin people are the true global minority, and, using the liberal logic which demands special rights for minorities, it is Europeans who should receive the special perks.
A coach used by Border Agency workers to commute to France could have provided a route for hundreds of illegal immigrants into Britain. A stowaway was seen fleeing from the coach in Folkestone, Kent, at the end of last month, in what appeared to be a one-off incident.
Sir David Attenborough yesterday joined environmentalists and scientists in calling for a campaign to limit the world's population. They said men and women in poorer countries should be encouraged to have fewer children to help fight global warming.
Asian gangs armed with shotguns and automatic weapons have emerged as the new threat to Greater Manchester's war on guns.
A “culture of racist bullying and harassment” that infected a secondary school led to a bloody hammer attack which wrecked a pupil’s life, a top judge has been told. “Undue indulgence and leniency” towards disaffected Asian pupils at the 1,400-pupil Ridgeway Foundation School, in Wroughton, created an “obvious risk of racial violence” for which 15-year-old Henry Webster paid a terrible price, said his barrister, Robert Glancy QC.
A Refugee with false passport is suing taxpayers for a six-figure sum. Fridoon Sadiqi, of Prior Deram Walk, Canley, is seeking up to £150,000 in damages because he alleges he was unlawfully arrested and detained for more than three weeks while his case was put on hold.
Advisers urged the Government to offer paracetamol to the public instead of Tamiflu, to stop the virus gaining resistance to the drug. But the Department of Health advisers said ministers ignored their advice, even when it became clear the outbreak was mild.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc has started clinical tests on its experimental swine flu vaccine. The vaccine contains an experimental additive called an adjuvant, which is designed to boost a patient’s immune response and extend limited supplies of the vaccine. The U.S. Health and Human Services Department declared a public health emergency over swine flu in April, and the Food and Drug Administration has the power to allow the use of unapproved medical products during such a crisis.
Polio, the dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria. And health officials say that in some cases, it's caused by the vaccine used to fight it.
Town hall chiefs are defying the economic crisis by spending millions on hiring ‘experts’ to teach people basic common-sense skills. In the past year, 40 free-spending councils have employed more than 140 officials, including healthy lifestyle tutors, well-being officers and community walks co-ordinators. at an annual cost to the taxpayer of £3million.
Europe's two biggest economies - Germany and France - have stepped out of recession, seeing a mild GDP increase between the first and second quarter of this year, while the eurozone's broader economic decline has markedly slowed down.
Important regeneration and business projects face cuts to funding due to Government incompetence and financial irregularities, it was revealed today.
Treasury ministers were accused of being in “complete confusion” over City fat cat pay last night after the disclosure five bankers were offered bonuses totalling £30million.
AL-QAEDA fanatics claim home-grown terrorists are plotting to attack targets in Britain. And, in an internet magazine read by thousands of Islamic extremists, they label Britain and Europe as a bigger enemy than the United States.
The site, promoted by supporters of deported hate preacher Abdullah al-Faisal who was booted out of Britain after serving a jail sentence for inciting murder, warns of "spectacular attacks".
It says the strikes are being planned by terrorists living here and others overseas. News Source
A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter. ''More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu'' ''information has been kept secret and away from public''
A new scientific study proves that the mercury-based compound used as vaccine preservative -- known as ‘thimerosal’ -- induces neural damage similar to that seen in autism patients. According to the study, thimerosal-induced cellular damage caused concentration- and time-dependent mitochondrial damage, reduced oxidative-reduction activity, cellular degeneration, and cell death.
The swine flu vaccine has been hit by new cancer fears after a German health expert gave a shock warning about its safety. Lung specialist Wolfgang Wodarg has said that there are many risks associated with the vaccine for the H1N1 virus.
According to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, your children should be the first target for mass swine flu vaccinations when school starts this fall.[i]
No doubt there have been many more thousands of cases than the official figures show and GPs are warning they are being inundated with patients who are 'scared out of their wits'.
More than 100 employees at the Environment Agency are being investigated for emailing pornography to each other. Five have been sacked and dozens suspended pending the outcome of an inquiry into the scandal.
Under the rules, swimmers – including non-Muslims – are barred from entering the pool in normal swimming attire. Instead they are told that they must comply with the "modest" code of dress required by Islamic custom, with women covered from the neck to the ankles and men, who swim separately, covered from the navel to the knees.
When Jim Fitzpatrick MP and his wife decided to leave a Muslim wedding party after they discovered it was segregated by sex, he did not anticipate the controversy his decision would generate.
A street preacher is at the centre of a row over freedom of speech after police threatened to arrest him for reading the Bible in public.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband was accused last night of condoning terrorism after declaring that there were circumstances in which it was ‘justifiable’.
Brown said the best way to honour the memory of those who have died in Afghanistan was to “see the commitment through” as the number of dead rose to 201.
Thousands of children as young as two are being are being stopped and searched by police every year, an investigation has revealed.
Councils are grabbing houses from the elderly, sick and vulnerable by routinely abusing powers that let them seize empty properties. One home a week is being taken over by local authorities under the powers granted by John Prescott.
Milk, meat and egg prices could rocket by 20 per cent because of foreign farmers growing more GM crops, experts warned yesterday.
Parents talking on the internet forums have expressed some concern about the H1N1 vaccine that will be offered to children and adults with underlying health conditions and pregnant women as priorities. The GlaxoSmithKline vaccine contains Thimerosal which was linked to neurological disorders and autism in the 1990s but has since been extensive tested and no evidence of harm has been found. Really? See Deadly Immunity And: Proof That Thimerosal Induces Autism-Like Neurotoxicity And: Thimerosal, in vaccines and its decades-long history of suppressed data about dangers to those receiving it And: CDC Admits Autism Danger
Credit crunch busting shoppers face getting less in their trolleys after new plans to cut Buy One Get One Free offers for good.
Children are being given qualifications for being able to wash their hands, dress themselves and make a cup of tea, it emerged yesterday.
So it's true - the youth of today really DO have it easy. An exam board is offering certificates to youngsters for carrying out everyday tasks such as HAIR BRUSHING and HAND WASHING - all at the taxpayers' expense.
There have been at least two features on Radio 4 in the past 36 hours dealing with the shortage of primary school places in London, which they attribute to parents pulling out of the private sector.
The police officer has always been a reassuring and restrained figure in British life, out to protect his neighbourhood in no-nonsense fashion.
Thousands of middle-class motorists who challenge speeding fines face having to pay most of their legal costs even if they win their cases.
Angela Wileman never thought this day would come. She wraps her arms around her seven-year-old son Lucas, as if she cannot let go. 'I have fought to keep him and I have won. At last we can stop running away,' she says with relief in her voice.
Saturday 22nd August 2009
The true extent of the huge influx of foreign workers into Britain is revealed in an investigation by the Daily Mail.
In some parts of the UK there are more migrants searching for jobs than native Britons - even at this time of soaring unemployment.
Nearly three quarters of a million National Insurance Numbers (NINOs), a prerequisite for getting employment, were handed out to foreign nationals last year.
The figure exposes as a sham the New Labour pledge of 'British jobs for British workers'.
While a NINO can be used to access social benefits, most newcomers from abroad are not eligible for these payouts and use the number only to seek work. Therefore, it gives a highly accurate estimate of foreigners entering the job market.
The number of migrants receiving NINOs rose by more than a fifth in some areas in 2008.
Of the 733,000 given out, 30 per cent went to Poles, 10 per cent to arrivals from the Indian sub-continent, and 5 per cent to Romanians and Lithuanians.
The jobs crisis is intensifying as more migrants arrive to find work and are prepared to accept lower wages than locals.
They are often more enthusiastic in their search for employment, travelling the country searching for poorly paid jobs, such as fruit picking or night factory work, that Britons are less willing to do.
However, in many areas migrants and British nationals are in direct competition for exactly the same jobs.
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: 'The fact that so many British people are allowed to choose welfare rather than hard work meant that when our borders opened up, there were lots of vacancies for foreign labour.
'Now times are tougher, those jobs are disappearing and the British workers who do want jobs have been left competing with overwhelming numbers of migrants.
'If we are going to get more British people working then we need firm border controls and tougher welfare rules so no one can just sit back and be featherbedded on benefits and not bother to look for a job.'
In London, 272,000 overseas nationals received NINOs in the year up to December 2008. Eight months on and the figure is estimated to have topped 350,000. The newcomers are competing for work against almost exactly the same number - 359,000 - of job-seeking Londoners.
In Westminster 12,070 foreigners have been given NINOs, twice as many as the number of locals searching for work. It is a similar story in Haringey, Brent, Tower Hamlets and Ealing.
The picture is repeated in other parts of Britain. In Edinburgh, Oxford and Slough, for instance, far more foreigners are chasing work than Britons.
In more provincial areas, such as the agriculture hotspot of Peterborough, there are almost equal numbers of foreigners and locals in the jobs race.
Even in the resort of Bournemouth, where thousands of jobs are available during the summer tourist season, migrants have received 4,200 NINOs while nearly 4,000 local people want employment.
The total number of UK unemployed rose 250,000 in the three months to June to the highest level for a decade or more. The jump to 2.5million comes as businesses continue to close or cut their staff in the face of the deep recession.
Nearly 1.6million are job-seekers while the remainder are deemed to be 'economically inactive'.
Meanwhile, seven out of ten jobs created under New Labour have been taken by foreign workers, the highest proportion in any of the major economies analysed recently by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Companies are continuing to hire more migrants even though the British jobless toll rises by almost 3,000 a day, according to a survey by the accountants KPMG and the Chartered Institute of Personnel.
The Mail's map is based on information from each local authority based on two sets of official figures.
The first is the total in each area of National Insurance Numbers given to adult overseas nationals entering the UK during 2008.
The second set of figures is the claimant count for each local authority area in July, compiled from Government statistics released last week.
A claimant is a person on job-seekers' allowance who is actively trying to find employment. Newly arrived foreigners cannot get this payout.
This, therefore, gives a fair picture of the numbers of local people in each area wanting to work.
Yesterday Sir Andrew Green, of Migrationwatch UK, said the consequences were severe for British workers.
'It seems that during this recession, employers are more willing to hire and keep on migrants because they are perceived to be cheaper and to work harder. Meanwhile, the local people are let go first,' he said.
'Firms get foreigners to work for buttons'
The Mail talked to people in Peterborough, London and Bournemouth about the difficult jobs market.
In Peterborough, cafe baker Marcin Kubiak, 26, who left Poland six months ago, said: 'I was sure I would get a job here because I was prepared to do anything. There are opportunities but you have to search for them.'
Yet Matthew Kirton, 24, says he can't find a job in the same city. 'I have applied for ten in the last fortnight, including one at the huge Tesco distribution warehouse which mainly employs Polish-people, but have not had a reply. Employers get immigrants to work for buttons.'
In London, Ciobanu Mihai, 27, arrived from Romania in 2008. He earns £300 a week on a Westminster building site and says: 'I think we foreigners work harder than the British.'
But 18-year-old waitress Jade Boam, who was born in Westminster, says she has tried everything to get a full-time job.
'The migrant workers should be stopped from coming here. In the cafes where I work nobody can believe there is an English girl serving. Normally this kind of job goes to foreigners because they are cheaper.'
In Bournemouth, spray painter James Wills, 22, has been jobless since October. 'I'd be happy to work hard in a warehouse or a building site, anything really.
'I feel if there were fewer foreign workers I would have got a job by now.'
Polish girl Justyna Plec, 21, who moved to the resort recently, disagreed. 'I earn £5.70 an hour in a coffee shop and pay taxes and national insurance like everyone else.
But I have met with a lot of racism from locals who tell me to go back to my home country.' News Source
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A teenager who stabbed and slashed a passer-by in a racially motivated attack has been locked up for five years.
Amir Rehman, 18, shouted racial abuse as 51-year-old Ronald O’Connor walked to a shop for a loaf of bread, near the gates of Lister Park, Manning-ham, last December.
Leeds Crown Court was told Rehman shouted out: “Manningham belongs to Muslims. We don’t want whites. We rule Bradford. We are going to get you out.”
His frightened victim, Ronald O’Connor, tried to get in the shop, but Rehman ran up and stabbed him twice in the upper arm with a four to five-inch bladed knife.
The court heard that Rehman, of Lumb Lane, Manningham, was describ-ed as in a frenzy, “like a crazy man, out of control,” as he tried to slash Mr O’Connor’s face. The palms of Mr O’Connor’s hands were slashed as he tried to defend himself.
Prosecutor Richard Gioserano said:
“Rehman was swinging at him over and over again with the knife. Mr O’Connor was in great pain and in fear, literally, of his life.”
Mr O’Connor ran into the shop. Police were called and Rehman was arrested outside.
Mr O’Connor had surgery at Bradford Royal Infirmary for a deep laceration to his palm. He also suffered lacerations to his fingers and two incisions to his upper arm with apparent nerve damage.
Mr Gioserano said Rehman attended Bradford Crown Court for a preliminary hearing of the case in March, but went straight from court to Pudsey, with two other men, Amar Farooq and Tanveer Hussain, where, later in the day, they committed a series of robberies on children on their way home from school.
During the street muggings some of the youngsters were threatened with being stabbed, though no knife was seen. The court heard that the defendants were clearly drunk.
Jonathan Devlin, for Rehman, said there were no explanations or excuses for the offences other than drink.
All three pleaded guilty to three robberies. Rehman pleaded guilty to wounding with intent in connection with the Manningham incident.
Hussain, 23, of Lumb Lane, Manning-ham, and Farooq, 25, of Agar Street, Girlington, were jailed for 30 months.
Rehman was sent to youth custody for a total of five years.
The judge, Recorder David Bradshaw, told Rehman he had committed an unprovoked attack on an innocent man causing “horrendous” injuries.
He said: “I am satisfied it was accompanied by racial abuse and seemed to have a racial motive.” News Source
See Also:
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Heroin and crack cocaine addicts are raking in up to £1.6billion a year in benefits, it was revealed last night.
Some 350,000 collect Incapacity Benefit, Income Support or Jobseeker's Allowance.
Figures calculated by the Lib-Dems show that if each of them claimed the highest rate of Incapacity Benefit - £89 a week - the payout would be £1.6billion.
As recently as July last year, the Government estimated there were only 267,000 addicts on benefits - about one-third less than the current total.
And the Department for Work and Pensions claimed it spent £195million on payments to those with drug problems in 2007-08.
Work and Pensions Minister Jonathan Shaw admitted the number of heroin and crack users receiving 'working-age benefits' in a Parliamentary written answer.
Experts say most of the addicts known to the DWP will be on sickness benefits as drug dependency is recognised as a medical condition that prevents them working.
Under the Government's flagship Welfare Reform Bill drug users would be forced to undergo treatment or lose benefits.
Last night LibDem frontbencher Jenny Willott, who uncovered the statistics, said: 'We spend too much money on paying benefits to those with drug problems and not enough on treatment places to help them kick the habit.' News Source
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Mrs. Davies’ 21 year old son is a soldier in a Welsh Regiment which recently began an eight month tour of duty in Afghanistan.
For many Mothers with sons on active service for their country, it can be a constant worry until they return safe, and whilst TV news of ‘another soldier has been killed yesterday’ may cause many of us to mourn their loss and curse dishonest Labour politicians, for a Mother it can be a heart-stopping moment. It is of great significance then, to be able to go to her local post office to send her son a parcel from home.
Except that for some people now living in this country, such as Mr. Khan, the owner of Mrs. Davies’ local post office in Wilson Road, Ely, Cardiff, they clearly don’t share the same values or principles as the British. When Mr. Khan asked Mrs. Davies where her ‘boy’ was and found out that he was serving in Afghanistan, something he clearly didn’t approve of, he banned her from his shop and post office and instructed his staff to refuse to serve her. This public humiliation in his shop took place in front of witnesses and left Mrs. Davies astonished, frustrated and upset. Even a neighbour who later offered to post her parcel was refused.
In today’s multi-cultural, politically correct society, Mrs. Davies didn’t know where to turn. The post office and the shop at the end of the road is a vitally important service to the local community and she was bewildered at being made to feel an outcast in her own country by an immigrant who was in a position of having the power to do so.
It was suggested to her ‘off the record’ to contact the BNP as being the only people to offer her support. We won’t tell you just who suggested this as you’d be surprised and it would cause quite a problem where he works, but Mrs. Davies subsequently contacted South Wales BNP with the story of her situation and the film-clip of the interview with Mrs. Davies is shown below.
We tried to contact Mr. Khan to ask for a statement by telephoning him at his post office premises on 029 -20591511, but apparently he is away in India at the moment. We spoke with his manageress though, a June Thomas who is carrying out his instructions in the meantime, but she just said, ‘No comment’.
We don’t know why Mr. Khan should feel he has any authority at all to dictate to British Mothers in this country that they are not allowed to post parcels to British soldiers serving in Afghanistan. Maybe you should ask him for yourself.
Whatever is said about Blair’s illegal warmongering in Iraq and Afghanistan, one thing is for sure, these conflicts involving our British soldiers are different from anything before.
In previous wars, wherever they may have been, at least when our boys returned past the ‘White Cliffs of Dover’ they knew they were home and safe amongst their own people. They could depend on the support of their own people and that the home fires would be kept burning in their absence.
Now of course, in nuLabour’s Britain, in 2009, things are different.
It’s one thing that in Afghanistan the enemy include Taliban fighters with Yorkshire and Midlands accents, even perhaps with the odd Aston Villa tattoo. It’s another thing too, when wounded British casualties arrive back at Selly Oak NHS Hospital (because the military hospitals have been closed down) to be verbally abused by similar people to those that wounded them in the first place. Or when the same type of people blowing our troops to bits with roadside bombs in Afghanistan, can be found at home fast-tracked into positions of authority and power, such as magistrates, politicians, police, teachers and even sub-postmasters. Large tracts of inner-city suburbs and elsewhere have become foreign, alien communities demanding ever more political influence and power within British society.
What on earth have we allowed our country and ourselves to become ? News Source
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You Welshie
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Brown’s fondness for going missing when a tough decision has to be taken has become legendary in Westminster.
Allies of Tony Blair nicknamed him Macavity – after the vanishing Mystery Cat in T.S. Eliot’s poem.
Quoting a verse, Lord Turnbull, Britain’s top civil servant between 2002 and 2005, famously said of Mr Brown: “He always has an alibi, or one or two to spare: And whatever time the deed took place Macavity wasn’t there.’’
He performed his vanishing act when it came to the tricky Cabinet vote on invading Iraq.
Nor was Mr Brown present when most of the groundwork was being done to introduce university tuition fees.
Mr Brown has kept up the disappearances since getting the top job. He refused to join the ceremonial signing of the hated European constitutional treaty.
And he was mysteriously absent when Northern Rock collapsed in 2007.
Labour insiders say that making decisions on the hoof is something Mr Brown hates. Instead he likes delay – a plotter and a planner, not a conviction politician. News Source
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Traditional lightbulbs will disappear from our shops in just ten days. All conventional pearl, incandescent lightbulbs are being banned by the European Union to slash energy bills and carbon dioxide emissions.
The move covers every type of frosted traditional bulb, from the 60 watt pearl bulbs used in table lamps to more specialised opaque 25 and 40 watt bulbs shaped like golf balls and candles.
Clear and frosted 100 watt lightbulbs will also not be on sale from September 1.
The measure, introduced with little fanfare, aims to force consumers to fit energy-saving lights.
The Department for Environment said a typical home will save at least £37 a year on electricity bills by fitting low-energy fluorescent and halogen bulbs.
Ministers said the move will also slash national carbon emissions by five million tons a year.
But independent retailers and critics believe the change has been rushed and badly advertised. They also claim that many of the low-energy alternatives are ugly, expensive and produce unpleasant light.
In January, leading retailers announced a voluntary ban on the sale of 100 watt lightbulbs, triggering stockpiling and panic buying. However, independent stories have continued selling them.
Under the European Directive, manufacturers in Europe will not be able to sell the banned bulbs to retailers. It will also be illegal to import energy-guzzling bulbs from outside the EU.
Independent retailer James Shortridge, owner of the Ryness chain, said customers were stockpiling frosted lightbulbs and 100 watt bulbs to beat the ban. He said: 'If you are sensitive to light, you will notice the difference.
'People aren't aware that the 100 watt and 60 watt pearl bulbs are going - it's a huge change.'
After the ban, householders will have to buy one of two low-energy alternatives. The most economical to run are CFLs - compact fluorescent lights. They cost around £3 each, use a fifth of the energy of a conventional incandescent bulb and can fit every type of socket.
Dimmable CFLs that work in dimmer switches are available, but cost more than £15 each. In theory, they should last six or seven years.
Critics said the light of many CFLs is inferior, some describing them as sickly, harsh or green. They can also take a minute to reach full brightness.
Manufacturers have also created low-energy halogen bulbs which look like traditional bulbs.
These work with dimmer switches, have a warmer light but save just 30 per cent of energy. These are not available as frosted bulbs and last only a couple of years.
Traditional bulbs are being phased out gradually to allow manufactures to adapt. Europe plans to phase out 60 watt clear lights from September 2011.
A Government spokesman said: 'There are many myths around low-energy bulbs. People don't always realise they have improved beyond recognition.' News Source
The Eco Bulbs are a con! After purchasing an eco bulb for £5.99 (for test purposes) we came to the conclusion that the bulb we tested which was supposed to emit the equivalent to that of a 100w incandescent light bulb was in fact more like a 40w.
We are always told not to read in low light as it is harmful, yet with these eco bulbs it feels as though you are sitting under candle light. The cheaper eco bulbs turned out to be even worse. So why the ban? is it for the environment? we doubt it very much, in fact it's so we spend more!
The way to go we believe is LED lighting. They are beggining to become popular in the UK and more and more outlets are beggining to stock LED lighting. Focus is selling LED Spotlights and Lidl this week will be selling LED bulb 1W, 230V for £3.99 equivalent to 35w . Use a 3 bulb fitment and you get 3x35w with total power consumption of just 3w.
In the long run these are cheaper and consume only 1w each. Furthermore it's a better light to read under than the eco bulbs. Alternatively there is always the good old fluorescent fitting (40w)
They're not unattractive and come in many styles. Above (Right) round fluorescent tube for the fixture.There are alternatives to eco bulbs unless they ban them too. Fight back against the grossly expensive and health hazard eco bulbs! (Ed)
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The political fallout over the release of the Lockerbie bomber intensified today after the hero's welcome for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was described as 'sickening' and 'stomach-churning'
Megrahi arrived back in Libya to be greeted by thousands cheering and waving Scottish flags but which government was responsible for his release was thrown into confusion after Colonel Gaddafi's son praised the 'courage' of the British and SNP governments.
Yesterday Megrahi, who is dying of cancer, was freed on compassionate grounds by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.
Downing Street and ministers have repeatedly claimed that the highly controversial decision was down to the Scottish administration alone.
But Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, who discussed the case of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi with Business Secretary
'Lord Mandelson just weeks ago'
when the two met in Corfu, went out of his way to thank both the British and Scottish governments for his release.
In a statement, the Libyan leader's son said: 'This is a courageous and unforgettable stance from the British and Scottish governments. We have turned the page.'
Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned the public rejoicing in Libya over al-Megrahi's release and launched a thinly veiled attack on the SNP for releasing the dying terrorist.
He said:
"Obviously the sight of a mass murderer getting a hero's welcome in Tripoli is deeply upsetting, deeply distressing.
'As it happens, (Mr MacAskill) confirmed yesterday ... that there had been no pressure from London, not just no recommendation...
'There has been no pressure from London and we are not going to start engaging in it now.
'The decision has been made according to the constitution of this country.'
He dismissed claims that the Government had sought to boost Britain's diplomatic and commercial ties with Libya while retaining the moral high ground by not endorsing al-Megrahi's release. 'That's a slur both on myself and on the Government,' he said.
'We have been scrupulous in saying that this decision should be made by the Scottish authorities.'
The praise by Seif al-Islam Gaddafi sparked suspicions of a secret deal which could benefit British oil firms seeking to invest in Libya.
Accusations also flew that London was seeking to build diplomatic ties with Mr Gaddafi's regime while at the same time inflicting political damage on the SNP led administration in Scotland. Former foreign secretary Lord Owen said: 'It is very clear that the British government are in this up to their neck.'
Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Lib-Dem leader, added: 'Labour is clearly facing two ways on this issue; wanting to enhance relations with Libya but at the same time determined to criticise the SNP for an American audience.'
The decision was bitterly condemned by relatives of many of the 270 victims of the bombing and branded a mistake by President Barack Obama.
Mr Obama said his government had told Libya there must be no celebration for Megrahi.
But thousands of people wore T-shirts bearing Megrahi's picture and waved Libyan and Scottish flags as he arrived at a military airbase in Tripoli.
Russell Brown, Labour MP for Dumfries, called the scenes "stomach-churning".
He said: "I have never been ashamed to see my country's flag waved before, but to see it misused to celebrate mass murder is outrageous.
"This man is convicted of murdering 270 people in my part of Scotland and that conviction stands.
"This adds further pressure to the SNP to explain why they have freed a man who showed no remorse for the crimes he committed."
And David Mundell, Tory MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, said: "Alex Salmond's government has made a mistake of international proportions. These reports are sickening."
Mr Miliband strongly rejected the suggestion that the Government had wanted Megrahi to be released so that commercial relations with Libya could be improved.
See:
The family of David Miliband, the foreign secretary, was branded untrustworthy and misleading by Home Office and Foreign Office officials when it tried to migrate to Britain.
He said: "I really reject that entirely; that is a slur both on myself and the Government.
"We have been scrupulous in saying this decision should be made by the Scottish authorities; we have been scrupulous in saying that to the Libyans, we have been scrupulous in saying that to the Americans..."
He added: "We certainly welcome the fact that over the past 10 years there have been significant changes in Libya's engagement with the international community.
"But it is wrong to say that in this case, the British Government has somehow put pressure on the Scottish authorities or anyone else."
But in Britain and the U.S., TV coverage of Megrahi's flight brought new anguish to bereaved families.
There was angry contempt for Mr MacAskill, who spent 24 minutes delivering his decision.
He admitted Megrahi had shown no compassion to his victims, but added: 'That alone is not a reason for us to deny compassion to him and his family in his final days.
Megrahi was sentenced to life in January 2001, with a minimum term of 27 years, for the bombing of PanAm flight 103 in December 1988.
He served just a third of that - two weeks for every victim
Suse Lowenstein, of Montauk, New York, whose 21-year-old son Alexander Lowenstein was killed, spoke for many in the U.S. when she said: 'It is so devastating and so difficult to accept that the one man we had responsible for the murders is going home to die in the arms of his family. It is just beyond comprehension.
'He has the luxury to be at home with his family, which our son did not have.' Continued
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Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has been accused of lying over his pledge to take action if Baroness Jenny Tonge made antisemitic remarks “on my watch”.
In June, Mr Clegg was challenged over his tolerance of Baroness Tonge after he pledged his opposition to antisemitism in an address to the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.
Douglas Murray, of the Centre for Social Cohesion, asked when the LibDem leader would root out antisemitism in his own party.
Mr Clegg insisted that Baroness Tonge’s offensive remarks had all been made before he became leader, and that he would discipline her if she repeated such behaviour.
Mr Murray then wrote to Mr Clegg with examples of comments by Baroness Tonge since Mr Clegg became leader in December 2007.
Mr Murray wrote:
“The issue is not just that Baroness Tonge is meeting terrorist organisations, but that she is engaged in promoting and glorifying their agenda.”
In March, she met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Syria, describing him as “shrewd, plausible and actually very likeable”. During her visit she also had a meeting with Ramadan Shalah, head of Islamic Jihad.
In July 2008, speaking at the IslamExpo 2008, she blamed the “Jewish lobby” in the US for “making all political parties obey the will of Israel” and said: “How can we stop antisemitism if they [Israel] keep treating the Palestinians like this?”
Mr Clegg has so far ignored Mr Murray’s letter, sent to his office on July 16.
This week, the LibDem leader’s press secretary said: “These are selective quotes from a meeting of which there is no recording or transcript. Nick Clegg has consistently demonstrated a commitment to engage with people from all sides of the debate relating to the Middle East. Jenny Tonge does not speak for the party on this issue.”
The LibDem website lists Baroness Tonge as an “expert” on the Middle East.
Mr Murray said:
“Nick Clegg is deluded if he thinks that all Jenny Tonge is doing is listening to different sides of the debate. She is actively pushing one side’s views. Now we see that he is prepared to tell lies to placate people. This is why people are suspicious of politicians. He says he wants to root out antisemitism and he doesn’t even do it in his own party.”
In 2006, Baroness Tonge was reprimanded by the then party leader Sir Menzies Campbell for saying: “The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the Western world, its financial grips. I think they have probably got a certain grip on our party.”
Sir Menzies said her remarks had “clear antisemitic connotations”. In 2004 she was sacked as a front bench spokesman for saying of Palestinian suicide bombers: “If I had to live in that situation — and I say that advisedly — I might just consider becoming one myself.” News Source
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A system involving social workers, police and courts took a child away from loving parents for no apparent reason, writes Christopher Booker.
Two weeks ago I reported as shocking a story as this column has ever covered. It described how a loving family was torn apart when the parents were arrested by police on what turned out to be wholly spurious charges, so that their three children could be taken into care by social workers.
However a new case has lately been surfacing, if anything even more shocking. This also involved the arrest of two parents and the abduction of their child by social workers, in a story so bizarre that, at last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Gordon Brown was asked about it by the family’s MP, Charles Hendry, who has long been concerned with the case because the mother is a branch vice-chairman in his local Conservative Association.
The family’s horrified GP says that, in 43 years of medical practice, he has never “encountered a case of such appalling injustice”.
I first planned to describe this case in April, but was pre-empted by the draconian reporting restrictions on family cases, which, for reasons that will become tragically clear, have now been partly lifted.
The story began in April 2007 when “Mr Smith”, as I must call him, had a visit from the RSPCA over the dog-breeding business he ran from the family home. He had docked the tails of five newborn puppies – a procedure that had become illegal two days beforehand. Unaware of this, he promised in future to obey the new law.
Three days later, however, at nine o’clock in the morning, two RSPCA officials returned, accompanied in cars and riot vans by 18 policemen, who had apparently been tipped off, quite wrongly, that Mr Smith had guns in the house.
Armed with pepper spray, they ransacked the house, looking for the nonexistent guns. The dogs, released from their kennels, also rampaged through the house. When Mr Smith and his wife, who was three months pregnant, volubly protested at what was happening, they were forcibly arrested in front of their screaming five-year-old daughter “Jenny” and taken away.
Two hours later, with the house in a shambles – the dogs having strewn the rabbit entrails meant for their dinner across the floor – social workers arrived to remove the crying child.
Held for hours in a police cell, Mrs Smith had a miscarriage. When she was finally set free, she returned home that evening to find her daughter gone. It was the beginning of a barely comprehensible nightmare.
Her husband was charged with various offences connected with the dogs, including the tail-docking, but was eventually given a conditional discharge by a judge who accepted that he was “an animal lover” who had not been cruel to his dogs.
Far more serious, however, was that the social workers seemed determined to hang on to the child, now in foster care, on the sole grounds that they had found the house dirty and in a mess (the “animal entrails” played a large part in their evidence).
This was despite the testimony of a woman Pc (who had visited the house a month earlier on a different matter) that she found it “clean and tidy”. Two hundred horrified local residents, who knew the couple as doting parents of a happy, well-cared-for child, were about to stage a protest demonstration when they were stopped by the police, on the social workers’ instructions that this might identify the child.
For more than two years the couple have been fighting through 74 hearings in the courts to win their daughter back. From a mass of evidence, including psychiatric reports and tape recordings made at meetings with her parents (only allowed in the presence of social workers), it is clear she has been desperate to return home. The family believe that considerable pressure has been brought on the child to turn her against her parents.
One particularly bizarre psychiatric report was compiled after only an hour-long interview with the little girl. When she said she had once choked on a lollipop, this was interpreted as signifying that she could possibly have “been forced to have oral sex with her father”.
After the parents had been subjected to four different psychiatric investigations, which came up with mixed findings, they refused to submit to a fifth, and this apparently weighed heavily with the judge who last December ordered that “Jenny” should be put out to adoption.
In the Appeal Court 11 days ago, Mr Justice Bodey ruled that, because the father had refused that fifth test, indicating that the parents put their own “emotional wellbeing” in front of that of their child, the adoption order must stand.
When this judgment was reported, an independent social worker, who had earlier been an expert witness in the case, wrote to Mr and Mrs Smith to say he was “horrified” to learn that Jenny was “not back in their care”, having assumed for over a year that “she must have been returned home”.
Their equally horrified GP, saying that he had never “encountered such a case of appalling injustice”, wrote “the destruction of this once happy family is in my opinion evil”. So shocked was their MP, Mr Hendry, that he last Wednesday took the highly unusual course of raising the case at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Numerous others who know the family well have expressed similar dismay. One neighbour, herself a former social worker, whose own daughter often played with “Jenny”, said: “I worked with children in social services for 25 years and I have never seen anything like this. It is disgusting.”
What is clear in this case, as in so many others, is that a system involving social workers, police and courts in what is an obviously very close alliance should yet again have left a happy, loving family destroyed for no very obvious reason. Almost equally alarming is the way that system manages to shield itself from the world, through reporting restrictions which it claims are designed to protect the children but which too often end up by protecting only the system itself. News Source
Related:
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Auditors have been unable to find 6.6 billion pounds ($13 billion) worth of British military equipment including vehicles, weapons and radios used by troops, a report said Thursday.
The government has ordered a shakeup at the Ministry of Defence after the auditors found holes in its record keeping, the Financial Times reported.
The findings raised concerns about whether critical resourcing decisions for Afghanistan have been taken by MoD officials without knowing where billions of pounds of equipment, including machine guns, night vision goggles as well as spare parts, is located, the newspaper said.
The National Audit Office has refused to sign off on MoD accounts because of an "inadequate level of evidence" that 6.6 billion pounds of its assets existed, the FT said.
The MoD told the newspaper the assets were "never physically lost".
The report comes amid a furious debate in Britain about whether troops fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have adequate resources as the number of soldiers killed in the conflict rises. News Source
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You Graham
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These are the horrific injuries inflicted on an elderly Second World War veteran by a mugger hours after scattering his wife's ashes.
Retired civil servant George Gibb, 85, needed hospital treatment after he was hit round the back of the head by a robber trying to steal his briefcase.
Inside it were just a few papers relating to the Royal Naval Association meeting he had been to at his local British Legion in Bracklesham Bay, West Sussex.
Mr Gibb said: 'I was not aware of anyone behind me, but I felt a great thump on my head and I went down.
'As far as I am aware I was hit once or twice on the ground. When I came to I was streaming in blood.'
Mr Gibb was walking along an alleyway between Legion Way and West Bracklesham Drive in Bracklesham Bay, near Chichester, West Sussex, when he was attacked.
'I have never had any trouble with that footpath,' he said. 'I am horrified to think this kind of attack can take place here.'
His friend Mike Hayes, manager of East Wittering Royal British Legion club, said: 'It's disgraceful that a lovely old guy like George who has done his bit for king and country should be attacked.
'It is just despicable that someone could do this to a defenceless man. His sister has just died so he's also trying to sort out her funeral at the moment.'
Mr Hayes added that he believed Mr Gibb had now left hospital and was recuperating at a friend's house.
Sussex Police have released a photo of Mr Gibb's facial injuries in the hope it will encourage anyone with information to come forward.
A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said Mr Gibb is not able to describe the person who attacked him.
A black leather briefcase he was carrying at the time and a plastic bag which contained nothing of value were also stolen in the attack, which took place just after 10pm on August 12.
The spokeswoman appealed for anyone with information to contact Detective Sergeant Russell Burgess of Chichester CID on 0845 60 70 999, or to call CrimeStoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. News Source
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Idiots and malingerers contribute to the hysteria and this is One of the reasons why Swine Flu figures are so inaccurate.
Both the Government and media exploit these situations to hype up the figures to hysterical proportions in order to force their deadly vaccine upon us!
Thousands may be using the national flu line to land themselves 'swine flu sickies', it was claimed last night.
Every Monday the number using the hotline or associated website to get Tamiflu is more than double that of the day before, Government figures show.
The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so there is no reason why people should wait until after the weekend to use it.
It also emerged yesterday that fewer than 10 per cent of those prescribed Tamiflu actually have swine flu, according to estimates based on tests on a sample by the Health Protection Agency.
Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson admitted the weekly Monday spikes in calls to the National Pandemic Flu Service were 'curious'. But he would not comment on the suggestion that people were using the disease as an excuse to get time off work.
Last Sunday about 3,500 contacted the flu service, but the figure rose to 8,500 on Monday. The week before the number rose from 6,500 to 16,000.
The number of Monday calls has been at least double the Sunday figure every week since the service was launched on July 23. Every week, Monday is the hotline's busiest day.
Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: 'We have always said the system is open to abuse, and these figures appear to prove it.
'Mondays are a favoured day for those who want to swing the lead. All absence from work comes at a cost, but with small businesses struggling to survive the recession, this could claim many as victims.
'We urge call centre managers to be more searching in their questions on Monday before handing out Tamiflu.'
Yesterday it was revealed that a senior policeman's wife died from sepsis due to Legionnaire's disease after her symptoms were twice mistaken for swine flu by doctors.
Carol Rowe, 46, a mother of two, was eventually taken to hospital in Reading and put on a life support machine, but she died four days later. The case yet again raises questions about the wisdom of phone diagnoses, which may be missing serious illnesses. Continued
Friday 21st August 2009
Before you read this, please bare in mind that the UK is the most expensive country in the EU
Labour's immigration policy has led to thousands of low-paid foreigners getting jobs here at the expense of British workers, its own chief migration adviser admitted yesterday.
Professor David Metcalf said he was worried that firms were using the scheme to ship in cheap foreign labour without bothering to find British workers and under-cut the country’s wage structure.
And he warned that some firms were fiddling pay arrangements by paying allowances in lieu of salary to give tax breaks to staff from overseas – despite the recession pushing down wages and sending unemployment in the UK soaring.
See
The most expensive of the EU countries is the UK, but Norway, which lies outside the EU, is even more costly. The cheapest country for consumers is Portugal, with prices less than half of those in the UK.
Not only do British taxpayers pay nearly £60 billion per year to belong to the European Union — but they also pay at least £300 million in fines to that organisation as well.
Sir David, chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee, said there was an urgent need to change the year-old system for importing skilled employees and cut the numbers coming in.
His damning findings are the latest blow to Gordon Brown’s much-ridiculed claim that Labour would provide “British jobs for British workers”.
Sir Andrew Green of immigration think-tank MigrationWatch, said Sir David admitted employers were cheating, adding: “The key is enforcement, which the committee themselves have acknowledged. If you are allowing this kind of abuse then British workers are going to suffer.”
Sir Andrew added firms were choosing to bring in migrants rather than hire “expensive” British staff or train British workers.
The points-based system was supposed to mean that only non-EU foreigners with skills needed in the UK could work here.
But around 69,000 such migrants came to Britain in 2008, with up to 50,000 expected in 2010.
Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green demanded that an overall limit be placed on migrant workers. He said: “The one big gap in the points-based system is that there is no overall limit on how many permits can be issued in any one year.
This is why the public has a lack of confidence in the immigration system, which people regard as being out of control.”
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said there was a need to crack down on “unscrupulous employers” abusing the system to exploit migrant workers and undercut people already working here”.
And Peter Skyte, national officer of the Unite union, said there was a need to protect “job opportunities for resident workers” and Labour’s new system was “open to misuse or abuse”.
Sir David said his changes would lead to a cut of about 5,000 coming to the UK.
He said companies should be forced to advertise jobs for four weeks instead of two before being allowed to employ migrants and should be made to raise minimum salaries.
Sir David said the main users of the system “by a large margin” were multinational computer firms who wanted to bring over staff – mainly from India – to work in Britain.
He added that workers being brought in on intra-company transfers should also be blocked from using time in the UK towards applications for permanent resident.
The Migration Advisory Committee report was prompted by former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who asked Sir David to see if migrants were making it more difficult for UK workers to get jobs during the recession.
Home Office Minister Lord West said the Government would carefully consider the committee’s recommendations.
“In light of the economic downturn, we have taken further steps to be more selective of migrants that come to the UK and to give resident workers every opportunity to fill vacancies,” he said.
Neil Carberry, head of employment policy at the Confederation of British Industry said the report’s suggestions struck a “sensible balance”. News Source
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Gordon Brown, what have you done? The man who used to mercilessly berate the Conservatives for presiding over “the bills of social failure” has constructed an economy where six million adults of working age do not work and are sustained by taxpayer-funded benefits.
Some 2.4million are officially counted as unemployed, most of whom are on jobseeker’s allowance. Meanwhile 2.6 million are languishing on incapacity benefit or its successor employment and support allowance, and another three- quarters of a million are on lone parent benefits.
Labour’s pretence of progressing towards a society where all can succeed under their own steam has been exploded by the Policy Exchange think-tank which has dissected the British Labour market to reveal the truth.
Far from creating full employment – the erstwhile holy grail of socialist politicians – Brown never got close. Even during the boom years the number on out-of-work benefits was always above four million – more than 10 per cent of the working-age population.
And during the boom the official unemployment level remained stuck at 1.5million – half a million more than in the early seventies.
As the labour Government drifts towards extinction it is clear that it will leave a terrible economic legacy.
The emergence yesterday of the fact that 60 per cent of social housing tenants now have their rent paid by housing benefit is more evidence that Labour has actually created an underclass that is more deeply entrenched than it ever was under those “heartless” Tories.
Yet between the autumn of 1992, when the pound fell out of the European exchange rate mechanism, and the autumn of 2007, when the financial bubble burst, the British economy enjoyed an unprecedented and unbroken period of growth.
As chancellor during the latter two-thirds of this 15-year period Brown had a golden opportunity to recreate full employment of a kind not seen in Britain since the sixties.
Companies created millions of extra jobs, vacancies some- times approached 750,000 but Brown made a key decision that this country will have to live with for decades ahead. welfare, including incapacity benefits claimants, to take up the jobs available or lose their support he decided to allow them to continue living on the backs of taxpayers.
The third of IB claimants who cite mental health problems such as depression for their inability to work were not challenged despite research showing that interaction in the workplace is better for them than alienation at home.
Neither were those who said drug or alcohol addictions rendered them unable to hold down a job. Brown ensured
that frank field, the minister who wanted to withdraw benefits from such people, was sacked by Tony Blair.
Instead of challenging economically inactive Britons Brown encouraged employers to fill their vacancies from within the ranks of a new army of migrant workers. as chancellor he issued record numbers of work permits to foreign
nationals and made sure that Eastern Europeans were given full access to the British Labour market when the EU was enlarged.
For a while this approach proved sustainable on an economic basis at least (though it created all kinds of social problems: adding to traffic congestion; exacerbating the housing shortage; shattering community cohesion; and putting massive pressure on public services).
Until recession struck it was broadly the case that British adults who really wanted to work were able to do so.
Certainly the availability of migrant Labour pushed down pay rates for many occupations and made it hardly worth the while for unskilled people to take up employment but they could probably find jobs if they looked hard enough.
So Britain bumped along with the economy growing at around 2.5 per cent a year, migrants scooping nearly all the new job vacancies and between four and five million adults taking a long-term free ride on the backs of everyone else.
Two years ago all that changed when the cash cow that was the financial services sector died on its backside. The
resulting economic contagion threw on to the dole at least a million genuinely hardworking people who are desperate to find work and be self-reliant.
So there are now six million people who must be carried by a declining tax base. the sums do not add up and the opportunity to lever the British underclass into jobs has gone.
Even if people who were economically inactive through the boom could be persuaded to seek work they would have little chance of finding it.
Employers will choose candidates with impressive CVs who are out of work through no fault of their own or migrants whose work ethic has not been dampened by exposure to the welfare state.
As the labour Government drifts towards extinction it is clear that it will leave a terrible economic legacy.
More than 15 per cent of children are growing up in homes where nobody works, in some parts of the country there are more economically inactive people than there are people working in the private sector, some of our fastest growing ethnic groups are those with the highest economic inactivity rates.
Brown allowed millions to remain out of work long term when jobs were plentiful. the state of the public finances will mean that his successor has to find a way of getting them off the dole when jobs are scarce.
Brown’s punishment will be to go down in history as the politician who had the best chance in half a century to recreate a good society and comprehensively blew it. News Source
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First, credit where credit is due. Not everyone is worse off after 12 years of Labour. Some have done quite nicely, thank you.
Yeah Mp's, Peers, Quango's, and those running institutions such as Trevor Phillips head of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission! (Ed)
All that effort has paid handsome dividends. For them, success is measured in pounds, and things can only get better. They are progressive – progressively richer.
Tony Blair has the millionaire's property portfolio and the bank balance to prove it. Gordon Brown earns far more than he needs to pay his cleaner. Dozens of former ministers are even now in the revolving door that takes them effortlessly from government to corporate directorship.
Quangocrats stroke their gold-plated public sector pensions. The bankers you and I now pay for are once again earning fat bonuses. And Peter Mandelson boasts that he has no mortgage on his £2.2 million Regent's Park townhouse.
If Labour fails to pull out of its death spiral in the polls, and does indeed crash in flames some time next spring, a lucky few at the top will be able to walk away from the wreckage with a smile and, like the man in the Charles Addams cartoon, murmur "back to the old drawing board".
But the many Labour was supposed to look after are not escaping so lightly. On every measure that is dear to our current political leadership, the numbers point to a record of failure that vitiates everything that New Labour supposedly stands for.
Thousands of teenagers leave school barely able to read. Grinding child poverty is on the increase. Hospitals weighed down by bureaucracy struggle to make us healthier. Six million now rely on out of work benefits. One in six young people is neither in work nor in education. Entire neighbourhoods are blighted by feral children from households that bear no resemblance to what the rest of us understand as families.
Wherever Labour turns its eye it is confronted by the reality of its record in office, of promises that were not kept, and grand ambitions that have not been fulfilled. Already on the Left you can hear the wailings of those who ask why all those good intentions and billions spent have amounted to so little. The charge sheet lengthens by the day.
It is the poor who are most likely to be the victims of crime, yet violent offences are up by nearly 70 per cent since 1998, while robbery has risen by 20 per cent. It is the poorest areas where anti-social behaviour has the most debilitating effects, yet the number of recorded incidences has reached nearly 10,000 a day.
Reducing child poverty was supposed to be one of the big breakthroughs delivered by this Government, yet in the teeth of a recession it has risen for the third year in a row, with four million now living below the poverty line.
On most accepted measures, the gap between the richest and poorest continues to grow. The poorest 10 per cent of households have seen their weekly income fall for the past four years. It is now £9 lower than in 2002, and at the same level it was in 1999. Over the same period the richest 10 per cent of homes have seen their incomes rise by £37 a week. To Labour's shame, inequality is higher than when Mr Blair came to power, and at its highest level since 1961.
Those who relied on Labour to protect their interests have nothing to show for their votes, save a bleak existence dulled by ever greater doses of welfare sedative. Labour has failed its heartland supporters, and is now resorting to a "soak the rich" posturing that is destroying the winning coalition assembled by Mr Blair in 1997.
David Cameron spotted the opportunity at the turn of the year when he said it was time to talk about "progressive conservatism". While there was philosophical merit in reminding us that, from Disraeli to Thatcher, the Right has traditionally been the forcing house of great social advances, it was the politics that caught the attention of Westminster: here was a Tory leader taking the debate deep into the Labour heartland and casting himself as the saviour of the poor.
George Osborne used the dull days of August last week to develop the theme. The torch had been passed, he declared, and the Tories were now the "dominant force in progressive politics". It was a well-judged piece of summer mischief that reinforced an underlying truth. A withering riposte from Peter Mandelson about the Tories finally signing up to the liberal consensus could not disguise the Left's unease: it can see the liberal, reformist Cameron quietly stealing its clothes.
There is more to come. Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary who is in charge next week while the leadership triumvirate of Cameron-Osborne-Hague finishes its holidays, will return to the fray. The grid has been scrapped in favour of a renewed push on progressive conservatism that will hammer away at the idea that Labour has betrayed the poor and only Tory reforms can help them now. Expect to hear more about rebuilding Britain's broken society and the effects of long-term worklessness, alongside a concerted effort to nail Labour's "progressive failures".
To some, all this talk of progressive politics is a far cry from the red meat of traditional Tory discourse. The Conservative Right of the No Turning Back group is quietly steaming at the positions taken by Mr Cameron. Some even wonder whether the slog of Opposition and the odium of the voters after the expenses scandal is worth it. If all you end up with is a government that is "Conservative, Margaret, but not as we know it", what is the point? Only the prospect of power keeps them silent.
A poll for the PoliticsHome website this week found that voters of all stripes no longer associate "progressive" with "Left-wing" or even "liberal". Instead it is taken to mean "reforming", "modernising" and "enterprising", by a happy coincidence all values by which Mr Cameron wants to define his leadership.
The progressive label adopted by the leader is as much about posture as it is about principles of fairness, opportunity, greenery and security. It defines a new culture of openness and inclusivity that ranges from open primaries for candidate selections to his eye-catching public conversation about "Black Swan" threats this week with the thinker Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
Mr Cameron's fire is trained on Gordon Brown and the failures of a Labour Party that is neither caring nor competent. But he is also challenging those on his side who complain that the voters owe them more than rations, or whose Right-wing principles make them blind to the fears of the poorest, to think about how the party presents itself to an unsettled electorate. News Source
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One in seven scientists report that they have known colleagues to falsify or slant the findings of their research, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and published in the journal PLoS One.
A number of scientific data falsification scandals have emerged in recent years, such as the case of a South Korean researcher who invented data on stem cell research. At the same time, increasing controversy over close industry ties to medical research has called into question whether researchers who take money from drug companies might be induced to falsify their data.
“Increasing evidence suggests that known frauds are just the tip of the iceberg and that many cases are never discovered,” said researcher Daniele Fanelli.
The researchers reviewed the results of 21 different scientific misconduct surveys that had been performed between 1985 and 2005. All respondents were asked whether they or anyone they knew of had taken part in either fabrication (outright invention of data) or “questionable practices.”
Questionable practices were any improper procedure short of fabrication, including failing to publish results contradicting one’s prior research, modifying data based on a “gut feeling,” changing conclusions after pressure from a funder or selectively choosing which data to include in an analysis.
One in seven scientists said that they were aware of colleagues who had engaged in fabrication, while nearly half — 46 percent — admitted to knowing of colleagues who had used questionable practices. Only two percent, however, admitted to fabricating results themselves.
While two percent is higher than previous estimates of the prevalence of data fabrication, researchers believe that the number is still too low. In all likelihood, it reflects both a reluctance by researchers to admit to serious misconduct and a tendency to interpret one’s behavior as favorably as possible — questionable instead of fabrication, or acceptable rather than questionable.
Researchers in the medical and pharmacological fields were the most likely to admit to misconduct than researchers in other fields. News Source
See Also:
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Where YOUR hard earned taxes end up!
I'm going to dump 2 tons of manure in the middle the roundabout and see if the council buys my fine sculpture for a mere £100k
A council has spent £143,000 roundabout sculpture made of three farmyard gates.
The scheme has been hit by a series of mishaps, the latest of which has seen pranksters mocking the gates with cardboard cutouts of sheep.
Councillors in Leeds, West Yorks spent four years and double the planned cost on the idea which was supposed to welcome visitors to the Cross Gates area of the city.
But many locals and tourists were unimpressed by the farm-style gates.
They even had to be repainted after they were given a red, black and white coating with councillors worried Leeds United fans would vandalise them as they are the colours of rivals Manchester United.
A home-made 'Welcome to Cross Gates' sign was also pinned to the sculpture.
The installation on the main roundabout in Cross Gates was the brainchild of civic architect John Thorp and was meant to welcome visitors to the east Leeds suburb.
The money has come from Leeds City Council's £15m Town and District Centre Regeneration Scheme pot which is mostly made up of taxpayers' cash and some donations from organisations like the National Lottery.
The final bill includes three pieces of stone carved with 'Welcome to Cross Gates' and lighting. They are yet to be installed.
The latest development is another blow for businesswoman Kirsti Cale, who began a campaign in 2005 for a landmark welcome to the suburb. Costs escalated from an initial £70,000 to £143,000.
She said: "It all went wrong because of the council - they are the ones who let the budget spiral.
"All we wanted to see was a 'Welcome to Cross Gates'. For me now, they could burn the thing down. It's been a waste of my time and energy. I wish I hadn't bothered."
Council bosses stressed that the gates had been approved by the people of Cross Gates but joint leader of the authority, Coun Andrew Carter, did hint that he was not entirely happy with the cost of the project.
He said: "The scheme has been widely successful for two main reasons, the funding has been much needed and greatly appreciated and, importantly, we decided to leave the decisions on how to spend the funding with local representatives and community groups.
"In this case, the ward members working with the Cross Gates Forum wanted to allocate this funding to the art work scheme.
"Given the escalating costs of this scheme, supported by the local ward members, one might question if this scheme was the best way to spend this funding, but it was always intended that these schemes would be developed and delivered locally." News Source
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Two teenagers who carried out a serious sexual assault on a 14-year-old girl in the grounds of a community centre are being sought by Gwent Police.
The attack happened at the Brynglas Community Centre in Newport, in the early hours of Wednesday. Officers said the teenagers, one of whom spoke with a foreign accent, first engaged the girl in conversation near the Harlequin roundabout. Both the men are thought to be about 18-years-old. Gwent Police said the attacker who spoke with a foreign accent, also had a tattoo on his left arm.
He is described as having an olive complexion and short dark hair. He was wearing a dark top, three quarter length trousers and white trainers. The second man is described as about 5ft 1in (1.52m) tall, of stocky build, with sandy brown hair and facial stubble.
Officers would like to speak to anyone who knows the identity of the two men or who may have been in the area of the Harlequin roundabout or Brynglas Community Centre between 2200 BST on Tuesday and 0200 BST on Wednesday. Continued
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A Police operation targeting robbery hotspots has slashed muggings of young people by 100 per cent, officers said.
Patrols including stop and search on the Rye, Desborough Road, Eden high Wycombe" Eden and a skate park saw robberies fall to zero from 177 last year, they said.
This was among 12 to 19-year-olds. Operation Gauntlet will run to the end of the school holidays.
Police chose to launch the six-week operation after attacks by mostly Asian and afro-Caribbean gangs on white teenagers last summer, police said.
DC Paul Bowen said: “Officers would still stop large groups regardless of ethnicity but they would have at the back of their mind that the robberies are committed by this group of ethnic minorities.”
About 80 per cent of last year’s robberies were committed by gangs of Asian and afro-Caribbean people, he said.
Of last year’s attacks, 44 included the showing or threat of a knife.
Some 73 were stopped and searched this year. This led to five arrests on drugs charges.
He said: “It is unusual to see so many people involved in a robbery.”
Officers also visited schools before pupils broke up for the summer to mark property so it can be returned to its owner if recovered.
Yet DC Bowen said the operation was not needed all year round as the robberies were common to the summer months.
Anyone stopped was given a “receipt” by police.
A knife arch and drugs swab kit was used by officers to demonstrate how they are tackling crime. News Source
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Is there any connection between these things?
A Foreign Secretary who volunteers to go on the radio to praise a grisly old Stalinist and says terrorism is sometimes justifiable; a Defence Secretary who once flirted with Marxism, and presides over a military operation incompetently directed, wasteful of life and lacking in serious or coherent purpose - a war which damages our national interest and causes an increasing number of casualties?
Yes, I think there is, and I'll explain why.
[...]
Now, what has this to do with the wars this government keeps starting? Well, a quick diversion here. The rather odd surname 'Miliband' has been known to me for many years. In my Trotskyist days Ralph Miliband's two major books 'The State in Capitalist Society' and 'Parliamentary Socialism' were pretty much set texts. So imagine my amazement when, many years after I had broken with the comrades, two 'New Labour' MPs appeared called Miliband, who were the sons of this revolutionary sage.
See
The family of David Miliband, the foreign secretary, was branded untrustworthy and misleading by Home Office and Foreign Office officials when it tried to migrate to Britain
I found it hard to believe that they had emerged into the world completely unaffected by their father's thinking. I was assured, of course, that they were not revolutionary Marxists or anything like that. Well, have it your way, I said.
What I knew absolutely for certain was that they were not conservatives, and that 'New Labour' if it contained them at an exalted level, was not the takeover of Labour by conservatives, but much more likely a takeover of Labour by the New Left (which of course it is).
I still meet old leftists who try to tell me otherwise. They say that because the Blair-Brown government is not actually Scargillite, because it hasn't joined the Warsaw Pact or nationalised Mr Whippy or closed down Fleet Street or flown red flags from the Victoria Tower, it's not a revolutionary Marxist government.
How touchingly old-fashioned of them. Do they really not grasp that the New Left is not interested in this ancient, Edwardian piffle?
Gramsci, Marcuse and Wilhelm Reich are the holy trinity of this lot (not to mention old Ralph). Their watchword is not Clause Four, which is as dead as the Treaty of Versailles or the People's Budget.
Their watchword is egalitarian comprehensive schools, a policy so vital to them that they have forced it on the Tories too.
Their outward show of politics is political correctness, mostly the absurd and illogical conflation of 'equality' described in the ‘Unholy Trinity’ chapter of my book 'The Broken Compass'.
It is an enormous cultural revolution, aimed at parental authority, the married family, the national monoculture and the Christian religion, which it is perilous for anyone to defy.
Instead of nationalisation, they go for regulation, much of that achieved through the EU. Instead of militant trade unionism, they pursue employment laws, which impose union demands on all employers, not just those in the big industries.
And instead of coal, steel, railways and gas, their big state industries are the NHS and local government, together with the scores of Quango's they are constantly creating, and staffing with their own supporters.
People are always looking for secret or semi-secret organisations and meetings at which this kind of thing is planned in the dark.
Why bother? They were planned and done in the open daylight by New Labour, and they got away with it mainly because the media are so gullible and incurious and ignorant that they do not see what is in front of their noses.
Combine this political and cultural position with the most radical constitutional reform since Cromwell, the break-up of the Kingdom, the destruction of the independent features of the House of Lords, the passing of reserve legislation which could turn the country into a dictatorship overnight, the creation of the surveillance society, the use of the terrorist bogey to convert the police into a state gendarmerie with unlimited power, the politicisation of the judiciary, the politicisation and centralisation of the police, the co-option of the BBC, the sidelining and isolation of the monarchy and the usurpation of its position, and the political domination of much of the media and almost all the universities, and put that next to the extraordinary moves to increase the power of the executive at the expense of the Cabinet and the Commons, and you have something really rather alarming.
Then there's foreign policy. No longer does Britain pursue or defend British national interests.
No longer does it use our armed forces to defend or advance our needs and our territorial integrity.
It happily submerges our interests in those (often hostile to ours) of the EU or the USA (our embassies abroad now fly the EU flag).
Can anyone tell me what British national interest was served by invading Iraq, which we are told it did? It specifically abandons the one war in which we were fighting for our own national integrity and interests, that in Northern Ireland. It characterises the resulting defeat as an honourable peace, which it plainly wasn't, involving as it did the mass release of dozens of grisly, unrepentant criminals and the elevation to power of some of our bitterest enemies.
It is very hard indeed to imagine it retaking the Falklands if they were again captured by the Argentine, and in my view we no longer have enough of a Navy to achieve anything of that kind.
It is 'ethical', ie involving interventions for left-wing purposes. Left-wing? Well, intelligent leftists (now calling themselves neo-conservatives) are among the keenest supporters of these interventions, as proposed by Mr Blair in his famous Chicago speech.
Why? Because they are internationalists, favouring supranational laws , authority and agencies, from the EU to the body misleadingly called NATO, which is a sort of global Neo-con army.
Those who doubt and mock my view that New Labour is the Left in power (and I do find it very hard to get it across, provoking a sort of bilious fury when I once wrote an article for the Guardian saying so) must surely find it difficult to explain how this allegedly 'right-wing' government now contains - in the great post of Foreign Secretary...
a man who goes willingly on to the radio to praise Joe Slovo, one of the leaders of one of the most slavishly Stalinist Communist Parties in history, a man who concocted recipes for bombs and detonators, and who was very senior in an organisation Umkhonto we Sizwe - which blew innocent civilians to pieces with bombs and tortured its own members.
Do listen to the BBC Radio 4 programme 'Great Lives'. (Great?!? Joe Slovo? What measure of greatness is being used here?) It is still available on the BBC website. It seems to me to lack anyone prepared to suggest that Comrade Slovo might possibly be open to criticism, Mr Slovo's daughter being understandably fond of her dad, the Foreign Secretary being a declared admirer and presenter Matthew Parris being both a soppy liberal Cameroon and apparently uninformed about the South African CP or ANC terrorism.
But this is the key exchange. When asked by Mr Parris whether terrorism can ever be justified, Miliband stated: ’Yes, there are circumstances in which it is justifiable, and yes, there are circumstances in which it is effective.’
The programme contrived to suggest, wrongly, that ANC terror had been aimed harmlessly at electricity pylons, and that the South African Communists were virtually the only place where white South Africans could oppose Apartheid. One ANC bomb in Pretoria, set off in the city centre in the rush-hour, slaughtered 19 and maimed many more. It wasn't the only one of this kind. And what about the doughty Helen Suzman, who fought apartheid peacefully and lawfully, and wasn't a Communist?
Can anyone begin to imagine the scale and fury of the political hurricane which would have broken about the head of a British Foreign Secretary who said such a thing, in the era before New Labour?
He wouldn't have survived the night in office. The entire media would have been engaged in analysing the fact and re-running the quotation. The Tory Opposition would have been in a sustained uproar, demanding his head on a plate, not just issuing statesmanlike and mild condemnation.
And yet we're told there's been no revolution. Sometimes the best way to tell how deep change has been is to consider what no longer happens, as well as what has obviously changed. Sherlock Holmes long ago alerted us to the vital significance of dogs that do not bark, when they should, in the night. But we do not always apply his theory.
Mr Ainsworth's attendance at a 'couple' of IMG meetings may not seem especially significant in itself. But then remember the other things that we know about this government. That Anthony Blair belonged, during the Cold War, to CND, an organisation whose main achievement, had it succeeded, would have been to make the USSR the only nuclear power in Europe.
That Peter Mandelson was an active member of the Young Communist League. That the trade unions, who continue to have a major role in financing and running the Labour Party, were deeply penetrated personally and politically by Communists and other revolutionaries in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
(An example: Evelyn, the wife of the late Jack Jones - Mr Jones was for many years leader of Britain's biggest union - had been in the 1930s a courier for the Comintern, and remained till the end of her days a sympathiser with the Communist cause.)
Remember that many on the left believe that Alistair Darling, now Chancellor of the Exchequer, was an active Trotskyist (the same is true of two other former members of the Blair cabinet); that one of Mr Ainsworth's predecessors was an active and apparently unashamed member of the adult Communist Party, who I once observed quoting Antonio Gramsci in a radio interview.
That the Communist anthem 'The Internationale' was sung at the funerals of Cabinet members Donald Dewar and Robin Cook (this is not a Labour Party song. That is the 'Red Flag'. The Internationale, whose tune and words were plainly familiar to many of both congregations, is a specifically revolutionary hymn, once the official anthem of the pre-Stalin USSR).
That in most of these cases the information wasn't volunteered, or was misunderstood by ignorant political journalists who are amazingly unaware of the workings and history of Britain's Left.
These are the things we know about. What don't we know? News Source
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Defence minister Kevan Jones is at the centre of a 'squalid and cowardly' smear campaign against the chief of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, it has been claimed.
Political blogs alleged the junior minister was leading a plot to expose how much the Chief of General Staff had spent wining and dining guests at his Kensington official residence.
Party chiefs fear he will savage the Government's record on defence after he retires in a few days' time.
The Tories said it was clear Sir Richard, who this week repeated pleas for more equipment for troops in Afghanistan, was the victim of a behind-the-scenes briefing war.
Mr Jones is alleged to be one of those who had briefed against the head of the Army.
Yesterday it was claimed that one minister had described Sir Richard as a 'complete b******'.
When he was a backbencher, Mr Jones accused generals of 'living like Edwardian gentlemen' at taxpayers' expense and submitted Parliamentary written questions asking about military perks.
Sir Richard has repeatedly calls for more resources for British troops fighting in Afghanistan, demanding better surveillance equipment to protect against roadside bombs.
Last month, in a series of anonymous briefings by ministers, the General was accused of working to secure a ministerial post in a Tory government.
Some Labour MPs spoke privately about attempting to tarnish his reputation once he leaves office, with suggestions he will be 'fair game' in retirement.
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth was forced to issue a formal warning to ministers in his department not to brief against Sir Richard, who is planning to write a book on defence when he leaves office.
Senior Labour figures fear that in retirement, he will become even more strident in his criticism of the Government's record on defence.
Yesterday it emerged that the Freedom of Information Act has been used to request the details of public money Sir Richard spent on entertaining at his official home in Kensington Palace.
Ministry of Defence sources dismissed suggestions Labour officials were behind the submissions as 'nonsense', insisting the requests had come from journalists.
Mr Jones dismissed the allegations against him as 'silly season in the blogosphere' and heaped praise on Sir Richard's care for his troops.
'As a member of the defence select committee and a backbencher, it was quite right for me to ask questions,' Mr Jones said.
'I have a constructive working relationship with Sir Richard and, like him, I care deeply about supporting our servicemen and women.'
Shadow defence secretary Dr Liam Fox said: 'At a time when our soldiers are dying in Afghanistan, ministers spend their time in puerile personality politics.
'General Dannatt is a man of honour and integrity who leads from the front. His Labour detractors are squalid and cowardly, undermining from the shadows.'
General Lord Guthrie, a former Chief of the Defence Staff, said: 'This is ghastly spin, the behaviour you expect from the gutter. Richard Dannatt is beyond reproach. This is beneath contempt.'
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: 'There is no smear campaign against Sir Richard within the MoD.'
The row came amid warnings of fresh British troop deaths on the eve of Afghan elections.
Colonel Stuart Tootal, former commander of 3 Para, said it was a 'sad inevitability-that there would be more losses.
He urged the British Government to ensure they had a 'coherent and properly-resourced strategy' for the mission in the country.
International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said violence had been anticipated. He added that 'democratic elections represent everything the Taliban wants to reject'.
• The Ministry of Defence is unable to find £6.6billion of military equipment due to inadequate bookkeeping, according to a report.
Checks on MoD warehouses by inspectors from the National Audit Office revealed that more than one in five weapons and basic items of kit used by troops could not be accounted for.
The £6.6billion of assets is equivalent to the MoD’s annual defence equipment budget. News Source
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Cameron said this week that the armed services had “the support and admiration of the entire country for their courage and their sacrifice”. His sentiment is to be applauded.
In a cohesive and decent country with a universal understanding of the obligations of nationhood the Tory leader’s words would hold good.
But it has to be observed
that they are not true of modern Britain
As our report today shows there is a virulent strain of Islamic extremism at large in our society that actually celebrates the death and injury of British forces overseas.
Although many of these extremists are British citizens they are not worthy of the name.
Such people are the enemy within and deserve a one-way ticket to the sort of barbaric, benighted countries whose values they purport to admire. News Source
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British troops have lost one of their priceless Chinook helicopters in Afghanistan after it was hit by insurgent ground fire and destroyed by a Nato jet bomber to keep it out of Taleban hands.
The Chinook was hit by small arms fire as it was taking off north of Sangin, in Helmand province, last night. A special forces unit had disembarked with their kit only minutes earlier, but when it lifted off with just the four-man crew on board, the helicopter came under attack.
Ministry of Defence officials said the engine burst into flames and the crew had to fight the controls to make an emergency landing. “They managed to fly the Chinook forward 500 metres to reach a safe area before landing it,” one official said.
A second Chinook, following on behind, picked the crew up. None of the four embers was hurt.
The “unrecoverable” helicopter was still on fire and a decision was taken to destroy it to prevent Taleban insurgents from seizing any of the equipment on board. A Nato bomber was called in and dropped a 500lb bomb on the wreckage.
Last month, an MI26 private contractor’s helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade, also in the Sangin district in northern Helmand. Six Ukrainian crew members and an Afghan child on the ground were killed.
Although the MoD never confirm how many of the twin-rotor Chinooks are deployed in Afghanistan, there are estimated to be between 10 and 13, of which three or four have been upgraded with extra armour and armaments to be flown on special forces operations.
The biggest of the RAF helicopters in Helmand, capable of transporting more than 50 soldiers, the Chinook plays a vital part in ferrying troops and supplies around Helmand, and are also used for evacuating casualties.
With one Chinook down, British forces will have to rely more than ever on the Americans and other coalition partners to fill the gap with their helicopters. When the Panther’s Claw mission was launched in central Helmand in June, some of the 3,000 British troops involved had to be deployed to their area of operations in American Black Hawks. The MoD emphasised that all Nato assets were shared and played down the controversy caused when it was claimed the British troops had to “borrow” US helicopters because there were not enough RAF Chinooks in Helmand.
Following last night’s incident, the MoD said Joint Helicopter Command, the tri-service organisation, was preparing to provide another Chinook as quickly as possible, although no details were given on how this would be achieved. The RAF has a fleet of 27 Chinooks, many of them in the UK at the airbase in Odium, Hampshire, although any potential replacement will require an upgrade.
The special forces had been promised their own fleet of adapted Chinooks back in the 1990s. Eight Mark 3s, with highly advanced avionics, were ordered from Boeing and delivered in 2001 at a cost of £259 million, but then the MoD realised they had failed to include in the contract a transfer of the avionics technology software secrets.
The Chinooks could not be certified as airworthy without the software know-how: the pilots lined up to train on them could not fly them in cloud or poor weather conditions. As a result, the Mark 3s were parked in climate-controlled hangars at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, where they remained for the next few years.
In 2004 the MoD negotiated with Boeing to upgrade the eight helicopters, including modifications to the cockpit, at a cost of £215 million. But it took 30 months for the programme to be agreed and in 2006 it was announced that 3,300 troops were to be sent to Helmand.
As a result, the MoD decided to cancel the Mark 3 upgrade project and convert the special-forces helicopters into ordinary troop-carrying utility aircraft. But the costs for this programme rose by 70 per cent from £53 million to £90 million and the eight “reverted” Chinooks, costing a total of £500 million, are not due to be ready for operations in Afghanistan until next year at the earliest. News Source
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This week, it's ham that's bad for us - apparently, we shouldn't let our kids get a taste for it because in adults it might be linked to bowel cancer.
Last week it was mouth cancer and alcohol. Next week it'll be something else we really like being linked to something else really nasty.
Next month perhaps ham will turn out not to be so bad after all. Alcohol will be reported as doing you some good. And so on.
Health advice seems to change as often as the wind. My patients delight in pointing out: "You doctors just can't make your minds up, can you?" With good reason.
If you based your lifestyle around every little piece of health advice you heard about you'd end up with your head spinning. In which case, you'd better try this week's miracle vertigo cure right now. Because, next week, it'll be bad for you.
Better still, you could take a step back and think about why all this confusion happens in the first place. A big factor is human nature.
Jigsaw
We all like hard-and-fast rules.
Do we? (Ed)
It makes life simpler if we divide things up into good or bad.
Grey areas are less exciting and more difficult to interpret.
All of which means we tend to end up with health stories either in the "miracle cure" or "killer hazard" categories.
The truth is a lot duller. Most bits of medical research you hear about aren't breakthroughs at all.
They're just tiny bits in the jigsaw and they rarely make any difference to the Big Picture. Which means the overall health message really does stay much the same - stop me if you've heard it before.
Don't smoke. Go easy on the booze. Eat plenty of fruit and veg. Don't overdo the fatty, sugary stuff. Take some exercise. Don't get too lardy. But remember that a little of what you fancy does you good.
After all, we're not going to live for ever and we need a bit of fun along the way.
So much for us docs changing our tune all the time - we've been banging this drum for years.
And it means you can take
the latest health scares with a big pinch of salt.
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A Dad's Army of retired police officers could be called on to fill key roles in the event of a mass swine flu outbreak, it has emerged.
At least one force admitted senior officers have discussed drafting in former staff.
A recent meeting of Tayside Police’s executive body revealed “the deployment of ex-police staff and non-civilian staff into key areas to backfill any major absences” has been discussed at the highest level.
The plans emerged after statistics showed more people in Tayside reported flu-like symptoms than anywhere else in the UK.
Flu-like symptoms! Not necessarily flu! For gawd sake will this hysteria ever end? (Ed)
A Tayside Police spokesman said the potential impact of the spread of the virus was being constantly monitored.
He confirmed the possibility of drafting in former officers had been “mooted” but said no member of staff would be asked to carry out work that was “unsuitable or inappropriate”.
He said: “Tayside Police and its partners on the Tayside Strategic Co-ordinating Group continuously plan for a wide range of possible circumstances, incidents and eventualities.
“This includes monitoring the potential impact of influenza A (H1N1) and planning for contingencies.”
All officers and staff have been given guidance about the virus, including precautions they could take to prevent catching or spreading it.
The spokesman added: “The possibility of recruiting ex-police staff, while mooted, has not been explored, although it is important to recognise a significant number of our police staff have returned to the force after fulfilling 30-year careers with us as officers.” News Source
Thursday 20th August 2009
Two countries, two weddings, two outcomes. In the first instance, a minister in the British government has been accused of bad manners for leaving a Muslim wedding in east London when he was asked to sit in a separate room from his wife.
In the second, 41 women and children died when fire broke out in the women's marquee at a wedding party in Kuwait.
Reports of the latter event are hugely distressing, while only feelings seem to have been hurt in the row involving the minister, Jim Fitzpatrick. But the tragedy in the Gulf is not as remote from events in Whitechapel as it first seems.
Fitzpatrick has been depicted, wrongly as far as I can tell, as storming out of the wedding at the London Muslim Centre, which is part of the East London Mosque.
The MP for Poplar and Canning Town, who is also minister for food and farming, says he didn't cause a fuss but left when it became clear that his wife would have to sit in a different part of the building.
Muslim organisations have attacked Fitzpatrick, saying he should have respected the wishes of the bridal couple, and they defend gender-segregation at weddings and social events as a matter of "personal choice".
It isn't. As the ghastly fire in the Gulf state demonstrates, insisting that men and women occupy different spaces is common in states where Islamic law is in operation.
At last weekend's wedding, male and female guests were directed to different tents and children sent to sit among the women, which is why no men died in the conflagration.
This kind of segregation is often presented as a custom which has nothing to do with religion, but it's far more common in countries where people subscribe to religious ideas about purity and the need to curb sexual expression.
In secular countries, the idea that men and woman should not mix socially – whether in public spaces such as nightclubs or at private parties – is regarded as at best out-of-date and at worst offensive.
Treating women differently on grounds of gender is no more acceptable than discriminating on grounds of race; it emerges from an ideology of difference and sexual danger which has caused endless suffering across the world.
Such ideas are certainly not confined to Islam although it's just emerged that Afghanistan's useless president, Hamid Karzai, is trying to win votes with a law allowing Shia men to starve their wives if they refuse to have sex.
In the case of the London Muslim Centre, it couldn't be clearer that the policy of segregating female wedding guests is ideological; it says so on its website. "Wedding hire at the LMC is only available for Islamic weddings," it warns.
"Hirers should ensure they require a wedding that complies with Islamic Shariah in which there is no free mixing between sexes and where proper Islamic dress code and etiquettes are observed."
There's a paragraph about "segregated facilities" and families have a choice of hiring separate halls on different floors or a single room with a partition down the middle.
There's no way of squaring this with any notion of universal human rights, and Fitzpatrick's response seems to me both polite and principled.
Years ago I argued against gender segregation in bars and golf clubs, and I'm no keener on it when it happens in religious buildings. It's a blatant form of discrimination and I wish more politicians and religious leaders would get up and say so. News Source
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British Muslim fanatics sparked fresh fury last night by praising Taliban “heroes” for sending our troops back from Afghanistan in body bags.
Dozens of homegrown “jihadis” have posted website messages cheering last weekend’s carnage in Helmand province that saw Britain’s death toll rise to 204 soldiers.
Last night there were calls by senior politicians for the Home Office to crack down on the hate-filled rants that will distress even further the relatives of troops who gave their lives fighting the Taliban.
Related: The Traitors
The shameful website involved stoked up hatred as it emerged that one of two soldiers killed trying to save their mortally wounded commander had recently got married before deploying to Afghanistan.
The commander had got engaged while home on leave in June.
The tragedies were revealed yesterday as the Ministry of Defence named the three soldiers, all from 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, who died on Sunday.
The gloating jihadi website, Islamic Awakening, is a forum for Islamic extremism, prompting a slew of vile attacks on the efforts of British troops to rescue Afghanistan from the grip of fundamentalists.
The first messages were posted within minutes of the news of the latest outrage in Helmand on Sunday.
“Isma’eel”, said:
“Man, they really are dropping like flies over there lol [laugh out loud].”
Another, calling himself “AbuJunayd”, said: “Inshallah [God-willing] the more the kuffs [non-Muslims] deploy, the more the bros will send em back in body bags, or crutches or with serious psychological problems.”
“Waziri” said: “By command of Allah, the invading forces will be forced to withdraw humiliated and defeated by a group of men who between them do not possess even one transport helicopter.”
“Noorah”, said: “They are really getting whooped. Don’t know how they think they can win.”
Senior Tory MP Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Commons counter-terrorism committee and a former Army officer, said: “It’s deeply distasteful and clearly the last thing that relatives of the dead want to see or hear.”
Last night the Daily Express informed the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism at the Home Office of the website’s content.
A spokeswoman said: “The role of the internet in radicalisation is an area of concern to Government.”
The latest soldiers to die were Fusilier Simon Annis, 22, from Salford, who had married his girlfriend Caroline in February as he prepared to go to the front.
She said: “Simon was the perfect husband, son and brother. He was a true hero who made all of us so very proud and he will always have a place in our hearts. We shall love and miss him always.”
He was blown up alongside Fusilier Louis Carter, 18, from Nuneaton, as they tried to save Lance Corporal James Fullarton, 24, in Sangin.
L/Cpl Fullarton, from Coventry, who had already done two tours of Iraq, was to marry his “adored” girlfriend Leanne next summer.
Last night his parents Janice and Peter, joined her to say: “James was an outstanding soldier, so proud to serve his Queen and country.”
Meanwhile hundreds of people lined the streets of Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, to pay tribute to the latest heroes repatriated to Britain.
Rifleman Daniel Wild, 19, from County Durham, and Capt Mark Hale, 42, from Bournemouth, died last week when hit by a bomb.
They were trying to rescue Lance Bombardier Matthew Hatton, 23, from Haxby, North Yorks, who had been wounded by an earlier blast
A suicide car bomber killed 10 people – including a Nato soldier and civilian workers – and injured 50 others in an attack on a Western convoy in Kabul just two days before the country’s presidential election.
The nationality of the soldier killed was not known last night. News Source
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The grieving families of the latest British servicemen to be killed in Afghanistan spoke yesterday of their pride in their loved ones and their immense sadness at their loss.
But amid the sorrow there was also anger from some
at the way the men and women fighting for their country
are being let down by the Government.
Nowhere was the human cost of the war demonstrated more clearly than in Wootton Bassett where young Alex Hale, dressed all in pink, watched the coffin of her father pass through the Wiltshire town.
Captain Mark Hale, 42, was killed by a Taliban bomb last Thursday as he carried wounded Lance Bombardier Matthew Hatton, 23, who had been caught up in a previous explosion, with rifleman Daniel Wild, 19.
The bodies of the three men were flown back to RAF Lyneham yesterday and, in the now-traditional tribute, relatives, servicemen, veterans and the public gathered to pay their respects as the cortege made its way through the nearby town.
In a particularly poignant moment, little Alex had to be lifted up so that she could place her own floral tribute to her father on his hearse. Captain Hale was the 199th British victim of the Afghan campaign.
In Coventry, meanwhile, Peter Fullarton, the father of one of the latest victims, was saying that Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth should 'stop pussy-footing about and get the troops properly equipped'.
Lance Corporal James Fullarton, 24, had proposed to his fiancee while on leave a few weeks ago and the couple were to be married in Coventry cathedral next year. But on Sunday his life was snuffed out by a Taliban bomb and now his family are planning his funeral - in the same cathedral.
The attack also killed two comrades who went to his aid, Fusilier Louis Carter and Fusilier Simon Annis, who was newly married. All three were members of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. Their deaths took the UK toll in Afghanistan to 204.
L Cpl Fullarton's father - who worked with Mr Ainsworth when the future Defence Secretary was a union representative at Coventry's Jaguar car plant 20 years ago - angrily demanded stronger Government support for British troops.
Mr Fullarton, 60, said: 'The Army is underfunded. I just hope the guys carrying on with this tormenting work can be freed from the dangers my son has suffered. They need all the help they can get.
'They need full equipment - tanks, lorries, helicopters - to protect them from these improvised explosive devices.
'We've seen reports of helicopters lining up on air strips, tanks in Army compounds. These need to be shipped to Afghanistan, not sitting around in the UK doing nothing.
'There shouldn't be mention of a budget regarding the military where we are talking about lives being at stake.'
L Cpl Fullarton's bereaved fiancee Leanne Reggette said: 'There were many qualities about James that made him special. To walk up the aisle and become his wife would have been the proudest moment of my life.'
Fusiliers Annis and Carter were part of the team trying to carry the wounded L Cpl Fullarton to safety near Sangin on Sunday when a second explosion killed them.
Fusilier Annis, 22 and from Salford, married his wife Caroline in February, a few weeks before he deployed on operations.
His young widow said in a statement yesterday: 'Simon was the perfect husband, son and brother. He will be sorely missed by all of us. He was a true hero.'
Among the guests at their wedding was Fusilier Annis's close friend and fellow soldier Corporal Joseph Etchells, 22, who a month ago was killed by a Taliban bomb in the same area of Helmand.
The deaths of the two close friends highlights the heavy price paid by tight-knit units such as the 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, which has now lost six soldiers in recent weeks.
Louis Carter, aged 18 and from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, was one of the youngest British soldiers to die in Afghanistan.
His father Mick, 59, a hospital porter, said: 'I took him for a pint a few weeks ago and he told me he was prepared to die for his country.
'A terrible irony is that he was originally scheduled to be on leave now - he would have been safely at home when he was actually killed.' News Source
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Darren Jarrad, 28, was told by immigration officials that his wife Chantel could not make a home in Britain due to fears she would claim benefits.
The couple met in 2006 when Mr Jarrad was a private in the Royal Anglian Regiment on a training exercise in Canada and their daughter Shyanne was born in April 2007.
They lived together in the UK from July last year until January, but Mrs Jarrad then had to return home to Canada because her six month visa had expired.
Since the couple who married in Canada earlier this year they have only been able to see each other by making occasional transatlantic trips.
Mrs Jarrad, who has not seen her husband since April, has been trying to get permission to live full time in the UK, but has been turned down.
Norman Lamb, the local Liberal Democrat MP, described the decision as "a dismal payback" for Mr Jarrad's years of service as an infantryman serving his country.
UK Border Agency officials have ruled that Mr Jarrad who left the Army in April last year does not earn enough to support his family.
However:
But Mr Jarrad insisted that he earned "a decent wage" as a floor restorer and technician and they would not have to claim benefits.
He also revealed that his father Kevin would have been happy to house him and his wife and daughter at his family home in Felmingham near Fakenham, Norfolk.
Mr Jarrad, who served for six months in Afghanistan in 2007, said: "It's a real kick in the teeth. I don't want an easy ride in life and I don't want to sound like I'm making a big thing of being in the army, but I have done quite a lot for this country and then this happens.
"I didn't mind going out to Afghanistan and Iraq, I didn't complain. I just don't understand why they won't let us have the visa. I'm not a rich bloke, but we have enough money, and I have never claimed anything off the government."
His father added: "It's so unfair. Darren has done everything right and all he wants to do is look after his wife and their little girl. How can there be anything wrong in that?"
Speaking from Canada, Mrs Jarrad described the immigration rules as "understandable but kind of stupid" as she was planning to get a job if she lived in the UK.
"I am keen to live in Britain to experience the culture and get to know the other half of the family. The separation is becoming hard for Shyanne. She got to know her dad during the six months when we were together. Now she wonders where he is."
The couple now plan to appeal against the visa refusal or reapply, but face paying out hundreds of pounds more in fees with no guarantee of success.
Mr Jarrad who also served seven months in Iraq aims to try to move to Canada to be with his family if his wife continues to be refused permission to live in the UK.
Mr Lamb, MP for North Norfolk, said: "It seems to be a pretty pernicious system which results in a father being separated from his wife and daughter, especially when there is so much emphasis on the importance of fathers as role models and keeping families together.
"I will support his case, which appears to involve some pretty dismal payback from the government to someone who has committed to serve their country.
"The rights of Ghurkhas to live in the UK rightly received a lot of attention recently and it appears this is a similar example of, in this case, a British ex-serviceman being treated poorly.
"We have to change the way we treat the people who serve this country. For someone to fight for their country in the pretty horrendous circumstances of Afghanistan and then face being separated from his family doesn't seem right."
A UK Border Agency spokesman said: "The system is firm and fair, and it applies to everyone. All applications for visas to enter the country are considered in line with the UK's immigration rules taking into account all relevant circumstances.
"The responsibility rests with applicants to demonstrate they meet the criteria for the type of entry clearance they have applied for.
"For example, an applicant for a spouse would need to demonstrate that they will be able to maintain themselves without recourse to public funds.
"Where an application does not meet the requirements of these rules, it will be refused." News Source
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The death of the two hundred and first British soldier serving in Afghanistan must serve as a galvanising moment for the public to start vociferously demanding that this dangerous, vile and lie-based war come to an end, said Peter Mullins, British National Party spokesman on defence.
“One death is too many. Now we have over 200 of our brave young men and women killed in that vicious conflict which has nothing to do with us and in which we should not be involved,” Mr Mullins, a former Vulcan force bomber team crew member said.
“What makes it even worse is that the Tory and Labour parties have actively promoted immigration policies which have seen vast numbers of Taliban supporters flooding into this country.
“Unless the war is stopped now and immigration reversed, we will find that the conflict in Afghanistan will soon be transferred to the streets of Britain,” he said, adding that it was already fact that many Muslims born in Britain were fighting alongside the Taliban.
“In addition, the army has also reported that the majority of the electrical components of the roadside bombs being used to kill British soldiers originates from the Muslim community in this country, exported through Pakistan,” Mr Mullins said.
“The time has come for the British public to demand that this outrageous war come to an end. I want to appeal to all concerned members of the public to contact their MPs, of whichever party, and demand that Britain gets out of Afghanistan.”
“Even now, the psychopathic liar Gordon Brown insists that British soldiers are dying to ‘protect us from terrorism’,” Mr Mullins continued.
“The reality is that British intervention in Afghanistan, combined with an immigration policy which encourages the Third World to settle here, is the real cause of terrorism within our borders.”
Mr Mullins pointed out that the Taliban had gained control of Afghanistan in 1996 with the support of the American government.
“The Taliban government was granted diplomatic recognition by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — all of which are now supposed to be our allies in this bogus ‘war against terror’,” he said.
“We ask of Mr Brown and the other Labour and Tory liars in Westminster: why was it that the Taliban was not a terrorist threat to Britain in 1996, but now suddenly is? What changed in that far-off country which justifies hundreds of British dead?”
General Sir David Richards, the new head of the Army, was recently quoted as saying that he expected Britain’s ‘mission’ in Afghanistan to last as long as 30 to 40 years.
“This is outrageous,” Mr Mullins said.
“By that time, Britain will have been Islamified and the conflict will be on our streets.”
Mr Mullins said members of the public must start lobbying their existing Members of Parliament straightaway to end the war.
“Write to them in a polite manner, pointing out that the war is illegal, immoral and unjustified,” he said. “Demand that Britain withdraws its troops and institutes immigration policies which will prevent the Taliban from coming here. Do it now.”
The public can contact their MPs through the website ‘They Work for You’ which can be accessed by clicking here. News Source
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Soldiers off the street is a new organisation setup by a group of dedicated people, to help ex service personnel that have found themselves homeless and living on the streets throughout the United Kingdom, we think it is a national disgrace (but we will not go down that road at the moment). We intend to do our best to help as many as we can regain a normal life off the street.
Soldiers off the street; Intend to setup a number of ways to help homeless ex service personnel living on the streets as follows:
Soldiers off the street now have a head office to work from, 21 Chester Street, Wrexham, LL13 8BG. Opening at the end of September 2009. From here we intend to setup the organisation throughout the United Kingdom with key points in every city.
We are now in the process of looking for a warehouse where we can store clothes and parcels etc.
We intend to have a fleet of vans, with one in every city handing out clothes and food to homeless ex service personnel, the vans will also be used to collect clothes, food and furniture to help homeless ex service personnel setup their home once we have helped them find a home.
The first thing an homeless ex service personnel sells, in order to live are their medals. Once we have helped them settle we intend helping them recover them back, they are the rightful owners not some collector or dreamer. News Source
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Guess the graves will be needed if they go ahead with the Genocide using the deadly swine flu vaccination Program!
The government is planning to create a series of mass graves to cope with a second outbreak of swine flu in the autumn.
A Home Office document warns that a mass burial site may be needed to cope with the potential crisis.
The proposals were discussed between government officials and council bosses last month, and will affect those areas where there may not be enough graves for victims of the illness.
Within weeks of a full-blown pandemic, the number of burials could more than double and inner city areas "may experience a shortage of grave space", according to the report.
The Framework for Planners Preparing to Manage Deaths - a -page document - discusses using "a grave that is for a number of unrelated persons, excavated mechanically in advance and designed for efficient preparation and use."
It said this approach would create a "burial site for multiple graves and consecutive burials" but added there must still be "marking of the position of individual burials".
It added that some cemeteries "may experience shortage of grave space, in particular in inner city areas".
Freight containers and " inflatable" storage units may be needed to provide extra mortuary space. But it stated that "refrigerated vehicles and trailers should not be used".
During the meeting, in which a senior official from Westminster council, gave a presentation, officials discussed the need for cemeteries and crematoriums to work seven days a week and the hiring of extra staff to cope.
The report also warned there may be a need for more "basic and shorter services at the chapel" or for "memorial services" to be held at a person's home instead.
Whitehall officials are also speaking to coffin makers to see if they could meet demands.
Retired doctors may also be called back to work to issue death certificates so GPs can focus on patients.
According to the document it may no longer be possible to bury some people in family plots and it may also become impossible to fly home the bodies of Britons who die abroad.
Meanwhile, NHS Blood and Transplant appealed to the public to give blood to avoid stocks being reduced over the autumn and winter as regular donors fall ill with swine flu. People cannot give blood when they have flu so it is important to keep the blood banks well stocked, it warned. News Source
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East is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet” wrote Kipling. But clearly he’d never seen a “burkini.”
The burkini is notionally a cross between a saudi-style burka dress and a bikini. and when I first saw a photograph of one I thought that it must be some kind of satirical joke; a spoof, mock-Islamic, female version of that hideous “mankini” you see sacha Baron Cohen bulging out of on the posters for Borat, perhaps.
Yet the burkini does exist and it’s very likely that it’s coming very soon to a public swimming pool near you. since its invention two years ago by an Australian-Lebanese designer called aheda Zanetti, it has been spreading like a rash across Muslim communities the world over – everywhere from the beaches of Oz (which now has burkini-clad life- guards) to the strands of Gaza and Saudi to Britain’s municipal baths where it’s becoming de rigueur during those special segregated, Islamist-friendly time slots laid on by imbecilic local councils who think they’re doing their bit for community relations.
Croydon council has now backed down on guidelines which said non-Muslims would be barred from these swimming sessions if they refused to follow the dress code. Meanwhile the local mosque said it would never have demanded the rules in the first place.
You may have guessed that I don’t think much of the burkini. and you’re right: it’s an abomination.
Which isn’t to say I think this wretched ninja-suit-with-a- skirt – which sets back the cause of female liberation by more than a century – should be banned. Yes, I have an awful lot of sympathy with the French local swimming bath which recently did just that (supposedly for reasons of “hygiene”)
But in Britain we have a tradition of allowing our citizens to go out dressed just as ridiculously as they like – especially in summer – and I wouldn’t want us to lose this freedom just because of some aggressive prodding from an alien culture which seeks to destroy ours.
Make no mistake, though, that’s exactly what the burkini represents. When we think of the Islamist war on Western civilisation, we usually think of 9/11, of home-grown suicide bombers on London buses, of the flower of British youth being blown up in Basra and Helmand.
What we often forget, though, is that there’s
another equally important strand to the
Islamist movement’s political campaigning.
Not war by poison or the sword
but what you might call war by stealth.
This takes many insidious forms. You see it, for example, when the archbishop of Canterbury acts as the Islamists’ useful idiot by saying that the partial adoption of sharia law in Britain is “inevitable”; when 16-year-old Muslim girls fight court cases (aided by Cherie Blair) for their inalienable right to go to school dressed in a sack (aka the jilbab); when, in the name of Islam, shop workers are given the right to dictate the terms of their employment (refusing to sell alcohol or Bibles; failing to see that Muslim headgear isn’t the most appropriate dress for a groovy, urban hairdressing salon); and when local councils dream up a kind of religious apartheid in public swimming baths.
Islamism is not the same as Islam but a perversion of it. It is a political movement – as dangerous in its way as stalinism or nazism – which seeks to impose on the whole world a particularly extreme form of Islam – Wahhabism – born in the deserts of saudi arabia and now being exported through a mix of terror, big money and aggressive proselytising to Muslims from much gentler traditions.
The idea, for example, that to be a good Muslim girl you can only go swimming in an outfit as silly as a burkini would have appalled most British Muslims of previous generations.
Those nice Pakistanis who ran your corner shop in the seventies and eighties: their aim was to integrate; to blend in; to seek an even better life for their British-educated children – not to make posturing sartorial statements about how apart and remote they felt from the evil, licentious culture of “the kuffar” (as non-Muslims are now widely, contemptuously known).
What’s more, they would have seen all-covering outfits such as the burka or the burkini as being quite alien to their own version of Islam. that is the problem with the burkini. It’s not really about religious observance. It’s about politics.
When a British Muslim girl chooses to wear a burkini (or, as likely, is bullied into doing so by her menfolk), she is both defying the accepted cultural norms of secular British society and also sending out a intimidating signal to fellow Muslim females that this is the only acceptable way to dress.
What’s worse is that some local councils are now conspiring to support this Islamist cultural imperialism..
No doubt these council dim-wits believe they are acting in the name of “tolerance” but the effect it will have on society will bring about anything but. the more British Muslims are encouraged to feel they
are different from the rest of the country – be it through special sharia law dispensations or the kit their womenfolk wear at the local swimming baths – the less social cohesion there will be.
Burkinis may look and sound like a joke. But the insidious menace they represent to community relations is very serious indeed. News Source
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New scientific research has shown that it is possible to fake DNA evidence, raising fears that people could “engineer crime scenes”.
In experiments, a team of Israeli scientists were able to obliterate all traces of DNA from a blood sample and add someone else's genetic material in its place.
The process was so successful
that it fooled forensic scientists who carry out DNA fingerprinting for American courts.
The findings threaten to undermine the key forensic technique, which has secured thousands of convictions in Britain and around the world.
It demonstrates that, in theory, criminals could plant samples of blood or saliva at crime scenes to cover their tracks while leading to innocent people being wrongly convicted.
Dr Dan Frumkin, who led the research, said: “If you can fake blood, saliva or any other tissue, you can engineer a crime scene.
“You have full control of the situation.
Any biology undergraduate could perform this.”
Dr Frumkin's company, which has made a kit he claims can distinguish real DNA samples from fake ones, used two techniques to fabricate DNA evidence.
In the first, they extracted minute samples of genetic material from strands of hair and multiplied them up many times over.
They then inserted the DNA into blood cells that had been purged of all genetic clues to their real owner.
The blood then contained the genetic fingerprint of the first person, the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics reports.
The researchers believe that eventually the technology will be used by criminals, in the same way that credit card details are now commonly stolen to commit identity fraud.
They warned: “Today, DNA evidence is key to the conviction or exoneration of suspects of various types of crime, from theft to rape and murder.
“However, the disturbing possibility that DNA evidence can be faked has been overlooked.
“DNA with any desired genetic profile can be easily synthesised using common and recently developed biological techniques, integrated into human tissues or applied to surfaces of objects, and then planted in crime scenes.”
British experts said that while the science was possible, it was highly unlikely any criminal would go to such lengths.
Dr Gill Tully, of the government-funded Forensic Science Service, said: “You would need a full molecular biology lab, thousands of pounds worth of equipment and a fully competent molecular biology scientist or technician.
“The vast majority of people who may be involved in criminality would not have access to these materials.
“It seems a very complicated way to fabricate evidence. I can think of much easier defences to raise.” News Source
Perhaps, but it means the Authorities could easily put someone in the frame who is a threat to them using this technique. And who knows this could have already occurred and being instrumented by the corrupt! (Ed)
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Supermarket bills for young families have risen by 4.4 per cent in a year.
The price of nappies has soared by more than a third, while the cost of rusks has increased by 17 per cent, a study shows.
The figures demonstrate that while the official inflation rate remains low, millions are struggling to cope with punishing price rises for staple products.
This is especially so when the figures are looked at over a two-year period.
In this time, the typical shopping basket for a young family has increased by 13.2 per cent, adding more than £300 to annual bills, figures compiled by the price comparison website MySupermarket.co.uk show.
A family with teenagers will have seen an increase of 15.4 per cent over two years, while the bill for a young couple will have risen by 16.2 per cent.
Yesterday it was announced that the official measure of inflation, the Consumer Prices Index, remained unchanged in July at 1.8 per cent, well above the 0.6 per cent seen in the rest of the EU.
MySupermarket spokesman Jonny Steel said: ‘A family with young children will find the cost of their shop is still on the increase, with necessities such as nappies up by over a third and baby rusks up by 17 per cent on prices in August 2008.
‘The cost of some fruit and vegetables are also still higher than they were in 2008 and 2007, with the cost of carrots up by a staggering 71 per cent over the past two years.’
Although there are some signs of price falls in recent weeks, grocery bills in Britain have risen more steeply than in any other country in the Western world over the past two years.
Similarly, the price falls promised by retailers have lagged behind those seen in Europe, the United States and beyond, according to data compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Over this period, the major supermarkets have enjoyed a profits bonanza.
The figures did show that the cost of some products had fallen with the price of a cucumber down by 12 per cent in two years and Ribena dropping 11 per cent. News Source
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Get Stuffed! Labour / Tory what's the difference. Expenses are not wages and should never be! All this is doing is legalising expenses as wages and definitely is something that is not the worth of these lazy pigs at the trough! If anything.. Wages should be reduced for those not fulfilling their jobs properly!!!
A senior Conservative has called for MPs' pay to be doubled - in return for scrapping their second home allowance.
Sir Patrick Cormack says MPs annual pay should increase from £64,766 to more than £130,000.
He was condemned as "out of touch" by Labour, while Lib Dem Foreign Affairs spokesman Ed Davey said the veteran Tory "must be living on Planet Zog".
But Sir Patrick said he was standing by the call, made in a submission to the Committee on Standards in Public Life.
The committee, chaired by Sir Christopher Kelly, is carrying out a full investigation of MPs pay and allowances and is due to report later this year.
In his submission, Sir Patrick acknowledges his proposal could be seen as "politically unacceptable".
'Restoring confidence'
But he insisted he had "reluctantly" concluded that it was the best way to restore public confidence in Parliament.
The South Staffordshire MP, who entered Parliament in 1970, said: "I've submitted a detailed series of proposals to Sir Christopher Kelly and I am perfectly happy that they should be published.
"I made it plain in my submission that I had reluctantly come to the conclusion that the simplest and fairest way forward would be an abolition of the allowances and a commensurate increase in salary.
"This is not a propitious time for such a change and so I made a number of detailed proposals on the allowance front which would I believe go a long way to restoring public confidence. Foremost among these was that the second home should always be rented and generally in London."
Sir Patrick last week publicly backed Tory frontbencher Alan Duncan, who was secretly filmed complaining MPs had to live on "rations", telling BBC Radio 4's The World at One: "We don't want a parliament of political anoraks and rich people."
Another Tory grandee, Douglas Hogg, whose expenses submission famously included the cost of clearing the moat at his country home, has also called for MPs to be given a six-figure salary - plus expenses.
'Outrageous'
In his evidence to the standards committee, he said the current MP's salary was "so low in absolute and relative terms" that members of the professional and business classes would be deterred from entering Parliament.
Tory leader David Cameron has said MPs have to demonstrate they understand public anger over the expenses issue and last week suggested ministers might have to take a pay cut if his party wins the next general election.
But the opposition has seized on the latest comments by Sir Patrick and Mr Hogg, claiming the party is "out of touch".
Chancellor Alistair Darling, who is standing in for Gordon Brown while the prime minister is on holiday, told BBC News: "At a time when everybody else is pulling in their belts, at a time when people are worried about their jobs and some people are going part-time, MPs can not be treated any differently from anyone else.
"So I don't agree with what he has got to say about that."
Ed Davey, for the Lib Dems, told the Evening Standard newspaper Sir Patrick "must be living on Planet Zog to think that doubling MPs' salary would restore public faith in Parliament".
He added: "While many people are struggling to make ends meet, it's outrageous and offensive for such a senior Conservative to propose doubling MPs' pay." News Source
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Civil servants responsible for cutting Britain's carbon emissions have scrapped an energy-saving plan to switch off their air conditioning and open the windows instead.
The trial was abandoned after three days because officials complained about noise from building works, security risks and 'the wrong kind of breeze'.
An internal memo said: 'We have therefore decided to revert to air-conditioned cooling for the building.'
Staff at the Department for Energy and Climate Change in Whitehall were told other 'innovative ways' to reduce the building's carbon footprint would be looked at instead.
Environmental campaigners said the decision sent a terrible message to the rest of the country.
Jenny Jones, London Assembly member for the Green Party, said: 'Opening a window is the cheapest, most climate friendly way of cooling a building.
'Government organisations just don't have that sense of urgency about climate change.'
Shadow energy and climate change spokesman Greg Clark added: 'If the Government considers opening windows to be 'innovative', it is hardly a surprise carbon emissions have barely dipped in the last decade.'
The department, in a Victorian Grade II-listed building in Whitehall Place, is ranked in the lowest 'G' category for energy efficiency.
A spokesman said: 'As this was a test, comments were encouraged, it was not a case of complaints.' News Source
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A seven-year-old girl dialled 999 while her mother was being stabbed to death by an asylum seeker and told the operator: 'A man is trying to kill my mummy', a court heard.
Traumatised Aisha Bibi watched helplessly as her mother Rabina, 34, was stabbed 14 times in the neck, chest and back by Iranian immigrant Zakarya Rezaie, it was said.
A one-minute recording of the 999 call was played at Warwick Crown Court which heard Aisha desperately telling an operator: 'A man is trying to kill my mummy. He's my mummy's friend and he is trying to kill her with a knife.'
The recording heard the operator trying to calm the little girl down before asking her what her mother's injuries were.
Aisha replied: 'She's bleeding everywhere.'
Rezaie, 29, who entered the UK illegally in the late 1990s, denies murder, claiming he was provoked into killing her after she told him their relationship was over.
The court heard he forced his way into her home in Foleshill near Coventry, on September 3 last year and stabbed her repeatedly with a kitchen knife. Continued
Wednesday 19th August 2009
Political Correctness means keeping truth away from the Public and give the impression we are living in some form of utopia in cloud cuckoo Land!
Luton: Police and media cover up
Mass-Racist attack
The only report of this mass racist incident was reported in the Sun Newspaper and even then only six paragraphs were devoted to this article which should have made Front page News.
Unfortunately these are the times we live in, if this was reversed, all the major tabloids would have this as front page news and the mainstream news channels would be broadcasting the incident for days. This would then be followed by how racist white people are.
Apparently screaming women and children fled the scene as 60 Asians stormed the Luton pub where families gathered after a football game and and beat the people up inside.
And yet Luton Police who sent in 100 police officers said the attack did not warrant a comment! A report from 'Awaiting A Western Renaissance' follows (Ed)
We live in amazing times, times in which our leaders sell us down the river, leave us to a miserable fate and work feverishly against our interest, a case in point happened quite recently by all accounts.
Families enjoying time together in a public house, namely The White House pub in Luton watching football, suddenly found themselves attacked by sixty or more Asians, yet if one were to search for the story online or indeed in the owned press, they would find little in the way of a report.
Fortunately an enterprising soul has taken a copy of the actual article and we have it here for those interested.
Yet how can it be, that innocent families going about their lawful business, can be attacked and it does not warrant any or little mention in the owned press, if one were to turn the situation around and the families were non-white, perhaps Asians at a wedding ,then one can imagine a public outcry, politicians wringing their hands and all the organs of the press stirred to action.
I truly wish you would wake up to what they are doing to us, our treacherous leaders, our legislature and all sections of the elites, for those having difficulty reading it, a written copy.
AAWR can only wish those attacked a speedy recovery and say to the powers that be, protect our people or others may have to…
Race riot 'cover-up'
A police force slammed for being politically correct tried to COVER UP a weekend race riot.
More than 60 Asians were said to have stormed The White House pub where families gathered after a football game.
Steve Dann, 26, who was hit by a bottle in the incident, said:
"There was blood everywhere."
Several people were beaten up as terrified women and kids fled.
But Bedfordshire police, who sent in 100 officers, said the Luton attack "did not warrant comment."
Steve Dann, 26, who was hit by a bottle in the incident, said: "There was blood everywhere."
Earlier this year Bedfordshire police stood by as Muslim fanatics abused hero British soldiers on a homecoming parade in Luton town centre. News Source
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Planning laws are deliberately biased in favour of gipsies and travellers, a Government minister has finally admitted.
After years of official denials on the issue, Communities Secretary Shahid Malik confessed that travelling families are treated differently from 'the settled community'.
Justifying the policy, the minister said: 'Fairness does not mean treating people equally; it means addressing the different needs of different people.'
Malik's confession has been hailed by campaigners as a 'long-awaited admission of the truth' which they say reveals the way planning laws are weighted in favour of gipsies and travellers.
And it explains why many, if not most, local campaigns against unauthorised or proposed encampments are doomed to failure, no matter how justified the objections may be.
Mr Malik made his comment during a little-noticed parliamentary debate last month.
Liberal Democrat MP Steve Webb told the minister that his Gloucestershire constituents were furious that gipsies had been allowed to camp on protected Green Belt land that had previously been turned down for residential housing.
Mr Webb claimed that 'planning anarchy' had set in whereby travelling people deliberately flout planning law in the knowledge that local councils - which are under Government pressure to find more caravan sites - would eventually rule in their favour.
The MP said: 'There is a feeling among those who have contacted me that people do not have equal rights and responsibilities, but that there are separate rules and outcomes for different groups.'
The system, claimed Mr Webb, is making his constituents resentful.
Mr Malik replied: 'Fairness is what the Department for Communities and Local Government - my department - and the Government are all about; but fairness does not mean treating people equally; it means addressing the different needs of different people.
'The need to provide adequate sites for gipsies and travellers is a challenging one for local authorities, but that is just one of the many challenges that authorities regularly deal with.'
The Chambers English Dictionary defines fairness as 'honesty, impartiality, justice'.
Mr Malik's apparent redefinition of the word stems from the Government's decision in 2000 to classify gipsies and Irish travellers as distinct racial groups under the Race Relations Act.
This decision - coupled with changes to planning law and a desire to build many more gipsy and traveller sites - conferred extra rights upon these groups under both race relations and human rights legislation.
In 2005, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister issued council planners with a so-called 'good practice guide' telling them how to deal with gipsy and traveller camps.
The guide says: 'Some planners...think that "treating everyone the same" helps to ensure equality. But this is not the case.
'Explicit recognition of difference is needed to ensure that the right action can be taken to deliver a planning service responsive to different needs within the communities it serves.'
Critics say this means that in any planning battle, an argument between a 'settled' family and their traveller neighbours is a dispute not between equals, but two groups with different legal rights and privileges.
In June, the Daily Mail revealed that the number of legal gipsy and traveller sites has quadrupled to 1,279 over the past ten years.
Over the same period, illegal sites more than doubled to 3,680. Some illegal sites are thrown up over a Bank Holiday weekend, when council planning enforcement officers are away from their desks. By the time they return, it is too late to do anything about the encampments.
Conservative local government spokesman Bob Neill said: 'It's not fair that planning applications are treated differently purely because of the type of person who is applying the same, consistent rules should apply whatever your background.
'Under Labour, law-abiding families who work hard and pay their taxes face reams of red tape to extend their houses, whilst travellers are given special treatment to concrete over the Green Belt and defy planning rules.' News Source
Some are more equal than others!
'Fairness does not mean treating people equally; (Shahid Malik)
If this is the case then surely it's time to dissolve the costly quango Commission for Racial Equality headed by Trevor Phillips? (Ed)
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Six million are out of work and claiming benefits, according to research which lays bare the true scale of joblessness under Labour.
The figure dwarfs the official rate of unemployment, which this month hit 2.4million, and is four times the number claiming Jobseeker's Allowance.
It is expected to soar to 6.4million by the end of the year and 6.8million by the end of 2010, prompting fears that Labour has created a generation of benefit addicts.
About one in six of the 37-million-strong working age population is out of work, according to the Policy Exchange think-tank.
This includes 1.6million on Jobseeker's Allowance and 2.6million on incapacity benefit and its replacement Employment and Support Allowance - more than a million of whom the Government believes are perfectly capable of working.
There are also 736,000 on lone parent payments, 400,000 carers, 363,000 on disabled benefit, 182,000 on other income-related benefits and 95,000 who live on bereavement benefits.
The figures contain no overlap because each claimant is categorised depending on which of their handouts is the largest.
Under Margaret Thatcher's government the jobless total never got above 4.9million, despite headline unemployment rates of more than three million. Critics accused Labour of concealing the true scale of unemployment by moving people on to other benefits.
In 1997, when Labour came to power, £93billion was spent on social security benefits, but by next year it will be £ 193billion, more than doubling in 13 years.
Policy Exchange used official Government figures and projections from Alistair Darling's Budget and found that the six million jobless mark will be passed some time this month.
The number could even be higher, as with the exception of Jobseeker's Allowance the figures for benefit payments have not been updated since February.
Neil O'Brien, director of Policy Exchange, said: 'The narrow unemployment figures we are used to seeing tell you less and less about the real number of people who are trapped on benefits.
'Our unreformed benefits system is too complicated. It gives people too little financial incentive to work, and too little pressure and help to find work. There's nothing kind about leaving people to rot on benefits.'
Tory work and pensions spokesman Theresa May said: 'These figures plainly show Labour's complete failure to get to grips with our welfare system.
'Too many people have been abandoned on out of work benefits and now sadly the recession has made their situation even more desperate.'
Liberal Democrat spokesman Steve Webb said ministers were 'deluding themselves' by focusing on narrow sets of figures.
But employment minister Lord McKenzie said Labour was doing more to help than the previous Tory government.
'In the 80s and 90s recessions, people were left on inactive benefits without any support to ever get back into work, meaning individuals, their families and whole communities were abandoned,' he said.
'The Government is determined not to write anyone off, which is why we are investing £5billion now to help get people back into work. The Tories say we can't afford to act, but the truth is we can't afford not to.' News Source
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A mother has written to magistrates in disgust after four teenagers who viciously attacked her son walked free from court.
Mary Jordan has demanded an explanation after the gang admitted to the unprovoked assault.
Oliver Jordan, 18, was taken to hospital after the group of 16-yearolds, who had been drinking, battered him to the ground, kicking and punching him as he fell.
Each of them was given a sixmonth referral order, which means they will have to appear before a youth offender panel which will suggest ways in which they can ‘repair the harm caused’.
But Mrs Jordan, a driver for a private car-hire company, dismissed the punishment and has condemned the sentence in a personal letter to the magistrates in which she accused them of giving a green light to street violence.
The 43-year-old, who also has a 14-year-old daughter, wrote: ‘Did my son need to be brain damaged or dead before you would have given him justice?
‘This is not justice for my son, his girlfriend, my family and her family – you have let us all down.
‘I disagree with what you have done and would like an explanation as to how and why you reached this verdict.’
Recalling the night of the attack in Gloucester, she went on: ‘I shall never forget arriving at the hospital, waiting till the ambulance crew brought my son in … covered in blood, his face all swollen and battered. He may be a teenager to you but he was still my baby.
‘It was the first time in my life that I felt defenceless. I wanted to take the pain away but I couldn’t.
‘His little sister broke down and cried when she saw her brother covered in blood. I stayed with him and watched him start to lose consciousness.’
She added: ‘Opposite my son was a teenager who was being treated for a sprained ankle and swollen hand – well, guess what, he was one of my son’s attackers.’
Gloucester Youth Court heard last week that Mr Jordan and his girlfriend were followed along a street before they were surrounded by a group of youths, some of whom were on bikes and a moped.
Prosecuting solicitor Katherine Jones said: ‘The youth on the moped said, “Who’s going to do it?”
'Matters rapidly deteriorated and they rained kicks and punches on Mr Jordan, who fell to the ground and curled up into the foetal position.
‘His girlfriend tried to pull them off, but she was dragged away and thrown to the ground.
'Fortunately residents heard the commotion and came out and one of them phoned the police.’
She added: ‘Mr Jordan had a suspected broken nose, multiple cuts and bruises, a split lip and swollen jaw, while his girlfriend suffered bruising and swelling to the eye, nose and knee.’
Dealing with the four youths, the chairman of the court bench Sue Alexander told them: ‘This attack by a pack fuelled by drink was horrific, shocking and vicious.
‘It must have been a terrifying experience for the victim.’
She went on: ‘There is a stark choice between custody and a referral order – and I can say that you are not going to prison today.’
Mrs Jordan, whose husband Tim, 45, is a factory worker, also asked in her letter: ‘So what do they have to do before they go to prison?’
She went on to explain that her son, who has recently left school, and his girlfriend have suffered flashbacks since the attack in February and now drive everywhere because they are too nervous to walk around.
The parents of the four defendants, who admitted charges of assault causing actual bodily harm and affray, said they were ashamed by their sons’ actions.
The solicitor for one of the youths, said: ‘He deeply regrets this. When drink goes in, sense goes out. He let himself and his parents down.’ News Source
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In an extraordinary attack, the Magistrates’ Association said it is a “certainty” that officers will misuse powers because they cannot be “relied on” to handle them appropriately.
The comments have been made as part of the Magistrates’ Association response to the Government’s plans to allow police to issue £60 fixed penalties for careless driving.
Police have been accused of increasingly dealing with offences using on-the-spot fines as an easy way to hit the government’s crime targets.
Magistrates are worried that the number of offences now dealt with in this way is keeping some serious offenders out of the courts.
However, police leaders insisted that the use of the fines, which has risen sharply under Labour, helped to reduce paperwork and free up officers’ time.
It leaves two of the key bodies responsible for tackling crime and administering justice at loggerheads.
MPs expressed surprise that magistrates would have accused police of being untrustworthy.
Alun Michael, a Labour member of the Commons justice committee and former policing minister, said such “grandstanding” was not helpful and both parties needed to address the issue.
Paul Holmes, a Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: “It is a sorry state of affairs when the Government’s push for instant justice is driving a wedge between different parts of our criminal justice system.
“The police have been given wide-ranging powers without adequate debate. It is deeply concerning that even judges think they will abuse them.”
Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, added: “This is the reality of a criminal justice system after a decade of government interference in policing.” Continued
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The mother of Britain's 200th casualty in Afghanistan branded Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth 'stupid and arrogant' last night.
Hazel Hunt, whose 21-year-old son Richard died on Saturday, said Mr Ainsworth should spend time on the front line to understand how desperate troops are for more men and equipment.
The 49-year-old vet said: 'He hasn't got a clue. It makes me very angry when our top military commanders demand extra resources but nothing is forthcoming.
'The Army has been short-changed and the troops are suffering because of it. 'But the politicians are not listening to the troops on the ground. 'They've got to find more resources, better equipment and make sure there's enough of it.'
Mrs Hunt expressed her anger as:
- Gordon Brown was accused of snubbing soldiers by choosing not to interrupt his holiday to attend the opening of a centre for troops injured on the front line, even though he was only 17 miles away;
- Figures showed troops in Afghanistan now face an almost one-in-ten chance of becoming a casualty;
- Nato said its forces in Afghanistan were suspending 'offensive operations' during Thursday's election;
- There were two rocket attacks on the presidential compound in the capital Kabul, with no injuries;
- Millions of Afghan women were denied a chance to vote in landmark elections this week because there are not enough female officials to staff women-only polling stations.
The Defence Secretary has attracted widespread ridicule for his optimistic claims that the war could be won in a year and that everything is being done to provide troops with what they need.
Yesterday General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army, flatly denied Mr Ainsworth's claim that British troops will be out of the firing line within 12 months, saying it was not a 'realistic assessment'.
In a humiliating rebuff for the Defence Secretary, General Dannatt said: 'The realistic assessment is that we need to keep the kind of level of forces that we have until such time as the Afghan national security forces can themselves take over the work from us.
'Realistically, one year would be a challenge. Two to four years, maybe three to five years is more like the sort of time that it might well take.'
Private Richard Hunt, of The 2nd Battalion The Royal Welsh, was one of two dead soldiers named yesterday by the Ministry of Defence.
He was injured in a bomb blast in Helmand Province last Wednesday, and died on Saturday in hospital at Selly Oak, Birmingham.
The young soldier from Hardwick, near Abergavenny, was renowned for his physical strength and fitness.
His platoon commander Lieutenant Tom Richards praised Private Hunt's 'natural talent' for soldiering, adding: 'He died too early in his tour of Afghanistan to enjoy the adventure he craved, and far too early in life to fulfil the potential he clearly possessed by the sack-load.'
Mrs Hunt said she, her husband Philip and their three other children 'have all been totally devastated by his loss. We are all numb.' She said her son died just as a 'ray of sunshine' poured through the hospital window.
She had harsh words for the politicians who many military families believe have failed to support the troops.
She said: 'Bob Ainsworth is being utterly delusional. For centuries people have been invading and fighting in Afghanistan. We have been kicked out twice and the Russians couldn't manage it.
'Unless Nato is completely co-ordinated, it is going to happen again. There needs to be a clear plan. Without one our soldiers will carry on dying.
'Bob Ainsworth has made some very silly comments in the past few days and he has only been in the job for five minutes. I think he is speaking too soon and out of turn. He has been stupid and arrogant.' Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Brown stood accused of snubbing Britain's wounded soldiers yesterday, as latest figures showed troops in Afghanistan now face an almost one-in-ten chance of becoming a casualty.
He chose not to interrupt his holiday to attend the opening of a centre in Edinburgh for troops injured on the frontline, even though he was only 17 miles away at his constituency home.
Last night MPs asked why the Prime Minister had not taken one morning out of his summer break to show his support for wounded troops.
They warned that he needs to do more to dispel the talk - widespread in Whitehall - that he has little interest in the Armed Forces.
The row came as the Ministry of Defence revealed soaring levels of combat injuries among British soldiers in Afghanistan.
A thousand troops have been killed or wounded since the conflict began in 2001. A total of 790 have been wounded in action and 204 killed, with an alarming rise in both during the last few months.
The numbers of casualties hit a record high during July. This year is already officially the worst year for British casualties since operations began - even with five months of fighting left.
In the three months to July more than 400 British troops were admitted to field hospitals after being wounded in combat, or suffering accidental injuries or disease.
Ninety-four were wounded in action while fighting the Taliban in July alone - more than twice the previous record of 46 during June.
If deaths and injuries continue at the present rate, more than 800 personnel can expect to become casualties during the present six-month tour of duty - equivalent to around one in 11 of the 9,000-strong UK contingent in Afghanistan.
The British field hospital at Camp Bastion has been so busy in recent weeks that extra teams of American combat surgeons have had to be drafted in to help.
Sixty-seven UK troops have been killed since the beginning of this year, eclipsing the previous high of 51 during 2008.
Yesterday an Army Recovery Centre was opened in Edinburgh to help injured soldiers as they prepare to return to their units, or await medical discharge from the military.
But while the head of the Army General Sir Richard Dannatt travelled from London to show his support, MPs asked why the Prime Minister could not have driven a few miles to back the venture.
LibDem defence spokesman Willie Rennie, who is also Mr Brown's local MP, said: 'He should have gone. Considering he was just over the river in Fife, it is a pity he was not able to do so, particularly since people are very sensitive about how he sees the military. I think it's very poor judgment.' Continued
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Despite the rising number of British personnel killed and wounded and signs of fraying public support for the mission, ministers are expecting a request for reinforcements from General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, who is reviewing the mission.
British sources said that he will next month ask for a significant increase in international troop numbers.
His expected “surge” comes amid signs that the British force in Afghanistan is spread too thinly, raising the risk to troops.
Almost 1,000 British service personnel have been killed or wounded in the country since 2001. Figures released on Monday showed that more British troops were wounded in action in July than in the whole of 2006. July's casualty total was the highest monthly figure since British troops entered Afghanistan in 2001.
Britain has 9,000 troops in Afghanistan. General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the British Army, said on Monday that those numbers will have to be maintained for as long as five years before Afghan forces are able to secure the country.
Ministers have said European nations and Afghan forces should bear more of the growing military burden in Afghanistan, but privately, senior British figures are resigned to sending more UK troops too.
That could take British numbers above 10,000. Most of the extra troops would be training and supporting Afghan forces.
Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, said: “General McChrystal is doing a review. It may be that he asks for more troops and it may be that more troops are needed from the coalition in the short term.”
The comments come as Nato said its forces in Afghanistan was suspending "offensive operations" during Thursday's national election.
"Only those operations that are deemed necessary to protect the population will be conducted on that day," the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. Continued
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Bronze memorials to British soldiers killed in the world wars have been stolen in north London by thieves thought to have sold them for scrap.
The plaques, which also list civilians killed in the Blitz, were taken from a memorial in Broomfield Park, Enfield.
Ex-servicemen said the theft on 14 August was
"quite disgraceful" and amounted to "stealing our past".
It comes after the 204th British serviceman died in Afghanistan. Some 179 UK troops have now died in Iraq.
Father Jim Kennedy, a priest who runs a veteran's association in north London, said: "I think it is quite disgraceful.
"Clearly whoever did it does not understand how much they owe people who died in the first and second world wars.
"Without them the freedom to speak and practise religion freely would not exist."
Unfortunately 'the Freedom to speak' no longer exists! And all other religions are being promoted above Christianity. So to put things in perspective, the Brave men and women died in vain now that we have a Marxist treacherous government who don't give a damn for those that died in the past and those loosing their lives today! (Ed)
Brendan Farrell, a member of the Royal British Legion, added: "These people fought for our freedom and they [the criminals] are taking it away without realising it.
"They are stealing our past."
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Enfield police are appealing for witnesses and information following the theft of war memorial plaques.
"The theft happened in the memorial garden in Broomfield Park, Aldermans Hill.
"Police were notified of the theft just before noon on Friday." News Source
See Also:
Anyone with information should contact Enfield police on 0208 345 3349
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You Arthur
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An online sitcom about a group of suicide bombers living in Bradford could be damaging, a Muslim group says.
Dr Abdul Bary Malik, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association in Bradford, said the series Living With the Infidels would upset some young Muslims.
Producers of the series, which is made in London, say they have the backing of the Muslim Council of Britain.
Director Aasaf Ainapore said comedy was the best way of dealing with the "huge elephant in the room" of terrorism.
During the five-part series the five main characters set out to become suicide bombers but find that they like some western ways of life.
They are seen making a suicide video and visiting an internet dating site.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Association is a religious community with more than 80 local branches and thousands of members.
Dr Malik said: "My concern is that there will be some young Muslims who will definitely get very angry and upset about this.
"It may damage relations once again."
He also said that "the level of indecency and filthy language" was not representative of young Muslims.
Mr Ainapore, who created Living with Infidels with production company The System Predicts, said: "Comedy shines a light on quite difficult issues and it really gets to the heart of some prejudices if done well."
He said Living With the Infidels added to "a long tradition in the UK of being able to mock" through comedy.
The series begins on 20 August. News Source
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A Labour peer has demanded an apology from Jim Fitzpatrick, the Farming minister, after Mr Fitzpatrick publicly criticised the segregation of men and women at Muslim weddings.
Lord Patel of Blackburn, a senior figure in Britain's Muslim community, accused Mr Fitzpatrick of launching a "cowardly attack" on Muslims who opted for a segregated wedding, accusing him of pandering to "anti-Muslim sentiment" within his constituency.
Mr Fitzpatrick angered many Muslims in his east London constituency when he walked out of a ceremony at the London Muslim Centre last week in protest at being split up from his wife.
He also gave interviews suggesting that the custom showed a "degree of intolerance" towards guests who may be offended.
But in a scathing attack on his party colleague, Lord Patel said that Mr Fitzpatrick's stance was merely an attempt to gain votes.
"I suspect Mr Fitzpatrick has one eye on the general election and has mistakenly used this event for political gain," he said. "He is playing to a section of the voters with whom anti-Muslim sentiment is appealing. This is underhand and dangerous."
He warned that Mr Fitzpatrick risked creating "alienation and distrust" within his own community by implying that all Muslims in the area must assimilate for reasons of social cohesion.
The bridegroom has also asked for an apology from Mr Fitzpatrick for "hijacking" the ceremony for political gain. Bodrul Islam said he had been "amazed and shocked" by Mr Fitzpatrick's protest.
The minister blamed the decision to segregate men and women at the ceremony on the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), a conservative group with an office at the East London Mosque next door to the wedding venue. However, Mr Islam denied that he or his wife had come under any pressure to separate their guests.
Mr Fitzpatrick yesterday said he had been seeking to highlight the growing influence of the IFE, rather than criticise the wishes of the families involved.
"There was nothing cowardly about the attack on the IFE. It was very direct and very open," he said.
"The IFE are intolerant, not the community. The community is a very generous and open one. My beef is that the IFE is starting to influence the social and political life of the Bangladeshi and Muslim community.
"I have apologised on camera to the families and to the community for any offence that I may have caused. That was not what I was trying to do." News Source
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Over and over again, British people — and Europeans generally — are told that they must “accommodate the minorities” in their countries.
Yet the worldwide reality is that European-origin people are the true global minority, and, using the liberal logic which demands special rights for minorities, it is Europeans who should receive the special perks.
Consider the following: The world’s population is forecast to hit 7 billion in 2011, the vast majority of its growth coming in ‘developing’ and, in many cases, the poorest nations, according to the latest World Population Data Sheet issued by the Population Reference Bureau in America.
Some 97 percent of global growth over the next 40 years will happen in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, said the report.
“The great bulk of today’s 1.2 billion youth — nearly 90 percent — are in developing countries,” said Carl Haub, a co-author of the report. Eight in 10 of those youth live in Africa and Asia.
“During the next few decades, these young people will most likely continue the current trend of moving from rural areas to cities in search of education and training opportunities, gainful employment, and adequate health care,” Haub continued, calling it one of the major social questions of the next few decades.
In the developed world, the United States and Canada will account for most of the growth — half from immigration and half from a natural increase in the population — births minus deaths, according to the report.
High fertility rates and a young population base in the ‘developing’ world will fuel most of the growth, especially in Africa, where women often give birth to six or seven children over a lifetime, the report says. The number is about two in the United States and 1.5 in Canada.
A stark contrast can be drawn between Uganda and Canada, which currently have about 34 million and 31 million residents, respectively. By 2050, Canada’s population is projected to be 42 million, while Uganda’s is expected to soar to 96 million, more than tripling.
“Even with declining fertility rates in many countries, world population is still growing at a rapid rate,” said Bill Butz, president of the bureau. “The increase from 6 billion to 7 billion is likely to take 12 years, as did the increase from 5 billion to 6 billion. Both events are unprecedented in world history.”
By 2050, India is projected to be the world’s most populous nation at 1.7 billion, overtaking current leader China, which is forecast to hit 1.4 billion. The United States is expected to reach 439 million for No. 3 on the list — but the vast majority of that growth will be from immigration from Mexico and South America.
From 1900 to 2100 — a period of 210 years, the proportion of whites on earth will have dropped from 30 percent to three percent. More arresting is that the white population is shrinking not only in relative but in absolute terms. Two hundred million white people, one in every six on earth — a number equal to the entire population of France, Britain, Holland and Germany — will vanish by 2060.
Arabic peoples, 94 million at the birth of Israel in 1948, outnumbered seven to one by Europeans, will rise to 743 million in 2060, a tenfold increase, and will be 75 percent of the ‘white’ population.
A United Nations population survey in 2007 predicted the 21st century disappearance of western man.
By 2050, a fourth of all the people of Eastern Europe will have vanished. Ukraine will lose one-third of its population. Russia, 150 million at the breakup of the Soviet Union, 142 million today, will be down to 108 million.
By 2050, Iran’s population will have risen from today’s 71 million to 100 million. Pakistan will add 84 million to reach almost 300 million. Afghanistan’s population will triple from 27 million to 79 million. Iraq’s will go from 29 million to 62 million.
The UN statistics, however, show the populations of Northern, Western and Southern Europe stabilising or falling only slightly.
According to the Pew Research Center, the Hispanic population of the United States of America will triple to 127 million by 2050, as Mexico’s population grows to 130 million.
It is time, therefore, that liberals stopped talking about ‘minorities’ as if European people were somehow the dominating majority. European-origin people across the world are the true minority, and as such deserve extra special treatment in their home nations.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by General Assembly Resolution 61/295 on 13 September 2007, states very clearly that:
“Article 3
Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
Article 4
Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions.
Article 6
Every indigenous individual has the right to a nationality.
Article 8
1. Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture.
2. States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for:
(a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities;
(b) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources;
(c) Any form of forced population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining any of their rights;
(d) Any form of forced assimilation or integration;
(e) Any form of propaganda designed to promote or incite racial or ethnic discrimination directed against them.
Article 33
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to determine their own identity or membership in accordance with their customs and traditions. This does not impair the right of indigenous individuals to obtain citizenship of the States in which they live.
2. Indigenous peoples have the right to determine the structures and to select the membership of their institutions in accordance with their own procedures.”
Tuesday 18th August 2009
A coach used by Border Agency workers to commute to France could have provided a route for hundreds of illegal immigrants into Britain.
A stowaway was seen fleeing from the coach in Folkestone, Kent, at the end of last month, in what appeared to be a one-off incident.
But a source close to the Border Agency has told the Mail this was just the tip of the iceberg, calling the coach a 'magnet for illegals' trying to sneak into the UK.
The authorities have since discovered two overlooked hiding places either side of the coach's fuel tanks, where up to four stowaways can ride at a time.
And because its passengers are immigration officials, the vehicle is routinely waved through border checks.
It follows a predictable route and timetable and stands out as it is virtually the only coach without markings.
It is understood that the Border Agency specified the vehicle should have no logos to prevent identification, but this has had the opposite effect.
Since last month's incident, three more illegals have been caught trying to hide on the coach in France.
And when it was later parked in a 'secure' spot within Channel Tunnel land to deter stowaways, two more illegals were arrested breaking into the area to reach it.
However, the source suggested the practice could have been going on undetected for years.
The coach has been ferrying border officers between Folkestone and Coquelles, at the Channel Tunnel entrance near Calais, for 365 days a year since 2006.
The source said: 'A large group of Border Agency staff have been staying every night for years at The Suite hotel in Coquelles - and the coach has always parked outside overnight.
'Some illegals have clearly discovered a new hiding place in it that no one had thought of before.
'The beauty of it is twofold. Firstly, in immigration officers' training, they are not trained to search for this space in a coach because no one had thought of it.
'Secondly, the coach is full of immigration offficers, so it's waved straight through by their colleagues at passport control.'
The source continued: 'I would not be surprised if the immigration service coach and its secret hiding place had been common knowledge among illegals for years.
'The driver has said he's seen illegals by the side of the road waving at him and giving him the thumbs up for months. Only now do we know why.
'It is very unusual to have a plain white coach, it sticks out like a sore thumb. It's like a big white magnet for illegals.'
The source added that some immigration officers sometimes drive to Coquelles in their own cars and illegals are believed to have stowed away in these, knowing they will be waved through.
The Head of Border Force for the UK Border Agency, Brodie Clark, confirmed that the hiding place by the fuel tank was only discovered after the incident last month and that more illegals have since been caught trying to sneak into it.
Mr Clark said: 'We have successfully prevented attempts to enter the UK illegally using the UKBA contracted coach. Those found in Calais were prevented from reaching the UK.
'Since the specifics of this coach design were identified as a potential risk we are not aware of any successful attempts to reach the UK in this manner.
'Last year we prevented 28,000 attempts by illegal migrants to enter the UK.
'This is further evidence of our commitment to improving border security and responding to the evolving threat posed by increasingly desperate migrants.' News Source
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Sir David Attenborough yesterday joined environmentalists and scientists in calling for a campaign to limit the world's population.
They said men and women in poorer countries should be encouraged to have fewer children to help fight global warming.
The West should provide money to promote contraception in the Third World and poor countries would be denied 'carbon allowances' unless they control their numbers, the Optimum Population Trust proposes.
Chairman Roger Martin said: 'Progress on climate change is being seriously hampered by the widespread refusal to acknowledge the link between total greenhouse emissions and the sheer numbers of emitters.
'It is time we abandoned this crazy taboo.'
Joining his call were Sir David, former Government environmental adviser Jonathan Porritt, longstanding population control advocate Paul Ehrlich, and Professor Chris Rapley, a British scientist who has suggested that the world's population should be cut by two-thirds.
The trust hopes to reduce the world population by three billion from the eight to 11 billion it is estimated to reach in 2050.
But Robert Whelan of the Civitas think-tank said cutting population 'destroys the rights of parents and particularly the rights of women'. News Source
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Asian gangs armed with shotguns and automatic weapons have emerged as the new threat to Greater Manchester's war on guns.
Street shootings dropped by a staggering 92 per cent when police smashed the leadership of the notorious Moss Side-based Gooch Gang.
That encouraged hopes that Manchester could be about to shed its 'Gunchester' tag.
Now a new threat has emerged in areas to the north and east of the city.
Police have identified a number of organised Asian crime groups in Bolton, Oldham and other parts of Greater Manchester. They say the new gangs are using guns to defend and enforce highly-profitable drug dealing operations.
Senior anti-gang cops say there are clear parallels between the Asian groups and those which emerged from south Manchester in the 1980s.
Then, the Moss Side gangs were highly-disciplined and only tended to use guns to support money-making activities.
The warning follows two fatal shootings in five days last month.
In the second - on July 8 - 21-year-old Junaid Khan was gunned down from behind in the car park of a doctors' surgery in Chadderton, Oldham - then shot again at close range with an automatic weapon.
Police suspect the murder is linked to Asian gang activity.
Shotguns
In Bolton, two shops have been blasted with shotguns in the past four months as rival groups exchange `warning shots' in an on-going turf war.
A new report by chief constable Peter Fahy has outlined the scale of the problem for the first time.
"The emerging firearms threat to Greater Manchester Police and local communities comes from identified Asian organised crime groups, with parallels being drawn with the historic activity of drugs gangs from the south Manchester area in the use of firearms to secure fiscal outcomes to their organised criminality," it says.
The report adds that the use of automatic weapons 'indicates an emerging trend not previously experienced with such consequence'.
Greater Manchester Police have been praised by ministers for their success in tacking the largely Afro-Caribbean gangs of south Manchester.
A special taskforce, Xcalibre, was set up, and officers work closely with community groups to gather intelligence, build confidence, confiscate weapons and prosecute ringleaders.
The number of gang-related gunshots in the Metropolitan and Trafford divisions fell from 38 in February-December 2007 to just three in February-December 2008.
The crackdown culminated in a high-profile murder trial, with the Gooch's Colin Joyce and Lee Amos jailed for life.
DS Darren Shenton, who leads the Xcalibre task force, said: "We are aware of the emerging issue of armed Asian gangs - and we will be employing the lessons we have learned in the past." News Source
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You David
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A “culture of racist bullying and harassment” that infected a secondary school led to a bloody hammer attack which wrecked a pupil’s life, a top judge has been told.
“Undue indulgence and leniency” towards disaffected Asian pupils at the 1,400-pupil Ridgeway Foundation School, in Wroughton, created an “obvious risk of racial violence” for which 15-year-old Henry Webster paid a terrible price, said his barrister, Robert Glancy QC.
Members of a schoolyard gang known as ‘Asian Invasion’ – along with young men from outside the school thought to have been summoned by mobile phone – savagely beat bullying victim Henry near the school’s tennis courts in January 2007, London’s High Court heard.
One of the outsiders laid into him with a claw hammer, fracturing his skull and causing devastating brain damage. Now the teenager, of Wroughton, is mounting a unique bid for massive compensation from the school.
Thirteen young men and boys were sentenced for their parts in the incident following two trials at Bristol Crown Court last year.
Setting out his case, Mr Glancy told Mr Justice Holroyde: “We say there was a failure to provide security at the school and to prevent intrusion by trespassers. There was also a failure to supervise the tennis courts exit from the school and a failure to impose and maintain adequate disciplinary standards, including control of the group of pupils known as ‘Asian Invasion’.
“There was a failure to deal with racial tensions and incidents, or to promote good relations between different racial groups. The pattern of events over several years led to the inhuman and degrading treatment of Henry and a breach of his human rights.
“They should at least have put up a security fence, as they did almost immediately after the attack on Henry. We say that the net effect of all this led to the incident in January 2007.”
However, Ronald Walker QC, for the school, pointed out that the attack on Henry took place after school hours and insisted that, short of stopping and searching every visitor, nothing could have been done to prevent what happened.
The school’s duty was to discipline pupils, not outside adults, and arguments that laxity in enforcing school rules contributed to the attack on Henry were described by Mr Walker as “fanciful” and “implausible”.
Denying the school has any liability to compensate Henry, the QC added: “The idea that some sort of disciplinary system would have been effective in preventing an Asian pupil contacting his brother on his mobile phone is, again, fanciful”.
Henry’s compensation bid will now go ahead for a full High Court hearing which is expected to start on October 19 and which is due to last five weeks.
If Henry, now 18, wins his case, he could be in line for seven-figure compensation. His younger brother, Joseph, his mother Elizabeth, and his stepfather, Roger Durnford, who all say they were left deeply traumatised by witnessing Henry fighting for his life, are also seeking damages payouts. News Source
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A Refugee with false passport is suing taxpayers for a six-figure sum.
Fridoon Sadiqi, of Prior Deram Walk, Canley, is seeking up to £150,000 in damages because he alleges he was unlawfully arrested and detained for more than three weeks while his case was put on hold.
As a result, he claims, he’s suffered depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Afghanistan national says he entered the UK with a false passport in September 1999, because he could no longer endure persecution from the Taliban, who were then in power.
Since then he’s been fighting to stay in the country with the help of a girlfriend he’s been seeing since 2002.
A High Court writ was issued against the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the UK Border Agency, at the end of June.
Mr Sadiqi at first refused to mention the woman - whom he now intends to marry - because he didn’t want people to think he was using her to get a visa.
Mr Sadiqi’s claim, under the Human Rights Act, argues that goals set by a Public Service Agreement (PSA) in January 2001, had the effect of “putting on hold” older applications to meet targets on new applications.
In addition, the authorities withdrew the concession of granting four years’ exceptional leave for Afghanistani asylum seekers once the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001.
Mr Sadiqi was told his application had been refused after being interviewed by immigration officers in March 2004.
In June 2004 an appeal was dismissed by the adjudicator, who accepted that he’d been persecuted by the Taliban, but argued that he was no longer at risk.
He applied for discretionary leave to remain in the UK in October 2004.
Permission to appeal was refused by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in November 2004.
The Home Office rejected his application for leave to remain in November 2005, stating that he could apply for clearance once back in Afghanistan - despite there being no facility for claiming clearance there. News Source
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Northumbria police top the national league for use of Taser stun guns, according to the latest quarterly figures from the Home Office.
Published today, the figures show that Tasers were used 250 times by specially trained units between January and March 2009 – compared with 187 times during the previous three months.
The quarterly statistics are the first to be released since all police forces were authorised to give Tasers to non-firearms officers who have been trained to use the stun guns.
Earlier this year the Home Office authorised the police in England and Wales to buy an extra 6,000 Taser guns at a cost of £8m. The decision followed a 12-month trial in 10 forces to extend their use to trained frontline officers.
The Tasers fire needle-tipped darts up to 6 metres (21ft) and deliver a disabling, 50,000-volt shock. They provide police with a non-lethal alternative to firearms when dealing with violent criminals. But Amnesty International has warned that the stun guns are potentially lethal.
The figures published todayshow that Tasers have been used in 4,818 incidents since they were introduced in April 2004. In the vast majority of incidents it was enough for the police officer to draw the Taser or to "red dot" (aim at) the offender to defuse the situation. But the statistics show that they were actually fired in 1,407 incidents and used to "drive-stun" in a further 185. Drive-stun is when the device is held against a person without firing the darts, and is intended to cause pain without incapacitating.
The top five forces for Taser use since April 2004 are Northumbria (704 times) followed by the Metropolitan police (700), West Yorkshire (345), Humberside (184) and Avon and Somerset (173). Northumbria serves a population of 1.4 million, compared with more than 7.5 million served by the Met.
Northumbria police used Tasers in 147 incidents in the first three months of this year, compared with 71 times by the Met.
A Home Office minister, David Hanson, said he was determined to give the police all the tools they needed to tackle violent crime. "Tasers have helped to defuse dangerous situations where people could have been seriously injured or even killed," he said. "Often just the threat of the device is enough. On many occasions, drawing or aiming a Taser has proved enough of a deterrent."
But the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Tom Brake, said they should only be used by a few specially trained officers and not be standard issue. "The government has put large numbers of Tasers in the hands of police officers without any debate," he said.
"Given the increase in Taser use and the fact they have killed hundreds of people in the United States, we must have a full public debate before we slip any further down the slope to fully armed US-style policing." News Source
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A British soldier serving in Afghanistan has accused politicians of "hiding away and out of danger" in a moving poem about the return of fallen troops to the UK.
The poem, entitled Repatriation, is circulating among UK troops in Helmand province and has been posted on Facebook.
It details how an unnamed "hero", who has died in combat, is flown back to Britain and driven through the town of Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, where crowds turn out to pay their respects.
One verse pointedly refers to the absence of Ministers from repatriation ceremonies. It reads:
"Politicians usually have much to say
"No sign of them near here this day
"They hide away and out of danger
"Much easier if the hero is a stranger"
The author, Staff Sergeant Andy McFarlane, who is currently based at Camp Bastion, wrote an earlier poem called Sunset Vigil about the deaths of eight British soldiers in a 24-hour period. Continue for full poem
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Nigel Lawson, the Tory Chancellor of the eighties, once said that NHS is “the closest thing that the British have to a religion”. The wisdom of that remark has been highlighted by the hysterical row over Conservative health policy.
Posing as the priestly guardians of the health service, Labour politicians seek to create a political climate where the NHS is regarded as a sacrosanct institution beyond criticism or debate.
Thanks to their bullying zealotry, anyone who dares to question the structure of the NHS is now treated as a dangerous heretic. That has certainly been the recent fate of Daniel Hannan, the independently minded Conservative MEP.
Taking part in discussions on American television about President obama’s healthcare plan, which aims to move the US system closer to the British nationalised, taxpayer-funded model, Hannan said the NHS is a “60-year-old relic” and he “would not wish it on anyone”. Hannan’s maverick views provoked an explosion of outrage, in which condemnation was mixed with sentimentality.
He was described as “unpatriotric”, “evil” and “a traitor”, while an army of believers came forward to explain how much they cherished the NHS.
This mood was ruthlessly exploited by the labour Party, which claimed that Hannan’s comments were evidence that the Tories had a secret agenda to dismantle the health service.
Spraying around adjectives such as “nauseous” and “rightwing”, the Home Secretary Alan Johnson wrote yesterday that the Hannan controversy showed “the Conservatives really are the barbarians at the gate”.
This is tripe. Cynical opportunism has been dressed up as devout indignation. The Tories have no plans to alter either the structure or funding of the NHS. according to their latest policy announcements, they plan to pour even more money into the system than labour has done.
Cameron’s line might be practical politics. given the support consistently shown by the public for the NHS, it would probably be electoral suicide to propose switching to a semi-privatised system based on insurance and charging.
Yet there is something funda- mentally intolerant, even undemocratic, about the unwillingness to allow any sort of open debate about the nature of our health service. in this country, we are fond of sneering at the fanatical anti-communist mood that descended on the Usa in the early Fifties, whipped up by the hard-drinking extremist senator from wisconsin Joe McCarthy.
But when it comes to the NHS we are sliding into our own form of McCarthyism, with politicians from all sides expected to pledge their undying allegiance. it is both childish and absurd to behave like this. such levels of devotion are not applied to other public services.
There are no demands for politicians to express their unquenchable faith in network Rail or the Department of work and Pensions.
The immaturity of Labour’s outlook was exposed when Health secretary andy Burnham proclaimed that, in the wake of the Hannan row, he was “over the moon about the strong support for the NHS -an institution i will support to my dying day, second only to Everton Football Club”. what is so depressing about this controversy is that it closes down any chance of real reform in the NHS. it might be impossible, on grounds of pragmatism, to move away from the Whitehall-run NHS but there is still scope for change.
Former labour Minister Caroline Flint said on the BBC yesterday that the NHS is “the perfect model” for healthcare, but that is all too typical of the quasi- religious fervour that infuses labour on this issue. if the NHS model is so perfect, then why has it not been adopted by any other advanced western democracy? and why is healthcare so much better in other countries such as Australia, France and Japan, which have, for instance, greater survival rates from cancer and lower incidences of hospital infections?
The truth is that the NHS needs far-reaching change. For a start, bureaucracy should be curtailed. last week a study of NHS Primary Care Trusts showed spending on officialdom has almost doubled in the past four years, reaching £1.2billion in 2007/8. Far too much money is wasted through strategic Health authorities and NHS quangos such as the Health improvement agency. There also needs to be a real clamp down on abuses by foreigners of the NHS.
“If British taxpayers knew how many overseas visitors we treated, they would be horrified,” says the manager of a London hospital’s casualty department. any taxpayer-funded system is bound to have rationing because resources are finite but that makes it all the more important to prioritise those in clinical need.
That should mean an end to IVF treatment on the NHS or the millions wasted on politically correct obesity or condom campaigns. and the contract which saw GPs’ pay soar in return for shorter hours, needs to be renegotiated. it is a tragedy that labour never embarked on any serious reform when it had the chance. Now, having failed to give us the system we deserve, labour Ministers cover up their inadequacy by shouting down any voices of dissent.
leader David Cameron has often spoken of his personal commitment to the NHS, not least because of the care it gave to his severely disabled son Ivan. indeed, one of the criticisms from radical reformers is that the Tory high command has refused to contemplate any change from labour’s approach, treating the nHs as if it were inviolate. News Source
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Campaigners are planning to organise mass protests at the Labour Party Conference.
Several national unions have backed plans to protest against redundancies, pay cuts, attacks on pensions or on trade union rights when the Govenment holds it’s party conference in Brighton in September.
Many other activists, including from the anti-war movement, the Campaign Against Climate Change and pensioner groups are also expected to join the campaigns.
One protest organised by the University and Colleges Union (UCU) and National Union of Journalists (NUJ) will be held on Sunday September 27 and midday.
Members of the UCU will be protesting against thousands of jobs threatened across the sector.
They plan to march outside the Brighton Centre during the afternoon.
A spokesman for the UCU said: “We are expecting a good turnout.
“But we don't know the exact numbers yet.
“The reason we are lobbying the Government is about the allocation of public funds.
“Particularly job cuts in higher and further education.
“We are still in negotiations to finalise the route we will be marching.
“We are expecting to get all the unions, the NUT, UCU and NUJ along.
“The churches of the trade unions each have their own concerns they will be expressing.
“It's a broad collaboration saying it is really important for the Government to change their decisions and improve the economy.”
Other unions are believed to be encouraging their regional branches to join the protest.
A spokeswoman for the Communication Workers Uniion (CWU)said: “We have a delegation that goes down every year.”
Union branches and activists from across the country have been booking transport to Brighton to take part in the protests.
Several union bodies, including Waltham Forest trades council and Islington National Union of Teachers are believed to have made block bookings for the train.
A group calling themselves Right To Work is organising transport from London Victoria to Brighton on the day of the protests.
On their website they said: “Instead of saving jobs, the government is pressing ahead with policies that threaten jobs from Royal Mail to local government to the civil service to the NHS.
“Individual unions and the TUC should be leading the fight against job losses by opposing redundancies, resisting closures and demanding a transformation of government policy.” News Source
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Advisers urged the Government to offer paracetamol to the public instead of Tamiflu, to stop the virus gaining resistance to the drug.
But the Department of Health advisers said ministers ignored their advice, even when it became clear the outbreak was mild.
They say the Government forged ahead with mass prescription, fearing the public would be angry if they were told that millions of Tamiflu doses were being held in storage.
But the widespread distribution of Tamiflu means there is more time and opportunity for the virus to develop resistance to the drug.
One of Britain's most respected flu experts went as far as to say Tamiflu could become 'useless' by the autumn.
Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor at Aberdeen University, said: 'I am concerned about the vast amount of Tamiflu going out almost unregulated.
'We are increasing the possibility that the flu will become resistant sooner or later. At the moment there is no desperate need for Tamiflu.'
The fears over the widespread use of Tamiflu continue on from last week when parents were warned not to give Tamiflu to children with swine flu because the risks far outweigh the negligible benefits.
Scientists said the powerful anti-viral puts children at higher risk of dangerous complications but has little impact on the length of their illness.
The research will spark widespread confusion as it contradicts the Department of Health, which encourages parents to ring a hotline to get Tamiflu for their children at the first sign of flu-like illness.
The Government's emergency flu hotline handed out no fewer than 100,000 packs of Tamiflu to children under 12 in its first two weeks.
A study also found half the children taking Tamiflu had side-effects such as vomiting, nausea and nightmares.
A DoH spokeswoman said: 'There is still doubt about how swine flu affects people - a safety-first approach is the best approach. This means offering antivirals when required.'
Professor Robert Dingwall, a member of the committee on ethical aspects of pandemic influenza, said there were talks with the DoH and Health Protection Agency about whether to advise people to treat themselves with paracetamol and ibuprofen.
He said: 'It was felt ... it would simply be unacceptable to the UK population to tell them we had a huge stockpile of drugs but they were not going to be made available.'
The panel, set up at the request of the chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, decided to offer antivirals to at-risk patients or those with underlying conditions.
It also wanted to Government to explain that there was no cure for flu. News Source
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GlaxoSmithKline Plc has started clinical tests on its experimental swine flu vaccine, completing enrollment for the first of 16 studies planned.
Glaxo, of London, said the first trial of adults ages 18 to 60 in Germany is part of a program to test the vaccine in 9,000 infants, children and adults in Europe, Canada and the U.S., the drugmaker said in an e-mailed statement today.
The vaccine contains an experimental additive called an adjuvant, which is designed to boost a patient’s immune response and extend limited supplies of the vaccine.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department declared a public health emergency over swine flu in April, and the Food and Drug Administration has the power to allow the use of unapproved medical products during such a crisis.
While Glaxo has said its adjuvant has proven safe and effective in clinical trials with 39,000 people, the additive isn’t yet approved in the U.S. Data from the first trial will be available for regulators in September, Glaxo said.
“The clinical development program, which has been designed in close partnership with regulatory authorities, will evaluate the immune response as well as tolerability and other safety aspects of the vaccine,” Thomas Breuer, chief medical officer of Glaxo’s biologicals unit said in the statement. News Source
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Polio, the dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria. And health officials say that in some cases, it's caused by the vaccine used to fight it.
In July, the World Health Organization issued a warning that this vaccine-spread virus might extend beyond Africa. So far, 124 Nigerian children have been paralyzed this year, about twice those afflicted in 2008.
The polio problem is the latest challenge to global health authorities who are fighting myths that have abounded about vaccines: that they were part of a plan to sterilize Africans or give them AIDS.
Nigeria and most other poor nations use an oral polio vaccine because it's cheaper and easier and protects entire communities.
But it is made from a live polio virus - albeit weakened - which carries a small risk of causing polio for every million or so doses given. In even rarer instances, the virus in the vaccine can mutate into a deadlier version.
The vaccine used in the United States and other Western nations is given in shots, which use a killed virus that cannot cause polio.
So when WHO officials discovered that a polio outbreak in Nigeria was sparked by the vaccine itself, they assumed that it would be easier to stop than a natural "wild" virus. They were wrong.
In 2007, health experts reported that amid Nigeria's outbreak of wild polio viruses, 69 children had also been paralyzed in a new outbreak caused by mutation.
It is a worrying development for officials who hope to end polio epidemics in India and Africa by this year. News Source
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You Jim
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Town hall chiefs are defying the economic crisis by spending millions on hiring ‘experts’ to teach people basic common-sense skills.
In the past year, 40 free-spending councils have employed more than 140 officials, including healthy lifestyle tutors, well-being officers and community walks co-ordinators. at an annual cost to the taxpayer of £3million.
Public spending campaigners condemned the rise in “nanny state” jobs, which comes after the Audit Commission criticised councils for failing to help communities cope with the recession.
Susie Squire, political director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers are sick and tired of being nannied by local government. Councils have been empire-building for years. They are trying to do too much and, therefore, not doing anything properly.”
Although she conceded that Britain needed to improve its public health, she said: “A lot of these posts are about common-sense things which people already know about.”
In a bid to reverse Britain’s woeful record on physical fitness, councils have turned to a host of experts and advisers to teach people how to play, walk and even eat.
But their efforts to persuade the nation to take up exercise and eat better range from the obvious to the obscure.
In Lancashire, Oldham Borough Council has hired a dance development officer, as well as three community well-being assistants.
Fife, in Scotland, has recruited a cheerleader and teen funk instructor, while Bolsover District Council in Derbyshire has recruited a £16,000-a-year village sports development officer to encourage residents of all ages in rural areas to take up football and BMX biking.
Mid Suffolk District Council pays an assistant sports development officer £17,000 a year to teach circus tricks to teenagers. It says the lessons “improve hand-eye coordination”. Jonathan Free, head of organisation development at Mid Suffolk, said: “This isn’t a statutory requirement for us. We don’t have to do it but we want to do it.”
Since July last year, council officials in Corby have appointed a community sports development officer, an assistant football development officer and an exercise leader.
Burnley has hired three children’s health lifestyle tutors to teach nutrition and exercise in schools. It is also one of several councils to hire a lifestyle tutor for firms and businesses.
Other new recruits include Lewisham’s healthy weight adviser, West Lancashire’s temporary mass participation officer, and a healthy living centre project manager for Adur District Council in West Sussex.
In Bromsgrove, £15,291 of taxpayers’ money will pay for a community walks coordinator.
Most posts are funded from town hall coffers but others, like the dance and mass participation officers, are funded by the NHS, or bodies distributing national lottery funds, such as Sport England.
A Local Government Association spokesman said spending on the health and fitness staff would have knock-on savings for the NHS.
He said: “We are talking real people doing practical posts offering real help on the ground to people in their communities. Councils will make no apology for actively working to give people better health.”
Council excess came under renewed fire yesterday with the revelation that more than £200,000 was spent on a trip to sunny Cannes in March for a delegation of councillors.
A five-man team from Birmingham City Council jetted to the south of France for a trade fair to drum up business for the city. The council claims the annual trip creates hundreds of jobs. News Source
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Europe's two biggest economies - Germany and France - have stepped out of recession, seeing a mild GDP increase between the first and second quarter of this year, while the eurozone's broader economic decline has markedly slowed down.
Both the German and French economies grew by 0.3 percent of GDP in the second quarter of this year according to flash estimates published by the EU's statistical office, Eurostat, on Thursday (13 August).
Greece, Portugal and Slovakia also reported a quarterly rise.
In contrast, Lithuania remained at the bottom of the bloc's list and showed little sign of improvement. Its economy shrank by a further 12.3 percent of GDP.
The 27-strong bloc's overall economic performance fell less than expected, by just 0.3 percent. The 16-member eurozone saw even stronger improvement - not out of recession yet but shrinking by only 0.1 percent of GDP in the second quarter.
In the first three months of 2009, it had dropped by 2.5 percent of GDP - more than the EU-27 (-2.4%).
"The sharpest contraction in economic activity seems to be behind us," commission spokesman Ton van Lierop commented, adding: "The situation is much better than we had expected in the spring."
Economists warn that the current boost is primarily a result of huge public investments, which may prove to have a temporary impact and could harm recovery in the long run due to heavy state debt.
Brussels has kept up calls for member states to return to healthy public finances as soon as possible after their economies kick in.
For some countries, reducing state costs also comes as a condition linked to international obligations. The Romanian government announced 10,000 job cuts in the public sector on Thursday, as part of austerity measures required by the IMF and EU lenders.
Bucharest also has plans to force all state employees to take 10 days of unpaid leave in the coming three months, according to Romanian media reports.
The second quarter EU figures also look less rosy when commpared to the same period last year, instead of to first quarter 2009.
The German and French economies are down 5.9 percent and 2.6 percent respectively year-on-year.
Latvia is down 22.6 percent, Lithuania is at minus 18.2 percent and Estonia is down 16.6 percent. News Source
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Important regeneration and business projects face cuts to funding due to Government incompetence and financial irregularities, it was revealed today.
Hidden in the small print of the Department for Communities & Local Government’s accounts was the revelation that Labour Ministers are preparing for a record £285 million of financial penalties from the European Union, on top of £40 million of fines already paid out to date.
The fines are for financial irregularities in handling regeneration and business programmes funded by the European Commission’s European Regional Development Fund.
The administrative incompetence includes failure to follow procurement rules and lack of supporting documentation to account for expenditure. This has led to the EU auditors issuing fines to effectively claw the money back.
Caroline Spelman, the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government, warned, "Having to pay out almost £300 million in fines will mean more cuts to regeneration and business support when firms are struggling and the public coffers are empty.”
And she stressed, "Rather than trying to bury this scandal in the small print of financial accounts, Labour Ministers need to come clean and make a public full statement on this sorry tale of incompetence." News Source
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Treasury ministers were accused of being in “complete confusion” over City fat cat pay last night after the disclosure five bankers were offered bonuses totalling £30million.
Barclays pledged the sum in an attempt to poach five commodity traders from a rival in potentially the most generous deal since the financial crisis erupted.
And new figures showed that British bankers were paid £7.6billion between December last year and April for their performance in the run-up to the near collapse of the banking system.
The latest revelations provoked a fresh row about rewards for failure in the banking sector.
Chancellor Alistair Darling yesterday gave his strongest warning yet that the Government will introduce a new law to curb bonuses for all banking bosses.
“If we need to change the law and toughen things up, we can do that,” he said.
“The public is rightly concerned because the taxpayer has had to stand behind a number of these banks and the whole banking system in effect. So people want to make sure we don’t get ourselves into this situation again.”
But the Tories dismissed his pledge as “hollow”. Shadow chancellor George Osborne said: “The Government posturing on bonuses reveals their complete confusion.”
He added: “All the while Gordon Brown’s promise last autumn that the days of big bonuses are over looks even more hollow than when he made it. It shows why the Conservatives are right that we need a complete overhaul of the regulation of banking, starting with a new regulator.”
The massive £30million bonus offered by Barclays to try to poach staff from JP Morgan sparked astonishment last night.
While Barclays has avoided part-nationalisation, the bank has benefited from taxpayer-funded state aid. It has made use of Bank of England funding and Treasury guarantees.
The deal threw the spotlight on Barclays president Bob Diamond, one of Britain’s best-paid bankers who received £21million in 2007.
Senior peer Lord Oakeshott, a Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, said: “Barclays makes no secret of the fact that it is trying to build the biggest investment bank in the world on the back of a taxpayer guarantee.
“The guarantee is there to support British banking, British business and British jobs – not to underwrite Bob Diamond’s megalomania.”
The offer was made to JP Morgan star trader Todd Edgar, 37, and his four-strong team. Mr Edgar is credited with making the US investment bank a $100million profit last year.
In total, British taxpayers are estimated to have propped up the banking system with more than £1.2trillion.
But Office of National Statistics figures yesterday showed that between last April and December – the peak bonus season – financial sector executives earned £7.6billion in bonuses.
Treasury officials insist the Chancellor is serious about introducing new legal curbs on the bonus culture. A Treasury source said: “This is not about bashing the bankers, it is about dealing with systemic risk to the economy and protecting the taxpayer.”
Mr Darling is expected to accept proposals for tough restrictions in a report on the financial sector by former City chief Sir David Walker due to be published next month. News Source
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AL-QAEDA fanatics claim home-grown terrorists are plotting to attack targets in Britain.
And, in an internet magazine read by thousands of Islamic extremists, they label Britain and Europe as a bigger enemy than the United States.
The site, promoted by supporters of deported hate preacher Abdullah al-Faisal who was booted out of Britain after serving a jail sentence for inciting murder, warns of "spectacular attacks".
It says the strikes are being planned by terrorists living here and others overseas. News Source
Monday 17th August 2009
Warning
UK Government blatant disregard
for Public Safety!
Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists (Daily Mail)
''More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu''
''information has been kept secret and away from public''
A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.
The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins.
It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine.
GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis
and inability to breathe, and can be fatal.
The letter, sent to about 600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious complications.
It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when:
- More people died from the vaccination itself than from the swine flu.
- 500 cases of GBS were detected.
- The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
- The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear.
- The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.
Concerns have already been raised that the new vaccine has not been sufficiently tested and that the effects, especially on children, are unknown.
It is being developed by pharmaceutical companies and will be given to about 13million people during the first wave of immunisation, expected to start in October.
Top priority will be given to everyone aged six months to 65 with an underlying health problem, pregnant women and health professionals.
The British Neurological Surveillance Unit (BNSU), part of the British Association of Neurologists, has been asked to monitor closely any cases of GBS as the vaccine is rolled out.
One senior neurologist said last night: ‘I would not have the swine flu jab because of the GBS risk.’
There are concerns that there could be a repeat of what became known as the ‘1976 debacle’ in the US, where a swine flu vaccine killed 25 people – more than the virus itself.
A mass vaccination was given the go-ahead by President Gerald Ford because scientists believed that the swine flu strain was similar to the one responsible for the 1918-19 pandemic, which killed half a million Americans and 20million people worldwide.
Within days, symptoms of GBS were reported among those who had been immunised and 25 people died from respiratory failure after severe paralysis. One in 80,000 people came down with the condition. In contrast, just one person died of swine flu.
More than 40million Americans had received the vaccine by the time the programme was stopped after ten weeks. The US Government paid out millions of dollars in compensation to those affected.
The swine flu virus in the new vaccine is a slightly different strain from the 1976 virus, but the possibility of an increased incidence of GBS remains a concern.
Shadow health spokesman Mike Penning said last night: ‘The last thing we want is secret letters handed around experts within the NHS. We need a vaccine but we also need to know about potential risks.
‘Our job is to make sure that the public knows what’s going on. Why
is the Government not being open about this? It’s also very worrying if GPs, who will be administering the vaccine, aren’t being warned.’
Two letters were posted together to neurologists advising them of the concerns. The first, dated July 29, was written by Professor Elizabeth Miller, head of the HPA’s Immunisation Department.
It says:
‘The vaccines used to combat an expected swine influenza pandemic in 1976 were shown to be associated with GBS and were withdrawn from use.
‘GBS has been identified as a condition needing enhanced surveillance when the swine flu vaccines are rolled out.
‘Reporting every case of GBS irrespective of vaccination or disease history is essential for conducting robust epidemiological analyses capable of identifying whether there is an increased risk of GBS in defined time periods after vaccination, or after influenza itself, compared with the background risk.’
The second letter, dated July 27, is from the Association of British Neurologists and is written by Dr Rustam Al-Shahi Salman, chair of its surveillance unit, and Professor Patrick Chinnery, chair of its clinical research committee.
It says: ‘Traditionally, the BNSU has monitored rare diseases for long periods of time. However, the swine influenza (H1N1) pandemic has overtaken us and we need every member’s involvement with a new BNSU survey of Guillain-Barre Syndrome that will start on August 1 and run for approximately nine months.
‘Following the 1976 programme of vaccination against swine influenza in the US, a retrospective study found a possible eight-fold increase in the incidence of GBS.
‘Active prospective ascertainment of every case of GBS in the UK is required. Please tell BNSU about every case.
‘You will have seen Press coverage describing the Government’s concern about releasing a vaccine of unknown safety.’
If there are signs of a rise in GBS after the vaccination programme begins, the Government could decide to halt it.
GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, leaving them unable to transmit signals to muscles effectively.
It can cause partial paralysis and mostly affects the hands and feet. In serious cases, patients need to be kept on a ventilator, but it can be fatal.
Death is caused by paralysis of the respiratory system, causing the victim to suffocate. It is not known exactly what causes GBS and research on the subject has been inconclusive.
However, it is thought that one in a million people who have a seasonal flu vaccination could be at risk and it has also been linked to people recovering from a bout of flu of any sort.
The HPA said it was part of the Government’s pandemic plan to monitor GBS cases in the event of a mass vaccination campaign, regardless of the strain of flu involved.
But vaccine experts warned that the letters proved the programme was a ‘guinea-pig trial’.
Dr Tom Jefferson, co-ordinator of the vaccines section of the influential Cochrane Collaboration, an independent group that reviews research, said: ‘New vaccines never behave in the way you expect them to. It may be that there is a link to GBS, which is certainly not something I would wish on anybody.
‘But it could end up being anything because one of the additives in one of the vaccines is a substance called squalene, and none of the studies we’ve extracted have any research on it at all.’
He said squalene, a naturally occurring enzyme, could potentially cause so-far-undiscovered side effects.
Jackie Fletcher, founder of vaccine support group Jabs, said: ‘The Government would not be anticipating this if they didn’t think there was a connection. What we’ve got is a massive guinea-pig trial.’
Professor Chinnery said: ‘During the last swine flu pandemic, it was observed that there was an increased frequency of cases of GBS. No one knows whether it was the virus or the vaccine that caused this.
‘The purpose of the survey is for us to assess rapidly whether there is an increase in the frequency of GBS when the vaccine is released in the UK. It also increases consultants’ awareness of the condition.
‘This is a belt-and-braces approach to safety and is not something people should be substantially worried about as it’s a rare condition.’
If neurologists do identify a case of GBS, it will be logged on a central database.
Details about patients, including blood samples, will be collected and monitored by the HPA.
It is hoped this will help scientists establish why some people develop the condition and whether it is directly related to the vaccine.
But some question why there needs to be a vaccine, given the risks