Universities
Cut to Fund the Rich Sally
Hunt the general secretary of the University and College Union
told the Union’s annual conference that ministers are
pursuing a policy of ignorance on education, where its’
education policy should be.. She asks ‘What kind of
a government would want to cut colleges and universities by
£1.5 billion while proposing a tax giveaway of £8
billion to big business. ‘The answer of course is a
Tory led coalition, most of whom enjoyed free university educations,
well free to them, courtesy of the tax payer. Big business
put the Tories in power, shaped their manifestos with expensive
advertising, it is only Fair the Government
should reward them. The resulting cuts will halve the number
of extra places to 10,000 this autumn. Sally Hunt also warned
the Lib-Dems not to go back on their promise to vote against
an increase in fees from the current £3,225 per year.
Danny Alexander the new chief secretary to the Treasury, who
took over from David Laws explains how he exploited a loophole
to avoid paying Capital Gains tax on the sale of his tax-payer
funded flat. He bought his London flat in 1999, then bought
a home in his constituency of Inverness in 2005. He sold his
tax payer funded flat in 2007, and bought another one. Because
he sold the original flat within 3 years of purchasing his
Inverness home, no Capital gains tax was payable. All legal
and above board.
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David
Laws Resignation 3
weeks into the coalitions’ term, they have lost there
first minister, David Laws.Multi millionaire David
Laws has resigned over allegations in the daily Telegraph
that between 2004 and 2007, Mr Laws claimed between £700
and £950 a month to sub-let a room in a flat in Kennsington,
South London, from his secret long-term
partner, lobbyist James Lundie.Since 2006, Parliamentary
rules have banned MPs from "leasing accommodation from
a partner". Mr Laws has confirmed he will repay the £40,000
of tax payers money, but queried whether
Mr Lundie, his long time “partner” counted as
a "partner" as defined by the rules on expenses.
Mr Laws said he wanted to protect his privacy.
Read
The full Article
News in Brief
David Cameron failed to highjack the
1922 committee, defeated by his own Back Benchers. Jon Snow
reports that according to David Laws, the Treasury
fed advice to the coalition talks. The Treasury is
only meant to advise the government, at that stage still Labour.
Is it possible that in the scrupulously and smoothly run negotiations,
Whitehall, enthusiastic for a settlement to the constitutional
hiatus, eager to help the smooth-running of negotiations in
any way it could, have over-stepped the mark? The
rate of growth for the first 3 months of this year was 0.3%,
an increase of 50% on the forecast of 0.2%. The deficit estimated
at £180 billion, which the Tories continually said was
under estimated stands at £156 billion.
The net cuts the coalition have announced amount to less than
1%, of the deficit, but that doesn’t take into account
the new department the coalition are setting up, the Office
of Budget Responsibility, which will provide borrowing and
economic growth forecasts for the Treasury. Main elements
of the proposed bill "have yet to be decided upon".
No mention of reforming the remit of the National Audit Office,
which was predicted in advance media coverage.
Regulation of the Banks will
go back to the Bank of England, No mention of the Bank Levy.
Welfare Reform Bill will create
a single welfare-to-work programme and make benefit payments
more conditional on willingness to accept work. Disabled to
be ‘encouraged‘to work. [No mention of bringing
back the Workhouses]. Where are these Jobs?
The coalition will introduce system of HGV road user charges
to ensure "fairer arrangement" for UK haulers.
HGV road user charges, is a new policy mentioned in
the Queens Speech, but not mentioned in either party's manifesto.
I think they mean that Fair Government, is Fair to the Government.
Several commentators have suggested that the coalition will
last 2 or possible 3 years. One also asked if David Cameron
will be remembered for sending his party into oblivion, and
will Nick Clegg be remembered for the sending the Lib –
Dems to oblivion.
Fair
Government, Creating Trust in MPs
The Lib Dems have applied for public money allocated to the
opposition parties for research. In a Newsnight interview
they claimed it was in the public interest. This is what they
call Fair Government, and is
inline with the principals of the Governments’
intent to promote confidence in the
Electorate following the Expenses Scandal. It is also
compatible with the Coalition pledge
to cut Government spending. Well
that’s Fair, isn’t it?
The Conservatives are going ahead with their schools for the
people, by the people. The idea behind this is that a group
of like minded parents set up their own schools, because the
ones we have now are not good enough for them. Funding
will come from....well the general public. These schools
will be purpose built, with public money,[ £30 million],
have the best teachers, and of course be run by the group
of parents, with the help of a preferred professional organisation.
The Governments preferred partner is Serco, who incidentally
have just been relieved of this responsibility in Bradford.
They will be the new Private schools, the only difference
being that parents won’t have to pay for these better
Private schools, the general public will. Of course the selection
process will be more strict, probably dictated by income and,
or, race. Well that’s
Fair, isn’t it?
Read the Full Article
Rule
Changes to Stabilise Coalition?
David Cameron is planning to change the rules on how an election
is called, in order to quote ‘to help the stability
of his coalition government’. This is what the conservatives
say is fair government.
The deal agreed between the conservatives and the lib-dems
is for a fixed 5 year term for the present government, and
it can’t be dissolved without the support of 55% of
the MPs. Conveniently the coalition doesn’t have 55%
of the MP’s needed, so they cannot dissolve parliament.
And coincidentally the lib-dems along with all the other MPs
doesn’t have 55% either. So the conservatives can get
rid of the lib-dems anytime they want, and nobody can do anything
about it.
That’s open, fair government, designed to rekindle trust
in MPs, well at least David Cameron thinks absolute power
is fair to him.
The present rules call for 50% of the MPs plus 1 as the number
required to dissolve Parliament, under these rules when David
Cameron ditches the lib-dems, there would be enough MPs to
dissolve Parliament. No wonder he wants to change the rules.
Read the Full
Article
What
is Happening to This Country?
According to Elaine
Okyere of the BBC, two thirds of young carers are being
bullied at school. What a disgusting
state of affairs ! From a survey carried out
by the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, who questioned 700
young people between the ages of six and 18, showed that 39%
hadn’t told their teachers about their carers’
responsibility.
Those who did tell their teachers felt they weren’t
being supported!
Ms Manzi for the charity said the results of the survey were
unsurprising.
"We knew anecdotally that young carers were suffering
in regard to education and schools and didn't have the support
that they needed," she said. The charity hopes more schools
will take notice of vulnerable pupils.
These kids are heroes, they look after invalided parents,
cooking, cleaning, washing as well as doing their school homework,
and in return they suffer stress, depression and tiredness.
The thanks they get... they get bullied, and for a lot of
them, this is all they have to look forward to.
Visitor
Referral It
has been a busy week this week, with most of next week already
fully booked, and part of the week after booked.
I have just had a chance to check the stats for last week’s
searches, with Google still providing the bulk of the search
engine traffic. The furthest Google queries were from Japan
and China. What is interesting is the increase in the use
of the UK Ask. com search engine from UK visitors.
Twitter and the blogs contributed an increasing number of
visitors.
Some of the search queries entered into Google were vague
to the say the least, the term ‘self
employed courier table of competitors’, was one
that Google directed to the Article Directory, and ‘
how do I work the mileage a small can do’ was
one that Ask also directed to the Article Directory. AOL also
sent the search ‘Van courier contracts’
to the Article Directory. Google sent the search term ‘caravan
trim manufacturers’ to the article ‘Meet
the Family’. It’s nice to know that the search
engines think we know everything.
UK Democracy
is Dead The
UK has a new government voted in democratically by the citizens
of the UK. What a laugh!
The Conservative voters, voted for the Conservative Policies:
They didn’t get those policies they voted for.
The Lib.Dem. Voters, voted for the LIB. Dem. Policies: They
didn’t get those policies they voted for.
The Labour Voters, voted for the Labour Policies: They didn’t
get those policies they voted for.The Conservatives and the
Lib. Dems. ditched their manifestos in the selfish pursuit
of power. The two leaders have dictated to the UK what they
will get. At least Gordon Brown stuck to his election promises,
and didn’t compromise his integrity. Read
the full article
Scammers
Hit UK Again: The
latest scam to hit the UK with a vengeance is being operated
using mobile phones. It started about 3 weeks ago with a simple
text message from a supposed legal company, asking if you
have had an accident in the last two years. The text message
invites you to reply ‘NO’ to stop future messages.
The mobile numbers are randomly generated by computer, and
by texting ‘No’ it confirms to the scammers your
number is live, enabling them to build a list for future scam
campaigns. When they have extracted sufficient cash from the
list, the list is then sold on to other scammers.
The next text you receive tells you that you have been awarded
damages in a recent court case, and asks you to send your
bank details. From that point on it is the usual scam technique,
asking for a small amount of money in order to release your
payment for damages. A lot of people still fall for this type
of scam, especially if they have contacted a solicitor in
the last two years regarding the possibility of claiming for
damages.
The advice as always is to be very vigilant, IF
IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY ISN’T TRUE.
Japan's Exports Boost:
Japanese
exports rose 45% in February compared with February 09, with
car exports to the US more than double, and exports to Asia
again more than double. Read
what Roland Buerk has to say
Carbon Tax Plan for
Motorist French
government is dropping it's plan for a tax on domestic carbon
dioxide emissions, saying the tax "would be Europe-wide
or not (exist) at all". More
from the BBC
Electric personal vehicles:
hazard, or not? Do
you think people should be allowed to use small Electric Personal
Vehicles (EPVs) on public roads or cycle tracks? The DFT is
asking for the publics opinion on EPVs are relatively new
forms of transport, usuallly built to carry a sole passenger.
Read the full article
Personal Import Allowances
If
you arrive in the UK by commercial sea or air transport from
a non-EU country, you can now bring in up to £390 worth
of goods for personal use without paying customs duty or VAT.This
excludes tobacco and alcohol, which have separate allowances,
and fuel.If you arrive by other means, such as by private
plane, you can bring in goods up to the value of £270.
Read
more
