And the rest!

While the Coalition buckles under the strain of economic stagnation, a new Civitas report shows that supporting the electronics sector could protect and create jobs. Selling Circuits Short by Stephen Clarke and Georgia Plank, reveals that the Government is ignoring the size and significance of electronics manufacturing.

Ello, ello ello!

Institutional racism is an unfair allegation to level at British police forces and its universal acceptance by public officials has led to harmful policymaking, according to a new Civitas report. In Mind Forg'd Manacles Jon Gower Davies outlines the history and influence of 'institutional racism' since the Macpherson inquiry, following the murder of Stephen Lawrence. He finds the evidence for institutional racism within British police forces to lack substance and describes how the resulting bureaucratic burdens placed on police forces have impeded their ability to serve the public.

Here endeth today's lesson. Harken & learn!

"The Food Stamp Program, administered by U.S. Dept of Agriculture, is actually proud that it is distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever. Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by U.S. Department of the Interior, asks "Please Do Not Feed the Animals."  Stated reason for policy - because the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves. 

Shelling out evidence: NIST ballistic standard helps tie guns to criminals

(Phys.org) -- Thanks to a new reference standard developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), law enforcement agencies will have an easier time linking the nearly 200,000 cartridge cases recovered annually at U.S. crime scenes to specific firearms. http://phys.org/news/2012-08-shelling-evidence-nist-ballistic-standard.html#nwlt

Big Brother fights crime

New York police launch high-tech surveillance 
New York police on Wednesday launched what officials say is a revolutionary camera surveillance system that will simultaneously scan the streets and call up data on suspects.

Could apply to police commissioners too!

Electing - rather than appointing - state court judges has drawbacks, study finds 
In traditional economic thought, competition is always good, and just as it's good for the economy, competitive elections should also make things better. But elections of public officials such as judges may have serious drawbacks. In the case of state court judges, for example, elected judges are far more variable in their sentencing than appointed judges, according to a new study.

A New take on the Broken Windows Theory

Study finds with vacant lots greened, residents feel safer 
Greening vacant lots may make neighborhood residents feel safer and may be associated with reductions in certain gun crimes, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Results show that residents living near greened vacant lots feel safer than those near non-greened sites. Additionally, researchers noted that incidents of police-reported crimes may be reduced after greening. The results expand upon previous studies and are the next step in helping researchers understand the full impact of vacant lot greening on crime, safety, and health. Full results of the study were published online this week in Injury Prevention.

Bother the country - let's just play tit for tat!

Plans to reform the House of Lords are being abandoned after Conservatives "broke the coalition contract", Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has announced.

Agreement on an elected Lords could not be reached with Tory opponents, he said, and the plans would be shelved rather than face a "slow death".

As a result, he said Lib Dem MPs could not now support Conservative-driven changes to Commons boundaries in 2015.

Virtual Terrorists are not alone!

How the 'lone wolf' terrorist networks 
A mounting global threat is of terrorists who act as "lone wolves". Locating and preventing such terrorist activity is more complicated than organizational terror threats. A new study conducted by Prof. Gabriel Weimann of the University of Haifa, reveals that these "lone wolves" are not in fact so isolated and belong to virtual terrorist communities on the Internet.

UKIP is NOT anti-European!

We're not anti-European!  We love Europe!  Europe is a rich tapestry of cultures, history and languages.  It has always resisted bureaucratic uniformity, long may it continue; vive le difference!  We respect the rights of sovereign states and their peoples to democratically determine their own futures, to live in peace and harmony whilst trading with each other.  We're already working with other democratic, freedom loving organisations, like ours, across Europe.

http://ukip.org/page/the-truth-about-the-eu

Nor is it right-wing, like the people of this country, it is a mix of all sorts.

Longer custodial sentences lead to consistent reductions in crime

Longer prison sentences contribute to reducing property crime, according to a new Civitas report which shows that prison is effective, especially when targeted at serious and repeat offenders. Acquisitive Crime: Imprisonment, Detection and Social Factors by University of Birmingham economist Dr. Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, with assistance from his colleagues Samrat Bhattacharya, Marianna Koli and Rudra Sensarma shows that for some crime types, longer custodial sentences lead to consistent reductions in crime.

UK election outcomes irrelevant, because of EU

"We are not governed from Westminster, we are governed from Brussels. It does not make any difference," he told the BBC's Hardtalk programme.

Continue reading the main story

Find out more

• Watch the full interview Hardtalk: Nigel Farageon BBC World News at various times on 6 August 2012

"It no longer matter who sits in No 10. The penny is beginning to drop with the British people and British businesses that we are no longer a self-governing nation. That matters far more than which brand of social democracy gets into No 10."

Interesting?

Study: Conciliatory tactics more effective than punishment in reducing terrorism 
Policies that reward abstinence from terrorism are more successful in reducing such acts of violence than tactics that aim to punish terrorists, suggests a new study in the August issue of the American Sociological Review.

Not a lot of information, more a heads-up

'Predictive policing' takes byte out of crime 
Crime fighters have long used brains and brawn, but now a new kind of technology known as "predictive policing" promises to make them more efficient.

Possibly not a lot of help, but JIC (although not JIT)

Terrorism and the Olympics by-the-numbers: Analysis from UMD-based START 
History offers a warning, but no clear pattern on the true risk of terrorism at the Olympic Games, concludes a new report by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) based at the University of Maryland.

Crowd movement

Experiments inform study of crowd motion 
What must the staid-faced University luminaries in those portraits around Sayles Hall have thought while they watched this scene play out for four days last week? Over and over, two to 20 young men and women in bike helmets adorned with what appeared to be five large antennae walked back and forth across a cardboard-covered floor. En route to goals marked by numbers just beneath the portraits, they dodged each other and arrangements of cardboard pillars. Each time they generated patterns of foot traffic.

Euro 'is doomed' warn experts as eurozone 'sleepwalks towards disaster'

By HUGO DUNCAN, JAMES CHAPMAN and BECKY BARROW

PUBLISHED: 09:40, 25 July 2012 | UPDATED: 10:28, 25 July 2012

The euro has broken down and faces collapse with 'incalculable economic losses and human suffering', according to an extraordinary warning from a group of leading economists.

The 17 experts said Europe was 'sleepwalking towards disaster', adding that the situation in 'debtor countries has deteriorated dramatically'.

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2178622/Euro-doomed-warn-experts-eurozone-sleepwalks-disaster.html#ixzz21kKhNmds

Lies, lies and damned lies.

Much of the UK’s trade with non-EU countries goes via massive containers which pass through Rotterdam or Antwerp in transit.  Under EU figures, this is counted as trade with the EU even though it is clearly non-EU trade.  This distortion is serious (some estimates suggest that it causes a discrepancy of up to 8%) and often known as the ‘Rotterdam Effect’.

So much for an Etonian education!

David Cameron has this week said dismissively that if we weren’t in the EU we would be a sort of ‘greater Switzerland’ – even one of his own backbenchers pointed out that Switzerland has banks that aren’t bust, a balanced economy that’s growing, a strong manufacturing base and healthy public finances.  Nigel Farage in the Daily Express said “This interview is the final proof that if you believe in an independent self-governing Britain you cannot vote for Cameron’s Conservatives.”

Youth Violence - a new approach

Expert panel calls for new research approach to prevent youth violence
Most research into youth violence has sought to understand the risk factors that increase the likelihood of violence.

Now, a federal panel has called for a new research approach to identify the protective factors that would reduce the likelihood that violence will happen. Grounded in the tools and insights of public health, the approach calls for studies that can guide the development of prevention strategies to reduce or eliminate risk factors, and add or enhance protective factors.

The findings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Expert Panel on Protective Factors for Youth Violence are published in a supplement to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

London Riots Could happen again

Another trigger event is all it will take for a repeat of the riots that plagued London and other cities across the country last summer, according to an expert from Royal Holloway, University of London.  Fabian Kessl, an academic visitor from the Department of Social Work, believes the riots are symbolic of a change that is occurring within society and unless the problems are addressed, it is only a matter of time before further riots occur.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-07-london-riots-expert.html#jCp

Autonomous robot maps ship hulls for mines

Autonomous robot maps ship hulls for mines
For years, the U.S. Navy has employed human divers, equipped with sonar cameras, to search for underwater mines attached to ship hulls.  The Navy has also trained dolphins and sea lions to search for bombs on and around vessels. While animals can cover a large area in a short amount of time, they are costly to train and care for, and don’t always perform as expected.

Google's on the lookout for human traffickers, drug cartels

Drug cartels, money launderers and human traffickers run their sophisticated operations online — and Google Ideas, Google's think tank, is working with the Council on Foreign Relations and other organizations to look for ways to use technology to disrupt international crime.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-07-google-human-traffickers-drug-cartels.html#jCp

Wake=up Call?

FBI forensic review could free thousands of prisoners

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22055-fbi-forensic-review-could-free-thousands-of-prisoners.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Thousands of people jailed on the basis of forensic evidence could walk free as the US criminal justice system looks to bring forensics in line with modern science.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Department of Justice announced this week that they will review more than 10,000 criminal cases dating back to 1985. These are instances in which guilty verdicts were based on forensic hair and fibre analyses, along with other methods that no longer stand up to scientific scrutiny...............

Democracy at work?

Big German cars favoured in new EU car emission rules
The European Commission presents proposals to limit automobile carbon emissions Wednesday that environmentalists complain will offer favoured treatment to manufacturers of big German cars.

Stress at work - worse for Police

Police officer stress creates significant health risks compared to general population, study finds
(Medical Xpress) -- The daily psychological stresses that police officers experience in their work put them at significantly higher risk than the general population for a host of long-term physical and mental health effects. That's the overall finding of a major scientific study of the Buffalo Police Department called Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS) conducted over five years by a University at Buffalo researcher.

Well, there's a surprise!

Multiracial youths show similar vulnerability to peer pressure as whites
Researchers who studied a large sample of middle- and high-school students in Washington state found that mixed-race adolescents are more similar to their white counterparts than previously believed.

Fair Weather Friends

Study: Weather might impact tone of Olympics coverage
(Phys.org) -- Whether it rains or shines might actually have an impact on how journalists cover the Olympics, according to researchers at Penn State.

Riot alert?

'Could the August riots have been predicted?' 
A University of Manchester team researching urban violence has developed a new method which can help city authorities to assess the conditions where conflict could potentially tip into violence.

Words of wisdom - from Boris

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/9337911/Dithering-Europe-is-heading-for-the-democratic-dark-ages.html

. If things go on as they are, we will see more misery, more resentment, and an ever greater chance that the whole damn kebab van will go up in flames. Greece will one day be free again – in the sense that I still think it marginally more likely than not that whoever takes charge in Athens will eventually find a way to restore competitiveness through devaluation and leaving the euro – for this simple reason: that market confidence in Greek membership is like a burst paper bag of rice – hard to restore.

Without a resolution, without clarity, I am afraid the suffering will go on. The best way forward would be an orderly bisection into an old eurozone and a New Eurozone for the periphery. With every month of dither, we delay the prospect of a global recovery; while the approved solution – fiscal and political union – will consign the continent to a democratic dark ages.

Give them a chance!

Foster kids do much better under approach developed by CU School of Medicine 
Foster kids who receive mentoring and training in skills such as anger management, healthy communication, and problem solving are less likely to move foster homes or to be placed in a residential treatment center, and more likely to reunify with their biological families, according to a study by University of Colorado School of Medicine researchers.

EU - Time to call a halt, and get out

 A recent study was conducted amongst 7,500 businesses by British Chambers of Commerce.  Key conclusions are first, that more than half of respondents (51%) now believe that a Free Trade Area would be a better deal than EU membership and the Single Market, while only 31% favour "economic union". 

Some countries actually find that it is easier to trade outside the EU, rather than cope with Brussels red tape.  It seems that many companies are choosing to focus their export efforts on the rapidly growing markets of the BRICS and the Commonwealth, which can only be a good thing

One by one, the arguments for closer EU integration are being dismantled by the reality of membership. 

Old, tired and misunderstood? Challenging stereotypes about the 'ageing population'

H&P co-founder Pat Thane's report, Demographic futures, for the British Academy, challenges the belief that an ageing population is imposing unprecedented economic burdens on society.  By considering the demographic evidence of the 20th century, and unpicking how it 
has been misunderstood, Pat Thane highlights the complexity and diversity of older peoples' experiences - in terms of inequality, health, and their contributions to society.  The findings have important and unexpected implications for policy makers.
 Read the report Demographic futures

MPs - read and digest......

The Singing Sands by Josephine Tey - same thesis, possibly more enjoyable reading.


The Government says Britain has a serious social mobility problem, but a new Civitas report shows this is wrong.  The Government’s social mobility strategy is based on a flawed understanding of the evidence.  Social Mobility Delusions, by sociologist Peter Saunders, reviews the evidence on social mobility in Britain and finds: Social mobility is the norm in Britain, not the exception, and it occurs in both directions across the entire range of the occupational class structure.

Quick and Effective Justice?

While police forces and the prison system grapple with the swingeing cuts inflicted by the Coalition Government, a new Civitas report reveals that policing strategies that target individual offenders could help protect the public.  Offender-Desistance Policing and the Sword of Damocles by two Cambridge University criminologists, Lawrence W. Sherman and Peter W. Neyroud, argues that letting the police deal with low-risk offenders quickly with a structured supervision plan linked to a deferred prosecution could reduce offending and allow police and the other agencies to focus more on preventing serious crime.

The wolf has been tasked with looking after the sheep

Nigel Farage slams new European Court judge appointment

The appointment of Paul Mahoney as Britain's new judge at the European Court of Human Rights is another kick in the teeth for the British people, says UKIP's party leader Nigel Farage.

"The man has barely set foot in the United Kingdom since the 1970s, has never sat as judge in the courts of England and Wales and has no experience whatsoever of dealing with the lives of real British people," Mr Farage said.

"His life has been that of a quintessential European functionary and his appointment is another kick in the teeth for the British people. So much for the Tories' tough talk to reform the ECHR. But what do we expect when committed europhile Ken Clarke draws up the shortlist for the post? All three people on his list were enthusiastic backers of the ECHR. Mr Mahoney says it's 'inevitable' that the Strasbourg court makes new law. Instead of finding someone to stand up for British values we now have an apologist for the current human rights regime where the real winners are terrorists and criminals.

"The wolf has been tasked with looking after the sheep. The British people can expect more absurd decisions out of the European Court of Human Rights while Mr Mahoney can expect £150K tax-free and 12 weeks' paid holiday. Nice work if you can get it."

Amazingly I agree with Mr. Cameron!

It is essential to stamp out the 'entitlement' culture - it isn't doing anyone any good, and creates a multitude of problems.

On the same basis, it is essential to remove/re-educate on the 'Council home for life' mentality.  A council home should be a stepping stone - and certainly not sold on, depleting the much needed stock and undermining the economy.

But Mr. Cameron, as usual, hasn't approached it holistically, he shouldn't just announce the cutting of benefits, but have something to offer as well, and put a positive perspective on it.

Critical incident? Case specific, immediate feedback machine!

Bomb threat? An app for that, too 


At approximately 6:30 pm on Saturday, May 1, 2010, a smoking SUV in Times Square was reported by alert street vendors.  Acting quickly, NYPD evacuated vast stretches on 7th and 8th Avenues, including Broadway theatres and several other buildings and hotels in the area.  The entire area was barricaded. Times Square on a Saturday evening before the shows is teaming with people, and the terrorist knew that. The bomb failed, but had it detonated, it would have killed and wounded many, according to NYPD.


The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and its public and private sector partners have developed a must-have "app": the First Responder Support Tools (FiRST) for computers and smartphones.

 "Bomb threat scenarios do not reflect a one-size-fits-all approach, and this app allows users to customize information to help them make informed decisions for response."

The FiRST application also includes HAZMAT response information based on the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) which includes information on over 3,000 hazardous materials. In addition to providing health precautions and response guidance, FiRST also retrieves current and forecast weather to show downwind protection zones for over 600 materials that are inhalation hazards.

Way to go?

Dutch doctors to save millions on medicines

Dutch doctors art to save the government 50 million euros by prescribing cheaper, generic versions of medicines, where possible.

Identifying co-conspirators

'Tell me no lies': New human factors/ergonomics research on deception may improve Homeland Security 

Recent world tragedies have led to an increased emphasis on the importance of deception training - especially at security checkpoints in airports, bus terminals, and train stations – that is designed to avert potential terrorist attacks.  Past research on deception has identified the physiological and behavioral cues that can expose the individual liar, but most major terrorist acts involve two or more co-conspirators.  In their upcoming Human Factors article, "Social Indicators of Deception," authors James E. Driskell, Eduardo Salas, and Tripp Driskell took a unique approach to examining "deception at the social level ; —cues to deception that arise out of the interaction between two people conspiring to lie . . . based on a transactional memory theoretical approach."

A Potential terrorist threat

Assessing Olympic terrorism threats 
The former Head of Department of Asymmetric Threats at the Joint Military Intelligence Division of Hellenic National Defense General Staff, in Athens, Greece, Ioannis Galatas suggests that the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London in July and August represent a potential terrorist threat as the successor to the late Osama bin Laden and a medical doctor himself, struggles to regain "face" amongst extremists opposing the West.

Hooray!

Whitehall shake-up could cost senior staff their jobs
Under-performing civil servants could face the sack under plans set out by the government yesterday to overhaul the skills and culture of Whitehall..

They take the jobs with no idea of what is involved, bring in consultants to do the jobs that they have been employed to do and often leave after a year or two, without having achieved anything, to join a headhunting employment firm for Senior Civil Servants, it doesn't seem to matter that they know nothing and have done nothing, apart from taking huge, unrealistic salaries.

Factors to be taken into consideration>

Children, brain development and the criminal law 
The legal system needs to take greater account of new discoveries in neuroscience that show how a difficult childhood can affect the development of a young person's brain which can increase the risk adolescent crimes, according to researchers.


The research will be presented as part of an Economic and Social Research Council seminar series in conjunction with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.

Underage drinking

Online alcohol threat to Britain's youth revealed 
(Medical Xpress) -- A new report published last week, by independent auditors of underage sales Serve Legal and Plymouth University, warns that online alcohol sales and purchasing by friends and family are creating a significant and emerging battleground in the fight against underage drinking.

Honour?

Girls' response to honor-related violence 
Girls in families characterised by strong social control often live a double life. Yet the roles and relations in these families are much less static than commonly thought, according to a new doctoral thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Balancing the odds on cybercrime

How much does cybercrime cost? 
(Phys.org) -- The first systematic study of the cost of cybercrime recommends that society should spend less on antivirus software and more on policing the internet

It Makes You Sick!

Well, maybe not you, but definitely me!  And they'll say "we have come in under budget, saving millions of pounds" but where will those millions go?  Might it not have been better to use them to help ailing British business?

Australian business Bartco wins right to supply signs for London Olympics

If it works.... Hasn't so far, quite the reverse.

Cost-cutting concern over private prisons

Ministry of Justice plans for more private sector prisons are expected to bring innovation and cut re-offending.  But critics are warning about the risks to staffing levels and an erosion of professionalism, writes Vivienne Russell...

Government funds the lobbying of itself, subverting democracy and debasing the concept of charity

If a government department believes that new legislation would be beneficial, it is of course within its rights to make the policy case and persuade us, but there is something unsettling about doing this anonymously or through supposedly independent third parties.
Sock Puppets: How the government lobbies itself and why

Don't (for Heaven's sake) believe all you read

It is well documented that the European Commission has for years been funding dozens of environmental groups who lobby MEPs and promote EU policy at a grass-roots level. It also gives substantial sums of money to groups such as the Young European Federalists and the International Union of Socialist Youth, although we can find no evidence of similar grants being given to Eurosceptics or radical free marketeers.
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2012/06/from-cjsnowdon.html

Summons up visions of tanks rolling inexorably onwards

The German Chancellor's plans for a "two-speed Europe" will leave Germany in the driving seat of a European super-state which will beggar its neighbours.

"Mrs Merkel is openly calling for a German-dominated political union at the centre of Europe, with what George Soros recently called a 'depressed hinterland' around it.  Neither of those is a place the UK ought to be.  We are one of the world's major economies and a proud independent sovereign nation, not a vassal state that needs to be governed from Frankfurt, or picking over the crumbs from Europe's table.

"As George Osborne has admitted, a reshaped relationship with Europe would involve a transfer of sovereignty from the UK to Brussels.

"Mrs Merkel says that the EU's grand plan 'cannot stand still just because one country or another doesn't want to come along'.

.http://www.ukip.org/content/latest-news/2687-time-to-get-our-coa

Ignorance is bliss - and often dangerous!

. "It was not essential that CPUK were at the stadium," said a spokeswoman for Locog, the body organising the Games. "They were tested at bigger and more complex events and their performance was monitored by an accredited external fire engineer, the London Fire Brigade, and the venue teams, amongst others. They received very positive feedback from all parties."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/09/molly-prince-jubilee-stewards-conviction

Of course it is essential that they are tested at the stadium, they need to understand the space in which they are operating, be able to predict the way people will react in that particular space, to know how safety precautions work in that expected space.

It is ludicrous to suggest otherwise; ludicrous and dangerous, not to mention fool-hardy!

Piracy on the High Seas - a new approach?

Piracy all at sea: Maritime piracy, violence and the international response 

Researchers in Hong Kong have analyzed the incidence of maritime piracy during the last decade and have developed a way to predict whether or not a particular vessel, with a specific cargo, shipping in a given patch of water is likely to be a target for piracy and what degree of violence might be involved.

Hardly news, but bears repeating!

Physical education is good for kids' grades, study finds 
(HealthDay) -- Boosting students' levels of physical education improves their grades, a new, small study says.

Everyone is sayong it now - saving the cancer and killing the patient!

"Unemployment is rising by the day, and among young people it now stands at a shameful 54 per cent. Yup, folks – those are the results of an EU plan to produce “growth and jobs”. It was called the euro, and it has been a catastrophe for Greece and pretty bad (with one notable exception) for the rest of the continent.....................................

 And then the strategy would appear to be to cauterise the amputation; to circle the wagons; to issue the most ringing and convincing proclamation to the markets that no more depredations will be tolerated; and to get the Germans to stump up, big time, to protect Spain and Portugal. We are told that the only solution now is a Fiscal Union (or FU). We must have “more Europe”, say our leaders, not less Europe – even though more Europe means more suffering, and a refusal to recognise what has gone wrong in Greece.

The euro has turned out to be a doomsday machine, a destroyer of jobs, a killer of growth, because it entrenches and exacerbates the fundamental and historic inability of some countries to compete with Germany in making high-quality goods with low-unit labour costs. Unable to devalue their way back into the game, these countries are forced to watch industry wilt under German imports, as the euro serves as a giant trebuchet to fire swish German saloon cars and machine tools across the rest of Europe."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/borisjohnson/9278862/Europe-is-driving-full-tilt-foot-on-the-pedal-into-a-brick-wall.html

Living in cloud cuckoo land!

Corporation tax and capital gains tax would be replaced with a 30 per cent tax on dividends, interest and rent, and inheritance tax and stamp taxes on land and shares would be dropped, as well as air passenger duty. Fuel duty would be cut by 5p.

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2147429/Single-rate-30-income-tax-required-boost-economy-radical-realistic-overhaul-say-experts.html#ixzz1vnK0M4Lq

And the pensioner who has no dividends, no expectations of inheritance, little or no interest because little or no savings, can't afford to go on holiday - what happens to these people?

A Holistic view might have predicted this

Revenue job cuts cost £1bn in uncollected taxes

Job cuts at Revenue & Customs led to more than £1bn of tax not being collected, the Public Accounts Committee revealed today. The MPs said the department was not ‘sufficiently clear’ about the impact of the staff cuts, even though around £10 in tax was lost for every £1 saved in costs...

EU exit - Vote UKIP!

Thinking about it, I realised that UKIP has robust plans in place for an exit from Europe, no other party does.

So as it becomes more likely surely it makes sense to have the party who have planned for it in power!

Vince Cable lost the responsibility because of indications that he was against Sky-B; maybe he should have been more discreet, but it was his job to come to a decision, he did.

Apparently Jeremy Hunt has also come to a decision - in favour.  So how culpable was Mr Cameron in appointing him to investigate when he had already made up his mind?

"Frédéric Michel told the inquiry on Thursday that by December 2010, just before Hunt was given quasi-judicial responsibility for the bid, the Conservative cabinet minister and his Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) were supportive of News Corp's argument that the BSkyB deal would not be detrimental to UK media plurality."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/24/news-corp-jeremy-hunt-bskyb?newsfeed=true

This is not the Con-Dem interpretation as heard on Newsnight!

UK growth: will Osborne listen to Lagarde? By Tony Dolphin Despite some complimentary words about the chancellor’s deficit cutting, the clear message from the IMF is that the UK must go for growth...

The IMF interpreted, by Ian Mulheirn Reading between the lines of today’s report on the UK, it’s clear that the International Monetary Fund is calling for the coalition to adopt a funded fiscal stimulus now to encourage growth...

Don't you just love it! How the Con-Dems massage the figures.

The public sector was in surplus by £16.5bn in April, as a result of the one-off transfer of funds from the Royal Mail pension scheme to the Treasury, it was revealed today.

Ministers have taken over responsibility for the pension liabilities of the government-owned postal service, ahead of its possible privatisation. Transferring the scheme’s £28bn assets sent public spending figures into the black, the Office for National Statistics said.

Without the transfer, public sector net borrowing would have been around £11.5bn for the month, compared with borrowing of £9.1bn in the same period last year.

http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2012/05/uk-in-surplus-thanks-to-royal-mail-pension-funds/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_term=

Better the guilty should go free, rather than the innocent suffer?

Wrongful convictions can be reduced through science, but tradeoffs exist 
Many of the wrongful convictions identified in a report this week hinged on a misidentified culprit — and a new report in a top journal on psychological science reveals the paradox of reforms in eyewitness identification procedure.


In our efforts to make sure that good guys don't get locked up, could we let more bad guys go?

Voting patterns changing as UKIP is being proved right

"For years, we in UKIP have been pointing out that the EU is a failure, both on its own terms and for this country. It is very hard for people to continue to caricature us as a party of fools, when the evidence that we were right is there on every news bulletin, and on the front pages of every newspaper.
And if UKIP were right about Europe, how about the impact of mass migration on services and the lower paid? How about a belief that education needs to accept difference and give opportunities for all, regardless of background or family wealth through a reintroduction of selection? How about the thought that businesses are not the enemy, but are vital for the growth of employment, and thus the life chances of every single one of us?

But UKIP are about so much more than that. To a UKIP member, the "I" letter of our name is so much more important than the UK, and certainly more than the Party. As a party, we are about hope and aspiration. And if we have aspirations for our country and our communities, it is because we trust those communities and the individuals within them.

If we believe that this country is better suited to make decisions over its future than others who do not have our interests at heart, how can we not believe the same of the counties and cities of our country? We believe firmly in localism and devolving real power down from Brussels, down from Westminster and down from the town halls into the place where power and control is best suited, into the hands of those over which it is exercised. You, the citizen."

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Voting-patterns-changing-UKIP-proved-right/story-16143748-detail/story.html

Nick Clegg rails against British class snobbery 'We need an open society, in which people choose their place,' says Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister

The problem is a perception that there is class snobbery.  People cling to it, and use it as an excuse.

My problem is the opposite, I come from working stock and am proud of it.  We were very poor when I was growing up (alright, I went to school with cornflakes boxes as soles in my shoes.  So some people can't afford cornflakes, and other don't have shoes, but generally speaking.....) but I belonged to a public library, I read, and I speak well.  So it is generally assumed I went to University - I didn't (did years at night school) it is generally assumed I come from a privileged background - I don't!

But I have no problem talking with Princes and Princesses (yes, I have) or people from any walk of life.

And while it would be nice to have what I have achieved acknowledged, I know what can be achieved, and Nick Clegg (who has no idea) is a poor apologist and doing no one any favours.

European court rules! And don't let anyone try to tell you otherwise.

Prisoners must be given right to vote, European court rules

Human rights judges give UK six months to comply, but offer some autonomy to ministers to choose which inmates to excludePrisoners in the UK must...

the true extent of the UK’s obligations in respect of the present and future debts of EU institutions

http://www.brugesgroup.com/EuropeanInvestmentBank.pdf

 

The figures for the UK’s total European liability, are contained and published in a new report by the Bruges Group.

Titled The UK’s risks and exposure to the European Investment Bank and other European financial mechanisms, Bob Lyddon’s report for the Bruges Group reveals the true extent of the UK’s obligations in respect of the present and future debts of EU institutions including:

• How the Government’s defined position is questionable in law and therefore has led it to underestimate its full potential exposure to EU debt
  
• That the true extent of the UK’s potential exposure to the EIB, ECB and EFSM (European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism) the debt is €149.2 billion because:
  
• The ECB is entitled to call upon the Bank of England for up to €50 billion of the UK’s currency reserves. Under Council Regulation 1010/2000 of 8th May 2000, the ECB has the legal right to call on individual member countries’ national reserves (€50 bn in the case of the UK) should the viability of the ECB be at risk.
  
• The EIB can call upon up to €35.7 billion[1] from the UK, should it lose money on the loans that it has made to governments and organisations in vulnerable economies such as Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland.^[2]
  
• The UK currently has a €60 billion liability to the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM). Solvent members are required to jointly take on the insolvent member’s debt.
  
• The UK’s €1.9 billion of paid-in capital to the EIB and a further €1.6 billion to the European Central Bank (lodged to pay the UK’s share of its costs) is also at risk.

Either misquoted, or protecting his own resources!

This is the kind of shallow prediction that can cause the damage it is forecasting!

UK 'may never fully recover' if Greece exits euro

"A Greek exit from the single currency threatens to plunge Britain into a second recession equal in ferocity to the record postwar slump of 2008-09, according to the expert responsible for the government's economic forecasting.

Robert Chote, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, who was speaking to the Guardian as world financial markets staggered to the end of a week that rekindled memories of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, warned that there was risk that a fresh downturn would do irreparable damage to the UK."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/may/18/uk-greece-exits-euro

Are Greek euros safe?

£1 now buys you €1.25 - that is the most since October 2008 and 10 per cent more than this time last year.

But every silver lining has to have a grey cloud, and some of the wilder speculation right now involves the suggestion that holidaymakers should be worried about holding Greek euros.

That's because, while the Eurocrats would have you believe that every euro note is equal, there is one tiny crucial difference. 

The little-known way to spot where they come from is a letter in front of the serial number, pictured above. We explain here how to spot a German X from a Greek Y.

Myth: Three Million Jobs Depend on EU Membership

http://www.democracymovementsurrey.co.uk/dyk_myths.html

"Britain in Europe", the pro-EU campaign which eventually folded for lack of support, claimed that three million jobs depend on EU membership, based on research they commissioned.

  The scientist who led the research publicly disowned this claim. His report said that few, if any, jobs would be lost if we left, because trade with Europe would continue.

The National Institute for Economic and Social Research supported this view.   It says that 3.5 million jobs are linked with EU trade, but if Britain leaves, few if any of those jobs would disappear.  Indeed, unconstrained by EU red tape, our businesses would be free to create more jobs.  We would continue trading with the EU under a Free Trade Agreement, just as Switzerland, Egypt, Mexico and about 20 other countries do, with about 70 more negotiating their own FTA.  The World Trade Organization says so; the European Commission agrees. The rest of the world trades successfully with the EU from outside - why couldn't we? 

  

EU countries need to trade with us - in or out of the euro. Four million jobs in the EU depend on trade with the UK, and the balance of trade is strongly in their favour.  They would be mad to try to cut off trade with us.

Err - obvious!

Whitehall must join national fraud system, say auditors

The Audit Commission is calling for government departments to be required to join its National Fraud Initiative, which has saved £1bn elsewhere in the public sector since it began in 1996...

Amend the Public Order Act to stop it being abused for the purposes of frivolous prosecution

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2012/may/16/law-hurt-feelings-peter-tatchell

"The campaign which has united diehard rivals such as the National Secular Society and the Christian Institute, not to mention loads of MPs and even peers, to amend the 1986 Public Order Act to stop it being abused for the purposes of frivolous prosecution by the coppers.

Reformers want section 5 of the act amended so that the offence of using "insulting words and behaviour" should have the vague and subjective word "insulting" removed while upholding protection against threatening and abusive speech – that is to say, speech which threatens public order."

Hear! Hear!

"Roughly 2,500 years ago, the citizens of Athens developed a concept of democracy that’s still hailed by the modern world. It was not, however, a democracy in which every citizen had a vote. 


Our democracy isn’t functioning as well as it should. A vast swath of our population is underrepresented. For those who do vote, their choices are heavily influenced by reductive ads often financed by wealthy individuals or corporations with vested interests. Small-group elections could save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year. And since they are easier to run, they could be held more often, giving citizens a greater voice in government. If we aspire to be a country governed by the people, we should return to the foundations of our democracy: Let a random subset of the citizenry make reasoned decisions that best express the national will."


http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/05/st_essay_voting/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+UK

Fair?

The North really IS cheaper: firms slap on a premium for the South

High street chains including McDonald's, Greggs, Domino's pizza, Odeon, Cineworld, David Lloyd gyms, Wetherspoons and Beefeater are operating a North-South 'price apartheid' on everything from a cup of coffee to a visit to the cinema.

Luckily (?) I'm not!

Middle classes targeted by conmen in elaborate fraud scams: Are you at risk?

There's a hit list of potential victims compiled by fraudsters. And if you're middle aged, middle class and a saver, they will be trying to steal your money.

Researchers explore alternatives to reducing crime at high-crime locations

Researchers explore alternatives to reducing crime at high-crime locations 
The bar with the regularly flashing police lights in its parking lot.  The apartment building that’s frequently featured on the news because of numerous crime investigations.  A new essay suggests an alternative approach to reducing crime in such places, by placing regulations on places where crime is highly concentrated.  Authors John Eck, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati, and his daughter, Emily Eck, a researcher at Dalhousie University, are featured this month in the journal, Criminology and Public Policy.

How about guidance for parents?

Experiences of migrant children: At home abroad 
Schools, local councils and professionals need better guidance and training to work with migrant families from Eastern Europe and their children, according to new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Ah! But will they?

Whitehall ‘could save billions from better cash management’

Improving cash management and fraud prevention could save the government as much as £18.7bn annually, an analysis of state spending has said...

Now here's an idea - I think...

OPEN DOORS: Government will pay families to house asylum seekers
	FAMILIES paid up to $300 a week to house asylum seekers in their homes to help deal with the increasing flood of arrivals

Why the holistic approach is best!

Body fat linked to reduced fracture risk for women 
(HealthDay) -- Higher body fat mass is associated with a reduced risk of fracture among women, but not men, according to a study published in the May issue of the Journal of Internal Medicine.


Heavy new arguments weigh in on the danger of obesity 
A true obesity epidemic is gradually advancing throughout the developed world. A large new Danish-British study from the University of Copenhagen and University of Bristol documents for the first time a definite correlation between a high BMI and the risk of developing life-threatening cardiac disease.

Ships slow down in pirate waters to save fuel

[Registration required]

Violent confrontations between Somali pirates and merchant ships’ armed guards could become more common as some shipping companies have reduced ship speeds through the highest-risk area to save on fuel, maritime experts have warned http://link.ft.com/r/YIQXNN/JEVI0J/265N3T/U12CAM/L9ZU1I/D5/h?a1=2012&a2=5&a3=7

Knowledge management - applies across the board!

Why research should be hacked 
Australian researchers are calling for the open sharing of clinical trial data in the medical research community, saying it would be instrumental in eliminating bottlenecks and duplication, and lead to faster and more trustworthy evidence for many of our most pressing health problems.


Calling it hacking might send the wrong message, but an open approach is beneficial in government, in business and in the sciences.

Obvious but often ignored!

Students more likely to be fit when physical education is mandatory 
Fifth graders in California public school districts that comply with the state’s mandatory physical education requirement are more likely to have better fitness levels than students in districts that don’t comply, according to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Tackling Drug Addiction

This month saw the release of Rehabilitating Drug Policy by Nick Cowen.  The report assessed alternative drug rehabilitation techniques and concluded that the evidence does not fall on the side of one particular treatment, but suggests that a diverse range of quality treatments is necessary.