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.