Happy New Year

I would like to wish any readers of my blogs a Happy, Safe and prosperous New Year.

 

RASC (Responsible Alcohol Sales Campaign)

RASC (Responsible Alcohol Sales Campaign)

Undercover police officer will be watching pub landlords, off-licence staff and drinkers this Christmas and will be enforcing on-the-spot £80 fine for being drunk to any member of they public who police officers says is drunk under Home office Guidelines. Also police will covertly be watching landlords and off-licence staff who are selling alcohol to members of the public who are already drunk. Seems The law states that it is illegal to 'knowingly sell to a drunk person' and the courts have defined drunks as people who have "drunk intoxicating liquor to the extent which affects self-control."

 

Sounds like the UKs police forces will be raking in the money this Christmas especially as a majority of pub goers do not know about this new clamp down.

 

Oxford

Police in Oxfordshire support Responsible Alcohol Sale Campaign

 

 

Yorkshire

Christmas Crackdown on Booze Fuelled Crime in Bradford

 

 

Nottinghamshire

Police warn licensees - don't serve drunks

 

 

Newport, Wales

Police mount festive party patrol

 

Government plans to put police, nurse and social workers into schools

Government plans to put police, nurse and social workers into schools

By LAURA CLARK

Last updated: 12th December 2007

Source: Daily Mail

 

A vision of schools where teachers work side by side with police, social workers and nurses was revealed yesterday.

Education Secretary Ed Balls unveiled an extraordinarily-detailed ten-year blueprint spelling out policies affecting virtually every single area of children's lives including sexual health and youth justice.

He vowed to widen the free nursery places scheme to thousands of two-year-olds, and pledged to "make this country the best place in the world for our young people to grow up".

But he was instantly accused of hijacking the traditional responsibilities of parents and intensifying Labour's "nanny knows best" approach.

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Please watch the "7/7 Ripple Effect" film

Dear 9-11 Truth people,

Peace be upon you.

I hope this finds you all well, in good spirit and having a good day.

Please watch the "7/7 Ripple Effect" film at http://JforJustice.co.uk/77/
and
please get everyone you can to watch it too.

If you would like a DVD copy of the film, please send me an address to post
it to.

Thank-you,

Muad'Dib.

Brown's £725m 'betrayal' over lost pensions

by DANIEL MARTIN

Last updated at 23:37pm on 9th December 2007

Source: The Daily Mail

 

Gordon Brown has overruled his Cabinet over plans to bail out thousands of pensioners whose employers went bust.

Ministers had promised £725million to help more than 125,000 workers whose company pension schemes collapsed.

But the Prime Minister has risked a major Cabinet split by vetoing the plan.

Last night critics accused him of a "betrayal" which would condemn pensioners to a "dreadful Christmas".

Some contrasted the Government's lack of help with its speedy action to rescue Northern Rock, at a cost to taxpayers of more than £25billion.

Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain was said to be "very frustrated" by the opposition of Mr Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling.

He is understood to have already put aside £725million of his department's budget to beef up the Financial Assistance Scheme, which gives compensation to people who have lost out after paying into company pension schemes which collapsed before 2004.

Andrew Young, the Government's chief actuary, said the money would give the workers 90 per cent of the value of their lost pensions.

It would bring the Financial Assistance Scheme - to which the Government has already committed £1.5billion - into line with the Pension Protection Fund, which compensates victims of later pension fund collapses.

Earlier this year, pensions minister Mike O'Brien promised that the Government would come up with a rescue package.

He is now said to be "mortified" that he will have to break his word as the result of Mr Brown's refusal.

Campaigner Dr Ros Altmann, of the Pensions Action Group, said last night: "The money is there. It just needs to be paid. Northern Rock was sorted out in days - these people have been waiting years.

"Good people are being left to have another dreadful Christmas.

"I do not know how any politician can enjoy Christmas festivities if these people are being left like this."

Tory spokesman Chris Grayling said: "These people have been left facing real hardship in retirement as a result of Gordon Brown's pensions failings over the past ten years.

"If he is now deliberately blocking a package that could help rescue their retirement it is an absolute betrayal."

Last month 30 campaigners who lost their pensions when their companies collapsed staged an all-night vigil outside Downing Street, while another group stripped off at the Labour conference in Bournemouth.

In February the High Court attacked the Government for producing "inaccurate and misleading" leaflets which had reassured workers that their pensions would be safe.

Dr Altmann said: "After the instant rescue of Northern Rock savers, at a potential cost of billions of pounds to the taxpayer, the continued delay in settling the pension wind-ups scandal is totally inexcusable.

"Responsible Government should be about admitting mistakes, putting them right and moving on.

"Sadly, it seems Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling are incapable of doing so and this lack of integrity and compassion has led to a bitter row within Cabinet.

"It is important that governments should be honest about what they do.

"Whatever else they do, they should not put people in a position in which they do not have adequate pension cover."

Liberal Democrat spokesman Danny Alexander said: "The Government should be ashamed of the way it has treated these 125,000 pensions victims.

"Still it continues to drag its feet, years after justice should have been done.

"These people should be paid benefits at the same level as the Pension Protection Fund.

"There is a powerful moral argument for doing so and a small cost.

"Mr Brown's incompetent government now seem incapable of doing the right thing, even when it is blatantly obvious what is needed.

"Let us hope that public pressure will cause a rethink."

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions said: "Andrew Young was asked to examine ways of using the residual assets in FAS pension schemes more effectively for the benefit of those who have lost their pensions.

"We will continue to consider his findings carefully and make an announcement in due course."

Britain 'to miss child poverty targets'

By Ben Russell and Sean O'Grady

Source: The Independant

Published: 03 December 2007

 

Gordon Brown is in danger of missing targets to cut poverty, according to reports by researchers and a Labour-dominated committee of MPs.

Members of the Commons Treasury Committee warned that the Government risked failing to achieve its goal of halving child poverty by the end of a decade, while a study into poverty funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said the Government's attempts to cut the numbers of families and children in poverty had stalled.

The study by the New Policy Institute think tank showed that child poverty in 2005-06 was half a million over the target set for 2004-05.

Researchers warned that poverty levels had risen during 2005-06, the latest year for which figures are available, and was no better than that recorded in 1988.

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