34,000 police jobs to be cut in England and Wales by 2015

There will be 34,000 fewer police jobs in England and Wales by March 2015, according to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary research.

It has estimated that budget cuts will mean 16,200 officers and 16,100 civilian staff jobs will be lost, the BBC reports.

The HMIC adds that there is "relatively strong evidence" that some offences will increase because of the cuts.

These links will give an idea of how money is wasted by local and central government.

Perhaps more careful spending by the latter could have avoided some of these jobs being cut.

Ghana minister orders the arrest of all gays in Western Region

Paul Evans Aidoo, the minister for Ghana's Western Region, has directed the Bureau of National Investigations and other agencies to find gay people and bring them before the courts, according to Pink News.

Aidoo has also called on landlords and tenants to inform on those they believe to be gay.

According to Ghanaian news reports, he said: "All efforts are being made to get rid of these people in the society."

In Ghana, homosexuality is still considered a moral aberration, or even a myth.

Homophobic violence is a real problem, and gay Ghanaians are generally forced to hide their sexuality.

£25k of public money spent on a statue of the Blessed John Henry Newman

Birmingham city council will contribute £25,000 towards a statue of the Blessed John Henry Newman after only £5,000 was raised by public donations.

Is this really a good use of taxpayers' money during a recession? Edmund Standing at Harry's Place does not think so, but others disagree. Indeed, some commentators on the thread disagree.

Personally,I just find it laughable to see all the right-wing posters hurling abuse at Edmund Standing because he dares to question spending £25,000 on a statue during a recession.

I have no comment to make on whether the Blessed John Henry Newman was worthy of a statue or no – on balance I would say yes – but if this was a report on £25,000 of cuts to hospitals in Birmingham many of the right would yell “We’re all in this together” and blame Gordon Brown.

And even if this money couldn’t be added to the schools budget, surely it could be used to maintain Birmingham’s existing cultural artifacts, which would surely come under the same budget?

Pair guilty of neglecting animals for years, recieve suspended sentences

In a further example of how pathetic our justice system is, Joseph and Pamela Palmer received a suspended sentence for the wicked neglect of animals.

RSPCA Inspectors found carcasses of cattle in an old swimming pool at the grade one listed hall, five dead sheep in a derelict coaching house and a lame Hereford bull and cow that were so badly injured they had to be put down, Selby Magistrates Court heard.

Philip Brown, prosecuting, told the court the sheep appeared to have starved to death and had eaten soil due to the lack of access to food and water, according to the Yorkshire Post.

The bull was found to have been suffering from severe arthritis for several months and the cow had an abscess on its foot, which was also thought to be a long-standing injury. Both animals were put down by a vet.

Mrs Palmer was charged with three offences of causing unnecessary suffering to a bull, causing unnecessary suffering to a cow and causing unnecessary suffering to five sheep by failing to provide care and supervision, resulting in their death.

When the charges were put to Pamela Palmer, she replied: "I don’t think I am guilty but I’m going to plead guilty." Her son couldn't even be bothered to turn up for an earlier appearance.

The Palmers were given 18-week sentences suspended for 12 months and banned from keeping livestock for the rest of their lives.

Pamela Palmer was banned for six months from entering Sheriff Hutton and ordered to pay £500 court costs, while her son was told to do 100 hours unpaid work and pay £1,000 costs.

The chairman of the magistrates, Hilary Gilbertson, said: “I think this will demonstrate the abhorrence of the public to the way you treated the animals in your care", according to the York Press.

Well, Hilary Gilbertson is wrong. A three year prison sentence, extensive fines and four hundred hours of community work after each is released would have demonstrated the abhorrence of the public.

Several neighbors also lent Pamela Palmer money, which has not been repaid, according to the Daily Mail.

Network Rail alleged to have gagged whistleblower

A whistleblower who raised concerns about the safety of 13 level crossings after the deaths of Charlotte Thompson, 13, and Olivia Bazlinton, 14 has reportedly been silenced by Network Rail.

Maryanne Rosse is said to have received £16,000 in a compromise agreement with Network Rail which barred her from making allegations that were to be put to an employment tribunal, though the firm denies this.

The rail regulator's annual report recorded 2,005 "incidents" involving level crossings in the last financial year and noted that "weaknesses in Network Rail's safety culture have been recognised" including "flawed injury reporting".

More at the Evening Standard.

Live in Edinburgh, Kent, Suffolk or the Cotswolds? Read Private Eye 1293

If you are a resident of Edinburgh,Kent, Suffolk or the Cotswolds I strongly recommend picking up the latest issue of Private Eye.

The excellent Rotten Boroughs column reports on:

*The disastrous "Holyrood on wheels" tram fiasco in Edinburgh. The scheme will come in at least £200m over budget, despite the plan having been scaled back from three lines to one, running from Edinburgh airport to St Andrews Square.

The city council has run out of money, and the Scottish government will not pay. As an independent financial assessment has concluded the line will be a loss maker, can private money be found, or will the scheme need to be scrapped?

*Kent county council's leader Paul Carter's anger at the local paper running a story about him planning to take a month off to drive 8,000 miles to Cape Town as part of a classic car rally. Carter will still pick up his £4,775 allowance for the month he is in South Africa.

*The departure and payoff of Andrea Hill, the former chief executive of Suffolk county council. The law firm who investigated her - and found no evidence of wrongdoing - cost the council £115,000, according to Private Eye.

*The Cotswold Water Park scandal, including the jailing of conman Dennis Grant.

Private Eye is only £1.50 - bargain! 1293 is out until August 4.

Man jailed for stealing from the dead

A man has been jailed after stealing over £600,000 from dead, elderly and ill customers to fund his online gambling addiction.

James Leonard Finnigan, 42, from Twickenham, Middlesex, was handed a four-year jail term at the Old Bailey on Friday 15 July 2011, having previously pleaded guilty to the fraud.

Detective Sergeant Ben Flannaghan , who led the City of London Police investigation, said: "It may be cliched to describe a criminal as heartless, but in this instance it is difficult to think of a more apt description.

"James Finnigan appeared to target customers who were elderly in the hope of avoiding detection, in some cases going as far as taking money from accounts when customers had recently died.

"There can be no justifications for his actions, and his sentence reflects that."

Other fraudsters jailed recently:

Also jailed on Friday, following separate investigations by the City of London Police, were Magnus Nwankwo and Wesley Gabriel.

Nwankwo, also known as Magnus James, operated a small-scale British-based "boiler room" – establishing businesses that appeared legitimate, before specifically targeting an elderly man for investment.

The 41-year-old was sentenced to three years and four months imprisonment at the Old Bailey having previously pleaded guilty to the fraud.

Gabriel received information on bank accounts from a known fraudster, accessed those accounts at his place of work and then passed on personal information about the account holders.

The 31-year-old, from Ealing, London was given a nine-month prison sentence at the Old Bailey, having pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of a position of trust.

Interesting posts on the London Overground

London Reconnections has an interesting series of posts on the past, present and possible future of London Overground.

The blog also takes a look at the work taking place on Phase 2 of the East London Line Extension and visits the new North London Line control room in Upminster, Havering.

Sara Cox moans about subtitled films for deaf people on Twitter

My attention has been drawn to the Radio One DJ Sara Cox complaining that she hadn't been told that the screening of Bridesmaids she attended was a special one for deaf people.

Therefore, the poor little lamb had to suffer SUBTITLES along the bottom of the screen.

She then calls people annoyed at her criticism "gobshites".

Via Alison Bryan.

As Charlie Swinbourne notes, deaf people have enough problems getting acceptable service from cinemas without Sara Cox getting on her online high horse.

Some stories you may have missed during the phone hacking debacle

Mick Hartley has written about:

The Nuba being the targets of a new round of ethnic cleansing in Sudan

Iranians defying their government's ban on the buying and selling of dogs that are not used as guard or police dogs.


LabourList has complied a little dossier of stories, including:

£1 billion of NHS services will be offered up to competition

Emails between Scotland Yard and Cameron’s Chief of Staff have been released.

Man molests thirteen year old girl, gets suspended sentence

In a further sign that our criminal justice system is a joke, RAF sergeant Daniel Burt recieved a suspended sentence for touching a thirteen year old girl under the covers at RAF Benson.

Earlier, he had given her and two other girls alcopops, according to the Oxford Mail.

Burt must also pay £1,200 costs, sign the sex offenders’ register and do a sex-offender group-work programme.

Posting in the comments section of the Oxford Mail, someone who claims to be the brother of the victim comments: "It seems expensive barristers and or lenient judges mean you can get away with committing the most nefarious of crimes these days."

Excerpts from the Care Quality Commission's report into Winterbourne View

Following a shocking Panorama exposing vile abuse at Castlebeck's Winterbourne View care home, a number of staff have been arrested and the home has been closed.

In May 2011, the Care Quality Commission investigated (they call it "checking up") Winterbourne View.

The report is pretty damning. I'll quote some excerpts below:

During our visit on 18 May, we asked to see care plans for one patient who had a history of self harming. In the first three months of 2011, she had either injured or harmed herself on 10 occasions. For all of those injuries, no wound care plans were in place, and there were no records of how wounds would be dressed, treated and monitored in order to promote skin repair and reduce the likelihood of infection...
Only nine of 53 staff had completed emergency first aid training.

We were given a copy of an ‘identified risks care plan’ for ‘knee dislocation during restraint,’ (completed on 29 August 2009) which included a requirement that the nurse in charge would decide whether the person should attend hospital if a knee dislocation occurs. However, it also said that "hospital staff had advised not to bring the person to hospital as there is limited assistance they can provide due to ongoing knee problems". There was no explanation for this inconsistency...

A person on a frequent level of observations sustained a serious self harm injury but medical treatment was not sought until the next day when they required 19 stitches. There was no mention of the risk assessment being reviewed following the incident...

A report that the person had turned furniture upside down. Staff recorded that the person calmed down after staff said they were going to take the unit camera so as "to take a photo to show their mother who was visiting the next day"...

An incident report that identified that an individual had self harmed with a broken cup, resulting in scratches to their arm. They approached staff with their injuries who said "don’t be mad"...

It was evident from incident reports, statements from staff, accident records and daily care notes that what staff said and what we had seen recorded do not always correspond and often provided a conflicting version of events...

...From training records we identified 23 staff who had not undertaken safeguarding at all. A nurse we spoke to during our visit on 17 May 2011 said they did not think that all staff had a good understanding of safeguarding...

On three people’s medicines administration record charts the dose instructions for some of the medicines given by nurses were not the same as the dosage instructions on the medicine labels.

Nurses told us that this was because the dose had been changed by the psychiatrist but had not been updated by the GP surgery. The psychiatrist told us that he always sent an email to inform the surgery of any changes. It appeared that discrepancies were not followed up by staff. This could increase the risk of mistakes being made. Staff told us that they had arranged for this to be addressed immediately after our visit...

The recruitment records showed receipt of enhanced Criminal Records Bureau checks (CRB) before commencing employment for 11 people. This was not the case for all staff. For one person we saw that they had been employed from 24 January 2011; however, their CRB was dated 1 April 2011, which means that they had been in post for over 10 weeks before this had been received.

We also saw that for this same person their second reference was not received until 13 April 2011. This should have been in place before they commenced employment. For a second person we saw that they were employed from 23 June 2008 although their CRB was dated 10 October 2008. There was no second reference for this person. None of these files contained evidence of either POVA first or ISA first checks...

We saw that staff supplied two references of which one could be a personal reference. Many employer references were simple statements of dates employed with no reference to conduct, suitability or capability. For one person there was reliance on two telephone references from friends of the applicant (2006), which did not provide the employer with objective and reliable information.

It should be further noted that through discussions with staff we became aware that at least five staff had no previous experience of working in this environment and no experience of working within any care setting. This coupled with the lack of training, impacts on the safe delivery of the service, putting those who use the service at risk of unsafe staff practice when dealing with difficult situations and in supporting people with complex needs...

A further review of the training matrix, confirmed through our discussion with staff and the manager that staff had not received training in any of the following areas:
Mental Health Act 1983
Deprivation of liberty safeguards
Safeguarding/Understanding of people who self harm
Safeguarding/Understanding of people who attempt to commit suicide
Autistic spectrum disorder Awareness
Challenging Behaviour
Dual Diagnosis (mental health and learning disability)
Person centred planning...

A recently recruited support worker said the Maybo technique training was the most useful training they had received, although there appeared to be a negative attitude by some staff and an absence of any formal mentoring arrangements for new employees, Staff told us: “You get those service users that enjoy it” (physical restraint), “some use it for attention”,and “You can’t get through to them that they are their own worst enemy”.
In the minutes of a staff meeting held on 10 May 2011 it was recorded ‘Staff appear to be confused as to when they should use restraint. Some nurses are practising different approaches rather than Maybo, when possible Maybo would be the right approach for certain situations’. Another member of staff raised concerns due to their ‘lack of Maybo training’...

On 11 October 2010 the manager received an e-mail from a member of staff which outlined a number of serious allegations concerning the conduct of other staff. In the email it was stated that he had previously raised concerns that had not been acted on by the manager. The manager did not act on this information for some time and did not make any follow up enquiries. We checked the file for this person and found no records of any concern raised, grievances or attempts to contact him. them. There was no evidence to suggest that they had taken any action to keep people safe or had carried out an investigation in relation to the concerns that had been raised...

During our visit to Winterbourne View on 17 May 2011 we asked the manager for a copy of any complaints that had been made; this was not given to us. We asked for this when we visited the service again on 18 May 2011 again; this was not given to us. We rang the service on 19 May 2001 and arrange to collect this information from the service on 20 May 2011. On this occasion we were informed by the provider that no records were available. We were also told that the service, including the manager, had not received any complaints since 2009
We know from daily records that complaints have been made to the manager and staff but these had not effectively been acted upon in accordance with the policy set out in the Quality Manual. For example, one person made a complaint to the manager on the 18 March 2011 and then made a further complaint in writing on 1 April 2011 to the manager. We requested the record for how this complaint was managed and on the 19 May 2011 we were informed by the registered provider that no records were available...

We saw in one person’s daily care notes dated 3 March 2011 that their relative rang Winterbourne View and spoke to a staff member. The relative reported to the staff member that they had been told by their family member that; ‘earlier that day two members of staff had laid across their relative’s chest, whilst restraining them, causing chest pain’. We know from the records for this person that they have a history of heart problems. No action had been taken in response to the concerns, it had not been reported as a safeguarding concern, and no action was taken to investigate the allegation...

You can access the reports for three other Castlebeck care homes here. The one for Chesterholme (March 2011) contains some concerns, although these are not on the scale of Winterbourne View.

Paintings of Walthamstow on sale for charity

An exhibition of artwork celebrating beautiful sites around Walthamstow, North East London, is on display for charity, according to the Waltham Forest Guardian.

The paintings, by artists taught by Lisa Ivory, are on sale at the Art House and Picture Framers Gallery, in Church Hill, Walthamstow, to raise money for three charities.

Their sale will raise funds for Leprosy Mission, local charity Thuso, a Waltham Forest charity which supports South African orphans with food and education, and Cat and Kitten Care.

The exhibition ends on July 28.

The Art House and Picture Framers Gallery opens between 10.00am-6.00pm Monday to Friday and 9.30am-5.30pm on Saturday. Nearest tube and rail station is Walthamstow Central.

If you are interested please call the gallery on 020 8509 8211.

Egypt approves bridge link with Saudi Arabia

A giant bridge spanning the Gulf of Aqaba for road and rail traffic has finally been approved by Egypt, according to Spiegel Online.

Volkhard Windfuhr reports:

For the Arabs, the massive construction project would be a triumph. For the first time since 1948, when the modern state of Israel was founded, Arab states in North Africa would have a direct road link with fellow Arab states in the Middle East without having to cross Israeli territory. It would also reduce dependence on sometimes perilous ferry crossings over the Red Sea and Arab ports on the Mediterranean.

Planners believe that tolls paid by millions of Muslim pilgrims on their way to holy sites in Saudi Arabia could make up for the roughly $5 billion (€3.6) the bridge is expected to cost. They also believe the bridge will significantly increase the number of pilgrims.

Five years ago, then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak abruptly put the monster project on ice shortly before construction began in response to security concerns voiced by neighboring Israel.

£72 of public money spent per day by Tower Hamlets mayor to lease a car

The mayor of Tower Hamlets,Lutfur Rahman, is spending about £1,500 of taxpayers' money a month leasing an E-class Mercedes saloon, the Evening Standard reports.

A spokesman for Tower Hamlets said: "The sheer number of appointments he has to attend in any one day and the need to work while on the move means using public transport does not allow the mayor to perform his role in the most effective way."

However, London's other directly elected mayors have told the Standard that they rely on public transport, a pool vehicle or their own car.

A Tower Hamlets council document states: "The vehicle is being driven by a chauffeur, drawn on a rotating basis from the pool of council-certified drivers."

During his first nine months in office Mr Rahman, who has a car of his own, also spent more than £2,000 on taxi fares.

Work by local disabled artists at Newham's Old Town Hall

Attendees at the Greenhill Day Centre in Newham, East London, have created a summer exhibition of photography, ceramics and painting based on Renoir's The Umbrellas.

The artworks can be seen at the Old Town Hall, 29 The Broadway, Stratford, London, E15 4BQ, during opening hours until 26th July.

The nearest tube station is Stratford.

More extremist posters found in Tower Hamlets, East London

More extremist posters have been discovered in the East London borough of Tower Hamlets, according to Pink News.

The posters were found on the 14th July at flats in Shadwell, next to the DLR and Overground station.

The posters state: "You are entering a Shariah controlled zone. Islamic rules enforced."

Underneath, images declare that smoking, alcohol, music, drugs, prostitution and porn are forbidden.

The latest posters, which you can see at the Pink News link, are identical to ones found in Waltham Forest and Newham.

Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary, who said in 2008 that gays should be stoned to death, has claimed responsibility for the campaign.

In June, Mohammed Hasnath, 18, was fined £100 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge for posting "Gay Free Zone" stickers in Tower Hamlets.

Tower Hamlets council told Pink News: "The posters have been brought to our attention and, with our partners, we have been removing them as and when they have appeared, and will continue to monitor the situation...

"If any further posters are identified by the public, we would urge them to report it to the Metropolitan police on 0033 123 1212."

How a growing population is destroying the planet

Excellent article in the Guardian from Robert Engelman about how a projected rise in world population to 7 billion people this year will have a staggering impact on the environment.

It is precisely because our population is so large and growing so fast that we must care, ever more with each generation, how much we as individuals are out of sync with environmental sustainability. Our diets, our modes of moving, and our urge to keep interior temperatures close to 70 degrees Fahrenheit no matter what is happening outside — none of these make us awful people. It's just that collectively, these behaviors are moving basic planetary systems into danger zones.

Yet another argument often advanced to wave off population is the assertion that all of us could fit into Los Angeles with room to wiggle our shoulders. The image may comfort some. But space, of course, has never been the issue. The impacts of our needs, greeds, and wants are.

Widespread neglect uncovered in care homes

A dossier compiled by Age UK and The Health Foundation says desperately sick elderly people in care homes have been left screaming in pain, with others given incorrect drugs, while families have been denied crucial information about the health of their loved ones.

The report was compiled following research showing that every day, seven out of ten care home residents are victims of drug errors, with elderly people being given the wrong medication, missing doses, and not being monitored for side effects.

I've quoted some of the most shocking findings below:

A woman who went into a care home at the age of 94 took pride in being independent, and administering her own medical care – eye drops for glaucoma, and cream and splints for arthritis.

Her family told the charities: "Her drops and her cream were taken away and locked up. Her eye drops were often forgotten, her splints and cream were rarely put on. She became withdrawn and depressed with the removal of her independence. So much so that she was prescribed antidepressants, which she repeatedly said she did not want or need."

Relatives said many staff did not have English as a first language, leading to communication problems, especially when it came to conversations about medication, increasing the risk of dangerous errors.

The 26 interviewees spoke to the charities on condition of anonymity. Several expressed fears that making complaints lead to "repercussions" for their relatives or friends behind closed doors.

"If you start asking awkward questions, you're labelled a troublemaker," said one.

Another who nevertheless spoke to the care home about concerns, recalled then being asked to visit her father less often, after being told that the visits were "disruptive" to his routine.

[Neil Duncan-Jordan, from the National Pensioners Convention] believes that the quality of care homes can only improve if they invest more in those paid to care for the elderly – and if society digs deeper, to drag up the standards of care.

"We are talking about people who can earn more working on the checkout of their local supermarket," he said. "When you have a system that has badly-paid, poorly-trained staff administering to the most vulnerable and dependent people in our society, those are the ingredients for a system to fail."

Read more at the Daily Telegraph.

Shamefully, the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail were the only two papers that bothered to report this story.

Perhaps if you read another paper, and feel this story should have been included, you might like to write to them and suggest they improve their coverage of such an important issue.

Male rape in wartime

Read this Observer piece on how male rape is endemic in many of the world's conflicts, and how aid agencies fail male rape victims.

The commander called a rebel over. Jean Paul could see that he was only about nine years old. He was told, "Beat this man and remove this clothes." The boy attacked him with his gun butt. Eventually, Jean Paul begged: "Okay, okay. I will take off my clothes." Once naked, two rebels held him in a kneeling position with his head pushed towards the earth.

At this point, Jean Paul breaks off. The shaking in his lip more pronounced than ever, he lowers his head a little further and says: "I am sorry for the things I am going to say now." The commander put his left hand on the back of his skull and used his right to beat him on the backside "like a horse". Singing a witch doctor song, and with everybody watching, the commander then began. The moment he started, Jean Paul vomited.

Eleven rebels waited in a queue and raped Jean Paul in turn. When he was too exhausted to hold himself up, the next attacker would wrap his arm under Jean Paul's hips and lift him by the stomach. He bled freely: "Many, many, many bleeding," he says, "I could feel it like water." Each of the male prisoners was raped 11 times that night and every night that followed.

As part of an attempt to correct [the failure of aid agencies to tackle male rape], the RLP produced a documentary in 2010 called Gender Against Men. When it was screened, Dolan says that attempts were made to stop him. "Were these attempts by people in well-known, international aid agencies?" I ask.

"Yes," he replies. "There's a fear among them that this is a zero-sum game; that there's a pre-defined cake and if you start talking about men, you're going to somehow eat a chunk of this cake that's taken them a long time to bake." Dolan points to a November 2006 UN report that followed an international conference on sexual violence in this area of East Africa.

"I know for a fact that the people behind the report insisted the definition of rape be restricted to women," he says, adding that one of the RLP's donors, Dutch Oxfam, refused to provide any more funding unless he'd promise that 70% of his client base was female. He also recalls a man whose case was "particularly bad" and was referred to the UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR. "They told him: 'We have a programme for vulnerable women, but not men.'"

Iranian leftists plan to picket Ken Livingstone during mayoral elections

Nick Cohen writes in the Jewish Chronicle:

In my last column I wrote that Labour is taking a huge risk in running the tired and seedy figure of Ken Livingstone as its candidate in next year's London mayoral elections. No sooner had I filed the copy than a delegation of Iranian leftists came to see me.

They had been sickened by the sight of Livingstone taking the money of Press TV, the propaganda station of the Iranian government that has murdered thousands of their comrades, and tortured and raped tens of thousands more.

The Iranians intend to picket him at every stage of the way in the campaign and force the British media to ask two questions which few apart from Martin Bright, Andrew Gilligan and your humble correspondent have raised before.

How can the British Left justify fellow travelling with regimes and movements whose attitudes to gays, women, democrats, liberals and Jews are rooted in the foul traditions of clerical fascism? And what precisely makes them think that they can get away with it?

Via Harry's Place

I've demonstrated with some fantastic and dedicated Iranian leftists against the brutal government.

Please join them on the picket line against the odious Ken Livingstone.

Environmentalists call for debate on family sizes

At last some common sense.

The Observer reports that Green MP Caroline Lucas, has joined other leading environmentalists in calling for the smashing of what Sir David Attenborough has called the "absurd taboo" in discussing UK family sizes.

Lucas said: "We need to have a far greater public debate about population, whether it focuses on improving family planning or reducing global inequality – and looking again at how we address the strain on our natural resources. The absence of an open and honest discussion about this issue means most people don't give much thought to the scale of global population growth in recent years. In 1930, just one or two generations ago, the world's population stood at around two billion. Today it is around seven billion, and by 2050 it is projected to rise by a third to 9 billion.

"We live as if we have three planets instead of just one. It is interesting that public figures, environmental groups and NGOs in general have tended to steer away from population to the extent that it's become a taboo issue. The horrific consequences of China's one-child policy and of other draconian efforts to regulate procreation have, for many, rendered discussion of the subject completely unpalatable. Yet as long as an issue remains a taboo subject where no one talks about it, then there's very little chance of finding the solutions we need."

Exactly. A year or so ago, this issue was raised in the Observer magazine and some foolish parent wrote in claiming it was ok for her to have seven children, because she would raise them to be good little greens.

Assuming that none of the seven rebelled against her ideology and left whacking great carbon footprints, their green behaviour will not magically cancel out the resources that they had used growing up. Once an adult, they will need to travel, eat and sleep.

Will they really be able to offset all these carbon emissions?Even the most environmentally-dedicated person uses some resources.

We need an open debate where both sides can put their case. For too long, the logical concept that having more children will use up more resources has been the elephant in the room.

£74K of public money for new Parliament tourism chief

Parliament is recruiting a tourism chief who will be paid up to £74,270 of public money, according to the Evening Standard.

Responsibilities include organising once-weekly tours of the World Heritage site and supervising talks and exhibitions.

Perks include at least 28 days' holiday, interest-free season ticket loan, childcare vouchers and discounted membership of the Parliament gym.

The 75-minute tours of Parliament, which cost £15 for adults and £6 for children, are only available on Saturdays and during the recess.

A Commons spokesman said the holder of the job deserved to earn potentially more than an MP: "This post is in charge of a large team of staff."

However, many people in the Fire Service and NHS work much harder and manage a large team of staff, but don't get nearly as much money.

What a disgusting waste of public money during a recession.

We can't afford benefits for disabled people but we can afford to pay someone almost three times the average wage in London to manage tourism in the Houses of Parliament.

This country needs to get its priorities right. Perhaps the tours should be boycotted in protest at this waste of public money.

Sharp rise in complaints against Waltham Forest Council

The Ombudsman received 182 complaints and enquiries from the public about Waltham Forest Council in the year ending March 2011.

This is a 20 per cent increase on the previous year, according to the Waltham Forest Guardian.

99 investigations were launched and settlements between the council and the complainant were reached in 26 cases.Last year 24 of 82 complaints investigated by the ombudsman were later settled.

You can read examples of cases which resulted in a local settlement being reached at the Waltham Forest Guardian link above.

Personally, my main objections to the council when I lived there was their dithering over Walthamstow's EMD cinema, their general indifference to the way the town has declined despite its huge potential, and the way they always sent out four council tax statements to my former address when one would do.

Postcode lottery for recycling waste in Suffolk

My old journalism tutor Andrew Grant-Adamson blogs on his local area at Suffolk Wordblog, where he chronicles local politics and life in this part of the UK.

Recently, he has highlighted a postcode lottery for recycling waste in Suffolk.

According to the East Anglia Daily Times, discussions are under way to convert five household waste recycling centres, in at Chelmondiston, Bramford, Brome, Beccles and Southwold, to pay-as-you-throw operations, while one in Newmarket has already made the switch.

If the plans go ahead, householders could be charged between £3-12 depending on the size of their vehicles.

The council confirmed that the other 11 centres would remain free, opening up a postcode lottery.

Renewed threat to Suffolk libaries:

Andrew also highlights a renewed threat to the area's 20 libraries. It had been thought that they would be saved, but fellow Suffolk bloggers reports that some councillors abstained on a motion that no libraries should close before 2013.

Conservative London Assembly Members storm out of debate

Sorry everything is so Londoncentric today, but the video below is really worth watching.

Three Tory London Assembly Members, Deputy Mayor Richard Barnes, Deputy Mayor for Policing Kit Malthouse and the Chair of the London Fire Authority Brian Coleman, slammed desks and stormed out of the chamber during a debate on Wednesday 13 July.

At one point, you can hear Kit Malthouse tell the chair she "is totally out of bloody order", while Brian Coleman was later seen jabbing his finger and remonstrating with City Hall lawyers off screen about the dispute.



This is not the first time that Brian Coleman has been rude to colleagues.



He doesn't like local bloggers either.

London readers, how do you feel about these people being at the top?

Via Adam Bienkov

More local council news

Hammersmith and Fulham council, which is making £33 million worth of cuts, has began publishing three glossy magazine about the borough sent out to all residents and paid for by taxpayers' money.

Meanwhile, Carmarthenshire Council continues to treat residents with contempt.

District and Circle line part closure from 23rd July to 23rd August

Due to upgrade works, London's District and Circle lines will be closed from 23 July until 23 August between High Street Kensington and Edgware Road.

Travel alternatives:

Bayswater station is within easy walking distance of Queensway on the Central line, which will remain open throughout.

In addition to local buses, passengers for High Street Kensington will still be able to access the station via District line trains from Earl's Court or Circle line trains from Gloucester Road.

Passengers for Notting Hill Gate will be able to access the station via the Central line.

Passengers for Paddington and Edgware Road will be able to use the Bakerloo line, while passengers who would normally change at Edgware Road for Baker Street will be able to use the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines.

Extended closures at weekends:

During the month, the closure will need to be extended at weekends to include the whole of the Circle line, and the District line between Earl's Court and Gloucester Road.

Part or all the Hammersmith & City line will also need to close at weekends, and on two weekends part of the Metropolitan line would also need to close,enabling additional works to be carried out.

New longer air-conditioned trains will start operating on the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines from the end of 2012.

David Waboso, Capital Programmes Director, London Underground, said: "We are determined to carry out this work in a way that keeps disruption to passengers to an absolute minimum.

"But we do hope any disruption caused by this block closure will be significantly outweighed by the huge overall benefits of this essential improvement work."

Volunteers sought to test London's new Docklands Light Railway line on 7th August

Volunteers are needed for a day of testing before the new Docklands Light Railway extension from Canning Town to Stratford International opens.

Meet at Stratford Regional station (i.e. the one served by the Jubilee and Central Lines,National Express East Anglia, a current DLR line and London Overground) at 09:00. The day will end at 4pm.

Lunch will be provided and everyone taking part will receive a £20 voucher.

To volunteer for this,contact Simon.HulseATsercodocklands.co.uk or Steve.WhitleyATdlr.co.uk. (Replace AT with @)

Three carers at Dormers Wells Lodge residential home charged with mistreatment

Three carers at Dormers Wells Lodge residential home in Southall, west London have been charged with mistreating vulnerable patients, according to the BBC.

Sonika Limbu, 25, of Hayes, Pashi Sahota, 57, of Southall, and Ahir Kulwinder, 33, of Twickenham have been charged with a total of 10 offences under Section 44 of the Mental Capacity Act.

They have been bailed and are due to appear at Ealing Magistrates' Court on Friday 15 July.

Detectives were alerted in September 2010 to allegations of mistreatment of residents, and following a Metropolian Police investigation the carers were arrested in November.

The home housed about 45 elderly patients, including several dementia sufferers, at the time of the alleged offences.

CQC report criticses Dormers Wells Lodge:

A report by the Care Quality Commission published in December 2010 found that the home was not meeting one or more essential standards.

Findings included:

*That residents did not have choices in most aspects of their daily lives, and their privacy, dignity and human rights were not being respected and upheld.

One person told the authors "you are the first person today to treat me with any respect; they either talk to you like you are a small boy or a big man."

*Residents did not receive medical attention in a timely manner when they had been injured.

*Residents were not protected from abuse and their human rights were not being respected and upheld.

The report found that the provider had failed to identify and take action to prevent abuse from happening in the service, and people living at the home had been subject to care practices that are abusive.

*The service did not have an open culture where staff are supported to raise their concerns without any fear of recrimination. Poor care practices in the home were carried out by the majority of the staff including the Registered Manager, these practices are seen as the norm and staff are afraid to challenge them.

*The care provider was not monitoring the service in a manner which protects people who use the service. This had led to care practices being carried out in the service that have caused harm to vulnerable people.

The CQC says it will continue to monitor the safeguarding concerns with Ealing safeguarding team, Ealing PCT, Ealing Social Services and the Metropolitan Police, and will check to make sure that improvements have been made.

Brief Encounter parody by Victoria Wood

This is brilliant:



From the wonderful Victoria Wood will all the Trimmings.

Have a collection of Hugh Laurie's moments in the same show as well:

Manchester woman pleads guilty to stealing NSPCC charity box

Some people are just scum.

46 year old Denise Matthews, a cleaner at OCS Ltd, Old Trafford, has pled guilty to stealing a NSPCC charity box containing £7 and sweets.

Matthews, who has been dismissed from her job, was sentenced to 250 hours’ unpaid work, ordered to pay £70 compensation to the NSPCC and £330 in costs.

She also has a string of previous convictions, so I doubt this punishment will deter her.

Perhaps if she was made to go round every NSPCC charity shop in Greater Manchester apologising, accompanied by a PCSO, that might be a start

More at the Manchester Evening News.

FOSIS support bigot Sheikh Raed Salah

Remember Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic movement in Israel?

He's currently in detention, having got through Heathrow Airport into England last month despite a travel ban.

Now the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) have called for his release and are trying to allege he is a lovely man smeared by the nasty Israelis.

FOSIS spokesman, Amandla Thomas-Johnson, says:

"The fact that Sheikh Salah was first allowed into the country and then only arrested after an MP had voiced concerns over purported anti-semitic remarks clearly highlights extreme negligence on the part of the British Government, as well as a willingness to cower to the demands of the pro-Israel lobby."

Purported anti-semitic remarks?

Watch the video below:



More at Harry's Place.

Four suspended at Bristol's Rose Villa Care home over alleged abuse

Four members of staff have been suspended at Rose Villa, a nine-bed rehabilitation centre for people with learning disabilities in the Brislington area, according to the BBC.

Like Winterbourne View exposed on Panorama, the home is run by Castlebeck.

Castlebeck say that two of the suspensions occurred following an inspection on July 1, and that the findings for this inspection will be published in the next few weeks.

Avon and Somerset Police said: "Police are assisting multi-agency partners following allegations of abuse. Inquiries continue, however no criminal offences have been disclosed."

Let's follow this story and Winterbourne View to ensure that anyone found to be abusing patients is prosecuted and jailed.

I haven't heard any updates on what is happening to the accused at Winterbourne View. We can't let this story die down.

Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs in the UK 2011 applications now open

Disabled businesspeople are now able to enter the 2011 Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs in the UK, which offers a £50,000 prize.

Two runners-up will each receive a prize of £1,000.

Run in conjunction with Leonard Cheshire Disability and sponsored by EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Hajiloannou,the pan-disability award is open to everyone who meets the following criteria:

*They have a recognised disability or long term health condition as defined under the Equality Act 2010.

*They own at least 25% management stake in their company.

*Their business is UK registered and has a turnover in excess of £10,000.

*Their business has been registered for between 1 and 5 years.

The closing date is 5pm on Friday September 2nd 2011.

Click here to apply.

Last year's winner:

Vanessa Heywood, a 41-year-old Radlett, Hertfordshire resident who has Multiple Sclerosis, was presented with a cheque for £50,000 for her company - Tiny Mites Music – which offers live and recorded interactive music sessions aimed at young children.

She and her company also won specialist support courtesy of the Stelios Scholar Reach-out Programme.

Sussex University to mark fiftieth anniversary with a series of panel discussions in London

My alma mater Sussex University celebrates its 50th anniversary in the academic year 2011-2012.

To mark this, the university is holding a series of 'Conversation' panel discussions on key issues of our age, designed to resonate with the University's six major research themes.

The events:

*Thursday 20 October 2011, Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti, chief scientific adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Professor David Clary and NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General Dr Jamie Shea will discuss topics relating to citizenship and democratisation.

*Thursday 3 November 2011, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government Lord Robert May of Oxford, co-Founder of Forum for the Future Sir Jonathon Porritt and co-founder of The Equality Trust Professor Richard Wilkinson will discuss topics relating to the environment and health.

*Thursday 19 January 2012, Mark Lawson, Director-General of the National Trust Dame Fiona Reynolds and Pro-Provost and Chairman of the Council of the Royal College of Art Sir Neil Cossons will discuss how to preserve Britain's culture and heritage.

*Thursday 8 March 2012,Director of ODI Alison Evans, joint winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Sir Harry Kroto and former Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short will discuss future global transformations.

*Thursday 26 April 2012, international expert on human-computer interaction and creativity Professor Ernest Edmonds, Niels Bohr Visiting Professor at the University of Aarhus Professor Chris Frith and artist Carol Steen will discuss issues relating to the mind and brain, including the creativity of people affected by mental illness, neurological disease and mental disabilities.

*Thursday 24 May 2012,President of the European Research Council Professor Helga Nowotn, teacher political theory at Hobart and William Smith Colleges Professor Jodi Dean and Professor Tom Rodden, Professor of Interactive Systems at the Mixed Reality Laboratory at the University of Nottingham, will discuss issues relating to the development and impacts of digital and social media

The location and further information:

I'll post further information on booking nearer the time.

All of these events are being held at the Royal Institution, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS.

The nearest tube station to the Royal Institution is Green Park, on the Jubilee, Victoria and Piccadilly lines, just a five minute walk away.

Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus tube stations are within a ten minute walking distance.

The 8, 9, 14, 19, 22 and 38 stop nearby on Piccadilly and there is cycle parking on Bond Street.

Deaf awareness course in Liverpool on July 28

A course educating people on reducing discrimination of the deaf, as well as technology and communication skills that can make a business accessible to all deaf people, will take place on July 28 in Liverpool.

Located at MPowerpeople,Unit B2, 2nd Floor, Baird House, Liverpool Innovation Park, Digital Way,L7 9NJ, the course runs from 9:30am to 4pm and costs £50 per person.

Run by Suzie Jones Consultancy, you can book tickets and find out more information here, although tickets are selling out fast.

Police appeal to find suspected London fraudster

Police are asking for the public’s help to find suspected fraudster Mohammed Lutfer Rahman Khan, formally of Waltham Cross but now believed to be living in East London.

The 29-year-old is wanted by City of London Police having failed to attend court to face charges relating to setting up fraudulent credit card accounts.

Khan you find him?

Anyone with information on Khan’s whereabouts should call City of London Police in confidence on 020 7601 2222. Alternatively, call the free and anonymous Crimestoppers line on 0800 555 111, where mobile phone tariffs may apply.

Background on the case:

The appeal follows the conviction of two men, Shakeel Malik, 49, from Middlesex and Akhtar Shabarz, 38, from Woolwich, London, for offences of fraud by false representation and a third man, Sandeep Singh, 35, from Birmingham, for conspiracy to commit fraud.

All three were handed suspended sentences at the Old Bailey on Friday 8 July 2011, having previously pleaded guilty to the offences.

The men had used fraudulent documents to open credit card accounts and then made legitimate payments into the accounts to build up credit with the banks.

They then paid fraudulent cheques for large amounts into the accounts before withdrawing the money immediately .

I have to say that a suspended sentence is a pathetic punishment for fraud.

Guardian explains how to uncover political wrongdoings

Theresa Musgrove, who writes at the Broken Barnet blog under the name Mrs Angry, is one of a group of "armchair auditors" who exposed a £1.3m audit failure involving a private security firm hired by Barnet Council.

She has written an article for the Guardian explaining how local authorities can be held to account.

Citizen journalists in Barnet provided the ultimate armchair audit, and you can do the same, if you use the increasing number of resources available online and elsewhere.

Almost all councils in England now publish details of expenditure over £500, but it is up to you to trawl through the raw data and analyse its significance.

What is missing from the accounts is as important as what is listed: "sensitive" payments may have names redacted, and you should query such entries.

Be creative: Mrs Angry is perhaps too easily distracted by opportunities for mischief, but searching for entries such as "hotel," "conference," or "training," provides her with plenty of blogging fun regarding elocution lessons for senior officers, weekends at luxury hotels in Poole, parties at the RAF museum, and workshops by foul mouthed hip hop artistes ...

The comments are well worth a read as well, especially DizzyRed's.

DizzyRed claims to have worked in finance in a local government authority where "senior managers p***** away money like it came from some kind of magic box" and "got their senior friends to deal with awkward staff or tried to directly bully them into submission" when questions were asked.

Disabled woman's care bill rises by 6870 per cent

As events at the News of the World rumble on, equally important stories are getting missed by the mainstream media and blogosphere.

Linda Murray, who was left paralysed after suffering spinal injuries in a car crash 40 years ago,faces a rise in her care bill from £21 to £1,464 a week under new council rules, according to the Dumfries and Galloway Standard.

In 1971,she was given a £23,000 compensation payout and she reckons all her life savings will be used up in months if she has to make these payments.

Linda told the Standard: "I just don’t understand how they expect me to pay this. It’s enormous. It’s over a thousand pounds every single week. That money was to last me the rest of my life. It won’t even last me the rest of the summer."

Via Where's The Benefit?

Council Leader Ivor Hyslop told the Standard: "We took the decision to change the charging policy to ensure that we continued to provide the services we have been delivering.

"The way we have approached this also ensures that those who cannot afford to pay are still protected.

"We have people checking that a mistake has not been made (in this case).

If Hyslop does not find that a mistake has been made, this is the start of a slippery slope where disabled people will be punished financially for being ill.

We need to protest these kind of injustices.

Thoughts on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged

I've finished reading Ayn Rand's 1000-page magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged.

The book is a statement of her philosophy,Objectivism, which Rand describes as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

In short, it follows the struggle of Dagney Taggart to run a railroad at a time when industrial pioneers are seemingly leaving their jobs, letting the country go to ruin under a semi-Communist government.

Ayn Rand is an excellent writer. She grips the reader from page one and has an accessible, exciting style.

I do however strongly disagree with Objectivism. Rand seems to believe that the choice is between unrestrained capitalism and a disastrous mix of socialism, naivety and communism creating a Cambodia-style wasteland.

Her parody of those who are driven by altruism is grossly exaggerated. The most horrible section of the book deals with a train full of people about to die as they are entering a tunnel in a coal-burning train - and face suffocation.

Rand lists them and their perceived fallacies in detail, implying that they made their own bed due to their beliefs and that they deserve to die.

The book does not address how altruism in the form of corporate social responsibility can benefit a business.

Nor does it explain why, for all her disdain for any form of charity, the protagonist Dagny Taggart takes pity on a trespassing tramp.

I would recommend Atlas Shrugged due to the entertaining story and Rand's brilliance as a writer, but I did not agree with most of the philosophical points the book was trying to make, and I found the political scenarios wildly unrealistic.

Penny-pinching Manchester MP's

The Manchester Evening News highlights a series of expense claims published by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.

Some of them show how determined our MP's are to recoup every last penny.

*Simon Danczuk (Lab, Rochdale) put in an 80p claim for a Metrolink ticket between Manchester's Piccadilly and Victoria stations. The distance between the two stations could have been walked in 20 minutes.

*Andy Burnham (Lab, Leigh) claimed £18.51 for milk for his staff. Sad, I did admire him for coming to an anti-ID card meeting in Brighton in 2005 to debate with people opposed to the idea.

*Yvonne Fovargue (Lab, Makerfield) claimed for 15 first-class train journeys to and from London, costing £735 over nine months, while Wigan's Lisa Nandy claimed more than £1,500 for 21 first-class fares in the same time period.

Worth noting that a lot of people commute from Manchester to London and don't get the money back from the taxpayer, let alone those travelling from one Metrolink station to another

What a greedy lot.

Comment on Transport for London's draft accessibility plan

Transport for London have published a draft accessibility action plan and want comments from members of the public.

Access the report here (PDF, requires Adobe Reader or alternative)

Responses to the report need to answer the following:

Question 1: Given what is set out in this report, what do you think the focus should be beyond 2015 (beyond 2014 for National Rail
improvements) with regard to improving:

a) The physical accessibility of the transport system?

b) The availability, quality, quantity and timeliness of information about
the transport system?

c) The attitudes of transport staff and travellers towards each other?

d) Staff availability and staff training?

e) Door-to-door services for people with mobility problems who require
this form of transport service?

Question 2: Is there anything missing from this report, or anything else
you would like to tell us?

How to reply:

You can post your replies to: Physical accessibility report, 10th Floor, Windsor House,42-50 Victoria Street,London SW1H 0TL.

You can email them to: physicalaccessibilityATtfl.gov.uk, or you can enter your response directly in to the TfL consultation web page.

Personally, I think step-free access from platform to Tube train, increasing the number of step-free National Rail stations and an enhanced Dial-A-Ride fleet should be the main priorities.

The consultation closes on 31th October 2011. I will try to get a full response to them before this.

Eliza Doolittle to the rescue

Had a bad episode of anxiety on Friday evening.

This singer to the rescue...pick me up...

Goldsmiths student exhibits show challenging antisemitism from 14-19 July

Noam Edry's art show, "Conversation Pieces: Scenes of Unfashionable Life", will open on Thursday 14 July 6-9pm at the Goldsmiths MFA Degree Show, Baths Building, Laurie Grove, New Cross, SE14 6NW.

The show comprises of painting, sculpture, video and live performances, all dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict from Noam's own Israeli point of view.

Documentation of Noam's earlier performance "Save the Date", where he dresses up as a giant boycotted Israeli date and pleads with his fellow artists to eat him, will be screened at the show.

Also on show will be “Coffee Stand”, a work which challenges the demonising of Israel on UK campuses.

The stand will be situated at the entrance to the show and manned by Israeli and Jewish volunteers, who will serve Arabic-Israeli coffee to members of the public.

They will wear T-shirts designed and hand-printed by with the text: "I come from the most hated place on earth" and on the back: "(second to Iran)".

Those who wish to take part by wearing a t-shirt at the show will be given one to keep.

The show runs until July 19th.

Show opening times:

Thursday 14th 6pm-9pm, then Friday 15 – Monday 19 July 10am-7pm, Sunday 18 July 10 am – 4pm

The Coffee Stand opens for the duration of the Private View, Thursday 14 July 6-9pm, and then every day Friday 15 -Monday 19 from 12noon – 3pm.

Transport:

The nearest rail station, served by Transport for London's London Overground, is New Cross Gate.

In terms of buses, the 53, 453 and 172 stop nearby. Get off at the Marquis Of Granby: Stop S.

On Engage, Noam comments:

If anyone would have told me two years ago, when I came to London to start my MA in Fine Art, that I would be making a show about the conflict, I would have laughed straight away. I had always thought of myself as a-political. I never thought I had an opinion about politics, right, wrong, I only knew one thing: that I didn’t know. That things were not as simple or clear-cut as a black and white painting and that there were so many other issues I could address as an artist.

But then on my first day at Goldsmiths I was confronted by propaganda posters on the student union walls calling my country an “apartheid state”. It was the first time I had heard of it. Apartheid. How? In what way? I went to art school in Jerusalem with fellow Arab artists. We built our exhibitions together side by side, helping each other. I served in the Israeli army with Arabs and ate the same oily army food with them, and consoled myself with the same Arabic coffee that we brewed together in a small makeshift pot. My own army commander was Druze. All of a sudden I felt threatened and unwelcome here in Britain. I grew up in London from the age of five until I was seventeen but this was a very different London than the one I remembered so fondly.

In the first year at Goldsmiths I lay low, I tried fitting in, I refused to make work about my Israeli identity or anything that had to do with it. But it was simply not good enough. Because I was constantly confronted with questions, accusations, labels. It would happen on the way back from a party or over a casual cup of coffee. I saw more posters and protests and boycotts slandering my home, the place that made me who I am, a place that was barely recognisable in those posters. I saw the crass misrepresentation of my region and its de-legitimisation on a daily basis and I felt powerless. I did not have the words, I did not have the flashy slogans and the fashionable labels...

I believe in human beings. I believe that each and every one of us seeks happiness. If people want to be passionate about a cause they should know what it is they are rallying for. And make sure they are not trampling on someone else in the process. Passion is good when it is channelled in positive ways. When tolerance and well-being is the real goal and not the adrenaline rush of a good fight.

There is an Israeli voice in Goldsmiths. There is a Jewish voice in Goldsmiths. It is loud and it is here and it will not be silenced.

Should Kent County Council spend £1m upgrading a travelers' site?

The Daily Telegraph reports that Kent County Council will spend the money redeveloping the site near Aylesford, increasing the number of caravan sites from eight to 26.

Current residents of the site claim that introducing new families would "cause a lot of tension" and want it spent on "good causes" instead.

My view:

I have nothing against travelers or their sites, but I think there are two questions here.

1. How much should the views of people already living at the site affect developments of it for future users?

I would say quite a bit. And what do other local people think? They will have to live near it.

2. In these recession-hit times, is spending £1 million upgrading and expanding a travelers' site a priority?

I would say not.

Although there are worse things the money could be spent on, Kent County Council needs to save £95 million, and will cut cut approximately 1,500 jobs over the next four years, according to the BBC.

In terms of travelers themselves, I don't have any experience of living near them, whether positive or negative.

Therefore, I have restricted my comment to the views of the travellers already there and the financial wisdom of spending this money.

Have you been robbed in London?

Police in Camden, North London, have set up a Flickr page in order to reunite victims of theft with more than 2,000 stolen items, according to the Evening Standard.


One of the stolen items.


Detective Inspector Gary Randall told the paper: "The aim of this campaign is to establish if these items have been reported as stolen and return as many of these items as we can."

Consultation on new Manchester tram line

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is holding a public consultation on plans for a second Metrolink line through the city.

The proposed line would run from the Deansgate-Castlefield stop, through St Peter's Square, along Princess Street, Cross Street and Corporation Street to Victoria Station.

Plans for the second city Metrolink line include a new, larger tram stop at St Peter's Square as well as a new stop at Exchange Square and enhancements to Metrolink facilities at Victoria Station, including increasing platform capacity.

Information events about the proposals are being held at locations across the city:

Exchange Court, Manchester Arndale from 10am to 6pm on 10 July.

Bridgewater Hall from 8am to 5:30pm on 11 July and 2 August.

Manchester Town Hall from 9am to 5pm on 14 July and 19 July.

Triangle from 9am to 6pm on 16 July and 23 July.

Have your say on a new Manchester tram line:

Transport for Greater Manchester would like to hear your views on the Metrolink Second City Crossing by 9 September 2011, when the public consultation will close.

If you would like to take part in the consultation you should complete and return the response form in the consultation brochure, available from Travelshops in Piccadilly Gardens and Shudehill Interchange, at the public exhibitions and online.

You can also email 2cc.metrolinkATtfgm.com with your comments.

More information on the proposals.

To find out more, you can also call the Metrolink team on 0161 244 1444, email 2cc.metrolinkATtfgm.com or write to Transport for Greater Manchester, Metrolink Second City Crossing, FREEPOST RRHE-RRKUU-KSJY, Manchester, M1 3BG.

Boris Johnson's City Hall gravy train

While the right furiously attack public sector workers and demand cuts in public services, most people seem to ignore the fat cats at the top.

London's Evening Standard has revealed that, under a Tory adminstration, the number of people on six-figure salaries at City Hall has risen from 16 to 28.

This week, mayor Boris Johnson, who has called public-sector pensions "unsustainable and unaffordable", approved salary increases for two aides.

Cultural adviser Munira Mirza, who has become mayoral adviser on culture and youth has seen her salary rise from £82,200 to £127,784.

Richard Blakeway, adviser for housing, has seen his salary increase by a third, from £82,200 to £110,000.

The reason given for Mr Blakeway's increase was "to ensure it is at a level commensurate with role and in line with other posts at that salary".

Sources close to the Mayor told the Evening Standard that the salary increases reflect increased work loads and added responsibilities.

They also claim that the Mayor has streamlined the operation at City Hall, saving millions, but did not give further details.

Green Party Assembly member Darren Johnson said: "I'm amazed that we now have almost double the number of people on over £100,000 in City Hall since this Mayor came to office. I think in an age of austerity with rising living costs it shows very bad judgment."

One law for public sector workers at the sharp end such as nurses, teachers and paramedics, and another for the fat cats at City Hall.

Russian lawyer "probably beaten to death in jail"

The Kremlin's human rights council claim in a new report that lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in jail in 2009 while awaiting trial on a tax evasion charge, was probably beaten to death in jail.

Human rights activists say that the fact that nobody has been prosecuted over Magnitsky's death demonstrates President Medvedev's inability to make major changes and emerge from the shadow of Putin, who may return to the presidency in elections next March.

More at The Guardian.

7/7/05: Never forget

Today, six years ago, four terrorists murdered fifty-two innocent people in Central London.

Seven hundred people were also injured, many seriously.

At 8:50am, three bombs were let off on the London Underground.

The first exploded on a Circle line train near Aldgate, killing seven people.

The second exploded on a Circle line train which had just left Edgware Road, killing six, while the third exploded on a Piccadilly line train that was between King's Cross St Pancras and Russel Square, killing twenty-six people.

At 9:47am, a bomb exploded at Tavistock Square on a Number 30 bus, killing thirteen people.

The victims can be seen here.

Ken Livingstone, whom I am no fan of, was at his best on that day:

Finally, I wish to speak directly to those who came to London today to take life. I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others - that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail.

In the days that follow, look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfil their dreams and achieve their potential.

They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live.

They do not want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.

Let us remember them.

Volunteers needed in Walthamstow for Mill community centre refurbishment

Volunteers are needed to help with the ongoing refurbishment of a new community centre in Walthamstow, North East London, between 15th-18th July inclusive.

The Mill uses the former St James Street Library building in Coppermill Lane, Walthamstow.

Times, dates and the work required:

Friday 15th, 10am-2pm and 6pm-8pm: Plastering and painting.

Saturday 16th, 10am-2pm: Painting, plastering and gardening.

Sunday 17th, 10am-2pm: Painting.

Monday 18th, 10am-2pm: Painting.

If you would like to come, please let Ingrid Abreu Scherer (buildingsATthemill-coppermill.org) know so materials can be prepared and food ordered.

Older children will be able to help with the work, and the younger ones will be entertained by crafts and activities on Saturday.

Please bring any tools that you can: paintbrushes, rollers, trowels & gardening tools with you – and wear old clothes or overalls.

Traveling to the community centre:

St James Street National Rail station is a very short walk away, and both Walthamstow Central and Blackhorse Road underground stations are within walking distance (Blackhorse Road is slightly quicker to walk from)

The 230 bus also stops nearby.

Barnet and Tower Hamlets councils in Private Eye 1292

If you are a resident of the London boroughs of Barnet or Tower Hamlets, I strongly recommend picking up the latest issue of Private Eye.

*Barnet Council has been exposed as paying £1.4 m to a security company while secretly filmed and monitored residents at a town hall budget meeting, staffed by guards who did not have Criminal Records Bureau checks.

An inquiry has been refused by the council.

*Tower Hamlets Council's Takki Sulaiman, a former comms head at child court service Cafcass who is paid £100,000 a year by the council, is profiled in the same Rotten Boroughs column.

He has been a supporter of keeping the costly £1.5m a year East End Life council newspaper, and has also been involved with the £56,000 "My Tower Hamlets" service, which sends news alerts from mayor Lutfur Rahman to taxpayers' phones, and the £406,000 "My Cafcass" portal, which was recently scrapped.

More in Private Eye 1292. Only £1.50 and well worth the money.

Residents of South Tyneside, North Hertfordshire and Fenland, Cambridgeshire, will also find information of interest.

Disabled woman loses fight with Kensington and Chelsea council for overnight carer

Supreme Court justices have dismissed an appeal by Elaine McDonald, 67, who argues that the care package she receives from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, should include assistance at night to use a commode, according to the Evening Standard.

So Kensington and Chelsea council don't want to spend money on an overnight carer to ensure someone can use the toilet, but are happy to spend money creating a new website for London shoppers or contribute towards finding alternatives to a 20-mile super sewer.

I'm sure that Kensington and Chelsea leader Sir Merrick Cockell could have paid for Ms McDonald's overnight carer, given that he is paid £54,000 for a three-day week by the Local Government Association and £65,000 as leader of the council - making him one of the country's best paid councillors on almost £120,000 a year, according to the Daily Mail.

Still, perhaps it's more important for residents' cash to go towards reimbursing Sir Merrick for expenses such as a £115 dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York than giving a 67 year old woman some dignity.

Legal comment:

Richard Copson, an expert in disability rights at Manchester law firm Pannone commented: "If Social Services departments seek to do so they must carry out comprehensive assessments of any person’s care needs.

"They must have reference to sound legal principles, policies and procedures, relevant legislation and guidance and importantly, the human rights of anyone in receipt of or in need of care services.

"I would urge Social Services departments throughout the UK to think long and hard before they try to use this ruling, decided on particular facts, to justify wholesale cuts."

Magistrate fiddles £2000 expenses, gets slap on wrist

Edward Whelpton, 75, copied the signature of a colleague and accountant to falsify his £2000 expense claims while working working as a member of the Independent Monitoring Board at Forest Bank prison in Salford, Greater Manchester.

He recieved an 18-week suspended prison sentence, according to the Manchester Evening News.

Whelpton has been made subject of a weekend curfew for three months and also had to pay £1000 of prosecution costs.

No community service or actual prison time for this disgusting man. A suspended sentence, a piddling curfew and a small fine. A slap on the wrist.

If someone on jobseekers allowance or employment and support allowance had done the same, the full weight of the law would come crashing down on them and the papers would gleefully report it in their bid to demonise all people on benefits as scroungers.

One law for us, another law for them.

Teen begins 4000-mile Europe cycling challenge to raise money for cancer charity

Edinburgh teen Adrian Clark, 17, is setting off today from Lisbon, Portgual on a 4000-mile cycling challenge to raise money for Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres.

He will cycle an average of 100 miles per day and aims to complete his challenge in around 36 days, according to the Edinburgh Evening News.

Donate here.

Adrian told the Edinburgh Evening News: "Maggie's is my chosen charity because Maggie's Centres provide calm, uplifting, inspiring places.

"People can access information on cancer and its treatment, emotional support, confidential counselling and advice."

Myself and dreams

I never used to dream much. Whenever the school term was over, I'd have a couple of dreams about school, but then that would be it.

However, recently I've been having dreams almost every day - in fact I think it is every day - for the past month or so.

Perhaps it is due to my therapy and my brain trying to order things in my mind.

Last night, I dreamt I was going into my old house in Walthamstow, except it didn't look like my old house. If that statement doesn't make sense, it made sense in the dream.

I had to walk down a narrow side path. When I got to the house, I saw old man wearing only a loincloth, who lived in the below flat.

He said "good morning" even though it was the afternoon, and I said "good morning" back.

Then Mrs Doyle from Father Ted fell to the ground holding onto a ladder. I picked it up and straightend it, and it vanished.

I decided to climb in through the window. Sid James and another Carry On star were there. In a "posh" voice, I said "Hello, I'm Jeeves" and we all laughed.

Then I woke up. So there we are.

New London Tube guide helps people avoid stairs

Only sixty two of the two hundred and seventy London Underground are step free, although this will increase to 65 when lifts are installed at Green Park, Blackfriars and Farringdon before the 2012 Olympic Games.

Transport for London has now published a map showing which London Underground stations require using stairs to enter or exit the station.

Also shown are Docklands Light Railway stations, all of which either have level or lift access between street and platform.

Sadly, the map does not include National Rail or London Overground stations. While the exclusion of the former may be to make the map easier to read due to less clutter, the exclusion of the latter seems rather strange.

Also, the new map does show London Underground stations where one can change onto National Rail and/or London Overground without using stairs (sometimes only in one direction), as well as stations you can change between lines without using stairs (sometimes only in one direction).

A seperate document has been created which includes information on accessible London Overground stations on pages 18-26.

The map is only avabile online as a download. This seems silly, and I hope a paper version is brought out. The London Overground document I mention is also only downloadable.

Access the new map here.

From the map, it looks like the Circle Line has the least number of stations that do not require using stairs between the platform and street.

The line with the most stations that do not require stairs between the platform and street appears to be the Jubilee Line. Hardly surprising, given that part of the line was constructed very recently.

Instead of wasting money on a cable car or a new DLR line mainly intended for the 2012 Olympics and that will be too costly for many locals to use, Transport for London should concentrate on ensuring every London Underground station has step-free access between the platform and the street.

At tfl.gov.uk/accessguides there is also an Audio Tube map, Tube toilet map, a large print Tube map and a Step-Free Tube map, showing which tube stations have step-free access between the train and platform.

Sheikh Raed Salah: an attack

The head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Raed Salah, managed to get through Heathrow Airport into England last month despite a travel ban. He is currently detained in the UK.

Victoria Brittain of Cageprisoners describes him as "a much respected and much elected leader" and criticises the decision to prevent him speaking, while Dr Hanan Chehatam, the press officer for the Middle East Monitor, describes him as "the UK's first Palestinian political prisoner" in an interview with the New Statesman.

It is debatable whether people like Raed Salah should be allowed to speak. One could argue that they gain more publicity if they are banned from speaking.

However, I can't see how "a much respected" leader would find the humilitation of a Jewish teacher funny.



Nor can I see how "a much respected" leader could imply that most of the Hurricane Katrina dead served it "We send our condolances to any innocent family among them" or imply that the disaster was George Bush's fault.



I don't have a problem with the idea that Raed Salah should be allowed to speak despite his bigotry. People should be able to defeat his ideas through debate, like with Nick Griffin.

My problem is with those such as Victoria Brittain who believe this man deserves even a smigen of respect.

Videos via Harry's Place.

Workshop on fixing difficult relationships via spirituality on 10 July

The workshop "Sorting Out Difficult Relationships - the Spiritual Way" will take place on Sunday 10 July 2011, from 2:00 to 5:30pm at the Global Retreat Centre, run by the Brahma Kumaris.

Located at Nuneham Park, Nuneham Courtenay, Oxfordshire, OX44 9PG, the Centre is a beautiful and relaxing place located in 25 acres of countryside. Having been there myself, I strongly recommend a visit.

Presenting the workshop is Enrique Simó, who currently co-ordinates the activities of the Brahma Kumaris in Madrid.

Enrique is an organisational consultant trainer and a recognised speaker and writer in the fields of human resources and corporate development.

The workshop, which is free, is not suitable for children.

Click here to book.

Do you use London's District Line?

If so, you have fourteen more days to comment on a proposal to remove weekday District line services to Kensington (Olympia), one of the least used London Underground stations.

This proposal is intended to allow more Wimbledon trains during the morning peak and an extra Ealing Broadway train during the evening peak.

Personally, I cautiously welcome this proposal, although I understand that it will cause some difficulties for local residents during the week (hence my cautious welcome).

London Overground and Southern services will continue to run to and from Kensington (Olympia) on weekdays.

Transport for London estimate capacity for over 4000 extra people from Wimbledon in the morning peak and capacity for over 800 extra people to Ealing Broadway in the evening.

Opposition to the change:

Andy Slaughter, Labour MP for Hammersmith, comments:

Olympia is a valuable station – not only does it carry traffic to the exhibition centres, but it provides stepless access to the tube for local users, enabling them to get onto the transport system easily – LU’s suggestion that they are other stations around a mile away is of little comfort to wheelchair users.

Many, many people have written to me asking for my help in keeping it open; there is a well-organised group which has the support of local residents groups, disability support groups, transport groups and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Earl's Court is step-free but is a 25 minute walk along busy roads, and there is a longer gap between the platform and train.

My suggestion, as someone who shares Mr Slaughter's concern about the lack of step-free stations on the London Underground, is that Tfl should improve step free access at High Street Kensington (2o minutes away), increase the number of locla Dial-A-Ride services and consider how they could adapt buses in the area to carry more disabled passengers.

I realise this is not an ideal solution.

Have your say:

You can have your say by filling in a questionnaire, emailing Tfl at enquiry.tubeATtfl.gov.uk,ringing them 0845 330 9880 (between 08:00-20:00, every day), or writing to them at LU's Customer Service Centre,55 Broadway,London SW1H 0BD.

Richard Parry of London Underground will be at public meeting to discuss this proposal with local residents.

The meeting will be held at 7pm on Tuesday, 26 July in the Pillar Hall of Olympia, next to Kensington Olympia station.

As IanVisits mentions, the parlimentary train also terminates at Kensington (Olympia).

North Korea is new UN Conference on Disarmament head

You couldn't make it up, as Littlejohn would say.

Via Mick Hartley:

The Conference on Disarmament held a plenary meeting this morning in which the Democratic People's Republic of Korea assumed the presidency of the Conference and members bid farewell to the departing ambassadors from Canada and the United Kingdom.

In his initial address to the Conference as president, So Se Pyong of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea said that he was very much committed to the Conference and during his presidency he welcomed any sort of constructive proposals that strengthened the work and credibility of the body.

He was ready to work closely with all members to provide the grounds for strengthening their work...

All of the delegations* who took the floor welcomed So Se Pyong as the president of the Conference on Disarmament and said that they looked forward to his stewardship and working with him to revitalize and strengthen the Conference. Delegations also bid farewell to Mr. Grinius and Mr. Duncan.

The speakers said that they had enjoyed working with the two representatives and they thanked them for all their work on behalf of the Conference on Disarmament and wished them luck in their future endeavours.

Some speakers asked about the work of the Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament and how it fit into the work of the Conference on Disarmament. Other speakers expressed concern that the public image of the Conference on Disarmament was suffering and they needed to work harder to reverse this trend.

How to improve the poor public image of a conference? Have someone from North Korea chair it. They're big fans of disarmament.

*The delegations who spoke were Canada, the United Kingdom, India, China, Nigeria, Portugal, Iran, Myanmar (Burma) and Algeria.

Captain Ska: Slipping Back In Time

Fantastic song: