Thought should be given to building an extra runway at Gatwick rather than Stansted airport, MPs suggest…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: dublin airport. The blog is also related to: holiday travel.

Thought should be given to building an extra runway at Gatwick rather than Stansted airport, a report by MPs suggests…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: tours airport. The blog is also related to: airport trip.

I will be in Kong Kong and Kampong Som next week for the WMC annual staff retreat 2009. I hope I can access to Internet there so that mpsinfo.wordpress.com can go with me; otherwise, I will have to be away from it during this said period.

I found out on Friday that the monster who has been raping the child I am trying to help since she was 9 years old has been let off by the CPS. Even the Senior Investigating Police Officer is pissed off about this.

I have been too upset to write about this until now and I am still in bits at the injustice of it all.

I KNOW the effect this asshole has had on this kids life, he stole her innocence, her trust of adults and her childhood. He has been raping her for at least 5 years and out stupid f**ked up crown prosecution service have let him off and he is free to rape again.

It’s an outrage, how must this kid feel?

What must she be thinking?

Where is her justice?

I dont know what else to say – I am speechless!

Listen: Through week three and into the fourth, for Day 22 of Meet The Need we get to know City Year Milwaukee, an organization allowing young people aged 17-24 to give a year of full time service, acting as tutors, mentors, and role models in schools and the community. Think about that for a moment — with so many teaching programs and fellowships popping up these days, it’s easy to get muddled and lump them all together as a single entity. However, giving young people the opportunity to go into the classroom and build communities is quite novel. And effective. City Year have had a presence in 18 cities in the U.S. and South Africa, expanding into Milwaukee next year. Keep an eye out for young people in City Year’s signature red jackets — they’re story will be interesting to follow.

In these pieces, City Year Milwaukee’s Startup Director Jason Holton and External Project Leader Lindsey Larra detail why the work they’re doing is needed and how their approach has been so successful:

-Why City Year has adopted its mission to attack the high school dropout rate:

-How young people come together and make the City Year program successful:

-Lindsay’s personal account of her path from college to City Year:

For more information on City Year Milwaukee, visit the general website or check out the City Year Milwaukee blog, and if you’d like to join City Year for the upcoming school year, you can apply today! Also, City Year will join Brett Dennen’s Love Speaks Community tonight at his Turner Hall concert. Go check them out!

Produced by: Adam Carr

The City Year gang in their distinctive red coats!

The sumptuous home of financier Jacob Rothschild, Waddesdon Manor, has long been famed as one of Britain’s most magnificent country houses.

But for all its splendour and beauty, the estate has this week been associated with an extraordinary weekend shooting party which symbolises the decadence, corruption and moral collapse of modern British socialism.

No novelist would have dared to invent such an occasion. The host was a leading member of the world’s richest and most famous banking dynasty. The guests included the son of a bloodthirsty and oil-rich Arab dictator, and the discredited wife of a former British prime minister.

And totally at home in all this gilded opulence was the remarkable figure of Lord Mandelson, former Young Communist, far Left activist, major player in three successive Labour election victories and right-hand man to Gordon Brown.

One might have expected such a figure to have been repelled by so much opulence and wealth. Instead, Mandelson clearly revels in it. The drab lives of the hard-working men and women who placed their faith in Labour at three consecutive general elections hold no appeal to him.

Mandelson now only seems truly at home in grand country houses or on the yachts of billionaires such as his Russian oligarch friend Oleg Deripaska, whose guest he was during the summer of 2008.

The truth is that his attendance at a shooting party with Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi’s son is a perfect parable of the decadent Left’s embrace of everything it claims to despise.

Nor is Mandelson an exception. Practically every member of Tony Blair’s Cabinet which took office in 1997 has since sold out to wealth and power.

Blair himself is a perfect example. Since leaving office, he has become a popular member of the international plutocracy; a consultant to an investment bank who has earned an estimated £15 million since leaving Downing Street.

While at No 10, Blair was shamefully attracted to extremely rich men. On one occasion, government policy was even changed after the tycoon Bernie Ecclestone donated £1 million to the Labour Party.

Peerages were for sale under his government, while his wife Cherie blatantly profiteered from her status of First Lady by accepting free gifts and discounts from retailers.

Numerous ministers from the Blair years have exploited their Whitehall experience to go on to earn fat fees in the private sector. Indeed, some of those who boasted loudest about their working class credentials, such as John Prescott, have been among the greediest.

Nor should it be forgotten that MPs’ culture of cheating over their expenses took root during the New Labour years (although, of course, many Tories were just as bad).

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-1231313/PETER-OBORNE-Mandelson-shows-Labour-party-rotten-decadence.html#ixzz0YLZyI2Pb

The crisis over standards of NHS care appears to be worsening almost by the day.

Figures published in the latest Hospital Guide from the part-NHS, part-private Dr Foster organisation show that 12 hospital trusts including those with ‘foundation’ status are ’significantly underperforming’ – including nine which had been rated good or even excellent by the NHS watchdog, the Care Quality Commission.

A further 27 are said by Dr Foster to have had unusually high mortality rates, generally considered a warning sign of care or treatment inadequacies

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1231969/MELANIE-PHILLIPS-How-obscene-NHS-bosses-rich-patients-needlessly-die-watch.html#ixzz0YLYXnfPZ

Gordon Brown will offer a life peerage to the head of the Muslim Council of Britain, Muhammad Abdul Bari – even though government links with the organisation are officially suspended.

The news comes from an unexpected quarter – the Jewish Chronicle, which explains that ministers are keen to find a prominent Muslim to enter the House of Lords as a way of balancing the peerage given to Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks earlier this year.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1231311/Muslim-Council-Britain-leader-life-peerage.html#ixzz0YLWXLyNZ

Civil servants are being awarded the same campaign medals for serving in Afghanistan as soldiers risking their lives on the front line.

Critics said it was ‘offensive’ that Ministry of Defence bureaucrats manning desks at the British HQ, Camp Bastion, are handed the Operational Service Medal which is also given to squaddies facing Taliban bullets and bombs.

Penpushers receive the honour from ministers at formal presentation ceremonies, which were introduced after protests that the medals were being posted to them in plastic bags.

The news follows revelations in the Daily Mail that civilians working for the MoD have earned nearly £300million in bonuses while soldiers have been dying for lack of equipment.

Civil servants have seen ‘good performance’ payments double, including rewards for saving money, while on the battlefields of Helmand soldiers have accused the Government of putting lives at risk by scrimping on military kit including helicopters, radios and night goggles.

Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Willie Rennie said last night: ‘It is quite offensive that civil servants should be regarded and rewarded the same as soldiers who are putting themselves in danger to fight the Taliban.

‘We need a complete review of arrangements so that risk and courage is taken into account when medals are being awarded.

‘I think it would be more appropriate to give frontline troops a different medal that reflected their bravery and sacrifice.’

The Operational Service Medal was introduced in 2000 to honour service in a series of British campaigns, replacing the General Service Medal.

They have been handed out for service in Iraq, Sierre Leone and the Congo. 

The circular silver medal features the crowned effigy of Queen Elizabeth II on the front and the Union Flag surrounded by the inscription For Operational Service and the four points of the compass on the reverse.

The ribbon for the Afghanistan campaign consists of a broad central red stripe, flanked each side by a stripe of royal blue and one of light blue, to represent the three services, with an outer stripe of light brown, to represent the Afghan landscape.  

Complex criteria govern the award of the medal, depending on length of service, the type of operation and its location.

To qualify for award of the medal with a clasp, personnel must have served in Afghanistan for either five, 21 or 30 days continuous service between various dates depending on the operation.

The MoD has asked staff to volunteer for service in Afghanistan. Welfare and administration officers, scientists and mechanics are among those who can be posted there.

One civil servant who recently returned from Afghanistan said: ‘We are not on the front line facing the Taliban, but could be blown to pieces at any time. I shall wear my medal with pride inside and outside the office.’

At a presentation ceremony in July, Armed Forces minister Kevan Jones said: ‘The welfare role these people do is vital in operations and I thought it important that they get public recognition.’

An MoD spokesman: ‘Civil servants in Afghanistan provide essential support to troops on the front line.

‘Staff serving in Afghanistan are expected to work extremely long hours in potentially dangerous environments away from their families. They are all deserving of the Operational Service Medal.’

Armed Forces face shortfall of 7,000 troops

Britain’s Armed Forces fighting Afghan insurgents are facing an ‘alarming’ shortfall of nearly 7,000 specialist troops.

Vital roles including surgeons, helicopter pilots, divers and intelligence officers are operating at two-thirds strength or less, according to figures.

A 38 per cent shortfall in bomb disposal experts is said by the Army to be a ‘critical concern’.

The Army also has fewer than half the nurses it needs.

Of 68,000 specialist staff across the Army, Royal Navy and RAF, there are 6,700 vacancies.

Many troops can earn better pay in the private sector.

Liberal Democrat spokesman Nick Harvey said the figures were ‘alarming’, but Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said Afghan forces were not left short.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231938/Anger-penpushers-MoD-given-Afghanistan-medal-troops-risking-lives.html#ixzz0YLUX4YR8

Il quotidiano economico descrive l’accordo raggiunto nella giornata di ieri da IntesaSanpaolo e Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

La seconda cederà alla prima 50 sportelli, nell’ambito dell’attività di dismissione delle agenzie voluta dall’Antitrust a seguito dell’acquisto di Antonveneta da parte del gruppo di Siena.

Il prezzo medio concordato è di 4 milioni per ogni agenzia.

L’intesa è già stata trovata, ma sarà ufficializzata soltanto nei primi giorni della prossima settimana.Così, si stima che alla fine dell’anno la società toscana, dalla vendita dei suoi sportelli, avrà incassato complessivamente 420 milioni di euro.

Fonte:

http://www.soldionline.it/notizie/azioni-italia/intesa-chiude-con-mps-accordo-per-50-sportelli-il-sole24ore

An insightful piece on Yesterday in Parliament early this morning about the former Permanent Under Secretary to the Northern Ireland Office Sir Joseph Pilling and his role as Identity Commissioner as it touches the ID Card scheme.

Aside from the fact that I’d quite like an ID card and can’t seem to find out how to get one (there are only 538 people on the National Identity register as of today, so I’m not alone in this) , there was a sniffy exchange on his salary of £44,000 for six months’ part-time work. MPs on the Home Affairs Committee were less than thrilled given their current salaries of £64,766.

The issue I have is not with Sir Joseph’s salary (it seems very reasonable given his CV), it’s with the MPs’ salaries. I may be in a small minority populated mainly by MPs, but I don’t think they’re paid enough.

The comparison is all too often made with the average UK household income of £30,000-a-year but the last thing I want the people who govern the country on my behalf to be is “average” – I want them to be exceptional, and £64,766-a-year doesn’t buy you exceptional.

Given what I do, I’m constantly exposed to people who would be incredibly good legislators – the problem is that none of them could afford to take the pay cut.

What we need to do is find the best people in all walks of life (and politics doesn’t county as a “walk” in its own right – politicians should have done at least two other proper jobs, one of which has to have been working in McDonald’s), pay them a shed load of money, give them a centrally-funded support staff made up of the brightest and best brains that our education system can produce and then tell them to knock themselves out running the country.

Democracy may be the worst form of government (apart from all the other ones), but I’m not sure benevolent dictatorship has been given a fair enough crack of the whip.

I’ve recently guest blogged for the Industry and Parliamentary Trust on strategy and delivery. The post looks at the causes of the frequent disconnection of strategy and policy from delivery, across all three sectors.

To read more, click here.

It’s official folks: it can happen. 

I’ve made the transition from parliamentary intern to parliamentary researcher in just three and a half months.

A while back I wrote the piece “valuable but difficult: living on the biscuit collection”.  I was depressed and demoralised; I felt more like throwing the towel in than Daniel Hannam did when DC back-tracked on that “cast- iron” guarantee. 

But, I persevered. I had to – what was the alternative, to just give up on everything I had worked so hard for? No, I wasn’t giving up that easily and with every application that was rejected I became more determined that I would get there eventually, and I did. And you will too.

Here are my tips for making the most of your internship in parliament:

1.               Make peace

The sooner you accept the nature of the beast the better in my opinion. Interning is a necessary evil and you need to make peace with the fact that you will be doing this for the next six months to a year.

If you start your first internship with your hopes pinned on being made a job offer you will be painfully disappointed when this does not happen. I have not met a single person who completed any less than two internships. Make sure you have a plan and something else lined up for when you leave.

2.               Applications, applications, applications

I know only too well that after a long days hard work it’s the last thing you want to do, but it must be done.  Don’t slack. Try and set yourself a goal of three or four a week.

It’s crucial to make sure you have done your research and applications are tailored to each organisation/ MP.

During my internship I found it helpful to keep a notebook of names of organisations and MPs I came across that I might like to work for.

3.               Use your initiative

Read up on the news in the areas that your MP specialises in. Try to demonstrate this knowledge in conversation. It may come in very handy if they’ve missed something in the papers or you can use the info to give a research briefing added value. If you seem clued up on an issue it may result in better quality work.

Using your initiative also involves little things such as knowing when the researcher will be in best mood to approach for more interesting work and when to coincide with the MP in the office to demonstrate your knowledge and skills.

If you have an idea or think that you can bring something to the office then speak up! 

4.               Network

Parliament is a complete honey trap for this; make the most of it. Look out for event invites to things you might be interested in and go along to meet people in the field. Ask for tips and advice on making applications and job hunting, make yourself known and collect business cards etc.

 Tip: Don’t be enthusiastic and keen to the point of annoying. You’re going for ambitious and genuine rather than cocky suck up.

 5.               Ask for feedback

 Make a point of regularly asking for feedback on things throughout your internship (Pick a sensible time to do this) and ensure that whoever is managing you knows that you can take criticism and advice on ways to improve your work positively.

 6.               Don’t be a hater; stay positive

After a few months interning at parliament it is common for disillusionment and resent to set in. It is all deeply unfair that these rude, ungrateful and lazy researchers are using you as their “minion” (This is what I was openly referred to as).

 Consequently you may become depressing, miserable and unpleasant to be around.  This is not the way to get yourself hired.

 My suggestion is that you try and look on the bright side and take things on the chin. Do as you’re told (within reason) and don’t ask too many questions.

 This is what I did, admittedly it wasn’t always easy but the researcher who previously managed me has since credited me for it.

 Interning at parliament is an endurance test that only the determined, strong and savvy will survive.

Adivinhem onde foi inaugurada a primeira Agência do PEX (Plano de Expansão da Rede de Atendimento)? Acertou quem disse Ceará, o curral do Coronel Pimentel. A direita tradicional ensinou o PT como utilizar a máquina pública em proveito próprio.

Não somos contrários à ampliação da rede de atendimento do INSS, mas as novas unidades, por mais modernas que sejam não atendem a população sozinhos: quantos novos servidores foram contratados para o atendimento?

It began as a simple story of some unscrupulous Honourable Members of Parliament flaunting rules to partake what they werent legally or at least morally entitled to but the Westminster MP Expenses Scandal story is now headed for a very big hit.

Today, with the Metropolitan Police Service delivering four main files of evidence relating to parliamentary expenses to the Crown Prosecution Service, it looks pretty certain  like it wont be long since we see a conviction.

Now we know, that a team of detectives has been assessing and investigating cases for five months since the Telegraph’s Expenses Files investigation disclosed widespread abuse of parliamentary allowances and up to four MPs and peers could face jail terms of up to 10 years.

The four have not been named by Scotland Yard. Kier Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, is expected to decide whether to prosecute the politicians within a month.

There are souls out there who will be extremely worried. From the Commons to the Lords and back to Lords, this is a mess that has shaken British politics and made the taxpayer more angry. Many struggling taxpayers in the country want the full force of the law to come crashing upon these chappies-who despite being the architects of some of the rules-have maliciously bent them so often, usually to satisfy their egos and blatant thuggery.

From phantom mortgages, duck houses, virtual and existing second homes to useless stationery, judgement day promises to be one that our honourable members of parliament will remember accused or convicted.

Telegraph sources claim the most serious suspected frauds are considered to be those of Mr Morley and Mr Chaytor who both claimed thousands of pounds for “phantom” mortgages they had paid off.

Mr Morley, the former agriculture minister, claimed more than £16,000 for a mortgage that did not exist and also admitted claiming £20,000 for mortgage capital repayments in contravention of the rules. Mr Chaytor admitted an “unforgivable error” in “accounting procedures” when claiming almost £13,000 in interest for a mortgage that he had paid off.

Police have also investigated why the Bury North MP also claimed almost £5,000 in office allowances to pay his daughter, Sarah, under an assumed name.

While all these investigations raise doubts over the transparency of the whole expenses system, they cast a shadow over the trustworthiness of the same shamed MPs as to whether they ought to have been honourable members in the first place.

When you have peers in the House of Lords going for every penny that can be salvaged using the highest available means of swindling, there is little you can do as a taxpayer. That’s why everyone will be rejoicing at the news. For 2 years now, i have duly paid my taxes as a law abiding citizen and i deserve no right to see them swindled by a big bellied lady or gentleman who owns 10,000 more than i do and earns more than i hope to make in 3 years.

But who are the likely four? No one really knows and until the police files have been made public or names disclosed, we can only speculate.

Lord Hanningfield, the Conservative peer who is also leader of Essex County Council, claimed £100,000 over seven years for staying in London despite living 46 miles from the capital. He has been investigated over whether he was returning to his home in Essex while claiming “overnight allowances’’.

Lord Clarke, a former Labour Party chairman, admitted his “terrible error” in a newspaper interview after claiming up to £18,000 a year for overnight subsistence when he often stayed with friends in London or returned home to St Albans, Herts.

Baroness Uddin allegedly claimed £100,000 in allowances by registering as her main home a property in Maidstone, Kent, that was apparently barely occupied.

Any lessons to Africa? For another day!!!

Listen: For Meet The Need, Day 14 of 50, we head to the South Side and Wisconsin’s first Hmong Charter School, The Hmong American Peace Academy. In the past 10 years, Milwaukee has seen a large influx of Hmong into the city, whether they’re new refuges or moving from other parts of the state. Welcoming this new population into the city provides both exciting opportunities and new challenges — meeting the educational needs of this new community fits under both headers.

For a population of new immigrants and refuges, the need for education is even clearer than it is for the native born population. They find themselves in a new culture with a radically different economy, and neither seem penetrable without a quality education. So what should that education look like? To answer that question, the Hmong American Peace Academy infuses their curriculum with traditional Hmong culture and American values.

Principal and Executive Director Chris Her-Xiong, on how her school meets the needs of the Hmong community:

-To accommodate a growing Hmong population, the Hmong American Peace Academy was formed:

-Chris gives a brief history of how the Hmong came to Milwaukee and the challenges they saw when they got here:

-A student, aged 15, came to their school with a kindergarten reading level:

For more information on The Hmong American Peace Academy visit their website, and if you’d like to help them meet their needs this holiday season, learn how you can help here.

Produced by: Adam Carr

Why is everyone and everything so annoying today?

Where ever I go or what ever I do I cant get any space to think or breath. Everyone is winding me up and I seem to be in a constant state of anger today. Even my dog is getting on my nerves and he is just an animal.

I used to be so laid back you know, what ever happened happened and so on but now that side of me seems to have gone and I dont like it at all.

Everytime I see a police car I wanna just go and have a go at them and shout WHY ARNT YOU DOING SOMETHING but all that will do is get me arrested.

Turn the TV on and apart from rubbish programs its just Christmas adverts argggggggggggg I doont wanna know about christmas, there isnt gonna be one for me this year.

Thats my latest rant over – had to get that off my chest