Or just more woeful handling of public money, mixed with a little soupcon of identity politics? A controversial plan to scrap the free parking enjoyed by more than 10,000 Blue Badge holders in the New Forest is today at the centre of a new row. Civic chiefs have been accused of wasting public money after accelerating plans to replace equipment installed only nine years ago. It seems they need to…
…until you realise you’re the one getting stuck with the bill: A 14-year race discrimination court battle has cost the taxpayer almost a million pounds. Equality campaigner Natasha Sivanandan won £420,000 in compensation after a council-funded anti-racism group turned her down for a job. A job..? In what department, I wonder? The row began in June 1999 when 58-year-old Ms Sivanandan, from Wood Green, north London, applied for a job as a…
Lynsey Hanley (again) missing the point: When Zadie Smith defends public libraries, you know that it’s not because it is fashionable to do so: it’s because, in her estimation, she owes her life to them. Really? According to popular music, it’s possible for a DJ to save your life, but a library? “When we were children, you’d never imagine that you’d get into a right/left argument about the purpose and…
Breaking their silence for the first time since Joseph Ball died last year, highways experts at Southend Council warned a campaign to improve safety could actually have the opposite effect. Not that that will worry the ‘Something must be done, this is something, so do it!’ crowd. The tragedy prompted more than 10,000 people to sign a petition calling for improvements. Those ‘improvements’ being, specifically, a crossing on the London…
….shouldn’t they be to the incompetents responsible for this cock-up instead? The fire authority agreed to make mileage payments to a number of staff members when its headquarters movedfrom Rayleigh Close in Hutton to Kelvedon Park, near Witham, in May 2008. The report, entitled Employment Taxes Review and compiled by accountancy firm RSM Tenon, explains: “As part of the move, it was agreed that employees could claim any extra miles…
First we had Babs with her ‘Waah, poor people who behave like animals shouldn’t be fined!’, and now it’s Sadhbh Walshe’s turn with ‘Waah, prisoner’s families shouldn’t be charged to keep in touch with them!’… When a person is sent to prison, one of the most obvious and important ways to ensure a successful re-entry to society upon release to is maintain and strengthen familial bonds during incarceration. Presumably, that…
One child in three is living below the poverty line in parts of Kingston. As part of a new series of features David Lindsell spoke to parents about poverty and how the council intends to tackle it. Stand by for the sob stories: A father on his sick bed wept as he told me how his wife and two daughters had been helped by the Food Bank since he fell…
The decision made by the council’s community services committee last week will mean residents can do their shopping locally without having to fork out for high parking charges. Yes. It’s only five free spaces. And the attitude that they are doing us all a favour grates somewhat. But it’s a start! Mary Powell, who owns the Emporium on the High Street and also chairs the Maldon Business Association, added: “While…
Croydon Council has been hit with a £100k fine after it failed to keep details of a child sex abuse victim secure. The breach happened in April 2011 when an unlocked bag belonging to a social worker was stolen from a London pub. Oh, good grief! The worker was taking papers, including information about the sexual abuse of a child and six other people connected to a court hearing, home…
The ‘Guardian’ has been running a string of increasingly more and more strident and alarming articles warning of the terrible consequences of the ConDem actions to change the welfare bill, feeding from pressure groups for the disabledwho have been forecasting woe and damnation for a while now. This culminated the other day in some ‘reader stories’ from the contributors to those threads. Let’s just take the first one as representative,…
More than one in four youngsters in the UK are growing up in families facing multiple challenges such as parental depression and financial hardship, according to new research. Ah, I guess this is the new, politically correct term for ‘dysfunctional’ or ‘problem’ families. It’s a nice, cosy term, isn’t it? It implies that these ‘challenges’ are totally outside the family themselves, and outside their control. Just acts of god, really.…
That’s what they say, and they say it often enough for John Lewis to have made it a theme for their Christmas ads. I think there’s some truth in it too. Now obviously this doesn’t apply so much when it’s socks, jocks and chocs or when you’ve just ordered something off someone’s Amazon wish list, but when I’ve bought someone something that I know will be a hit but is…
Four community projects are to receive funding from Barking and Dagenham Council this year under its Innovation Grants programme. Ooooh, let’s have a look at them then! Based in Barking, the Recovery LinkUp Cafe will be a meeting place for people recovering from addictions. The project, which is being given £8,500 by the council, will recruit six volunteers and will run one night a week for 20 people, who will…
Penny Young has the unenviable task of trying to break the news to CiF readers that the UK isn’t becoming more left-leaning and sympathetic to those looking to live off the sweat of others: Why are David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith so confident that they can push through their welfare changes, capping benefits at £26,000, despite last’s night resounding rejection by the House of Lords? The answer might be…
An edible microchip that records the precise details of a patient’s pill regime will be available in Britain by the end of year following a commercial deal that opens the door to an era of digital medicines. A useful application of technology? Or an unwelcome and costly Pandora’s Box? An American biomedical company has signed up with a British healthcare firm to sell digestible sensors, each smaller than a grain…
Latest Comments