Meaningful work or training opportunities for the unemployed
January 12, 2009
Gordon Brown has promised to assist 500,000 people into meaningful work or training opportunities, as the government makes an attempt to stop unemployment rising further. The prime minister stated employers would be provided up to £2,500 for each individual whom they train, who has been without a job for over six months. Hosting a jobs summit, the PM also promised that communities are not going to be “written off”.
The Tories think that the government’s existing job package ‘does not really go far enough’ with almost 1.8 million people already out of work. In a speech given at the London’s Science Museum, Mr Brown unveiled a plan to prepare the country for growth in sectors like environmental technology, healthcare, education and advanced manufacturing.
He stated:
“Failure to act now and also to do so in coordination with our international partners would mean a deeper, longer global recession. It would mean temporary increase in unemployment becoming permanent. It would also mean whole communities written off as in the past. That would in a way lasting damage to our economy and also a bigger bill to pay, in the future. And this will not happen on my watch.”
Mr Brown said told the audience that those unemployed for at least three months would also be given help.
British PM Brown’s sub-continent visit
December 16, 2008
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said over 75%, or three-quarters, of terrorist attacks investigated in the UK had Al Qaida and Pakistan links. Gordon Brown was on a whirlwind tour of India and Pakistan after the horrific terrorist attacks India was subjected to on the 26th November.
Brown’s comments came when Pakistan is trying hard to distance itself from the Mumbai attacks. Brown, after meeting the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, without mincing words, in a damming indictment of Pakistan, said,
“The group responsible for the attacks is LeT and they have a great deal to answer for.”
Towards an anti-terrorist measure, Brown, who later visited Islamabad, launched a $9 million counter-terrorism programme with Pakistan. Gordon Brown also sought permission to question terror suspects in both countries.
India has already given British investigators a great deal of access to the investigation. Mr. Brown asked for British investigators to be given access to arrested terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab
Brown said:
“It’s important to recognize that wherever there is terrorism, it has to be fought, and where there is terrorism, it affects the stability and cohesion of countries. No country should have to go through what India has had to go through as a result of the Mumbai outrages. I’ve said to Prime Minister Singh we will give every help we can. We will work together in tackling terrorism. And we will work together on the issue of security.”
He then went on to say:
“There is a chain of terror that comes from the Pakistani and Afghan mountains right across to Europe and can end up very easily on the streets of Britain.”
On his visit to Pakistan, taking a tough stand, he told President Asif Ali Zardari that Pakistan should stop providing safe haven to terrorists and needed to undertake more action.
Hopefully cash strapped Pakistan will utilize the sum for which it is made available-to counter terrorism-.
Gordon Brown and the French President meet
December 11, 2008
Gordon Brown and the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, will discuss at Downing Street on what more steps can be taken to stimulate the economy. Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, will also join them, ahead of a new EU summit to take place in Brussels later this week. They will also meet business leaders from all over Europe to discuss the various ways to ease problems.
They are also expected to discuss ways in which switching to a low carbon economy would end up generating more jobs. Presidents Sarkozy and Barroso are likely to be at Downing Street for a meeting before they meet with business leaders. The European Commission unveiled in November an economic recovery package – worth 200bn euros – including 5bn euros for the car industry to develop green technologies.
France has become the latest of the leading European economies to release a fiscal stimulus package. The country will spend close to 26bn euro (£23bn) to boost its economy. This includes a loan for troubled car manufacturers apart from public sector investments worth 5bn euro. Britain has already come up with a £20bn plan that includes a VAT cut. The prime ministerial spokesman has already indicated much more needs to be done across Europe.
Police raid on House of Commons office of Tory MP raises tempers
December 9, 2008
MPs are going to debate the police raid on House of Commons office of Tory MP’s Damian Green amid some concern about the Speaker’s role. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, stated confidence felt in Michael Martin, the Commons Speaker, had taken a ‘massive battering.’
The Conservative leader, David Cameron, stated action was required to restore some confidence in the Speaker’s office. According to a BBC poll, out of 90 MPs 32 stated they did not any longer had confidence left in Mr Martin; this after the Mr Green affair.
At least, 50 MPs stated Mr Martin had erred in the Tory MP’s arrest as well as the search done of his Commons office. There have already been calls from at least three MPs, including a Labour backbencher, for him to stand down.
The row erupted after the Metropolitan Police arrested the Tory immigration spokesman and held him for over nine hours, whilst his parliamentary office and homes were searched, ostensibly as part of an inquiry conducted into allegations of the Home Office leaks. Mr Martin had told MPs that the committee would report fast. Clearly, the police raid on House of Commons office of the Tory MP has raised political tempers.
IT illiteracy is hampering the economy
November 27, 2008
UK is losing a lot of precious work hours owing to a lack of basic IT literacy. As per a recent study, a deficit of basic IT skills is greatly overbearing on the economy. General IT issues, it found out, are solved by people having basic knowledge, but they are not capable of fixing specific problems. Almost 5.3 million workers, as a result, lose around 2.5 hours almost every week, while dealing with the IT problems of their IT-illiterate colleagues.
Most companies tend to depend on staff that do not have any orientation towards IT. And small companies are the biggest sufferers on this count. In fact, some of them do not retain specialised IT staff to save cost.
The study also found that call centers have a comparatively higher level of IT training with almost 56 percent of their employees having the capacity to take care of their own IT problems. It also concluded that 43 percent of workers in the age group of 19 and 21 failed in resolving a problem on time owing to their lack of IT skills. In fact, some of them even chose to ignore it, hoping that the same will be solved by someone else, resulting in a waste of time and productivity.
Complaints against credit card lenders
November 26, 2008
Ministers have received several complaints against credit card lenders failing to pass on cuts in rates to customers and some actually increasing interest rates for lenders. Others have been accused of exploiting many households under pressure amid the growing recession by giving out cards with high interest rates in the run-up to Christmas. Lord Mandelson stated the Office of Fair Trading might be asked to investigate the matter amid growing concerns about such practices.
Consumer affairs minister Gareth Thomas and Lord Mandelson are meeting the big credit card firms in Whitehall. In an interview before the meeting, the latter made it clear that the Government will take action unless these firms agree to change their ways.
“We have a tough consumer watchdog (the Office of Fair Trading). I will have no hesitation, if these firms do not fall in line and start treating people in a fair, responsible and consistent way. Or else, I will ask the Office of Fair Trading to look into their practices, report to me. Then I will be able to take even further action.”
Ministerial pressure on these credit card lenders is sure part of wider pressure faced by the financial sector. Number 10 has already threatened to fully nationalise British banks unless they start lending more freely to smaller firms and families. The governor of the Bank of England (BoE) Mervyn King said restoring credit to ‘normal’ levels is now the single most important issue in UK economic policy.
Your water worries will vanish in thin air soon.
November 24, 2008
All humans worry about impending water shortage as a result of climate change. You can set aside the anxiety. Water shortage may soon be a thing of the past. Researchers have created a gadget that has the capacity to create drinking or irrigation water.
The gadget is appropriately christened ‘Water Mill’. A Canadian Company called, Element Four, a research and marketing development firm has developed the gadget.
The gadget using similar technology as that of a common dehumidifier condenses water vapour and purifies it. The Water Mill draws moisture out of the atmosphere, cools it and filters it, thereby providing a ready supply of drinking water.
Electric energy requirement is same as that used by three light bulbs. The production capacity of the Water Mill, is 12 litres of water a day and is capable of trapping up to 40 percent of the liquid content of the surrounding air.
The gadget costing £800 a piece, will be available in the market from February next year. The only snag is that the gadget is ineffective in areas with under 30 percent relative humidity.
World wide water shortage can easily combated by the use of Water Mill. Inventor Johnathan Ritchey said: “The demand for water is off the chart. People are looking for freedom from water distribution systems that are shaky and unreliable.”
The three feet wide gadget can procure you water at just 20 British pence per litre.
House of Commons is in danger of loosing its legitimacy
November 14, 2008
A top ruling party leader has labelled the world’s oldest democratic institution, the British parliament as too white, opining that the House of Commons is in danger of loosing its legitimacy.
Harriet Harman, the Leader of the House of Commons, Minister for Women Equality in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s cabinet said the British parliament is too white and male to have ‘sensible’ debates on a string of issues. If the House of Commons is seen as a `narrow and self-serving elite, the legislature would have `no legitimacy`. The leader was speaking at the occasion, the first of its kind for more than two decades where MPs got down to approve the creation of a cross-party Speaker’s Conference to look at ways to boost the number of women and ethnic minorities being elected.
She was quoted as saying:
“We cannot sensibly discuss the veil (in the Commons) when there is no Muslim woman MP; it was impossible to discuss domestic violence when there were 97 % men in the Commons.”
Chairman of Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, claimed that despite the US President-elect’s brilliance, the political system in Britain would prevent ethnic minority candidate getting to the top. Conservative MP for Windsor supported Philip’s views.
Extra British troops likely for Afghanistan
November 14, 2008
Up to 2,000 extra British troops will most likely be sent to war-hit Afghanistan probably next year, according to the BBC NEWS. Ministers are seriously considering to send an reinforcement to the country to meet a request from Barack Obama, expected from him after he becomes US president.
In talks, Afghan leaders have told Gordon Brown that more troops are needed. It emerged two Royal Marines succumbed in the south of the country. The last few days in Afghanistan have witnessed bloody fighting. At least 21 deaths – military and civilian – have been reported.
During a visit to London, Hamid Karzai, the Afghanistan’s President, told Brown all efforts were being made by them ‘to bring violence down’. The Afghan foreign minister had already urged Britain to dispatch more troops. Hamid Karzai told BBC News:
“The troops have been based in the very difficult part of Afghanistan. They have suffered, and have sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan. The Afghan people are indeed very grateful for what the country has done in Afghanistan.”
However, among Britons, there seems to be a rising urge to pull out. A new BBC-commissioned poll indicated nearly 70% of the people favoured recalling the troops.
Joke on the US President-elect may result in EU rift
November 11, 2008
As on the one hand, French President Nicolas Sarkozy seeks a pan-European initiative on the global financial meltdown, his glamorous wife Carla Bruni irked by the Italian Prime Minister’s suntan ‘joke’ risks a European split by attacking Italian Prime Minister for his remark on the US President-elect.
The 40-year old pop singer Bruni, by flaying Italian leader Silvio Berlussconi for his remarks on Barrack Obama, calling him the son of a Kenyan father and white American mother, courted controversy. Carla Bruni told Journal du Dimanche news paper,
“When I hear Mr. Silvio Berlusconi…Joke about the fact that Mr Obama is always tanned, that makes me funny. That will be put down to humour. But often, I am very happy that I have become French.”
Mr. Bruni seeks Mr. Berlusconi’s backing for a pan-European initiative to rescue the global economy from the financial meltdown. At such a juncture, Ms. Bruni risked embarrassing her husband, the Time News paper reported. According to the British daily,
The attack for France’s failure to integrate its big population of black and North African immigrants by the French First Lady sure has created a row.
