CashMachineHackHoax: April 2014

Wednesday, 30 April 2014

PMQs special - Politics.co.uk

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"I haven't finished" "He can take it from me that he has." PMQs special PMQs verdict: Cameron's relationship with Bercow hits a new low An angry outburst and a cold reply: the Speaker and PM wash their laundry in public PMQs as-it-happened All the action from today's PMQs Farage caught kipping Ukip posters branded a 'lie' as builders report labour shortages Ukip's poster campaign suggesting that builders are being forced out of work by immigrants was looking shakey today, after the building industry reported a widespread shortage of skilled workers. Farage bottles it: Ukip leader stands down in Newark Nigel Farage accused of "bottling it" after raising the prospect of standing in and winning the Newark by-election, only to walk away from the fight. Grayling under fire Prisons ordered to monitor inmates amid surge in suicides Prisons ordered to bolster suicide-watch programmes amid surge in inmates killing themselves Judicial review: Parliament unites against Grayling's assault on justice Government proposals making it much harder for ministers to be challenged in the courts have been slammed in a report by parliamentarians. In other news... Boris Johnson's broken tube strike promises in full After six years, the London Mayor has made no progress on reducing tube strikes. 'Atheists' handbook' sent to every secondary school Atheists' Handbook sent to every secondary school in England and Wales to be placed in their library, amid a continued debate over the role of religion in educational establishments	Advertise your job vacancies here Just Act, a new national website that helps community groups across the country get support, funding and advice launches today Just Act provides and signposts practical information, resources and support for all types of community project. NASUWT comments on the Blunkett Review "The interests of children and young people have suffered as a consequence of an ideological obsession on structural reforms and a desire to create a free market in education". Chemical industry backs new reach advice in meetings with European Chemical Agency The UK Chemicals Stakeholder Forum (CSF - a body led by Government but including the chemical industry, NGO’s, trade unions and others) – has launched new advice on Authorisation. Victory for mental health campaigners, as Government announces plans to tackle avoidable deaths The charity Rethink Mental Illness has hailed the Government’s new strategy for preventing avoidable deaths as a major success for mental health campaigners. British Humanist Association sends copy of The Young Atheist’s Handbook to every secondary school in England and Wales Today the British Humanist Association (BHA) is sending over a free copy of The Young Atheist’s Handbook: Lessons for Living a Good Life without God to every secondary school library in England and Wales. NASUWT commnets on tragic death of teacher at Leeds school It is almost impossible to put into words the shock and distress that this tragic event has had. Tax workers balloted for strikes over damaging cuts Fifty thousand tax workers are being balloted on a wide-ranging programme of industrial action in a dispute over job cuts, the Public and Commercial Services union announces.

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Tuesday, 29 April 2014

Boris Johnson's broken tube strike promises in full - Politics.co.uk

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"The first and most important point to make is that no ticket offices will be closed, alright? They're not going to be closed." Boris Johnson Boris Johnson's broken tube strike promises in full After six years, the London Mayor has made no progress on reducing tube strikes. Boris Johnson attacks 'crazy' immigration crackdown The government should allow hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants living in the UK to become British citizens, Boris Johnson insists, as he launches a stinging attack on the government's immigration and asylum policies. HS2 Rebellions and notable absences fail to stop HS2 HS2 easily passes its latest parliament hurdle last night, as the last remaining barriers to its progress fall away In other news... 'Atheists' handbook' sent to every secondary school Atheists' Handbook sent to every secondary school in England and Wales to be placed in their library, amid a continued debate over the role of religion in educational establishments Tories urge Cameron to surrender the war on drugs The Conservatives should go into the general election pledging a partial decriminalisation of drugs, an influential Tory group suggests Why 'Help to Work' won't help jobless back to work The Help to Work scheme will be a failure. We can predict this because the government have already tried it and found it to be so. Ukip's Lenny Henry candidate wasn't even born in UK Unlike Lenny Henry, who was.	Advertise your job vacancies here NASUWT commnets on tragic death of teacher at Leeds school It is almost impossible to put into words the shock and distress that this tragic event has had. Tax workers balloted for strikes over damaging cuts Fifty thousand tax workers are being balloted on a wide-ranging programme of industrial action in a dispute over job cuts, the Public and Commercial Services union announces. An amazing achievement Gracie May aged 7 with cerebral palsy will ride 1.5 miles on her bike for Tree of Hope because she wants to walk and be independent. Securing corridors for elephants and mitigating human elephant conflict Scientists yesterday fitted satellite tracking collars on two male elephants in the Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya. RSPCA calls for end to ‘severe’ suffering of lab animals Charity urges Government to take action on World Day for Laboratory Animals. DECC renewable energy: we need announcements like this every 2 months for next 2 years The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has welcomed the announcement by DECC today of private sector investment in eight major new renewable energy projects and hopes that it will be the first of many. Boeing reports strong first-quarter results The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) reported first-quarter revenue increased 8 percent to $20.5 billion on higher commercial volume.

Monday, 28 April 2014

Carry on Kipping - politics.co.uk

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"If Lenny Henry wants a lot of blacks around go and live in a black country" Carry on Ukip Ukip's Lenny Henry candidate wasn't even born in UK Unlike Lenny Henry, who was. Salmond confesses 'sneaking regard' for Farage... and Putin Alex Salmond is an admirer of Nigel Farage and holds Russian president Vladimir Putin in high regard, he admits Ukip the party for 'decent BNP voters', boasts Hamilton Ukip are a party for "decent" supporters of the BNP who worry about being "swamped" by immigrants, the deputy chairman of the party says. The Week In Review: Ukip if you want to... That Ukip joke isn't funny anymore In other news... Why 'Help to Work' won't help jobless back to work The Help to Work scheme will be a failure. We can predict this because the government have already tried it and found it to be so. What price HS2? Rebellion won't stop rail project Government faces a rebellion of about 30 MPs, as parliament votes through the latest stage in the long-gestating project	Advertise your job vacancies here An amazing achievement Gracie May aged 7 with cerebral palsy will ride 1.5 miles on her bike for Tree of Hope because she wants to walk and be independent. Securing corridors for elephants and mitigating human elephant conflict Scientists yesterday fitted satellite tracking collars on two male elephants in the Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya. RSPCA calls for end to ‘severe’ suffering of lab animals Charity urges Government to take action on World Day for Laboratory Animals. DECC renewable energy: we need announcements like this every 2 months for next 2 years The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has welcomed the announcement by DECC today of private sector investment in eight major new renewable energy projects and hopes that it will be the first of many. Boeing reports strong first-quarter results The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) reported first-quarter revenue increased 8 percent to $20.5 billion on higher commercial volume. BHA responds to Attorney General's comments following 'Christian Country' open letter to Prime Minister "As I go around and look at the way we make laws, and indeed many of the underlying ethics of society are Christian-based and the result of 1,500 years of Christian input into our national life". Life #20 – 300 children! This week we have quite a big task! We want to find 300 new toys or books to help spread some love to children going through very tough times.

Friday, 25 April 2014

The Week In Review: Ukip if you want to - Politics.co.uk

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Recent British history has not provided a master class in the art of the political poster. The last really famous effort was the 'demon eyes' Tony Blair poster, which bore more resemblance to the doodles of an incontinent child than the products of a professional PR company.

Before that, the most memorable examples were the John Major 'I'm still Jenny from the block' Brixton poster and the much-copied, oddly haunting 'Labour isn't working' effort from Saatchi & Saatchi.

But Ukip may have broken the mould. On Monday, the party unveiled its local and European campaign posters.

Two were fairly run-of-the-mill. One featured an out of work labourer in a hard hat and high-vis jacket with the strap line: "EU policy at work - British workers are hit hard by unlimited cheap labour." Of course, it turns out the man featured is actor Dave O'Rourke, who came to the UK a few years ago. Another featured a union jack on fire with the EU flag behind it, full of dire warnings about the end of British democracy.

But it was the third poster which was the game changer. It featured the strap line: "26 million people in Europe are looking for work. And whose jobs are they after?" Next to it was a large hand pointing at the reader.

It was dynamite. Online political commentators split into two predictable camps: those who instantly started capping up their tweets in indignation and those who adopted a practiced, disinterested expression and suggested the ads were not aimed at the demographic which was so outraged by them

Since then, the debate has centred on whether the posters are genuinely racist. It is a dead end. If they were demonstrably racist they would not have been allowed. But their intention is plain. It is to divide, to speak to one, supposedly indigenous, audience and encourage it to resent and dislike any newcomers.

It may not have gone the full length of the lap, but it laid out the tarmac. It is a deterioration of political language of the sort which leads to a something much worse.

The effect was multiplied by the personalised form of the message. Its reference to your "jobs" and that towering, pointing finger had a broader cultural effect. The directness of the propaganda echoed the Soviet and fascist posters of the early 20th Century. It was simply more aggressive than the British public is used to.

The standard debate on the progressive pro-immigration left was entered into once more. The more centrist commentators urged those outraged by the posters to engage with voters' concerns rather than write them off. Generally, that is a reasonable judgement to arrive at. But in this case it reflected an inability to grasp how toxic the posters really were. For a start, not all voters think that way. Secondly, there is a line of basic responsibility which the posters plainly crossed. The people urging a more subdued response were close to becoming apologists.

Interestingly, a similar effect was seen in the centre and centre-right, with normally quite conservative commentators noticeably hardening their position on the party.

Elsewhere, the increasingly toxic political atmosphere around immigration and asylum continued to have an impact on those least able to complain about it.

A public accounts committee report into asylum housing found the contracts given to Serco and G4S to provide it had saved little money, failed to improve the service and in fact made it considerable more insecure. Pictures emerged of the living conditions of asylum seekers – conditions which they are often forced to live in for years. They did not make a pretty picture. And yet there is almost no act of incompetence so severe it will stop the government handing out contracts to Serco and G4S.

Hundreds of thousands of people threw their weight behind a campaign to stop the UK deporting gay asylum seekers. It was kicked off by a petition by Nigerian lesbian asylum seeker Aderonke Adejumoke Apata, who faces being returned to her home country despite the fact homosexuality can be punished by stoning in some areas.

That's the type of judgement which the Home Office now exercises in asylum cases. Divisive anti-immigration posters will do nothing to correct that. Nor will the complicity of those who oppose Ukip, but do not have the confidence to make the case.

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