Bleeding Obvious Award (3)

Why should employers be expected to employ people with a history of long term sickness or drug abuse? Unlike Government, employers are not charities. Potential employees should be aware that drug abuse or long term sickness will make jobs more difficult to obtain rather than be tolerated..

Should they be employed in preference to those who are not offenders, drug abusers or those who do regularly turn up for work?

Signing Up

An estimated 20,000 Newcastle fans turned up at St James' Park to witness Michael Owen signing for Newcastle United.

Why weren't they at work or looking for jobs? How can they afford to attend Premiership football matches on benefits?

A £1m social experiment

What would happen if the poor in the UK were each given £1m? Ignoring rampant inflation, would poverty in the UK be eliminated? Today's Sun suggests it would not. It highlights a woman on benefits who was given £1m by her stepdad when he won £14m on the national lottery. She spent it all within just one heady year and is now back on benefits living in her mum's mobile home!

Maybe the 'poor' will always be poor, their only disadvantage in life being a lack of personal responsibility.

Hatless

I have a new post up at Oncemore.

"Ken Clarke has finally thrown his hat in the ring and is the first to officially announce his intention to run for leadership of the Conservative Party.

His candidacy cannot be dismissed easily. The *BBC* suggests that he has widespread support across the country amongst Conservatives and non-conservatives alike, essential for winning the 2009 election. A significant minority of Conservative MPs, the immediate electorate, could also support him. Ken Clarke is well known, well respected and experienced, essential traits in modern politics when compared to potential rivals."

The post continues at Oncemore.

PC Pickled

Why aren't Police officers punished more severely than the rest of the population when they are found to be more than three times over the drink drive limit? If anyone should know better, it's a Police officer.

I'm just surprised his 'charity work' won't suffer from the ban.

British bulldog

So much for the Blitz spirit of Londoners just getting on with it. The NHS is offering post traumatic stress testing for those immediately affected by the London bombings. Those showing signs of trauma "could be offered specialist treatment, including talking therapy, to help them cope".

Would Winston approve?

Muslim Veto?

If British foreign policy has propelled some UK Muslims into the arms of extremists, should UK Muslims have a veto on British foreign policy?

Too much swearing

Two classes of "particularly unruly" 15 and 16 year olds are to be allowed to say the f-word at the Weavers School in Wellingborough but no more than five times in any particular lesson. The teachers should be ashamed that discipline has collapsed to such an extent. Are the children unable to count to ten?

What is being done to remedy the Ofsted report of 2004 that found that Weaver school "is not effective" and "the amount of unsatisfactory teaching is too high"?

Position vacant

Carmathenshire County Council, in their best efforts to keep council tax rises to a minimum, are looking for a belly dancing instructor for adult education classes.

Why does the Belly Dancer need to be able to speak Welsh? It must be the only form of racial discrimination still legally allowed in the UK. How many non-Welsh people can speak Welsh?

We're not worthy

The Times reports that senior Labour politicians and BBC employees have been chosen as priority cases for receiving scarce anti-viral drugs if Britain is hit by an Avian Flu pandemic. Will close family relatives also be priority cases?

Unfortunately for Liberal Democrat and Conservative politicians, the Department of Health is yet to decide whether opposition politicians should also receive protection.

Seven close calls?

Sir Ian Blair was quoted in The Times as saying "there have been 250 incidents [in the twenty days] since July 7 where we have considered whether we are seeing a suicide bomber. I know . . . there have been seven times when we have got as close to calling it as that. And we haven’t. This is professional judgement".

Were they nearly as sure as they were over Jean Charles De Menezes?

The evil rich

The BBC focuses on "wealthy city dwellers" who buy second homes in the countryside, thereby destroying rural communities and forcing local house prices up beyond the reach of local people. Why does the BBC ignore young people for whom house prices are beyond their reach in city centres?

Why would the Treasury want to introduce a policy that will "appeal to only a few [wealthy] people"? It will allow people to purchase buy-to-let properties and shelter them from both capital gains and income tax within a self-invested personal pension scheme. The "few" people to gain will be rich, existing home-owners and Labour MPs Michael "seven homes" Meacher and Keith Vaz.

Well done Gordon! For some reason, the BBC overlooks that Labour is responsible for this policy!

Fired Up

The Fire Brigade Union are concerned that £1-2bn Government plans to consolidate 46 emergency fire control centres into eleven regional centres could lead to job cuts and "could push up council tax".

They weren't as concerned about council tax increases when they won a 16% pay deal following strike action.

XXXmas Cards

A teacher has been suspended for theft and sending explicit Christmas cards to children Turford High School in Bolton.

How come he wasn't suspended just for sending Christmas cards in multi-ethnic, multi-faith Bolton?

The Bleeding Obvious Award (2)

Young people with A-levels (or their equivalent) can expect to earn up to £4,000 more than students who gain no formal qualifications according to research by the Learning and Skills Council.

Is anyone really surprised by this "finding"!?! I am just surprised the difference in pay is so small.

The Bleeding Obvious Award (1)

Labour not working

If the TUC are complaining that too many British people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent are unemployed (only 43% are employed), is there a need for more immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh to provide "cheap labour" for UK plc?

Dates with doctors

Should people be fined for not keeping doctors appointments? 10m GP and 5m practice nurse appointments were missed last year according to a survey, the primary cause being "forgetfulness". A £20 charge for missed appointments would concentrate the mind on reducing such 'forgetfulness'.

However, GPs could improve appointment availability by keeping surgeries open longer, making them more convenient for people in full time employment. Unfortunately, no market mechanism exists to motivate GPs to be responsive to 'customer' demand.

Do missed appointments really cost the NHS £180m? Doctors must have other work to do when someone misses an appointment. It might even save the NHS money if no drugs have to be prescribed!!

Irresponsible sailing

"We do not need wrapping up in cotton wool and can go out and do silly or dangerous things if that's what we want to do." Mrs Lister, the first quadriplegic sailor to sail across the English Channel solo.

Had she capsized doing "silly things", would volunteer lifeboat crews be expected to risk their lives fishing her out of the Channel?

Testing victory

Would Christine Peckham still be partially paralysed, visually impaired and epileptic had Vioxx been more widely tested on animals before being taken by 20m people worldwide?

Is it possible that such cases will increase in frequency if animal rights activists are emboldened by their success in closing Darley Oaks Farm despite Police 'efforts' to the contrary?

Ken Clarke on the Euro

I have a new post up at Oncemore.

"Ken Clarke may believe he has improved his Conservative leadership chances by recognising that the Euro has failed to deliver "increased productivity, efficiency and living standards and stimulate policy reforms", but he has not. He has not had a Damascean conversion but simply "doubt[s] it is possible for 10 years or more". Should Britain really join the Euro during a Clarke premiership?"