Britannia Radio

These stories should not be passed over though they stray from our 
usual tramlines.

The first one shows the cynicism with which Labour tackles the 
recession, complacently assuring its own supporters that "someone 
else, not you, will suffer"

The last one on Olympic jobs is enough to make you weep!  

The jobless  total rises daily and Brown's government is sitting on its hands 
while foreigners get the benefit of what the taxpayer is funding.   

If the British money was going to British unemployed we wouldn't also 
have so much unemployment pay to fund.

Life is not made any easier in my attempts to report by the fact that 
the Telegraph has various stories which rank very highly in the paper 
version but don't get a mention on the main headlines page of the 
website (although piffling things like "World's first Barbie store 
opens", "Shrimp 'louder than gunshot'", "China outlaws lip-synching 
after Olympics row" and "Parents believe Jaffa Cakes count towards 
five-a-day" do!)  The search device is no help either!    The time I 
waste trying to trace this is wearisome.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx cs
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COMMENT AND NEWS ITEMS  - EXTRACTS 14.11.08
==Today, Radio 4 0845
Robinson: It really is a crisis,

Geoffrey Robinson, former Paymaster General
Mr Robinson said that he was reassured that Gordon Brown was playing 
such a prominent role in the international effort to overcome the 
financial crisis, and warned that the private sector is most at risk 
from recession.

"It really is a crisis, unprecedented in scale and depth. I feel very 
reassured indeed that Gordon Brown is the man there conducting an 
international coordinated growth stimulus. But he's also a Prime 
Minister with a good Chancellor at home."

He said that, "the private sector is going to feel the burden and the 
hurt of the recession" and added that it was important to look at 
social housing to let and build, warning, "We're in danger of losing 
the skills base of the construction industry.
[This acknowledges that the public sector with its feather-bedded 
pensions and 'make-believe' jobs will not suffer in the recession 
while thew companies that directly or indirectly pay for it all will 
be wrecked.  Labour is looking after its own and devil-take-the-rest -
cs]
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==

RBS to cut 3,000 jobs worldwide
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to cut about 3,000 jobs in the next 
few weeks.
The positions will go in its global banking and markets workforce, 
spanning more than 50 countries. Jobs are likely to go in the City of 
London.
It is understood the bank's High Street operations, and those of 
subsidiary NatWest, will be unaffected   (Telegraph 14.11.08)
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==

From Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs column
Interesting paragraph about East Northamptonshire District Council. 
They had invested £4 million in Iceland but withdrew it last year. 
The Conservative leader Cllr Andy Mercer explained that after a "risk 
management assessment" they decided it was prudent to move their 
money elsewhere. So good for him, but why didn't other Councils do 
the same?

Another item concerns Andrea Hill, the Chief Executive of Suffolk 
County Council, who is paid £218,000 a year. She is sending 400 staff 
on a "communicational psychology" course at a cost of £1,000 a time 
so in total £400,000.

By the way the last issue had an item about fraud at Lambeth Council 
which involved a Council employee getting five month's sick pay - 
while in prison for identity theft.
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==

"The RSPCA wouldn't have visited this flat 60 times and done sod all"
The tragic scandal of 'Baby P' becomes bigger every day.  The Daily 
Mail reveals that "Four ministers were warned six months before the 
death of Baby P that social workers in his area were 'out of 
control'." "They were told," the Mail reports, "that Haringey social 
services department was failing to protect children."

In today's Sun, Jon Gaunt congratulates David Cameron for raising the 
issue at PMQs:
"Cameron was bang on the money and in tune with the British public on 
Wednesday when he attacked Brown in the Commons. And the Bottler 
showed his true colours when, in response, he accused him of playing 
party politics. There was no party politics. But Labour have been 
playing at social engineering for the past 11 years. I believe the 
ultimate responsibility lies with them and the Guardianistas that 
they have created in every section of public life. Of course everyone 
directly involved in Baby P's case must be sacked."

Gaunt continues (our emphasis):
"The RSPCA wouldn't have visited this flat 60 times and done sod all. 
But the SS - that's social services by the way - in Haringey left 
Baby P at the mercy of his "mother" and believed her lies. Why? 
Probably because they didn't want to be judgmental and because they 
subscribed to the New Labour mantra of accepting all kinds of family."

In a chilling article for yesterday's Guardian, Iain Duncan Smith 
noted the huge preponderance of abuse within broken families:
"Today 25% of children in this country live in single parent families 
and this trend is set to accelerate. These children are three to six 
times more likely to experience abuse."
and
"A recent US study found that children living with a non-biological 
adult are 50 times more likely to die from afflicted injuries than 
those living with their biological parents."

Another reason why more needs to be done to promote the two parent 
family and the marriage bond.   (Tim Montgomerie on ConservativeHpme 
Blog 14.11.08)
-------------------------------

AND
Baby P. Shoesmith blocked full review.
The Evening Standard reports:
The Haringey council boss at the centre of the Baby P scandal refused 
to order a full review into his death, it has emerged.
Leaked documents reveal that the head of children's services, Sharon 
Shoesmith, blocked a review of social services six months after the 
toddler died following months of abuse.
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NHS   - Stephen O'Brien reveals that NHS civil servants are enjoying 
pay rises up to 13% while frontline staff are squeezed at 1.9%
Shadow Health Minister, Stephen O'Brien is quoted in The Guardian: 
"New Labour have presided over a culture of soaring salaries for top 
civil servants, while frontline staff have been squeezed. There seems 
to be one rule for hard working nurses, and quite another for top 
bureaucrats at the Department of Health. Is it not hypocritical of 
civil servants to award themselves pay rises like this while telling 
the nurses who serve our NHS so diligently that they must accept an 
effective pay cut?   (via Conservative Home)
-------------------------
today's reports in Telegraph  (NOT detectably  ONLINE)
==NHS chief's pay rise is five times rise given to nurses.
==Patient survey rates NHS worse than Estonia. Of 31 European 
countries Britain came 13th in patient satisfaction.
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==

Foreign Workers on their marks for Olympics jobs   (Telegraph - 
ONLINE in obscure corner.  I finally found it)
More than 50.000 migrant workers have registered for jobs in the 
borough that will host the 2012 Olympics, sparking fears that British 
workers could be losing out.

By Andrew Pierce

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Newham, which will host the 
games, has had the biggest surge in new National Insurance numbers 
than any other part of Britain since the 2012 decision was made in 2005.

The 51,000 surge in migrant workers into Newham, where the Stratford 
Olympic stadium and village is situated, is the equivalent of a town 
the size of Keighley, the Yorkshire town, being added to the 
impoverished London borough. Most of the foreign workers have come 
from Eastern Europe and the Baltic states.

Last year there were 20,500 new registrations in Newham compared to 
13,000 for Birmingham, Britain's Second City, and 11 million for 
Manchester.

The revelation has sparked fears that any jobs boom generated by the 
£9.4 billion Olympics budget will not benefit the local workforce in 
a borough which is one of the most deprived in the country. In a week 
in which unemployment surged to 1.8 million there are now 12,000 
unemployed in Newham, or 10.7 per cent, the second highest in London.

The revelation that 50,000 migrant workers have poured into Newham in 
the last three years came after Tessa Jowell the Olympics minister, 
said Britain would not have bid for the games if the government had 
known that there was a recession approaching.

Labour MP Frank Field, said: "This is the biggest public expenditure 
programme in the history of the country yet the benefits appear to be 
going abroad. The extraordinary number of national insurance 
registrations in Newham suggest it is not providing much additional 
employment for British people. This is not what we were told when we 
secured the Olympic games."

Mr Field suggested, however, that the deepening recession might bring 
a silver lining to London 2012. "It must now be perfectly reasonable 
for the government to strike a much harder bargain on contracts to 
reduce the cost," he said.
"It should not be £9.4 billion; it should come in much lower as we 
know there are hardly any orders being placed in the construction 
world. We should also try to ensure at the same time that the 
additional jobs go to British workers."

Sir Robin Wales, the Mayor of Newham, said that the statistics on 
foreign workers were deeply depressing. "I am absolutely determined 
to ensure that the residents of Newham benefit from the 2012 Games.
"As the employment market becomes ever more competitive, no one in 
Newham or anywhere in Britain can assume they will be first in line 
for jobs and opportunities. We have to show that we have the skills 
and the energy to rise to grasp the opportunities that the Games will 
bring.

"There are many reasons why some people do not work, and I believe it 
is rarely because they are idle. But it may be that the benefits 
system will leave them worse off if they take a job; it may be that 
they lack the necessary skills; it can simply be a matter of 
psychology some individuals lack confidence and drive because they 
have little or no experience of work. Unless we face those realities 
we can never help people to realise their full potential."