Just Fancy That - or "compare and contrast"

To be found at the personal web site of Hazel Blears MP

Item 1 : http://www.hazelblears.co.uk/campaigns/fair-pay-for-interns

Name and shame firms which use unpaid interns says Hazel 

Hazel is calling on treasury chiefs to name and shame companies found to be employing unpaid interns.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has revealed that during 2012/13 it ordered nine firms to pay £200,000 to people who had worked for them as unpaid interns.  But it has refused to identify any of the companies involved.

Under the law, anyone with set hours and responsibilities should be paid at least the National Minimum Wage.

Hazel called for Treasury officials to do more to enforce the law when she met with Treasury officials and employment minister Jo Swinson about the problem in January.

However, she believes those found to be flouting National Minimum Wage rules should be ‘named and shamed’.

Hazel, who was instrumental in setting up the cross-party Speakers’ Parliamentary Placement Scheme – offering paid internships with MPs – said:
 

“I’m pleased to see HMRC is taking firm action against firms found to be flouting National Minimum Wage requirements and prioritising cases involving unpaid interns.

Item 2 :http://www.hazelblears.co.uk/tag/kids-without-connections/

Kids Without Connections was launched by Salford and Eccles MP Hazel Blears last year when young people did placements with local firms.

Ms Blears began the scheme after becoming increasingly concerned by the number of young people who told her they had missed out on jobs because they did not have the experience, but they could not get the experience because they had not had a job.

But within a couple of months of celebrating their involvement in the first Kids Without Connection at a special Parliament reception, around half of the 23 young people involved had found meaningful jobs.

Ms Blears is now inviting companies interested in offering a young person up to four weeks of unpaid work experience during the second Kids Without Connections scheme to learn more about what is involved.

A special business lunch has been arranged with help from the Salford Business Group at the stunning new Damson Restaurant at MediaCity in Salford on Friday, February 15.

Owner Steve Pilling is kindly laying on a two-course meal.

The scheme is run with Salford City College’s Trinity Business Training, and college principal Martin Sim will be among the speakers.

Ms Blears said: “With unemployment still high in Salford, particularly among the under-24s, it is increasingly hard for young people to get that crucial foot in the door.

“It is particularly difficult for those from poorer backgrounds, whose families may not have connections among relatives, friends and colleagues to help them get work experience.

“I started Kids Without Connections because I didn’t want their potential to be wasted and I wanted to do something to give them hope for the future.

“I was so pleased to see so many of those who took part in last year’s scheme go on to find work but it would not be possible without the help of the businesses community".

Obviously some types of "unemployed people" deserve to be paid at least national minimum wage whilst gaining all important 'work experience' and some, "those from poorer backgrounds, whose families may not have connections among relatives, friends and colleagues to help them get work experience", it would appear,  don't.  No doubt Hazel can explain why the distinction.

"200 stone driver is rescued by 320 emergency workers in £200,000 operation"

From The Daily Mail

 

An obese driver was trapped in his vehicle for more than a day as emergency services staff struggled to transfer him to a specialist ambulance for overweight patients.

 

The middle-aged man, thought to be from West Sussex and parts of Kent, was injured when his Humvee crashed into the back of several buses on the A29 road in Adversane, near Billingshurst.

 

In a rescue operation involving 320 emergency services staff the man was cut from his vehicle and moved into a bariatric ambulance – designed to cope with patients weighing more than a ton.

 

It took 180 firefighters, eighty police officers and sixty paramedics to haul him from the wreckage and the cost of the operation is thought to have been around £200,000...

 

Martin McKilligin, of the Falmouth Sealife Centre said: "Once he has recovered from his injuries, the man will be released back into the English Channel where he will delight whale watchers for years to come."

"The DWP conned us, and our members" says a visibly upset Employment Related Services Association

"dangling the carrot of 'easy money' for 'helping' those out of work find work, and now we find we are expected to actually do something for the money, it isn't fair..." or if you prefer the properly balanced BBC version of the tale:

Work Programme 'not doing enough'

"The costs of helping jobseekers on ESA back into work are significant and cannot all be met by the Work Programme," says the Association's chief executive, Kirsty McHugh. "In order for there to be a significant step change in performance in helping these jobseekers into employment, we need greater use of skills and health budgets."

And to give the BBC credit it manages to sum up that plea from ERSA very nicely indeed :-

The call for spending from other parts of the public sector to be channelled in to support the Work Programme is an embarrassment for this flagship government scheme.

Well yes, another example of the "do it so much better" private sector asking that it be allowed to pass the burden of doing what it is contracted to do over to the failing "public sector" whilst this not impacting on its "payment by (sic) results" profits.

But interestingly ERSA are not castigating Atos, holder of the DWP issued contract for reassessing Incapacity Benefit holders for ESA, and new ESA claims, which is resulting in all these "people declared not ill and suitable for undertaking work" who are now being directed at the Work Programme providers to actually complete the chain and find them that work.

The Department for Work and Pensions says the payment-by-results contracts agreed with Work Programme providers already give them "a clear financial incentive to support the hardest to help into work".

Oh dear, the initial DWP response to the "can we renegotiate the entire contract two years in" plea from ERSA seems to be a firm, if carefully worded "no way". Wonder how long that line will be maintained.

Of course, the "What would you prefer, to have a benefits sanction or ahem freely admit that

 'this test and the DWP are both simply brilliant; both make me feel so much better about myself'" question, may have influenced that just slightly.

"The Cabinet Office, which is handling press inquiries about the investigation, has said the tests are supported by "strong academic literature and  that they had received "strong positive feedback from jobseekers who took the test"

"The strengths survey is a voluntary exercise jobseekers can undertake to help rebuild self-confidence and identify character strength," a spokesman said. "It is important to note that this is not a workplace test and the survey output is for use by the claimants themselves."

The tests, called My Strengths, were exposed by bloggers in April and include questions such as: "I never go out of my way to visit museums," and: "I have not created anything of beauty in the last year".

A letter to job seekers said the character test was "scientifically shown to find people's strengths" "Failure to comply with this direction may result in loss of benefit," it added.

The DWP has always maintained that taking the test was never mandatory but in an FOI response at the end of May, the DWP were forced to reveal that although it was policy not to threaten jobseekers to take the 48-question survey, a small number had in fact been "directed" to complete it."

"Traffic light labelling introduced for politicians"

From The Daily Mirror:

A traffic light ­labelling system is being brought in for all the major political parties and taxpayer-funded bodies from today.

At-a-glance data showing levels of duplicity, dishonesty, laziness, self-importance and corruption will be used for each MP or local councillor, franked from green (trustworthy), through amber (take with a large pinch of salt) to red ('on the take' or 'downright stupid' and can be ignored).

Guideline Bullshit Amounts (GBA) have been replaced by "Reference Outputs" to show how much of the maximum permitted daily output of propaganda and thoughtless tub-thumping is in a typical 100-word section of their speeches, letters or articles.

After years of politicians running their own ways of misrepresenting facts and figures, the Office for National Statistics has drawn up the traffic light charter to make the choice easier for voters.

It comes as politicians pump out yet more made-up figures, such as the baseless claim that health problems associated with being overweight or obese cost the NHS more than £5 billion a year, which was promptly marked with red.

Almost two thirds of MPs in England are corrupt, stupid or lazy, a third of local councillors and a quarter of Assembly members, all of whose public utterances will now be clearly marked with the red traffic light.

Public Health Minister Anna Soubry said: "The UK already has the largest number of wild claims which are complete and utter bollocks and we know that people get confused by the variety of lies that are used. We're not even consistent, are we? Research shows that, of all the current schemes, people like this label the most and they can use the information to make better choices at the ballot box.

"We all have a responsibility to tackle the challenge of double-dealing and corruption, including the quangocrats and academics. By having all major political parties and most media outlets signed up to the consistent label, we will all be able to see at a glance whether a politician is to be believed. This is why I want to see all newspapers and universities signing up and using the label."

Campaign and pressure groups welcomed the scheme.

Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said:

"This labelling scheme will encourage our leaders to do more to reduce the amount of complete and utter dissembling in their pronouncements. The National Trust and the CPRE will have to add bright red stickers to each baseless claim suggesting that England is being concreted over."

British Heart Foundation chief executive Simon Gillespie added:

"This is undeniably a first-class scheme that will make it easier for shoppers to scan the shelves for what they would really like to eat and ignore the petty-minded nonsense that comes from my own taxpayer- or Big Pharma-funded lobbying fronts such as my own.

"All of our tosh about high levels of diet-related chronic diseases in the UK, including heart disease has confused shoppers quite a lot and it's essential we have clear and consistent labelling on all BHF press release so that journalists and readers can cheerfully ignore them.

"We're solid red, by the way."

"Well it works for us" say Crest ....

Crest Nicholson has reported increased revenue and profit off the back of  the government’s latest drive to support house building.

In half year results released yesterday, the house builder reports a 75 per cent rise in profit for the six months to 30 April compared to the same period the previous year, from £12.5 million to £21.9 million. Revenue is up 30 per cent across the same time frame, and completions increased 9 per cent, from 746 to 810 homes.

Gross profit margin fell slightly from 28.3 per cent to 27.8 per cent.

Stephen Stone, chief executive of Crest Nicholson, said: 

‘Purchaser demand for high-quality homes on well-designed developments remains robust and signs of improved access to mortgages together with the initiatives that the government has put in place should help to stimulate activity in the industry and assist people in purchasing a new home.

With this improving sentiment and the opportunities available to the business, the board remains confident in the outturn for the year.’

"Cover-up over 16 baby deaths"

From The Daily Mail:

Health bosses are today accused of covering up their failure to investigate the destruction of a report looking into failings at a hospital where there was no enquiry into why no report was published on why 16 babies died through neglect.

Despite multiple warnings about Morecambe Bay hospitals, a Care Quality Commission inspection reported that its own internal review of its monitoring procedures gave it the all-clear in 2010 not to investigate its own failure to report.

Even when a CQC official produced a dossier purporting to show the internal review was flawed, bosses referred him to a confidential memo in which they denied telling staff to destroy it to protect the commission's reputation, therefore the dossier no longer existed and could not be produced.

In the account of a discussion between officials about what to do with the findings that there was nothing to find apart from the original report which they denied destroying, which is now not the subject of a further inquiry, one senior manager said:

"Are you kidding me? As this does not exist, it can never be in the public domain nor subject to a freedom of information request – read my lips. Plus I don't actually work here, I am on a secondment from an external review body set up to monitor the quality of the Care Quality Commission."

Incredibly, the CQC insisted a non-existent damning report into the scandal today should contain no names – so entirely innocent individuals could escape the suspicion of blame. Outraged parents said the commission's repeated failings raised serious questions about its ability to carry out a root and branch investigation into its procedures for learning from its own mistakes.

David Prior, (not his real name), new chairman of CQC, today defended the failure to investigate: He said: '

"If we had bothered to investigate, we wouldn't have been able to publish the names, or else we would have been in breach of the Data Protection Act and open to being sued. We had to make the decision to either investigate and then not publish the report or to simply not investigate in the first place. Can we keep this off the record?"

Reader's Letter Of The Day

From City AM:

Re: The Co-op [Bank] rescue: There was always a better way to deal with bank failure, yesterday

Well said. It was clear, ever since trouble started at Northern Rock, that all we needed to do was look at these banks' balance sheets (rather than get hysterical) and the bail-in solution jumped off the page.

Mark Wadsworth.

The article to which I responded was a good basic article explaining debt-for-equity swaps, or bail-ins as they are now known, and is worth a read. What was unusual about it was this sentence:

This opposition to the bailouts did get some hearing in the public debate, and has spawned significant anti-bailout political movements such as the Tea Party in the US, or the Occupy movement internationally.

Indeed, that is how they both started, but the former rapidly morphed into the usual Bible-bashing, Home-Owner-Ist Republican fringe nonsense, and the latter rapidly morphed into the usual vaguely defined anti-capitalist, high tax nonsense, so nowadays most people would consider them to be polar opposites, although they're all Socialists as far as I can see.

Internet filtering...

Independent 17th June

Claire Perry MP, David Cameron’s special advisor on ‘preventing the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood', has outlined plans for UK Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to make users opt-out to view adult content online by the end of the year.

BBC 18th June

But Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of trade association ISPA, which represents the UK's net suppliers, said: "ISPs have already taken several steps on making the internet safer, with many offering or working towards an 'active choice +' system, which presents parents with an unavoidable choice."

So, Claire Perry is going to make them do it, but there's no legislation, and they don't want to.

Trouble is, filtering's a blunt instrument that works badly. Even people who hate porn often find themselves ordering it to be switched on because a site they use is categorised as pornographic incorrectly.

It's much better done on the PC end - set up your PC with a login for each user and then set filtering accordingly. Not only do kids then get "their" view on the PC (with their choice of wallpaper and files and bookmarks), you can also downgrade their rights so they don't go deleting something important. Then if the kids need to get to a site that the filtering blocks incorrectly, you can do it, rather than having to sit for an hour waiting for the ISP to deal with it.

Well said, Angus!

From this morning's City AM:

...a closely watched barometer of so-called unfairness between the generations shows prospects for young people have worsened in the past year as older peoples’ living standards have improved.

“The housing boom for the older generation in London and south east is a housing crisis for the under-30s,” Angus Hanton, co-founder of Intergenerational Foundation (IF), told City A.M. “This is moving towards a feudal society.”

The first link doesn't work any more, of course, as is so often the way with City AM articles which threaten to rock the boat, but thanks to the miracle that is Google Cache, it's still available here.