December 22, 2012

The Truth About Diamonds…

My name is Chris Everard - I have spent 17 years travelling to eleven countries investigating and reporting on how the super-wealthy families - who have become known as ‘the illuminati’ to many - gain their riches… I have established a monthly magazine which publishes fully illustrated reports and iBook/articles about the Aristocratic-Royal Elite, cover-ups, secret episodes of world history and other matters which are ignored by the mainstream media. FEED YOUR BRAIN MAGAZINE refuses all big corporate advertising and is instead funded by it’s readers via subscriptions. It gives us the the kind of editorial freedom which, say, the BBC do not have - for example, the Director General of the BBC is actually appointed by the Queen…

In this DIAMOND JUBILEE year, I decided to publish investigations into the DIAMOND industry - every diamond on the planet has been the result of some form of exploitation of people or the environment…

You can get a free copy of FEED YOUR BRAIN MAGAZINE by submitting your email in the little box at https://www.FeedYourBrainMagazine.com/ - this is a snippet of the kind of research and investigation I publish each month….

In the 40 years between 1952 - 1992 the Queen avoided paying tax. Does she really have any respect for the British people? She has almost completely avoided paying any contribution towards the upkeep of Britain. Now take a close look - a really close look - at her facial expressions on those rare occasions when the royal family step out onto the balcony at Buckingham Palace. Complete and utter control of the BBC newsfeeds has allowed - up until now - a very effective ‘news blackout’ on the investments of the royals - and their attitude towards the British working class…
Some of the Queen’s most important investments have been in the Nuclear electric industries… and DIAMONDS…

Fortunes have been made and lost in the age-old trading of diamonds. Three of the world’s largest diamonds are owned by the British Queen - whose real name is Elizabeth Saxe Coburg und Gotha (her name is not really ‘Windsor’ - that is a ‘styled’ title-name). The combined value of these diamonds is in excess of $1,000million dollars - perhaps as much as $2,000 million. If these diamonds were re-cut and sold, the accrued fund of money could be placed in a high return deposit savings account, producing an annual income which would provide enough cash to provide the National Health Service with Scanners and dialysis machines FOREVER. Additionally, African & Indian communities in the areas where the diamonds were originally discovered would also benefit from an annual income.

Diamonds are NOT rare - at the African Ekati diamond mine, they are transported on conveyer belts - in giant heaps. A direct result of diamond mining is the diversion of rivers to allow for the mining of alluvial diamond deposits. When the mine is depleted, the rivers are not redirected to their original courses, which in turn results in the pollution of waters and destruction of surrounding flora and fauna. The mining activities also degrade the surrounding land by increasing atmospheric air pollution, contaminating surface and ground water and increasing soil erosion and leaching. The pollution is, in the most extreme cases, leading to desertification and permanently changing land use from agriculture to waste, rendering it useless to traditional inhabitants when the diamonds have all been mined. In the short run the inhabitants of the region are suffering from sickness and disease related to contaminated drinking water supplies. Such diseases include dissentry, Malaria, schistosamiases and Biomphalaria pfeiffer. Rwanda, Sierra Leone, the Congo and Angola are the foremost sources for diamonds in Africa - all these countries have been thrown into civil war and chaos by British Military forces & mercenaries. The ensuing chaos guarantees that the diamond mining can go on unhindered by democratically elected leaders demanding a fair cut of the profits for the African people. The royal elite have mountains of diamonds in stock and carefully control the sale & distribution, giving the impression that diamonds are ‘rare’.


Just recently, Sierra Leone erupted into what the BBC described as “civil war”. The truth is that most of these ‘turf wars’ play into the hands of diamond prospectors, with the displacement of millions of Africans quite - just by chance, of course - enabling mining companies to set up shop, their facilities looking like high security prisons which mar the natural beauty of the landscape and strip the subterranean strata using high powered water hoses and acids in search of yet more shiny transparent crystals. There is, without question, a strange paradox, that many African villages rely on a single standpipe of water, whilst just yards away, high powered water hoses flush diamonds underground by workers who have to suffer the indignity of anal probes and x-rays as they leave their workplace, the bosses making sure that none of their modern slaves have swallowed a small uncut gem to allay the horrendous inequality of their society. (below): The Indian Koh-I-Nor diamond set into a platinum crown owned by Queen Elzabeth’s dead mother.

The royal greed for diamonds has scarred our wonderful planet. In Kimberly, South Africa, we see an abandoned mine which was dug by hand using local labourers who were paid pennies for their hard work in arduous conditions. The giant hole left behind after the royal-elite diamond traders moved on to trash yet another landscape could easily be converted into a hydro-electric power station to benefit the local community. It was abandoned in 1914.

The Russian ROMANOV royal family are cousins to the British-Bavarian house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Windsor. An orgy of top soil washing and feverish mining has left ridiculously huge chasms and black holes in the Rusiian countryside. A mine at Mirney in Siberia is 1,200 meters in diametre and more than 500 meters deep. The royals have left a giant sink hole at Yellowknife in Canada - a territory stolen from First Nation Canadian Indians - which is so big it can be seen from space. The Diavik diamond mine could easily be converted into a marine biology research station - but like so many other diamond mines, it will probably be left as an ugly scar on our planet.

In the 1930s, a third of British children suffered growth defects caused by malnutrition. This is the era in which queen Elizabeth II grew up - whilst beggars and child prostitutes fought hand and mouth for food and favour from the rich outside the walls of royal palaces, the young Elizabeth was being groomed to take her place as an adult princess - she had her own child sized six-roomed thatched cottage in the garden of the Royal Lodge at Royal Windsor Great Park (situated near Windsor Castle). The London Times reported; ‘The Small House is fully furnished with running water, electric light, and a wireless.’ Architect John Nash rebuilt the Royal Lodge for King George IV and it became one of the Queen Mother’s many homes. She died there, aged 101, after a century of indulgence, fine champagne and enjoying whole-body blood transfusions at the tax payer’s expense.

Since the 1800s, the British-Bavarian royal sovereign houses have been asset stripping Africa and India and building vast estates which are now almost impossible to value accurately. Their investments are global, with rumours suggesting that Queensland in Australia is actually owned by the royal Crown Estates (perhaps that would explain the reason for it’s name), and every building in Regent Street in central London is owned by the Crown Estates. Officially, the Crown Estates are custodians, merely owning properties on behalf of the British people - but that, as far as I am concerned, is nothing but window dressing and political double-speak - as at no time in history has any of the Crown Estates been sold off in order to build hospitals or fund public services. On the rare occasions when there are sell-offs, they are usually Leasehold, and the properties eventually return back to the Crown.

From 1953 up until 1992, the monarchy paid not a single penny in tax. More than 2,400 tax rises took place in that period, with the cost of goods being ramped due to massive amounts of duty being levied on them.
In 1992, a paltry £1million was begrudgingly handed over in ‘tax’ - perhaps this is the reason why the queen described 1992 as her “Anus Horribilis”. In the same year, a mysterious fire at Windsor Castle resulted in taxpayers being told that they would have no less than £30 Million taken from their wage packets to pay for the damage! Ten years later, in 2002, the Queen apparently was not required to pay tax on the cash bequeathed in her mother’s will. The Queen Mother often gave the impression that she was ‘broke’. But she owned not one, but TWO castles! Allegedly, £140 million was placed in Swiss Trusts for the benefit of her grandchildren… If true, then this shows that the Queen Mum was one of the wealthiest people in the world. She was allegedly in debt due to horse racing gambling fetishes - if this is true, then surely a 100 year old woman would not have needed TWO castles and one of these giant estates could have been commercialised or sold off or rented out as a hotel to take the burden off her ‘debts’.

THE CROWN’S ESTATES
So, let us now take a closer look at these so called ‘Crown Estates’… What we have here is a portfolio of some of the world’s most famous landmarks and buildings worth a conservative £6 billion, with urban properties valued at £4.2 billion, and rural holdings valued at £919.5 million; and an annual profit of £226.5 million - that’s almost £1 million profit per day earned from rental and lease incomes. The majority of the estate’s income is derived from urban cities - most notably properties in central London. The Crown’s estate also owns 272,000 acres (110,000 hectares) of agricultural land and forest, and, wait for it, more than half of the UK’s foreshore - beaches, ports, promenades, piers etc. It also includes Ascot racecourse and the aforementioned Windsor Great Park… I think you’re beginning to get the ‘big picture’…
This cosy little arrangement, where vast amounts of tax free cash is paid directly into the bank accounts of Royals has continued, with every succeeding sovereign renewing the arrangement made between King George III and Parliament and is now recognised as “an integral part of the Constitution [which] would be difficult to abandon”. That is, of course, an odd term - as Britain does not have an official ‘Constitution’.

The Crown Estates has an interesting history, where various monarchs have played a kind of ‘soft shoe shuffle’ moving assets in and out of the Crown Estates portfolio as and when their heavy drinking/heavy gambling/heavy tipping (delete as appropriate) habits needed. Upon King George III’s accession of the throne he ‘surrendered’ the income from the Crown lands to Parliament in return for a fixed civil list. What this means is that to this day there very often is a minister inside the Cabinet Office who is described as ‘Minister Without Portfolio’ and it is this minister’s responsibility to manage the Crown Estates. Old King George surrendered to parliamentary control the hereditary excise duties, post office revenues, and “the small branches” of hereditary revenue including rents of the Crown lands in England, (which amounted at that time to about £11,000) and was granted a ‘civil list’ annuity of £800,000 for the support of his household and the expenses of civil government, subject to the payment of certain annuities to members of the royal family. So, in other words, he forewent the few tens of thousands of peasant rents the Crown Estates were levying, handed over control to a puppet minister, and in exchange picked up nearly a £1 million tax free sum every 12 months. However, although the king had retained large hereditary revenues, his income proved insufficient for his expensive life style! Why? Because he used to reward friends with bribes and lavish gifts! Debts amounting to over £3 million during the course of King George’s reign were paid by Parliament, and the civil list annuity was then increased from time to time - leading to the situation we have today, where vast mortgages and massive ‘salaries’ are now paid to more than two dozen Royals who have seldom had ‘normal’ jobs.

55% of Britain’s foreshore is owned and operated by the Crown Estates - permission has been granted time and time again for ugly and dangerous nuclear reactors which belch radioactive waste into the English channel, North Sea and Irish Sea.

Pirate Bay to be blocked in the UK, court rules

End of the line for PB?

By Marc Chacksfield on April 30th, 2012

The Pirate Bay is set to be blocked by five of the main ISPs in the UK, after a High Court ruled the site is in massive breach of copyright.

According to the BBC, the Swedish website is set to be blocked by Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media.

So far only Virgin has spoken out about the blocking saying it is set to comply with the High Court’s ruling, but believed that it shouldn’t set a precedent for policing the web in the future.

“As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media complies with court orders addressed to the company but strongly believes that changing consumer behaviour to tackle copyright infringement also needs compelling legal alternatives, such as our agreement with Spotify, to give consumers access to great content at the right price,” explained A Virgin Media spokesperson.

Infringing copyright

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is obviously pleased with the ruling, with its chief executive Geoff Taylor explaining: “The High Court has confirmed that The Pirate Bay infringes copyright on a massive scale.

“Its operators line their pockets by commercially exploiting music and other creative works without paying a penny to the people who created them.

“This is wrong - musicians, sound engineers and video editors deserve to be paid for their work just like everyone else.”

“TalkTalk have always maintained that we are not in principle against blocking provided there is a court order.”

One person who is critical of the ruling is Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group. He said about the situation: “Blocking the Pirate Bay is pointless and dangerous. It will fuel calls for further, wider and even more drastic calls for Internet censorship of many kinds, from pornography to extremism.

“Internet censorship is growing in scope and becoming easier. Yet it never has the effect desired. It simply turns criminals into heroes.”

The Pirate Bay has been under pressure for some time now to close, but its owners have been finding inventive ways to evade closure.

The latest plan was to send its servers into space, but this sounded more like a pipe dream than something that would actually happen.

It was back in February that the High Court originally ruled that the Pirate Bay’s operators “incite or persuade” copyright infringement.

The judge presiding over the case was the same on that forced BT to block Newzbin2 back in October 201 - which is interesting as BT doesn’t seem to be on list of ISPs which have to block the site.

According to PC Pro, BT has asked for a few more weeks to ‘consider its position’ about whether or not to block the site.

Sources:

https://www.techradar.com/news/internet/pirate-bay-to-be-blocked-in-the-uk-court-rules-1078186

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17894176

Syrian Peace Deal: UN’s Cloak to NATO’s Dagger

Turkey begins fabricating “cross border” incidents to justify Brookings prescribed “safe havens” inside Syria.
by Tony Cartalucci on April 9, 2012

From the very beginning, US policy makers admitted that Kofi Annan’s “peace mission” to Syria was nothing more than a rouse to preserve NATO’s proxy forces from total destruction and create “safe havens” from which to prolong the bloodshed. It was hoped that with established “safe havens” in Syria, protected by Turkish military forces (Turkey has been a NATO member since 1952) violence and pressure verses the Syrian government could be perpetually increased until it finally collapsed and the carving up of Syria could commence.

Photo: Annan is a trustee of Wall Street speculator George Soros and geopolitical manipulator Zbigniew Brzezinski’s International Crisis Group (ICG), along side Neo-Conservative corporate lobbyist and warmonger Kenneth Adelman, US State Department-listed Iranian terror organization MEK lobbyist - General Wesley Clark, Wall Street-backed color revolution leader- Mohammed ElBaradei of Egypt, and Brookings Institution’s Samuel Berger. Serving as “advisers” to the International Crisis Group include, Neo-Conservative warmonger Richard Armitage, former Foreign Minister of Israel Shlomo Ben-Ami, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Bank of Israel Governor Stanely Fischer, and President of Israel Shimon Peres. While Annan poses as a representative of the “United Nations” he is in reality representing the pro-regime change agenda of the ICG and the special interests that fund its work.

….

This has been confirmed by Fortune 500-funded, US foreign-policy think-tank, Brookings Institution which has blueprinted designs for regime change in Libya as well as both Syria andIran. In their latest report, “Assessing Options for Regime Change” it is stated (emphasis added):

“An alternative is for diplomatic efforts to focus first on how to end the violence and how to gain humanitarian access, as is being done under Annan’s leadership.This may lead to the creation of safe-havens and humanitarian corridors, which would have to be backed by limited military power. This would, of course, fall short of U.S. goals for Syria and could preserve Asad in power. From that starting point, however, it is possible that a broad coalition with the appropriate international mandate could add further coercive action to its efforts.” -page 4, Assessing Options for Regime Change, Brookings Institution.

Click to enlarge

Image: Also out of the Brookings Institution, Middle East Memo #21 “Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf),” makes no secret that the humanitarian “responsibility to protect” is but a pretext for long-planned regime change.

….

And while “peace” was being peddled by Soros-funded International Crisis Group trustee Kofi Annan, the US, UK, France, and members of the West’s proxy Arab League simultaneously called for Assad to stand down and withdraw troops from secured cities while openly declaring that arms and cash would continue to flow to the rebels. The “Friends of Syria” summit would even ludicrously declare that “wages” would be paid to rebels to continue their battle to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Clearly the label “peace deal” is inappropriate for a proposal that seeks to empower and indeed see one side prevail militarily over another whose hands are purposefully tied. It is an unconditional surrender to foreign-funded terrorists simply labeled as a “peace deal.”

The Brookings Institution’s “safe havens” and “humanitarian corridors” are meant to be established by NATO-member Turkey, who has been threatening to partially invade Syria for weeks in order to accomplish this. And while Turkey claims this is based on “humanitarian concerns,” examining Turkey’s abysmal human rights record in addition to its own ongoing genocidal campaign against the Kurdish people both within and beyond its borders, it is clear they are simply fulfilling the agenda established by their Western patrons on Wall Street and in the city of London.

Photo: Turkish tanks entering Iraq to raid Kurdish towns and hunt suspected rebels in 2008. More recently, Turkey has been bombing “suspected” rebel bases in both Turkey and Iraq, as well as conducting mass nationwide arrests. Strangely, as Turkey verifiably does what Libya’s Qaddafi and Syria’s Assad have been accused of doing, in all of their hypocrisy, are now calling for a partial invasion of Syria based on “humanitarian concerns.”

….Now, Turkey is fabricating stories involving Syrian troops “firing across” the Turkish-Syrian border. The New York Times published these bold accusations before admitting further down that “it was unclear what kind of weapons caused the injuries on Sunday around six miles inside Turkish territory,” and that “there were conflicting accounts about the incident.” As are all the accusations used by NATO, the UN, and individual member states to justify meddling in Syria’s affairs, these tales involve hear-say from the rebels themselves.

It is clear that Turkey, NATO, and the UN are attempting to set the pretext for the establishment of “safe havens” and “humanitarian corridors” intended to circumvent the UN Security Council which has seen attempts to green-light military intervention vetoed twice by Russia and China. As the UN “peace deal” deadline of April 10 comes and goes, we can expect an ever increasing din of propaganda purporting Syrian violations against Turkish sovereignty, the continued propaganda campaign accentuating the “victimization” of NATO’s death squads, and the public roll-out of Brookings’ Turkish established “safe haven” within Syrian territory.

Image: Some of the corporate sponsors behind the Brookings Institution, from whose playbook Kofi Annan is being directed in his disingenuous “peace mission” to Syria. (click image to enlarge)

Image: Just some of the corporate and “institutional” sponsors of the International Crisis Group, upon which Kofi Annan sits as a “trustee” with other dubious personalities including George Soros, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Israeli President Shimon Peres, Egypt’s Mohammed ElBaradei, and Neo-Cons Richard Armitage and Kenneth Adelman. (click image to enlarge)

….The UN “peace deal” was a rouse from the beginning. The West has no intention of leaving Syria intact and will seek all means by which to prevail in toppling the government, carving up the country along sectarian lines, plunging it into perpetual violence as it has Libya, and moving next toward Iran. While it is essential to expose the truth behind Syria’s unrest, is also important to identify the corporate-financier interests driving this nefarious agenda and boycott them entirely while seeking out viable local solutions to support instead. If none exist, it is our duty to use our time, money, attention, and resources to create such alternatives instead of perpetuating the self-serving agenda unfolding before us.

Ultimately it is “we the people” paying into this current paradigm that allows it to continue moving forward, therefore it by necessity must be “we the people” who undermine and ultimately replace it.

Source: https://landdestroyer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/syrian-peace-deal-uns-cloak-to-natos.html

Tax squeeze for families set to come into effect

By ITN on 5th April, 2012

 

Up to a million families with children in the UK will lose £511 a year under a squeeze to the tax and benefit system, a think tank has revealed.
© Reuters/Toby Melville

© Reuters/Toby Melville

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said cuts of over £2 billion will come into effect over Easter, prompting anti-poverty campaigners to brand the start of the financial year “Bad Friday”.

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls dubbed the revelations a “tax credits bombshell” on Thursday, adding: “For all the Government’s talk about increasing the personal allowance, these independent figures show that while they may be giving with one hand they are taking much more away with the other.

“That is why families with children will be an average of £511 a year worse from tomorrow.”

Child Poverty Action Group chief executive Alison Garnham added: “Some of the poorest working families will lose thousands of pounds from their annual income, leaving them in a desperate struggle to pay for basics like groceries, clothes and household bills.”

Labour said Government numbers suggested over 850,000 families will lose their child tax credit, worth around £545 per year, from the start of the financial year.

Another 212,000 couples earning under £17,000 a year would lose working tax credit unless they were able to work for longer, Labour said.

Source: https://www.itn.co.uk/uk/42664/120405TAX

Bullying In The Workplace On The Rise

By on Monday 4 January 2010 23.23 GMT

• Cases have doubled in last six months, survey shows
• Lawyers say economic downturn is to blame

The recession has seen a big increase in bullying at work, the Guardian has learned. One in 10 employees experience workplace bullying and harassment, according to the conciliation service Acas, while a survey by the union Unison reports that more than one-third of workers said they were bullied in the past six months, double the number a decade ago.

“The fact that bullying has doubled in the past decade is shocking,” said Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison.

Fraser Younson, head of employment at the law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, said: “In the last year or so, as running businesses has become more difficult, the way managers interface with their staff has become more demanding. Managers are chasing things up, being more critical. If they are not trained to deal with increased levels of stress, then we are seeing them do this in a way that makes staff feel bullied.”

Samantha Mangwana, an employment solicitor at Russell Jones & Walker, said: “We are getting a very high level of cases. Most of the people who come to us with a problem at work talk about bullying. It frequently arises in people’s line-manager relationship.”

Employment lawyers say allegations of bullying have become a frequent feature of claims for unfair dismissal and discrimination.

Support groups are struggling to cope with the rise in cases, with one helpline recently forced to close.

“We have been overwhelmed by a huge rise in complaints over the last two years,” said Lyn Witheridge, who ran the Andrea Adams Trust bullying helpline until last year. “We had to close the charity and the helpline because we couldn’t cope with the number of calls – they more than doubled to 70 a day.

“The recession has become a playground for many bullies who know they can get away with it. Under pressure, budgets have got to be met. Managers are bullying people as a way of forcing them out and getting costs down.”

News of the increase comes amid a number of high-profile employment tribunal cases, including a News of the World sports reporter, Matt Driscoll, who was awarded almost £800,000 by an east London tribunal after he suffered “a consistent pattern of bullying behaviour” from staff, including Andy Coulson, now David Cameron’s head of communications.

Last month two yeomen were sacked from the Tower of London after an inquiry revealed a campaign of bullying against Moira Cameron, the first female yeoman warder in the tower’s 1,000-year history.

“We see some cases of bullying in discrimination where the employer invokes what we colloquially call the ‘bastard defence’,” said Mangwana. “Their defence is that they were a bastard to everyone, so it’s not discriminatory.”

Academics have long warned of the link between economic conditions and bullying, with studies in the 1980s and 1990s predicting that workplace competition and the threat of redundancy were most likely to cause an increase. The decline of trade unions and of collective action has also been cited as a factor.

Experts also believe that press coverage of bullying cases has raised awareness, encouraging more employees to take advantage of what has been described as an “explosion” of individual employment rights over recent years.

Although “bullying” is not a legal term, cases of bullying at work have arisen through employment law, health and safety and protection from harassment legislation. But news of the rise in bullying cases across different jurisdictions, which research suggests contributes to the 13.7m working days lost every year as a result of stress and depression, has prompted criticism that the government has failed to adequately address the problem.

“The increase in tribunal claims this year is part of a lurch towards the American culture of litigation, but that is not necessarily the answer,” said Witheridge. “More should be done to resolve bullying disputes without litigation, and for people to be treated with the dignity they deserve at work, while also being strongly managed.”

The government said it was working to tackle the problem. Lord Young, the employment relations minister, said: “Workplace harassment and violence is unacceptable and the government is committed to addressing these problems.”

Source: https://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/jan/04/bullying-workplace-recession

Ground-To-Air Missiles ‘May Protect’ London 2012 Games

By BBC News on 14 November 2011

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has told MPs that ground-to-air missiles will be deployed to protect the 2012 Olympic Games in London if deemed operationally necessary.

He was asked to confirm this by the former defence secretary Liam Fox.

It was Mr Hammond’s first appearance at Defence Questions since taking over from Mr Fox.

The US embassy in London has denied reports that it was unhappy with the UK’s security plans.

The Guardian claimed the US was furious about security plans and wanted to send up to 1,000 of its own people, including 500 FBI agents but the Home Office says it has “full confidence” in the plans.

‘All necessary measures’

Mr Hammond was asked by his predecessor to confirm whether there would be a “full range of multilayered defence and deterrents” in place for the 2012 Games including surface-to-air missiles.

He replied: “I can assure him that all necessary measures to ensure the security and safety of the London Olympic Games will be taken including - if the advice of the military is that it is required - appropriate ground-to-air defences.”

The BBC’s Political Correspondent Robin Brant said Mr Fox would almost certainly have been aware of the security plans for the event - so the exchange may have been designed to show how seriously the UK’s contingency planning was being taken.

The deployment of overseas security officers at the Olympics has become standard procedure in recent years but final responsibility for security rests with the host government.

National Olympic security co-ordinator Chris Allison said there would be a small number of “foreign security liaison officers” in London to act as a link between their national teams and UK police.

But he insisted their numbers would not be on the scale reported

“The Games will be delivered by the British police service, working with Games organisers Locog,” he told the BBC. “We will have support from other colleagues up and down the country but it is the British police service that will be doing it.”

The US was providing “great support”, Mr Allison added, and their officials did not “recognise” the concerns expressed in the newspaper.

The Guardian article says the London riots, the arrest of a security guard at the Olympic site and arrests before the visit of the Pope last year have raised US anxieties while the restriction of the scope of anti-terrorism stop-and-search powers was also claimed to have caused concerns.

‘Safe and secure’

In response, the Home Office said security planning was “on track” and funding had been protected.

“The government is committed to delivering a safe and secure Games that London, the UK and the world can enjoy,” a spokesman said.

Philip Hammond: “All necessary measures available… including ground-to-air defences”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which undertakes detailed inspections of security preparations, had “full confidence” in the UK’s plans, he added.

Responding to claims in the article, the games organisers Locog said precise numbers of security officers are only now being finalised because the venues themselves have only just been completed.

The US embassy said it had the “utmost confidence” in the British government’s arrangements to ensure safety and security for the Olympic Games.

In a letter to the Guardian newspaper charge d’affaires Barbara Stephenson said it was “normal and prudent for the US to engage in discussions”.

Earlier this year Mr Allison said 12,000 officers may be needed nationally to police the event and another 10,000-15,000 security officials could also be deployed by private security firm G4S.

The BBC’s security correspondent Gordon Corera said: “The US is understood to be taking a close interest in the plans and is intending to send over hundreds of personnel to protect its athletes.”

 

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15724639

London 2012: 13,500 Troops To Provide Olympic Security

By BBC News

Up to 13,500 military personnel will help to provide security at the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Ministry of Defence has announced.

The Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said security would remain police-led but the armed forces would make a “significant contribution”.

Some 5,000 troops will support the police, while up to 7,500 will provide venue security at peak times, he said.

Last week, ministers revised the Games security budget from £282m to £553m.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it now estimated 23,700 security staff would be required at Olympic and Paralympic venues next summer, more than double the original estimate of 10,000.

In a written ministerial statement, Mr Hammond said that the MoD would increase its normal support work to the civilian authorities - such as bomb disposal, building search teams and specialist sniffer dogs.

In addition to the 5,000 personnel allocated to that role, some 3,500 would provide venue security.

This figure would rise to 7,500 on peak days during the Olympic Games, he said.

Mr Hammond told the BBC that security during the Games was “the biggest military challenge this country has faced for decades”.

But he added that military deployment during Olympic Games was routine since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

 

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16195861

UK’s Unemployment Highest For 17 Years

By Skynews.com.au

https://www.skynews.com.au/businessnews/article.aspx?id=696765&vId=2920635

Britain’s unemployment has hit its highest level for 17 years, with women and young people bearing the brunt of the deepening jobs crisis in the wake of the government’s austerity measures and the economy’s general weakness.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday showed that 2.64 million people were unemployed in Britain at the end of October - that’s the highest level since 1994 and 128,000 more than in the previous quarter.

Following the increase, Britain’s unemployment rate is now 8.3 per cent, up 0.4 per cent on the quarter and at its highest level since 1996.

Unemployment among 16 to 24 year olds increased by 54,000 to 1.03 million - the highest level since records of youth employment started to be kept in 1992. And the number of women unemployed swelled by 45,000 to 1.1 million, the highest since 1988.

The British government has been heavily criticised for cutting programs that help young people break into the job market, and opposition leader Ed Miliband has said in the past that the country faces having a ‘lost generation’ of people who find it impossible to get work.

Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs the government was trying to reduce joblessness.

‘Any increase in unemployment is bad news and a tragedy for those involved,’ he said. ‘We will do all we can to help people back in to work.’

The statistics office also revealed that public sector employment had also fallen by 67,000 to just below six million - the first time the level has been that low since 2003.

Cutting costs in the public sector has been a key part of the British government’s strategy to reduce the country’s debt. It has clashed with public sector unions over its austerity measures, with unions saying the cuts are unfair and hit poorly paid workers the hardest.

Dave Prentis, leader of the public sector union Unison, said the latest unemployment figures showed the government strategy is failing.

‘The government continues to ignore the human cost and push ahead with its hard and fast cuts, clinging to the hope that a struggling private sector can pick up the pieces,’ he said. ‘These figures deliver a cold hard dose of reality. It is shameful to see that yet again women, who make up the majority of low-paid public sector workers, are the hardest hit by job losses.’

The government had hoped that the private sector would create jobs to compensate for those lost in the public sector but the ongoing economic crisis has meant that a number of companies are struggling to stay afloat.

Tour operator Thomas Cook added to the bad news with an announcement on Wednesday that it will close 200 stores and cut more than 660 jobs in Britain as families with young children decide to stay home instead of holidaying at its all inclusive beach resorts.

Thomas Cook also reported its final year results on Wednesday, after postponing their release as it sought new agreements with its creditors. It said its operating profit fell 16 per cent to STG303.6 million ($A472.7 million).

 

Source: https://www.skynews.com.au/businessnews/article.aspx?id=696765&vId=2920635

Government Turns Its Back on Science

By League Against Cruel Sports

Animal welfare charity disgusted by costs to police badger cull

PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE PETITION AGAINST BADGER CULLING: https://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/badgers-petition

A leading UK wildlife charity has expressed dismay at the government’s decision to give the go ahead for a badger cull. Following today’s announcement badgers will be culled under license in parts of south west England as part of trials to prevent the spread of bovine TB. The cull will be paid for by farmers and allows for the shooting of badgers which could result in serious welfare problems.

It is estimated the cost of policing the trials will amount to a staggering £80 million which the League Against Cruel Sports describes as “a complete waste of money”. The charity’s chief executive Joe Duckworth said: “This is a truly exceptional way to waste vast amounts of public money in policing badger culling trials which will be totally ineffective.” Mr Duckworth called today’s announcement “cowardly and misguided” and said: “The government has failed to act appropriately on this issue and in doing so has ignored the science, public opinion and past mistakes. This is a cowardly decision taken to appease the few who shout the loudest but sadly it will do very little to address the real problem.”

The League believes the government should be using every available resource to produce fully functional vaccines for both badgers and cattle as a long term, effective solution. Evidence clearly shows that culling is not an adequate measure in preventing the spread of bovine TB.

Mr Duckworth added: “This will prove a devastating blow for the farming community who desperately need practical help to deal with the effects of bovine TB. Unfortunately the government has given them false hope, which will prove to be extremely costly not only for farmers but also police forces and Britain’s wildlife.

Polling by YouGov for the League found that only 16% of people believe there should be a cull, whereas 67% - more then four times as many – believe that badgers should be vaccinated instead.

Addendum

Notes to Editors

1. The Randomised Badger Culling Trial concluded that culling intensively would only reduce TB levels in cattle by between 12% to 16% and could increase the incidence of cattle TB by up to 25% in surrounding areas.

2. YouGov polled 2,064 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 17th - 18th May 2011. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+). The polling was commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports and is attached.

 

Source: https://www.league.org.uk/news/1034/Badger-cull

‘Trouble-Shooters’ To Tackle Problem Families

By Sky News

Plans to set up a national network of “trouble-shooters” to tackle the country’s 120,000 most troubled families are set to be announced.

The Prime Minister will set out proposals to reform the systems that mean a “string of well-meaning, disconnected officials” treat the “symptoms and not the causes” in difficult households.

Speaking to representatives from charities and voluntary organisations, David Cameron will explain how he plans to create a stronger society.

Under the plans the trouble-shooters, who will be appointed by local councils, will be responsible for ensuring action is taken in their area to make sure families get the help and support they need.

Mr Cameron will say: “We need to provide leadership at the top, action in local authorities and results on the ground.

“We’re not prescribing a single response. But we are demanding results from councils in return for support.

“For many of the most troubled families, there will be a family worker - a single point of contact for the first time for particular families, working out what the family needs, where the waste is and lining up the right services at the right time.

“When the front door opens and the worker goes in, they will see the family as a whole and get a plan of action together, agreed with the family.

“This will often be basic, practical things that are the building blocks of an orderly home and a responsible life.

“These things don’t always cost a lot but they make all the difference. And they will get on top of the services, sorting out - and sometimes fending off - the 28 or more different state services that come calling at the door.

“Not a string of well-meaning, disconnected officials who end up treating the symptoms and not the causes.”

Mr Cameron said last December that he wanted to “turn round every troubled family in the country” by the end of the current parliament and in October appointed Louise Casey as the head of a new Troubled Families Team.

Downing Street said troubled families cost the taxpayer an estimated £9bn a year, equivalent to £75,000 per family.

Mr Cameron will say a targeted approach can “work wonders” with families.

 

Source: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/trouble-shooters-tackle-problem-families-021739093.html