How Sez Sees It

It has emerged that Andy Coulson was paid a six figure pay out by News International when he left and this was paid in instalments while he was being paid by the Tories.  Not only this, but he had a company car from them and access to their health care.  It also transpires that he was having his legal fees paid by NI until last year when he left the Tories. This is all a conflict of interest and apparently may count as an unregistered contribution to the Conservatives.  The sort of information he would have been privvy too raises a huge amount of questions as to whether or not Coulson was passing on information.  How this could not have flagged up is beyond me and probably any other right thinking person. The Tories claim that they did not know that Coulson was receiving any payments from NI while working for them.  Can they be serious?  Why were no checks done on this?  Coulson caused controversy from the moment he was employed by the Tories.  It is clear there could have been iss

When I left college six years ago I was excited to be going off to university.  The university I was going to was brilliant and building a good reputation after becoming a stand alone uni from somewhere else.  There were pleanty of places at the uni and I know that many people were able to get in as an insurance choice or clearing.  This week, that same university is having to turn away even some insurance places and there is no chance of it going into clearing. Yes the reputation of this particular uni is even better now than it was before, but the reason this uni and so many like it are inundated with applicants this year is because more people are determined to attend before the fees go up in 2012.  This is the main issue, but the figures are just crazy. Currently there are 189,992 A-Level students eligible for 29,409 vacancies.  There is no chance that the majority of these people will be able to get into uni this year and they may be put off by higher fees next year.  On top o

George (who from now on will be called Gideon...look it up) Osborne is apparently surprised that the economy has stalled.  He is surprised that there are thousands more unemployed than before.  Why? There is a problem that public services are being cut and therefore people are losing their jobs.  These people are all becoming redundant and this is contributing to unemployment figures.  Then there are the private sector jobs that have all been lost, these people also cotribute to the unemployment figures.  The public sector workers were supposed to take all the private sector surplus jobs, but there are not even jobs for the people even in the private sector.  Then there is the case that there are people like my boyfriend who graduated a couple of years ago, but have so far only been able to get part time work, so they are not earning full time. Gideon's other big plan was to raise VAT.  This I still do not understand.  If you want to ensure growth in the economy then you need t

Over the weekend David Starkey was quoted as saying that the riots were a part of  'black culture'.  What on earth does that even mean?  He claimed that white teenagers had adopted the black, Caribbean patois and as a result had effectively lessened their chances in life.  He was also banging on about Enoch Powell being right when he originally said immigration would lead to 'rivers of blood'.  I can't even begin to establish how much this angered me.  I mean honestly.  There were a mixture of factors that led to the rioting.  It included; lack of trust in the police, poor education, poor parenting (in a minority of cases) and general opportunism!  It certainly did not seem to me that it was a result of 'black culture'.  In fact you cannot say that when almost all the people I have seen leaving court have been from white households and the ones who have spoken have not done so in that fake Caribbean way.  There have been millionaires and teaching assistant

I do not claim to be an economist, but I do take an interest in what is going on around me in terms of the recent economic news.  (Disclaimer is done...) On with the opinion.  Well not so much the opinion rather an open questions to others.  Now you can correct me if I am wrong, but am I right in remembering that it was predicted around 10-15 years ago that the Western World would cease to be the super powers in terms of the economy?  I know there is an exception in the fact that Germany appears to be doing rather well, all things considered, but the rest of Europe and the USA appears to have gone down that route.  It is a strange thing, but I only remembered this first thing this morning.  I know that even China has had its wobbles and so have other parts of Asia, but India and China appear to be doing rather well by comparison.  This was all predicted, along with a potential crash so long ago.  Why then are we so surprised by this?

There have now been three, consecutive nights of rioting in London and it appears to be spreading as Birmingham got in on the act.  This all kicked off last Thursday when a 29 year old man was shot by Police officers for alledgedly shooting and wounding an officer.  The man apparently received medical attention but died at the scene.  On Satuday many people in the area of Tottenham staged a peaceful protest but as tempers flared in the heat of the day the night turned into one of utter destruction and violence. Since then people have been made homeless and have had their businesses destroyed for good as rioters have burnt large sections of London to the ground including; Eling, Clapham, Croydon, Tottenham and Lewisham.  The people claim to be angry and looking for answers. How they will find answers from burning and looting is beyond the average person in Britain.  The looting in Birmingham seems to be opportunistic, a case of, well if London can do it...of course what these people

Sorry should that be the 'wealth creators'?  George Osborne has decided that it would be a great idea to cut the 50p rate of income tax.  Basically this means a tax cut, but only for the very rich. Osborne is resorting to 'plan b' here as he claims that the 50p rate has not generated anywhere near the amount of income that it should have.  This is causing some disagreement with their Lib Dem allies who think it should remain.  Here is your chance Clegg and Cable to stand up and be counted and go against Osborne.  Go on, you know you want to...(what are the chances do you think?). These plans could not have come at a worse time.  With literally thousands of public sector workers about to loose thier jobs a tax break for the very rich seems like even more of a kick in the pants.  Osborne has no real idea what he is doing and there is no guarantee that this new plan will work either.  I think the first thing that needs to be looked at is VAT.  I don't understand th

My Dad sent me this and I just had to share: SOCIALISM You have 2 cows. You give one to your neighbour. COMMUNISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk. FASCISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk. NAZISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and shoots you. BUREAUCRATISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away... TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income SURREALISM You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons AN AMERICAN CORPORATION You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead. ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/02/ed-miliband-plan-curb-unions Kind of think that the point has been missed a little here by a lot of people in the comments.  Not sure they either read the piece or really understood it. I am both a union member and a Labour Party member.  I have to confess that I did vote for Ed to become leader, that is because I believed then (and still believe now) that he is the best man for the job [cue other troll posters who want to babble on about how I am deluded, etc...there beat them to it, sticks and stones...] The point is that the party does need to be reformed and it does need to be taken away from the Blair/Brown era style that it got itself into.  The people obviously got fed up with that.  Miliband is not saying that he is cutting all ties with the unions, he is saying that they need to take responsibility, like politicians, for their actions and need to be held accountable.  He is not saying that he is going to fight the unions, onl