News Shorts and Other Busyness

Briefs

Squall 12, Spring 1996, pgs 9, 13, 14.

All 'Briefs' articles from Squall 12 aggregated in one page...

State Pension Euthanasia

The Government has launched a £750,000 television advertisement telling young people that they should not expect much to be left of state pension schemes by the time they retire.

The advert is designed as an encouragement for young people to get involved in private pension plans, thus facilitating the dismantling state pensions altogether. Those who cannot afford such private pension plans will, as they say, have to suffer. The advert is currently running on Central TV and, if considered successful, may go national.

MP Pay Rise

Two hundred and thirty MPs have signed a cross party motion asking for more pay. Apparently £33,000 a year, plus expenses, perks and outside consultancy jobs is not enough to live on. Poor dears.

MPs in favour of the pay rise claim that suitable candidates will be deterred from standing for parliament on financial grounds. We here at SQUALL are not the only ones to consider that anyone standing for parliament for financial reasons should not be considered a “suitable candidate” in the first place.

Police Ignore Racial Attacks

Police brutality in Britain is a “serious human rights concern” according to an organisation based in New York.

Human Rights Watch said it had found “numerous incidents of police brutality” in Britain together with an unwillingness to tackle racial violence.

The organisation - which is influential in America - states that racial violence has increased by 200 per cent since 1989, but “victims and community groups reported that police were unable or unwilling to respond” to racial incidents.

'Mad Judge Disease'

Rising crime levels were blamed on “liberal, socialist minded judges and magistrates” by a Tory MP who called for the return of national service and the birch.

David Evans, MP for Welwyn and Hatfield, complained about “mad judge disease” during a crime debate in December.

Cathode Ray Nipple

Children’s speech is being damaged by too much television, a leading speech therapist has claimed.

Dr Sally Ward, the country’s leading authority on speech development, found after a ten year study that television was a very important factor in delaying a child’s speech development.

Ms Ward says that while children watch television their parent or guardian are not talking to them, and they do not understand the noise coming from the TV.

Britain's No Confidence In Politics

Britons are apathetic about party politics, according to an annual survey of British Social Attitudes published last year.

The survey says that less than a quarter of voters believe any party in government puts the national interest above its own.

You Can't Eat The Lottery

An estimated £2.5 billion will be spent on the national lottery this year, according to a report published in December.

The report, published by the Henley Centre, a research organisation, predicts that increased spending on the lottery will mean less spending on food and entertainment to the tune of £655 million.

Stuck In The Red

A record number of home-owners are languishing in negative equity, according to a Nationwide Building Society report published in January this year.

Up to 1.7 million people, representing one in four homeowners, now have a property that, contrary to their expectations, is worth less than they bought it for. Such a situation potentially chains them to an increasing mortgage debt, with accruing interest greater than their regular instalments or ability to pay. Some therefore face an increasing debt they are unlikely to pay off for the rest of their lives. The Council of Mortgage Lenders says that the number of houses repossessed each year in the UK currently stands at 50,000.

Safe Seat Scramble

Transport Secretary Sir George Young has been given the safe seat of Hampshire North West - through which passeth the Newbury bypass - to fight, two days after giving the road scheme the go-ahead.

Sir George, one of many Tories scrabbling for safe seats in view of impending electoral defeat, has deserted his current marginal seat of East Acton.

The Newbury bypass, eight and a half miles of which will run through his new constituency, was the only major road scheme to be given the go-ahead for 1996/7.

Nuclear Programme Abandoned

Plans to build new nuclear power plants have been abandoned, signalling the end of the British nuclear power industry.

British Energy, soon to be privatised, made the decision in December not to go ahead with Sizewell C in Suffolk or Hinkley C in Somerset because the new stations would not be commercially viable.