A goofy Aussie news anchor did not find eternal satisfaction when his lame pizza joke fell very flatbread with a confused Dalai Lama. First off, the Holy One does not apparently even know what the word pizza means, which is a big indication of the way the joke is about…
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Two of Britain’s biggest teaching unions overwhelmingly support strike action over changes to pensions, in a dispute expected to close schools this term Two of Britain’s biggest teaching unions have voted in favour of a strike over changes to pensions, in the first sign of collective opposition to the coalition’s austerity programme. The ballot in favour of a strike by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) is expected to close schools across England and Wales this term, affecting millions of children. The civil service union the PCS publishes the result of its own strike ballot on Wednesday. In the NUT’s ballot, 92% voted in favour of strike action, with a turnout of 40%. The ATL result was 83% in favour of a strike on a 35% turnout. The strike will affect both state and private schools. Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT, the largest teachers’ union, said: “The government’s unnecessary attack on public sector pensions has convinced NUT members that there is no alternative but to support strike action. “It is disgraceful that the government is pressing ahead with its reforms, which will affect teachers’ pensions. The government knows that they are affordable. This is a policy which has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with politics.” The strike is expected to take place on 30 June. A spokesman for the Department for Education said the government expects to see heads working to keep schools open. The general secretary of the ATL, Mary Bousted, said: “For the average member [the changes] will be £1,500 a year in increased pension contributions. At a time of a two-year pay freeze, its a 3% cut, which has nothing to do with the health of the scheme. It’s a tax on pensions to pay for the deficit.” ATL, seen as the most moderate teaching union, has never taken national strike action before. The pension reforms, put forward in a government-commissioned report by former Labour minister Lord Hutton, include raising the retirement age for state employees from 60 to 66 by 2020. Final-salary schemes will be scrapped and replaced by career averages, while ministers will get more powers to raise employee contributions. The government says the cost of paying for teachers’ pensions is forecast to rise from around £5bn in 2005 to almost £10bn by 2015 as more staff retire and life expectancy increases. The schools minister, Nick Gibb, was heckled and jeered by teachers as he attempted to justify proposed changes to their pensions, at the ATL’s annual conference in Liverpool in April. When Gibb told delegates: “I fully understand the strength of feeling on this” and said teachers’ pensions remained a priority, he was greeted by shouts of “no, you don’t” and “rubbish” – along with calls for evidence of the need for change. Other unions have warned of possible industrial action later in the year unless negotiations over public sector pensions can lead to a deal. The GMB has said it is prepared to ballot its members, including those in local government, if the deadlock is not broken. Last year, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, urged the government to introduce legislation preventing industrial action unless at least 50% of union members in a workplace take part in a ballot. Teaching Schools Cuts and closures Trade unions Public sector pensions Public sector cuts Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …It’s time for Moammar Gadhafi’s remaining African allies to defriend the dictator, Hillary Clinton told African leaders yesterday. Clinton, the first American secretary of state to address the African Union, warned the 53-member organization that without reforms, other African leaders could fall to uprisings like the ones sweeping the Arab…
Continue reading …Get a grip, fellas. Obviously, many of you have runaway hormone issues that make it impossible for you to behave responsibly in public office. Yet popular culture has always insisted that “women can’t be be trusted in positions of power because their judgment might be addled by raging hormones,” writes…
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• Daily postbag has fallen to 62m from 80m five years ago • Average person spends just £18 a year on postage The Royal Mail signalled fresh job losses on Tuesday after reporting a £120m loss in its letters and parcels business following a huge slump in the number of people sending post. The daily postbag has fallen from 80m items five years ago to 62m, a decline of 20%, with further reductions of 5% a year predicted. Chief executive Moya Greene said the average person was spending just £18 a year on postage, highlighting the rise in texts, which now make up 50% of personal messaging, and emails. Around 65,000 full and part-time workers have left the business since 2002, including 5,500 in the past year, while 12 mail centres have closed and a further 16 are set to shut. The letters and parcels business is now losing £2m a week, with losses for the 2010/11 financial year totalling £120m – the worst for seven years – compared with a £20m profit in the previous year. The Royal Mail Group made an operating profit of £39m, down from £180m, with profits at the Post Office arm of the business declining from £33m to £21m as a result of lower revenues. The General Logistic Systems business, which delivers parcels across Europe, saw its profits rise by 5.3% to £118m in the last year. Greene said the Royal Mail was in the middle of “very important” change, predicting further mail centre closures and job losses because of the decline in its business. “With the decline in our volumes, we are going to be a smaller company in the future than we are today,” she said, although she declined to put a figure on how many postal workers will be made redundant. “The next two years will be challenging. We need to reduce our costs faster than the decline in revenues from our core letter business, “The pace of change in our mail centres will continue. We expect that around half of the mail centres could close by 2016/17.” There are currently 59 mail centres, with two set to close in London, which has sparked the threat of a strike by members of the Communication Workers Union. Greene launched a new attack on the regulatory regime the Royal Mail has to operate under, saying the organisation lost 2.5p on every letter it delivered for a competitor, totalling £160m of losses in the past year alone. The regulatory regime was a “stranglehold” on the business, said Greene, calling for a less “punitive” system to be introduced by the government. Royal Mail also revealed that its pension deficit had fallen from £8bn to £4.5bn following the government decision to change the inflation measure from RPI to CPI, as well as an increase in asset values. But the organisation said its pension deficit was a “disproportionate burden”, with cash payments of £771m made last year. Around £400m has been invested in modernisation, while the jobs of more than 100,000 workers were changing, said Greene. “We have to develop new products and services to meet the needs of our customers and generate additional revenues to offset the decline in earnings from our letters business.” Greene said progress had to be made in areas including lifting the “crushing” pensions liability and changing the regulatory regime before the Royal Mail is privatised. The postal services bill has been passed, but the privatisation is not expected before next year. Greene said she had always maintained the Royal Mail was going to be smaller, but it would be “disrespectful” to put a figure on how many jobs could be lost, adding: “It is very sad to say that, but it is necessary for a high quality service to be sustained.” Previous cuts were achieved through voluntary redundancy and Greene said she hoped that would continue. “I have seen nothing that will shake my belief that we will be able to manage this on a voluntary basis. “We are not seeing any reduction in the willingness to take up voluntary redundancy.” Greene, who moved from Canada to take over from previous chief executive Adam Crozier almost a year ago, said Royal Mail had been forced to transfer £1bn of revenue to its competitors because of the regulatory regime. Job losses Royal Mail Postal service guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …“Paula Brooks,” the outspoken editor of lesbian news site Lez Get Real, has revealed that he is actually a 58-year-old straight man. Questions about Brooks’ identity began to surface over the weekend because of the site’s links to blogger “Gay Girl in Damascus,” who turned out to be an American…
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Juror contacted acquitted defendant online during multimillion-pound drugs trial, causing it to collapse A juror and acquitted defendant who made contact through Facebook during a multimillion-pound drugs trial, causing it to collapse, have been found guilty in what is believed to be the UK’s first prosecution for contempt of court involving the internet. Joanna Fraill, 40, admitted contacting the defendant via Facebook. The former foster parent, who was at the high court in London for the hearing, is facing up to two years in prison over the breach. The acquitted defendant, Jamie Sewart, denied contempt of court, but the case against her was found proved. The case was heard by the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, sitting with Mr Justice Ouseley and Mr Justice Holroyde, who said they would announce Fraill and Sewart’s sentences at a later date. Fraill admitted emailing Sewart, 34, while the jury was still deliberating in the drugs trail in August last year because she felt “empathetic” and saw “considerable parallels” between their lives. Sewart, who was acquitted at the trial in Manchester, admitted knowing that Fraill was a juror in the trial when she added her as a Facebook friend during jury deliberations. Sewart asked her in a Facebook chat on 3 August “what’s happenin with the other charge??”, to which Fraill responded by asking her to clarify her question. Fraill then wrote: “cant get anyone to go either no one budging pleeeeeese don’t say anything cause jamie they could all miss trial and I will get 4cked to0.” The solicitor general, Edward Garnier QC, acting on behalf of the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, accused Fraill and Sewart of acting in “plain contempt of court”. Fraill, a mother of three, sobbed and rocked back and forth as details of her Facebook conversation and internet research were read out in the high court. Peter Wright QC, acting on behalf of Fraill, denied his client acted out of a “cavalier disregard” for the judicial process and told the court how the breach had left her “depressed, isolated and in utter despair”. Wright said Fraill was “distraught and inconsolable” at what had happened and “terrified” at the prospect of imprisonment. A psychiatric report on Fraill, whose husband was also in court, reveals a “most unhappy adolescence, a troubled adult life” and “domestic misfortune on a very considerable scale”, Wright said. One of the defendants convicted in the original drugs trial, Gary Knox, is applying for his conviction to be overturned on the basis of alleged jury misconduct. Knox, the 35-year-old partner of Sewart, was jailed for six years after being found guilty of paying a police officer to disclose information on drug dealers. Crime Facebook Internet Digital media Media law Social networking Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
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PM endorses main recommendations of independent review into proposals to reform NHS but denies changes amount to U-turn Get all the latest reaction on the NHS reforms live blog David Cameron admitted that he had made mistakes on the NHS as he agreed to make “substantive” changes to the health and social care bill after endorsing the main recommendations of an independent panel of experts. Speaking at Guy’s Hospital in London alongside the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, and the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, the prime minister attempted to show his commitment to the NHS by paying tribute to staff at the nearly Evelina Children’s Hospital who cared for his late son, Ivan. Cameron, who paused the health and social care bill in April amid Liberal Democrat concerns and Tory fears that it was jeopardising his work in neutralising the NHS as an issue, reeled off a series of changes. Speaking in front of NHS staff on the top floor of the hospital, Cameron said: • The bill will be amended to make clear that the primary duty of Monitor, the health service regulator, is not to promote competition. It will only do that if it helps patients. Cameron said: “You wanted us to make clear that competition isn’t there for its own sake, but to make life better for patients – done.” • The membership of the new GP-led consortiums, designed to take control of around 65% of the NHS budget, will be opened up. “You wanted us to get specialists, not just GPs, on commissioning groups – done,” Cameron said. “You wanted us to join up the different parts of the NHS, to put integration right at the heart of our reforms – done. “We have listened, we have learned, and we are improving our plans for the NHS. We come here today with a substantive package of changes.” Among other changes: • Clegg announced that the proposal to allow “any qualified provider” to deliver NHS services will be introduced at a slower pace. • The Department of Health confirmed that one of the key Lib Dem demands, that Lansley’s original 2013 deadline should be relaxed, had been met. The department said: “We will allow clinical commissioning groups to take charge of commissioning when they are ready and able.” The department also confirmed that the “relevant parts” of the health and social care bill will be sent back for consideration at the Commons committee stage. The main challenge facing Cameron now will be to win over Tory backbenchers who are angry at the treatment of Lansley. They believe the health secretary has been the subject of unfair briefings after he implemented a white paper on health agreed by the prime minister and his deputy last year. Tory backbenchers are particularly alarmed by the relaxing of the 2013 deadline and the watering down of Monitor’s role in promoting competition. But backbenchers are being won over by Lansley, who told them at a private meeting last week that the main principles of his reforms remain in place. These are giving greater commissioning powers to GPs and allowing greater competition in the NHS. Cameron denied that the changes amounted to a U-turn or to doing nothing. He said: “Now there were those who said this was a humiliating U-turn, that we were backtracking and ditching all our plans. “And there were those who said the opposite – that actually we weren’t going to change anything, that this was all a big PR stunt. “Today, we show that both are wrong. The fundamentals of our plans – more control to patients, more power to doctors and nurses, less bureaucracy in the NHS – are as strong today as they’ve ever been. “But the shape of our plans, the detail of how we’re going to make all this work, that really has changed, as a direct result of this consultation.” The prime minister insisted it was essential to reform the NHS as it copes with an ageing population and a tight fiscal climate. “Fail to reform now and we could see a bigger and bigger black hole opening up in the budget,” he said. “Fail to confront this and the founding principle of the NHS – healthcare available to everyone who needs it, free at the point of use – would be in danger. I refuse to let that happen. “Because of what we’re doing today, the NHS will continue to thrive tomorrow, it will continue to be free at the point of use, based on need and not ability to pay, and our children and grandchildren will be able to rely on it, just as we have done.” Clegg said: “Patients, doctors and nurses have spoken. We have listened. Now we are improving our plans for the NHS. Yes to patient choice. No to privatisation. Yes to giving nurses, hospital doctors and family doctors more say in your care. No to the free market dogma that can fragment the NHS. The right reforms at the right pace. Evolution, not revolution.” Lansley said: “The independent NHS Future Forum has made a number of recommendations, and we are accepting them. This has been a genuine exercise and it is clear from our response today that substantial changes have been made in the interests of patients.” Diane Abbott, the shadow health minister, said: “This is a short-term political fix that is bound to unravel. “We still have a NHS plan which no one voted for, which some of the leading health experts in the country do not understand, and will still cost billions of pounds. It is incredible that David Cameron and Nick Clegg are trying to spin their NHS car crash as some kind of triumph.” NHS Health Health policy Public services policy David Cameron Nick Clegg Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Don’t bogart those profits. That’s what Scotts Miracle-Gro execs are thinking now that they’re zeroing in on the medical marijuana market. They have high hopes pot could boost sales, like majorly, dude. “I want to target the pot market,” CEO Jim Hagedorn tells the Wall Street Journal . “There’s no good…
Continue reading …A knife-wielding, overweight sex offender dropped dead while raping a 77-year-old Texan woman. Isabel Chavelo Gutierrez broke off his attack to complain he wasn’t feeling well—then keeled over. The victim ran from the house, and by the time police arrived, Gutierrez, 53, was dead. Investigators believe he died of…
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