Government Watch

This is very important.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/02/22/the-government-has-announced-the-outlawing-of-intellectual-opposition/

It is happening while everyone's attention is being diverted by the EU vote.
Anyone paid by public funding is not allowed to speak out against laws and regulations.

Does that include opposition MPs and Lords?

i2.wp.com/voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/160221onenationcameron.png?resize=529%2C268

But the electoral commission is supposed to be impartial. They are now saying that the police could look into it. They decided not to investigate further, and would now have to apply for a time extension.

Here's another government watch problem.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35432341

The engines on the new destroyers keep breaking down and will need a refit.
However, they are now out of guarantee and the taxpayer will have to foot the bill. It was known about over three years ago and if sorted then, would have been under guarantee.
These are US engines. Gives me even less faith in Trident.

Hope we are watching the government well enough for you, whitewave.
Same old poo, as you said.

The Tory party refused to investigated when it was first reported,

Does this count as Government Watch?

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/feb/18/coservative-party-under-investigation-over-south-thanet-campaign

Why has it taken the electoral commission so long?

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/121704

A petition on the government website to stop the government implementing the ban.

"For many, boycotts are a matter of integrity. The NHS hasn’t invested in tobacco companies for over a decade. Many universities are currently divesting from fossil fuel companies, and anti-apartheid hero Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for people "to break their ties with corporations financing the injustice of climate change. We can, for instance, boycott events, sports teams and media programming sponsored by fossil-fuel energy companies."

Under the government’s plan, publicly-funded institutions could face “severe penalties” if they refuse to buy goods and services from companies involved in the arms trade, fossil fuels, tobacco products, or illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. This legislation would deny us a valued democratic tool, regardless of our stance on individual boycott campaigns.

Let’s stand up for our rights, before they disappear. Add your name, then get your friends to join as well, to make the petition massive before we submit it to the official consultation this Friday:

secure.avaaz.org/en/uk_banning_boycott_22/?tkHcnjb

Our community has defended freedom of expression all over the world, from the rights of Mexican journalists to Wikileaks whistleblowers. Now, the right to boycott is being threatened in the UK, trampling all over our democratic principles. Let’s come together once again and stand up against this dangerous piece of legislation."

This is from the Avaaz email.
Apparently the government says it wants to consult on it, but the consultation ends tomorrow.
Please sign up to it.

secure.avaaz.org/en/uk_banning_boycott_22/?ckHcnjb

This is a petition on Avaaz to stop the government implementing this ban.
It's not just about charities. It's even to stop local authorities choosing where to put their pension funds, etc.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/matthew-hancock-tory-mp-accepted-4000-donation-from-think-tank-before-announcing-charity-lobbying-a6880071.html

The government has put through a new law to stop charities from lobbying ministers, etc., using public money.
However, the company that did the research gave him £4000 before the law was announced.
Typical double standards from the government.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/12/the-guardian-view-on-changing-constituency-boundaries-unfair-and-undemocratic

Why did the government have an all party commission looking into boundary changes, then say tough luck, we're not taking any notice of you?

The government says it will go ahead with what it wanted in the first place to save money. Surely a commission costs money.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/court-closures-welfare-cuts-health-7356517

voxpoliticalonline.com/2016/02/12/five-pieces-of-bad-news-the-tories-tried-to-bury/%22http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/court-closures-welfare-cuts-health-7356517

Boundary changes - the government has ignored its own review.
Universal credit roll-out to be speeded up from now on, to get over Osborne's failure to get tax cuts through.
86 more courts to be closed.
Public health cuts, announced by Jeremy Hunt.
Short money for other parties - consultation to start while MPs on holiday.

www.theguardian.com/law/2016/feb/11/no-10-legal-challenge-ministerial-code-rewrite-international-law

The government is going to be legally challenged for omitting a clause in the ministerial code. It missed out the fact that it had to comply with international law.

I will sign that

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/120753

A petition to ask the government to work on Saturdays as a normal working day.

It worked, then.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/feb/09/cameron-buying-off-tory-mps-theatening-to-rebel-over-council-cuts

Oxfordshire is going to get an extra £9 million. That should please his mum and his aunt.

His aunt has now joined his mum!

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-camerons-mum-joins-fight-7334739

Brilliant, this. Cameron's mum has asked the Tories to stop their cuts to children's services. Sunday lunch will be great at their house next weekend.

www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2016/02/02/gove-has-basically-admitted-the-attack-on-human-rights-is-de

Another u-turn by Gove. Why was he ever put in charge of education?
He's much better at this job; for the UK, I mean, not the Tories.

Is it me or are we seeing a gradual manipulation of our democratic processes?

In a truely democratic structure, there would be no such thing as a Safe Parliamenary seat. Our present electoral systen is outdated and very undemocratic. Any second chamber needs to be elected and act as a scrutiny with less political party whips involvement

Every vote needs to be of equal weight in a fairer voting system, patronage would be earned not bought.

The opening up of local government with less central government control. Backed up by a legal established consultations processes, & a greater number of carefully defined local referendums backed up in law, with less interference from the establishment, are needed.

Does it matter which gas it is?

If there is more of one gas than another in the air we breathe there is less of the gases we need. That's what pollution is all about, surely.

You will find that my post agrees with yours, eloethan. Of course pollution causes health problems. What is less clear is the exact role of NO2 so I think it was disingenuous of the Telegraph article to imply that NO2 pollution directly causes thousands of deaths. I don't think it does. I think it exacerbates already existing health problems, which is not the same thing at all.

That opinion could, of course, be wrong, but that was my understanding from what I read of the Kings College study I looked at.

I have had it then. Where I shop the road has officially the most polluted air in Scotland.

thatbags There have been many pieces of research to establish whether high pollution levels affect health. I believe the Telegraph was, as you say, looking at various pieces of research from King's College Hospital. But there have been many other pieces of research which, I believe, have all found varying degrees and types of effects of pollution, and the following links are to articles in NHS Choices, providing references to some of the research carried out. It is acknowledged that such research cannot reach definitive conclusions but can give very strong indications of causal links - and I believe the majority of scientists and medical experts accept that air pollution has an effect on health.

www.nhs.uk/news/2015/03March/Pages/Study-finds-link-between-air-pollution-and-stroke-risk.aspx

www.nhs.uk/news/2013/07July/Pages/Air-pollution-linked-to-lung-cancer-and-heart-failure.aspx

The Telegraph article might have been "using" the results of a 2015 study done at Kings College, London. It is quite long and complicated (and beyond me!). However, I did notice this sentence: "The NO2 results need to be interpreted cautiously".

Also, it talks about the "mortality burden" rather than actual deaths directly caused by...

I think I'll leave it at that except to say that I'm sure Nitrogen dioxide pollution is a problem but I'm not sure it's as bad as the Telegraph article seems to be suggesting.