Government watch [as suggested by The Last Leg]

twitter.com/SLNicoll/status/1213615606072823813?s=20

Every city in the country needs one of these

Street Raves

twitter.com/SLNicoll/status/1213621414823157760?s=20

I agree it seems very penny pinching for the government not to revoke the 2007 Act for existing claimants. As you say, the numbers will decline naturally over the next few years.

I guess the issue is that many of the people involved will be women who have had their pensions delayed. There are millions of other women in that age bracket who have had their own pensions delayed, but don't have an older spouse.

The women (mainly) involved would have been under 52 when the announcement was made and could have found paid work, unless they were carers, in which case presumably they're still eligible for carers' allowance.

But I have read (and I can't remember where) that in the 2007 Act, while stopping the allowance for new claimants. it was to be allowed to decline 'naturally', i.e when those currently in receipt of it died.

Thanks for pointing that out, growstuff.

To be fair Labaik that was in the 2007 Pensions Act and has never been revoked. Those involved have had 13 years notice.

It seems to me that these people now have carte blanche to do whatever they like. We will not get to know the half of it. We seem to be reliant on a lame duck, divided opposition and a satirical tv show to hold HMG to account.

We know not where it will end.

Some £33million is being taken away from people's pensions as the Government ends the allowance for adult dependents.
Designed to help people with someone else relying on them, the benefit is worth £70 a week, but will stop being paid in April.
Steve Webb, Royal London policy director, said: "Under the old state pension system, people claiming a retirement pension could get a significant extra amount for a spouse who was financially dependent upon them."
Royal London launched a Freedom of Information request to find out just how many people would lose out - discovering 11,000 pensioners are still in receipt of the cash.

www.markpack.org.uk/160706/ed-davey-weve-always-been-a-party-determined-to-shake-up-the-system/

Lib Dems to call for government accountability on Brexit in amendment to Withdrawal Agreement Bill

inews.co.uk/news/politics/brexit/liberal-democrats-government-accountability-brexit-latest-boris-johnson-1354194

And the new Governor of the Bank of England seems to be a brexiteer who isn't necessarily the best person for the job, having made a few bloomers along the way...

Labaik's above post is very chilling and demonstrates the degree to which the rich and powerful can protect their own interests, whatever the economic and political situation may be in the UK.

The print media is virtually sewn up in favour of the Conservatives, with many newspapers owned and controlled by ultra wealthy individuals who frequently don't even live in Britain. Even The I has now been bought up by the group owned and controlled by Lord Rothermere who owns the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and Metro. The other big player, of course, is Rupert Murdoch who owns The Sun, Sun on Sunday, The Times and the Sunday Times.

Now all TV channels need to watch their step - but particularly the BBC which the Conservatives have always wanted to get rid of. Other commercial channels also need to be granted a licence to broadcast, and Johnson has already threatened Channel 4 with a review of its licence.

On a separate issue, but one that also relates to the abuse of power - in the business section of the I today:

"Top Bank official faces calls to quit in briefings scandal"

"Hedge funds are revealed to have been eavesdropping on a faster livestream of key briefings [of the Bank of England].

"The central bank said it had found a third-party supplier was misusing an audio feed to certain press conferences, selling access to its clients.

"The lag on the official broadcast of the meetings means traders may have gained an advantage of a few seconds when listening to comments made by the Governor.........

"Traders reported paying between £2,500 and £5,000 to gain access to the audio feed ...."

The Business Editor commented separately on the very serious nature of these revelations -

"Hedge funds could have made millions from cock-up"

............"While a few seconds heads-up on what Bank of England officials say about the future directions of interest rates or the wider economy may not sound significant, it truly is.

"Armed with that information, the tech wizards at hedge funds can make thousands of transactions in those seconds. It can net them millions...............

"One thing is for sure, however, if it's not illegal under current laws, then new laws need to be introduced."

Given that hedge funds are one of the major donors to the Conservative Party, it will be interesting to see how quickly this government reacts to this. In my view this confirms the fact that many of the people in the finance sector appear to have no sense of right and wrong and are willing to use any strategy, however improper or unethical, to make "loadsa money". The whole system works in these people's favour and the dice is, and it has always been, loaded against those who challenge it.

Guy Verhofstadt
@guyverhofstadt
Conservative party donors, backing Brexit but at the same time seeking EU citizenship via Cyprus. Pardon my French but ordinary British citizens are being screwed over by their elite.
reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-conservative-donors-exclus-idUSKBN1YN18N

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/judges-who-threw-out-johnson-case-were-biased-claims-accuser-vwwl0v75n

www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1205272/General-election-news-boris-johnson-brexit-party-nigel-farage-peerage-met-police

The deadline of 1 January 2020 to make all trains accessible for disabled people has been ripped up in what has been branded the first “broken promise” since Boris Johnson’s election win.
Around 1,200 carriages – many of them on notorious northern routes, already dogged by delays and cancellations – will continue running into the next decade, The Independent can reveal.

The tally is one in every 11 in the fleet and 50 per cent higher than the number that rail companies had asked for permission to keep in operation, despite having had a full decade to prepare.

Brexit for the many, EU rights and citizenship for the billionaire few who pushed for brexit?
“Cyprus government documents seen by Reuters show that Conservative Party donors have sought citizenship of the island, an EU member state, since Britain voted to leave the bloc in 2016.
They include billionaire Alan Howard, one of Britain's best-known hedge fund managers, and Jeremy Isaacs, the former head of Lehman Brothers for Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Cyprus' interior ministry recommended that both men's applications be approved, the government documents show.
Cypriot citizenship costs a minimum of 2 million euros of which at least 500,000 euros must be permanently invested. At no point in the application process is the applicant compelled to live in – or even visit – Cyprus. Cyprus is popular with people seeking a second passport because the entire investment can be in real estate, and it has low taxes.
The Cyprus government documents reviewed by Reuters also list a man named David John Rowland as having sought citizenship. The documents that name Rowland contain scant details, showing only that he applied for a Cypriot passport as part of an investor group. Separate Cypriot company records list a UK national David John Rowland as a director of a company called Abledge Ltd, which was registered on Dec. 31, 2015.
These records show Rowland's home address to be on the British tax haven island of Guernsey - the home of the David John Rowland who is a Conservative Party donor, former Party treasurer, property developer and financial adviser to Prince Andrew. Reuters couldn't determine Abledge Ltd's line of business or any other information about the firm.
A spokesperson for a bank owned by Rowland, Banque Havilland, declined to comment. Repeated requests through another of Rowland's businesses and his personal email address went unanswered. A spokesperson for the palace declined to comment. The Cypriot government declined to comment about any of the individuals named in this story or on the status of a government review of its passports-for-sale scheme, citing EU privacy rules.
Electoral Commission records show that Rowland has donated at least £6.5 million to the Conservatives since 2001, £854,500 of it since the Brexit vote. Prime Minister David Cameron named him Tory treasurer and chief Conservative fundraiser after the millions of pounds he donated to the 2010 general election campaign - to protect Britain's "liberty" and economic future, Rowland told media at the time. He quit before officially taking up the post.”
mobile.reuters.com/article

Callistemon: Taking out insurance could be a good idea.

But I already have insurance. It is called National Insurance and I have paid it all my working life!

Boris Johnson was accused of carrying out 'a direct attack on some of the most vulnerable children in the world' today after stripping out concessions on refugees from his new Brexit law.
The Prime Minister came under fire in the Commons after it was revealed his Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) has removed concessions on unaccompanied youngsters agreed by Theresa May to woo Labour backbenchers.
An agreement to maintain EU-level workers' rights has also been dropped, with Boris Johnson now having a majority of 80 and no need to rely on opposition rebels to pass Brexit into law.
...and so it begins....

New laws will require schools, police, councils and health authorities to work together to prevent serious crime," said the Queen, in a commitment that echoed the duty mentioned in her previous speech in October for schools to work with other public bodies to tackle knife crime.
However, no further details were given about how schools might carry out this duty.

What did used to male me angry was the way they targeted new students at the start of their first year, many of which didn't realise that everyone in halls of residence had to have a separate licence.

They certainly used to Labaik especially if the offender was female as there was always more room in female prisons, unless that's an urban myth I fell for.

Just googled, and this Express article was first on the page, can't believe it's entirely made up although it is over 4 years old. www.express.co.uk/news/uk/599049/TV-Licence-jailed-England-BBC-fee-Scotland-fines

I don't think they actually imprison people that don't pay their tv licence...

Far-right Britain First is urging its supporters to join the Conservative Party in order to “make Boris Johnson’s leadership more secure”.
The extremist group, whose leaders were jailed last year, sent an email to subscribers claiming “thousands” of its activists were becoming members of the Tories.

It came after Mr Johnson was endorsed by Tommy Robinson and garnered public support from other far-right figures.

“If you haven’t joined the Conservative Party yet, we urge you to do so immediately, to make Boris Johnson’s leadership more secure,” Britain First said in an email sent on Wednesday.

“Senior Britain First officials and rank-and-file members have been receiving their Conservative membership cards in the post.
From the Independent...

Of course non payment of the licence fee should be decriminalised. Who wants to see non payers imprisoned at the taxpayers expense? (Where, incidentally, there's free tv.)