Minor offenders can get a job

Job applicants with old and minor convictions will not have their criminal past revealed to employers, it was announced earlier this week by the Home Office.

Under the proposed legislation, convictions resulting in a non-custodial sentence, will be removed from record checks after 11 years for adults and five and a half year for young offenders.

Cautions will be filtered from record checks by the Disclosure and Barring Service, previously the Criminal Records Boreau, after six years for adults and two years for underage offenders.

The changes will affect those applying for jobs that need background checks, and come after a case involving a young woman who had to reveal details of two minor offences that took place when she was just 11 years old.

Lord Taylor of Holbeach, minister for criminal information, said that criminal records checks are an important tool for employers to use in making informed safeguarding decisions.

“This new system strikes a balance between ensuring that children and vulnerable groups are protected and avoiding intrusion into people’s lives,” he said.

The Home Office has announced the system would be implemented within weeks. 

However, all serious violent and sexual offences will continue to be disclosed.

David Miliband quits politics

Labour Party politician David Miliband has announced yesterday he will be quitting politics to head to America.

The former foreign secretary, who is moving to New York to take up a senior role at the charity International Rescue, in September, is forcing a by-election in South Shields, the constituency that he has been representing in Parliament since 2001.

Labour insiders hope his departure will ease tensions that have avoided Ed Miliband’s leadership since he beat his older sibling in 2010.

Miliband Senior declared that he wants to see his younger brother Ed take Labour back into power, and end up the ‘comedy’ surrounding his relationship with him.

“This is right not just for me, but is right for the Labour party as well,” David Miliband said.

“I entered politics to make a difference and now I am going to do it in a different sphere,” he added.

Mr Miliband, who was nicknamed “Brains” by spin doctor Alastair Campbell when he ran Mr Blair’s policy unit in 1997, was praised by several political figures.

Former PM Tony Blair said: ”He is obviously a massive loss to UK politics”.

A sad day for British democracy

March 18 was an important day in British history, as for the first time in three hundred years, politicians decided to reintroduce legislative controls over the British press.

Last week, Prime Minister David Cameron, announced that talks among the three big political parties had broken down, over proposals to back a new press regulating system.

Both Liberal Democrats and Labour wanted a watchdog set up by royal charter. Mr Cameron, however, was determined to avoid it, and said that statutory backing with legislation would threaten press freedom and may lead to politicians meddling with the media.

Labour party leader Ed Miliband said: “ It will be a regulator, a system of complaints where the regulator has teeth so they can direct apologies if wrong is done and it is independent of the press, which is so important because for too long we have had a system where the press have been making their own homework,”.

“This is a sad day for British democracy,” Mr Cameron declared.

Newspapers could face £1million fines for breaches of the new regulations, with considerable damages for those who refuse to sign up to the new code.

Even bloggers could face fines for libel under the new deal, while scientific journals, student publications and not for profit community newspapers do not have to sign up.

The proposal was made by Lord Justice Leveson and the deal follows his Inquiry, which was set up after thousands of people had their phones hacked by tabloid journalists and investigators.

There are concerns that local newspapers could fall into financial difficulties because of the tougher regulations.

New welfare rules for EU migrants

EU migrants will be able to claim welfare benefits three months after arriving in Britain.

According to new plans proposed by Labour last week and unveiled by the Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, in fact, sensible action will be taken to stop migrants making claims as soon as they arrive.

She has also addressed fears about a possible influx of Romanians and Bulgarians when restrictions are lifted next January.

Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan Smith had already declared that he wants “rules around the habitual residence test tightened to ensure immigrants are making a commitment to the UK before getting welfare benefits”.

However, Ms Cooper has insisted that a ‘presence test’ could be added to the usual residence test to let people prove they have been in the country for at least three months before being eligible for Government’s help.

Calling for a more fundamental review of EU benefit rules and residence requirements, the Shadow Home Secretary also said the loophole allowing foreign workers in Britain to get child tax credits for offspring back in their home country, could be eventually closed.

Meanwhile the Home Secretary Theresa May is considering several immigration-limiting measures, including the possibility, for non-EU immigrants, to pay a cash bond to enter the UK. It would be repaid if they left without either overstaying their visa or wrongly claiming from the Government.

All comments and speeches followed Labour leader Ed Miliband’s admission that his party had got it wrong on immigration when it was in power.

Coffee is the new beer



Cappuccino. Source:http://www.ilovecoffeebook.com/coffeeArt.html

More and more people all over the UK are deserting pubs for cafés.

Even though the British pub is still a key element in the UK society, around 29 per cent of these community assets across the country have closed in the past 25 years.

Record pub closures have made news headlines in 2009, bringing out the historically adverse conditions the pub and brewing sector has been experiencing, particularly since 2005.

Meanwhile, the café sector, including independents and chains, is booming: it grew by 7.5 per cent in 2011 alone.

According to Jim Winship, director of the Café Society, the trends will continue. He said that the pub is seen as a more traditional, which is less attractive to the young, while cafés have turned into a place to meet and socialise.

“The high street has become based around the café as they have taken over empty shops. In fact, the café could be the savior of the high street, making it a social hub rather than just a place to shop,” he said.

In cafés people are not jostling for space; in fact, they get a seat and do not drink too much alcohol , which is not really healthy, and also get a chance to interact with other people or even with someone, one to one.

Nowadays, both independent and chain cafés, have free Wi-Fi and therefore offer freelancers and students a pleasant place where they can carry out their duties.



Housing Crisis in London

Young home owners are a minority in London.

The average mortgage deposit for first-time buyers is now over £60,000 and according to a report from independent analyst Oxford Economics, property prices will continue to soar in the capital over the next seven years.

Recently published data from Greater London Authority reveal that almost twice as many Londoners in the 25 to 34 age group now rent from a private landlord than those who own a property, and the gap is rapidly rising.

This is the first time tenure has been broken down by age group. Paula Higgings, chief executive of Home owners Alliance, said:

“Buying in London is open only to those with wealthy relatives and people who win the Lottery.

“This is robbing a generation of any prospect into the housing ladder and it is incredibly unfair”.

Mortgage experts answer that there had also been an increase in the number of banks and building societies prepared to offer 90 per cent mortgages in recent months, but these are still only available to borrowers with spotless credit records.

It only helps those from a wealthy background.

While owner occupation in the capital has fallen to lowest level since the early Eighties, almost one in four all over the UK say they may be forced to leave their local area because the cost of housing is too high, an Ipsos MORI survey revealed. 

The proportion is twice as high among those living in London.

Don't call a cab, get the tube instead!

Tourists, clubbers and night workers will be able to get the tube back home until 2am.

The managing Director of London Underground (LU) Mike Brown, last week revealed plans to run extended services on Fridays and Saturdays to let people have more fun and boost the night economy.

Mr Brown said: “It will be a real benefit for London’s night-time economy, either for people working late or enjoying themselves. If you want to buy that extra meal, cup of coffee or pint of beer, why wouldn’t we want to encourage that?”.

Three lines will stay open until late from 2015 to make the city’s heart beat strongly: the Jubilee and the Victoria lines, that are the most modern and the Northern Line, the upgrade of which will terminate next year.

However, there are concerns regarding shifts’ negotiations and pay rise requests from the Union Bosses.

They also warned that the service could cut into vital maintenance time needed to keep the world’s oldest Underground system running.

Despite the success of the Olympics when the Tube ran at least one hour later every night and coped with record passenger numbers, in fact, LU was not built for a round-the-clock service.

According to Manuel Cortes, leader of the TSSA union, apart from maintenance works, there are other issues to be taken into considerations, like the health and safety of both staff and passengers.

Luckily, all the parts involved are willing to negotiate terms and conditions and make it happen.