"vibro-acoustic body pillow".Sounds fun don't you think?
CHILDREN with impairments can now chill out in a therapeutic room designed specially to stimulate them.What does that mean in English?
A US judge has ordered Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan to wear an alcohol-monitoring bracelet.
[...] an alcohol-monitoring bracelet.
The Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor (Scram) bracelet works by sensing through the skin if a person has been drinking and sends the signal to a monitoring company.
"I have got a card and it's very useful and I don't believe anyone has surveilled anything about me. Unfortunately, nobody is getting their money back. I'm thinking of suing them, but it might cost me more than £30."
“It is a pity that the Bulgarian cabinet has taken such a decision, being apparently driven by populist reasons. I personally would have never agreed to such a decision. The European Commission will continue to make all efforts to protect the rights of the Bulgarian citizens,who are not smokers,”What have the ghastly Balkan types done? Do they encourage babies to smoke? Well not really
Under amendments that Bulgaria's parliament adopted earlier this month smoking will be allowed in separate smoking spaces inside restaurants, bars, coffee shops, railroad stations, airports, ports, and bus stations.The disgraceful types, how could they? Listen to the people and act on it! The bastards.
The owners of restaurants, clubs and coffee shops with an area less than 50 square meters, should decide if smoking would be allowed.
the European Commission does not have the right to interfere directly with the decisions of the national authorities.Which is interesting as they are comitted to a "Smoke Free Europe" by 2012, backed up by Directives. Nor does it stop them from spending millions on the subject.
“Bringing about the end of the euro is something that one cannot plausibly conceive of at the moment,” he said. “It would involve so many complications, with so much potential for setbacks -- including economically -- that one cannot, and in my view must not, contemplate it.”I just love that "must not". The old German banker sitting in his retirement sofa telling us what to think.
Still, a “healthy core” of countries in central Europe ensures the solidity of the $11 trillion economy, he said. “We’ve gotten into difficulties due to the Greeks and possibly Portugal and Spain will have a relatively strong impact, but this is offset by a healthy core.”And that core is, once again... Germany.
"a monetary incompetent unsuited to being put in charge of the Vietnamese dong, let alone the German mark."He was also largely responsible for the way in which the EU refused to help the pound at the time it was forced out of the EMU.
"Because of the urgency of climate change, we are committed to making this Government the greenest ever - taking urgent action at home and abroad.
"This isn't just an aspiration. It's essential. The actions of this Government in this Parliament will define our ability to combat climate change in the decades to come.
"That's why in the first week of this new Government, the Prime Minister announced Government departments would reduce their carbon emissions by 10% ..."
He said there were two major threats to the nation's energy security
- a growing dependence on the import of fossil fuels and the retirement of much
energy generating capacity.
"It's a scandal that in 2009 the UK still generates only 6.6% of our electricity from renewables.
"We have outstanding potential for renewable energy and yet we come second to bottom in the class of all 27 EU member states when it comes to our attainment from renewables. That must and will change."
Today we are coming out of the crisis. Unfortunately, as far as countries with the euro as their currency are concerned, we are also facing an international speculative attack on the euro,"OK so the Euro has indeed risen a touch according to the FT, but this is nothing to do with the EU's response, more to do with the Chinese.
"We, the countries of the euro zone are united in replying with a multilateral response, which has practically defeated... this international speculative attack,
However, the euro began to climb again in early Asian trading after Reuters reported a Chinese government official as restating that Beijing’s foreign exchange policy would continue to include the purchase of euro assets.Practically defeated... we will see.
@SamuelCoates I litter on the Tube all the time - if I read something I think others should read I'll leave it there rather than bin it
More than 40 per cent of station and depot waste (mainly newspapers) was recycled in 2007/08
Despite being launched to great fanfare a year ago, with £50million being set aside to fund it, the council has paid out just £145,000 in loans, matched by bank Santander, but spent £250,000 establishing the scheme in the first place.
A total of 223 businesses have expressed an interest in it, but only ten have received any money, with a further 14 still being considered for loans.
"We have over 50,000 SMEs in Essex of which over half have been trading in the county for 10 years. We are proud to be the first Local Authority to offer business banking services, demonstrating the Council’s ability to respond to the needs of local people. Banking on Essex provides a credible alternative to the usual financiers, ensuring easier access to working capital which combined with essential business support services will help local businesses to grow."
“If businesses need help then it is not for the taxpayer to shoulder that risk, if the banks won't lend to a company why should we?
“There just seems to be no logic in it – and when are we ever going to get this money back?
“It seems all these grandiose schemes were set up by Lord Haningfield because he wanted to make Essex the leader in all sorts of areas while neglecting the core tasks that councils should be focusing on, like fixing the many pot holes which are all over our streets”.
When the European Union works well, the co-operation of three crucial partners is vital: France, Germany and the European Commission.he tells us. Today however all this is as dust,
Meanwhile the relationship between Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy seems frosty at best. One of the few things they agree about is their mutual contempt for Barroso.But I am particularly interested in what he thinks of as the EU working well.
It was the alliance of the Franco-German couple, allied to a powerful commission president in the shape of Jacques Delors, that led to the creation of a single European currency.Oh right, that is the EU working well is it? Shall we ask the President of the European Council what that really means? Over to you Herman,
"Nobody ever told the proverbial man in the street that sharing a single currency was not just about making peoples' lives easier when doing business or travelling abroad, but also about being directly affected by economic developments in the neighbouring countries," he said on Tuesday evening. "Being in the 'Euro zone' means, monetarily speaking, being part of one 'Euroland'."What was that?
Mr Van Rompuy acknowledged that "growing public awareness" of the euro zone's problems was "a major political development."Again?
"Today, people are discovering what a 'common destiny' in monetary matters means. They are discovering that the euro affects their pensions, savings, and jobs, their very daily life. It hurts," he said.
"We are clearly confronted with a tension within the system, the ill-famous dilemma of being a monetary union and not a full-fledged economic and political union," he said. "This tension has been there since the single currency was created. However, the general public was not really made aware of it."So in Mr Rachman's world an EU working well is one in which the citizens are kept in the dark about what is being done in their name. Glad we got that one cleared up.
Smoking affects non-smokers too. According to conservative estimates, 79,000 adults, including 19 000 non-smokers, died in the EU-25 in 2002 because they were exposed to tobacco smoke at home (72 000) and at in their workplace (7,300). It can be assumed that the magnitude of the problem has not changed remarkably during the last years.Hmmm... You see there are a few obvious questions here.
"But it could also go to a school somewhere in England or Wales or perhaps become a giant mascot for a rugby or cricket team".
According to the Ventnor Blogger,Island Police say that they don’t see any legal problems with wearing England tops either. In their words …Astonishingly, it is not just the IoW Police who have come out like thism, but also the Devon, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and on.
“Police officers on the Isle of Wight have not been issued with any advice or instructions to take action over the use or display of England football merchandise. Wearing a shirt that carries the England flag is not a criminal offence.”
That we have got to a stage where the police on the Isle of Wight have to issue a statement like that shows us how far we have to row back from the multi-culturalist self hate agenda of the past 40 years.
I"Can you imagine that there are still some 30% of Europeans who've never used the internet? Digital virgins, so to say. And like McLovin's Hawaiian driver's licence in Superbad, the commission will aid them in popping their digital cherry, so to say."Euuch!
To reach the Digital Agenda's objectives, we outline some 100 specific follow-up actions, including some 31 legislative proposals.Legislation to make people use cross border internet shopping? What happens if they like the corner shop? And with the EU's fixation with our internet data, do we really want them to have this amount of surveillance on our lives.
We intend to measure progress on achieving these objectives with specific targets. For example:
by 2013, broadband coverage for all EU citizens and, by 2020, fast broadband
coverage at 30 Mega Bytes per second for all EU citizens, with at least half European households subscribing to broadband access at 100 Mega Bytes per second
by 2015, 50 per cent of the EU population should be shopping online, with 20% of the population using cross-border online services
by 2015, regular internet use increased from 60 per cent to 75 per cent, and in the case of disadvantaged people from 41per cent to 60 per cent
by 2015, halve the proportion of people who have never used the internet (from 30 per cent to 15 per cent)
by 2015, 50 per cent of EU citizens should be using online public services, with more than half of them returning filled in forms via the internet
by 2020, doubling EU Member States' total annual public spending on ICT Research and Development to €11 billion.
The other main objection I heard – from the BBC’s Roger Harrabin – is how utterly ridiculous it was that a total know-nothing like James Delingpole was speaking on a “Science” panel with meteorologist Joe D’Aleo, climate expert Fred Singer, and economist Ross McKitrick (co-destroyer – with Steve McIntyre – of Michael Mann’s hockey stick). Indeed, when I introduced myself to him, he snapped back “I’m not sure whether I should shake your hand. I want to punch you.” He sounded jolly cross indeed – and ranted that I was utterly irresponsible and had disseminated lots of lies – though he later apologized to me saying he was jet-lagged and had confused me with Christopher Booker. Hmm.
The new Conservative-led government will also deal with the issues raised by the Lisbon treaty’s ratification. British voters were denied any say over the treaty, either at a general election or in a referendum and in breach of the last government’s election manifesto commitments. That denial has done grave damage in Britain to the European Union’s democratic legitimacy, and that legitimacy is now profoundly in need of repair.
We have been very clear that the purpose of these measures is not to frustrate or sabotage the operation of the European Union but to put Britain’s role in the EU on a more positive footing.
A poll conducted by the Allensbach Institute and published in daily Bild showed almost half of Germans want to return to the deutschemark,
I was struck by a piece in the Frankfurter Allgemeine proposing a new “hard currency” made up of Germany, Austria, Benelux, Finland, the Czech Republic, and Poland, but without France. The piece entitled The Alternative says deflation policies may push Greece to the brink of “civil war” and concludes that Europe would better off if it abandoned the attempt to hold together two incompatible halves. “It can be done,” the piece says.
Europe's fiscal Fascism brings British withdrawal ever closerwhen a tweet from Slugger honcho Mick Fealty popped up.
@mickfealty Berlin calls for eurozone budget laws http://tinyurl.com/2wfy9ol #FTAnd it looks like a transparant power grab from Berlin,
The German government is to press other eurozone countries to adopt their own versions of Berlin’s balanced budget law as part of a set of sweeping reforms to stabilise the euro.There is some idea that each country would be free to set upo there own version of the German law, yes, but this is all getting err... a bit concerning.
A German government official told the Financial Times that one of Mr Schäuble’s proposals would be for other eurozone countries to adopt similar fiscal constraints to Germany’s Schuldenbremse – as the law is known.
“Something like that would be a good idea for other countries to have – although it might take on different shapes and forms for each member of the eurozone,” the official said.
The severity of the euro crisis could give impetus to Berlin’s proposed reforms, which would have been unthinkable even six months ago.
The idea has won the the backing of the Austrian government. “Considering the high indebtedness in Europe, I am in favour of a Schuldenbremse,” Josef Pröll, Austria’s finance minister, told German newspaper Die Welt.
“This would lead to a clear cap on new debt, strict budgetary discipline and balanced budgets in Europe,” he said.
Europe and euro are immortal
Immortal Europe
Will the EU survive? People are asking the question because of the crisis. My answer is a categorical yes.
Having lived and worked in Europe for two decades, I am one of those people who have always held in the European idea and will continue to do so.
To me, it still is inconceivable how this continent has bunched together its economic, trade, political and military forces.
Clearly, there is more that unites its countries than divides them. Europe and euro are immortal.
Making Europe immortal is a very old idea. After being struck by one of Eros's arrows, Zeus, the father of all Greek gods, fell in love with Europa, the daughter of the Phoenician king. When he later realised that his beloved was destined to pursue the path of mortals, he named the continent after her and proclaimed: “Europa, you shall be immortal because the continent that has accepted your body shall bear your name for all time.”
Despite the current euro crisis, Europeans who believe in the idea of Europe may be nit-picking and moaning but have not mislaid any faith in the European idea.
European Union finance ministers will back on Tuesday a call for national budgets to be first reviewed by EU ministers before they are submitted for parliamentary approval, draft conclusions of the meeting showed.But this enormous power grab, the right to vet (which implies the right to veto) seems to have shaken some of the normal sleepwalkers.
The European Commission proposed last Wednesday that draft national budget plans should be vetted by the Commission and EU finance ministers to check if they are in line with the 27-nation bloc's economic policy guidelines.
"In light of their contribution to an efficient implementation of the Stability and Growth Pact, the Council calls for a regular assessment and peer review of Member States' fiscal frameworks," draft conclusions of the ministers, obtained by Reuters, said.
Mr Kenny expressed concern about the commission’s proposals which he described as “quite opaque” and said it would mean “the political whim, colour or bias of the council at any time could influence what is being talked about here”.
He said “other countries might well be jealous of our low corporation tax rate” and could say “that we would have to make changes in public pay or corporation tax or adjust matters that might not be to our liking”.
Mr Kenny said he wanted an assurance from the Taoiseach “that in no circumstances will the Government hand over sovereignty of the running of our economy to anybody else who might have a different view
Pressure is on Mr Osborne to issue a firm rebuke to the plans and failure to do so will enrage Tory Eurosceptics.But what is the point of a firm rebuke? These plans in draft now, like others which will be confirmed on Tuesday such as the Hedge Fund Directive for example come under QMV. So though this would be a massive transfer of power to Brussels, there is nothing he can do.
"There are two ways of playing this," one Brussels official said last night. "Either the UK makes an argument for a delay, which they would probably lose, or they take the hit now and hope that in a few weeks this is forgotten."So essentially, he has lost the fight over protecting the city (well done Hedge Funds chaps, it was worth all those donations wasn't it), and has a very short time to conjure a blocking minority on the Budget vetting.
9. Relations with the EU
We agree that the British Government will be a positive participant in the European
Union, playing a strong and positive role with our partners, with the goal of ensuring that all the nations of Europe are equipped to face the challenges of the 21st century: global competitiveness, global warming and global poverty.
We agree that there should be no further transfer of sovereignty or powers over the
course of the next Parliament. We will examine the balance of the EU’s existing competences and will, in particular, work to limit the application of the Working Time Directive in the United Kingdom.
We agree that we will amend the 1972 European Communities Act so that any proposed
future Treaty that transferred areas of power, or competences, would be subject to a referendum on that Treaty – a ‘referendum lock’.
We will amend the 1972 European Communities Act so that the use of any passerelle would require primary legislation.
We will examine the case for a United Kingdom Sovereignty Bill to make it clear that
ultimate authority remains with Parliament.
We agree that Britain will not join or prepare to join the Euro in this Parliament.
We agree that we will strongly defend the UK’s national interests in the forthcoming
EU budget negotiations and that the EU budget should only focus on those areas where the EU can add value.
We agree that we will press for the European Parliament only to have one seat, in
Brussels.
We agree that we will approach forthcoming legislation in the area of criminal justice on a case by case basis, with a view to maximising our country’s security,
protecting Britain’s civil liberties and preserving the integrity of our criminal justice system. Britain will not participate in the establishment of any European Public Prosecutor.
A SERVICE FOR EUROPE DAY
TO MARK THE
60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
SCHUMAN DECLARATION
THE ACT OF PENITENCE
Let us bring before God our failures and weaknesses, those of our own hearts, and those of our nations: our pride, our self-seeking, the opposition séculaire which has hindered our unity and harmed our people; and let us confess our sins in penitence and faith, firmly resolved to keep God’s commandments and to live in love and peace with all.
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
Lord God our Father,
we affirm our commitment to the European Union
as a force for good in your world.
Guide us, we pray, by your Spirit;
give us wisdom, courage, and hope,
that we may serve you in the cause of justice and friendship,
and remain united in your peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
"I'd like to thank the CPS for their level-best efforts in fucking up the life of an ordinary citizen. I love Britain"If I said here and now that the people in the CPS who were responsible for this travesty and destruction of freedom of speech should be rounded up, and rolled in broken glass, because I an frustrated by the idiocy and waste they have displayed and caused, would I put myself in risk of arrest?
The UKIP campaign office has just recieved an email from the Advertising Standards Authority,We have received another complaint about one of your ads and we need to see a copy of it. This time the ad shows the leaders of the three main parties with the caption “Sod the Lot”.A complainant, one.
The complainant does not believe that this is suitable language to be used in a public place where it can be seen by children.
Thank you for your attention to this matter, I look forward to hearing from you, and seeing a copy of the ad, by the end of the week.
To avoid overdoing humor, ask yourself:
• When have I used humor in the last year when I shouldn’t have? When may it have backfired?
• Do I ever encourage a near party atmosphere because of my comfort with using humor?
• Knowing that some people are more easily offended than I, could my use of humor put people off? Is there a chance I’m offending people but I’m unaware of it?
• Do I avoid discussing or solving the real issue by making a joke?
"Recently, The Mind Gym, as part of its own community worlk developed an amazing parenting skills programme - a supernanny for everyone - and they agreed
to run one of three state school pilots right here in Westminster North. lt has had amazing results so far. I am very proud of everyone involved with the project."
In the autumn, Britain will have to re-ratify the Lisbon Treaty. Over in Brussels things are afoot and the first major Foriegn Policy act of a new PM will be to go to Brussels to rubber stamp a treaty amendment.18 extra MEPs. Parliament will decide whether to allow treaty changes increasing the size of the European Parliament to take place without a full Convention (debate Wednesday, vote Thursday).In this they are supported by the European Commission,
the Commission recommends opening an Intergovernmental Conference as soon asThat IGC will amend the Lisbon Treaty (Protocol 36). This will require that the Lisbon Treaty be re-ratified by all 27 nations of the European Union.
possible, remaining strictly limited to discussion of the Spanish proposal for a protocol amending Protocol No 36 on Transitional Provisions
Once the IGC is over, the new version of the protocol as adopted will have to be ratified by the 27 national parliaments.That means that a new Prime Minister will have to ram a new Lisbon Treaty through both Houses of Parliament.
