Friday 30th October 2015

[citizenJA]

The Department for Communities and Local Government cannot demonstrate the success
of the land disposal programme in addressing the housing shortage or achieving value for
money because it does not collect information on the actual number of houses built or
under construction, the proceeds from land sold, or whether the parcels of land were sold
at market value. Instead, it chose to focus only on a notional number for ‘potential’ capacity
for building houses on the land sold by individual departments in order to determine
‘success’. The Department also counted towards the programme’s target the capacity of
land sold before the programme had even started. It did not collect basic information
necessary to oversee the programme effectively and, where it did collect programme-level
data, there were omissions and inconsistencies. With much greater ambitions for land
disposals in the new Parliament, the Department must address the weaknesses in the
current programme, and the Department has accepted that it needs to improve its general
monitoring. If it is to oversee the new programme effectively then this must specifically
include tracking sale proceeds and progress with the actual construction of new homes,
and overseeing the programme in a way that gives Parliament and the taxpayer much
greater assurance over the value for money achieved from all disposals.

- Summary

House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts
Disposal of public land for new homes
Second Report of Session 2015–16 Report, together with formal minutes relating to the report
9 September 2015

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/p ... 89/289.pdf

(my bold)

Everything will be sold. Tory government don't give a damn about value for money, they just want it all and they want it all some more. No one else gets to have any. That's also essential to Tory government. Chancellor Osborne doesn't care published plain his governance over the UK economy is the quantitative representation of the Titanic going down every month.

Jeremy Corbyn's home is here in the UK. When Corbyn retires or whatever, he'll probably continue living here in his country. He likes the country, physically, he wants to protect it, the land, the people, he wants the country sustainably lived in.

Every Tory front bench minister is gonna fuck off to their various safety zones when and if they break the UK, no doubt about it, they don't care what they do to the land, the people, the air, the water. They aren't rational people. They don't understand the limitations of their limited philosophy of life.

goodnight, everyone
love,
cJA

[Tubby Isaacs]

Goodnight.

Incredible. They don't even track house building on the land they sell.

[HindleA]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... ax-credits" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Scottish Labour promises to restore tax credits

[Tubby Isaacs]

Emily Ashton ‏@elashton 13m13 minutes ago
Pressure building on Matt Hancock and Oliver Letwin after latest Kid's Company scoop by @aljwhite http://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/minis ... xaGkkedQ2o" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

Eye watering.

Sorry, I missed this earlier- while posting the Tim Loughton angle. This is indeed eye watering.

I wish there were more than zero chance of getting rid of Letwin or Hancock for this.

Love the attempt to blame Ed Balls as well, for giving them money in 2007. They managed to be solvent for 8 years after that!

[HindleA]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... eremy-hunt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Foreigners may be charged for A&E treatment under new proposals
Jeremy Hunt considering move to withhold non-urgent NHS treatment for those from outside European Economic Area until payment is made

[Tubby Isaacs]

Oh dear...

Kent school that bought every pupil an iPad cautioned for “unacceptably low” standards

http://schoolsweek.co.uk/kent-school-th ... standards/

A school in Kent that spent £125,000 on iPads for all its pupils has been issued with a ‘pre-warning notice’ to improve by the Department for Education (DfE).

Spires Academy has been told standards at the school are “unacceptably low” in a letter sent by Dominic Herrington, the Regional Schools Commissioner for South East and South London, on September 25 and released publicly today.

It raised concerns with the school’s attainment, which in 2013 and 2014 was 31 per cent and 35 per cent for pupils achieving five GCSEs at A* to C— below the minimum floor standard of 40 per cent. Attainment has now fallen to 17 per cent for pupils in 2015.

Wow, that's awful.

This has been an academy since 2007...so the academy will now be taken over by another one within days right?

If the standards are not deemed to have been met by the DfE then a ‘warning notice’ will be issued and additional governors may be appointed to the academy trust.

Oh. Probably not then.

Odd that - the threats about 'coasting' LA schools and what actually happens to academies seem to be quite different. Fancy...

The DfE seem to defending failure there.

I thought this school might be around Medway or Swale, but surprised to see it's near Canterbury, a wealthier part of Kent. I noted this from their website:

The school has developed strong links with Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School.

Looking for that "DNA", eh?

[seeingclearly]

http://www.thenational.scot/comment/fio ... rmany.9362

Fiona Robertson: Inhuman treatment of society's vulnerable echoes Nazi Germany

If your ghetto is your downsized unsuitable home, from which you cannot engage with the outside world, and an income insufficient for your basic needs let alone the cost of your condition, and neglect from inability to access appropriate care, all under the rationale of fair government for all and that you and people like you are a burden to society, then I see no difference at all, likewise with the narrative of being a devious scroungers for having developed or having from birth a condition that renders you 'less useful' to the state, and I'm glad that someone is breaking the taboo and publicly stating it the way it really is. It might be more socially acceptable that much of the suffering is quietly happening out of sight, but dying or being incarcerated or misused to the point of despair is ugly in a society where the same people that push such ideas are also the people who claim to have British values. How about human values first, that's what I thought we were about, regardless of government, that at heart we were a nation that rejected injustice, and when found out deplored our own. These days condemned as self-hating leftyism. Well rather that and some honesty than the other. Thanks Fiona, and all sympathisers with her POV.

[Hobiejoe]

Well, late it is again.

So, as a late night goody for the night owls, here's some Steely Dan celebrating the 50th anniversary of FM broadcasts from the Empire State building..... guess which track they chose....

Can't remember how to embed bloody youtube, so here's a link...

https://youtu.be/kfyPB1XnWLQ

[LadyCentauria]

Tory MP's filibuster blocks bill to give carers free hospital parking
Philip Davies speaks for 93 minutes to use up time allocated to debate Labour MP Julie Cooper’s private member’s bill
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... al-parking" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Should provide good leaflet material for the next election campaign - pic of him pledging to speak up for carers in parliament - pic of him filibustering out the bill to help them with hospital parking charges. Plus relevant text. Trustworthy Tories - as empty as Compassionate Conservatism.

It should, indeed.

I was quite horrified by the various Tory MPs condescending attitude towards Julie Cooper. One said something along the lines of, "As a very new member of the House of Commons your Bill has some potential that, after you have gained a couple of years' experience, could be worked into something fairly good." It just made me feel, more and more, that the HoC has swung back again (after seeing some real change during the Labour years) to a recreation of a Public School with Head Boy, Prefects, and Pop, all in charge and 'knowing the rules' whilst anyone outside their clique is a mere twig to be sent to run around the Quad for daring to speak up to their elders or failing to wear one blue sock on St. Crispin's Day, then being patted on the head for trying and permitted to make the Prefects' tea as a reward. Another example is them sending a member of their own 'House' to Coventry for daring to speak out in their first term rather than waiting until she'd attained the dizzying heights of Sixth before becoming a rebel.

[LadyCentauria]

Well, late it is again.

So, as a late night goody for the night owls, here's some Steely Dan celebrating the 50th anniversary of FM broadcasts from the Empire State building..... guess which track they chose....

Can't remember how to embed bloody youtube, so here's a link...

https://youtu.be/kfyPB1XnWLQ

Superb! One of my favourite Steely Dan tracks and one that I've fond memories of playing with me on keyboards/vocals, my late friend Randy on guitar, and other friends still living, back in the very early eighties. And earlier memories of a bunch of us from youth club spending hours sussing out Reelin' in the Years (we made a cassette recording off the radio to learn from) as a surprise - well, bribe - for the vicar who was a big fan and got permission to use the church hall for our rehearsals off the back of it and then played mostly prog and hard rock in there Oh, for the days!

Here's the embed (you just select 'youtube' in the editor then put the jumble of letters and numbers in like this {youtube}kfyPB1XnWLQ{/youtube} - I've intentionally used the wrong type of bracket in the example):
[youtube]kfyPB1XnWLQ[/youtube]