FlyTheNest

TobyLatimer wrote:She dumped Jagger for Bryan Ferry

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No 10 red-faced after adding poppy to David Cameron Facebook picture (Guardian)

Plans to bring local buses under public control face ruling blow

Culmination of bitter and protracted battle between Tyne and Wear and private operators could mean end of scheme to re-regulate buses (Guardian)

Plans to bring local buses under public control face ruling blow

Culmination of bitter and protracted battle between Tyne and Wear and private operators could mean end of scheme to re-regulate buses (Guardian)

Christopher Hope ‏@christopherhope 48m48 minutes ago
Ukip set to select John Bickley as candidate for OIdham West by-election | via @Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... ction.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

“Carpet-bagging” UKIP candidate sends out letters to voters… in the wrong seat
http://labourlist.org/2015/03/carpet-ba ... rong-seat/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cllr Kevin Peel ‏@kevpeel 30m30 minutes ago
Arriva's appalling performance revealed. I seem to remember @LucyMPowell warning government about this 3 years ago.. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... y-10374889" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

A private bus company handling non-emergency patient transport in Greater Manchester has been ordered to pay back £1.5m after misreporting performance standards.

Arriva Transport Solutions is out of the running to continue the service from next summer following the gaffe.

The firm was appointed to provide non-emergency medical journeys across Greater Manchester from April 2013.

It undercut North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) by £3.5m to secure the deal, which saw services privatised. Arriva received more than 600 formal complaints regarding the Patient Transport Service (PTS) in 2014, with 80pc judged to be totally or partially justified.

Despite bosses insisting the service had improved, it how now been revealed that Arriva’s performance standards had been misreported.

NHS Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group - on behalf of 33 CCGs in the north west - led the commissioning of the services. Bosses there said management and process failures meant performance standards were ‘overstated’, resulting in more than £1.5m incentive cash being incorrectly claimed by Arriva...

PorFavor wrote:Sorry if anyone's already linked to the Guardian article below (memory fail) but, in case not, here it is and I think it's very funny (it contains a lot of "Tweets"). I like the poppy wearing a Cameron badge best.

No 10 red-faced after adding poppy to David Cameron Facebook picture (Guardian)

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... ok-picture

Edited to add

I know we've done the photoshop story - I'm just can't remember if the Guardian article was linked or not!

ohsocynical wrote:

PorFavor wrote:Sorry if anyone's already linked to the Guardian article below (memory fail) but, in case not, here it is and I think it's very funny (it contains a lot of "Tweets"). I like the poppy wearing a Cameron badge best.

No 10 red-faced after adding poppy to David Cameron Facebook picture (Guardian)

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... ok-picture

Edited to add

I know we've done the photoshop story - I'm just can't remember if the Guardian article was linked or not!

It's okay, the link I gave was to HuffingtonPost...

Three senior civil servants who were in charge of a government spending watchdog pocketed £1.3million in pay-offs before walking straight into similarly well-paid roles, it emerged today.

Neil Swift, Marcine Waterman and Jon Hayes were handed the huge sums after the Audit Commission was wound up in April amid claims that masses of taxpayers' money was being wasted.

Swift took £131,260 in redundancy; Waterman £244,000; and £800,000 was put into a pension scheme which will be given to Hayes in full if he is made redundant before the end of 2017.

But there was anger today after it was revealed that all three will be allowed to keep the money despite them all having since been appointed to other senior positions in Whitehall.

The deals - revealed in official Treasury accounts - has been labelled 'a true scandal' by critics.

All three executives climbed the Audit Commission ranks while forking out sizeable amounts of taxpayers' cash on hospitality, hotel rooms, away days and marketing.

When ministers realised the magnitude of their spend, they forced the group - which has since been replaced by the Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd - to disband.

Public Sector Audit Appointments Limited (PSAA) is an independent company limited by guarantee incorporated by the Local Government Association in August 2014.

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government delegated statutory functions (from the Audit Commission Act 1998) to PSAA by way of a letter of delegation issued under powers contained in the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014.

The company is responsible for appointing auditors to local government, police and local NHS bodies, for setting audit fees and for making arrangements for the certification of housing benefit subsidy claims.

Before 1 April 2015, these responsibilities were discharged by the Audit Commission.

Swift immediately joined the Government's Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO) as Director of Corporate Resources after being dismissed from his role.

Coincidentally, he now works under Waterman once more. She was made chief executive of the newly-formed SSRO - which oversees defence contracts.

Hayes was given the Chief Officer's job at the new Public Sector Audit Appointments company.

Paul Waugh ‏@paulwaugh 4m4 minutes ago
No10 source: Times claim that PM has 'abandoned' Syria RAF vote is 'complete nonsense'. And PM's position unchanged (re Guardian story)

RobertSnozers wrote:

rebeccariots2 wrote:

yahyah wrote:Danczuk seems to spend a lot of time on Twitter pushing Mail articles, not just the crap stuff he writes for them.

His behaviour seems almost kamikaze to me. Don't understand why someone in his position would do this ...

I saw a piece in the Rochdale News the other day, from a couple of months back, basically asking what on earth Danczuk has to do to get chucked out, referring to a petition to have him deselected and even linking to it!

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-fe ... -terrorism" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's fair to say that for a local rag to publish the link suggests they aren't exactly in support of him - and for a high profile campaigning MP to not be supported by their local press is, shall we say, a touch unusual.

I have to say, I don't know why Danczuk hasn't been tackled by someone yet. Perhaps the CLP is stuffed with supporters after the previous purge.

StephenDolan wrote:Some food for thought for Corbyn etc no doubt.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... ity/413761" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"The world that Stiglitz envisions in his book, one where all citizens can enjoy the promise of education, employment, housing, and a secure retirement seems at once like the realization of the American dream and an unattainable utopia."

Teachers could be enlisted to do "national service" at failing schools in deprived coastal towns and remote rural areas, the head of Ofsted has said.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools, outlined plans for the most gifted staff to be parachuted into the country's "less fashionable, more remote or challenging places".

These 'national service teachers' could be recruited through incentives such as higher pay and faster career progression.

Charlie Evans
Blogger and Economics student at the University of Exeter
Why I Have Left the Tory Party
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/charlie ... 17678.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

'Party of working people'

That's what was rammed down my ears during the General Election campaign. The chimes of 'One Nation' Conservatism were alluring to me and many others as we canvassed on the doorsteps of millions of households and relentlessly spammed social media sites asking for our friends and family for them to put faith in five years of Tory governance. My confidence in Cameron and his colleagues, coupled with a burning hatred of the Labour Welsh Assembly Government, meant the Conservatives were the natural option. Values such as individual and family responsibility, fiscal responsibility with a slight dose of British patriotism are all conservative values I adhere to. I even attempted to stand for the party in the Welsh Assembly election, losing out in my constituency's hustings.

But then came something that seemed so contrary to this main Tory message:

Why then, I started to ask myself, is George Osborne so hell-bent on cutting tax credits for working people? Every report has concluded that even with the increase in minimum wage and tax-free allowance, families will still be worse off...

'The most vulnerable in society will be protected'

It doesn't take a senior investigative journalist to calculate that this isn't exactly true. Disability benefit for those who are considered able to work in the future, is being cut by £30 a week. Sure, try and help disabled people who want work get into work. But how is cutting their income by £1,500 a year going to help them into work?

TobyLatimer wrote:

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Richard Angell ‏@RichardAngell 1h1 hour ago
The @BBCNewsnight segment on schools was amazing. In 1997 Hackney was a by word for failure. Now the beacon! Lab govt & council wkg together