quote:

Richest minister Richard Benyon 'dispenses loaves to poor'
The minister who told families to save money by eating leftovers was named yesterday as Britain’s richest MP and a landowner who has taken part in a ritual of dispensing loaves to the poor.

Richard Benyon stands to inherit an estimated £110 million from the 20,000-acre Englefield Estate in Berkshire, which is owned by his father, Sir William, according to The Times’s Daily Rich List.

As part of an annual tradition dating back to 1581, Mr Benyon has handed loaves to villagers in Ufton Nervet from the windows of the family’s manor house.

Mr Benyon, a Tory minister in the Department for Environment, said earlier this week that households were wasting up to £50 a month by needlessly throwing away “enormous amounts of food”.

He suggested a more frugal approach to food waste to ease family expenses and claimed there was widespread ignorance of keeping fruit and vegetables in the fridge and wrapping cheese to keep it fresh. David Cameron conceded today that the image of a government minister telling families to eat their leftovers “does not look good” but claimed that the comments had been misinterpreted.

He said Mr Benyon was simply taking part in a debate in Westminster in which he was “giving an answer on issues to do with food waste and supermarket packaging and all the rest of it”.

Umiapik posted:

Not quite!

Here is my back of an envelope calculation of future house prices in London, based on today's reported average price of £400,404 and annual inflation rate (in London) of 25.8%:

Date & Average house price

July 2015 - £503,708
July 2016 - £633,665
July 2017 - £797,150
July 2018 - £1,002,815
July 2019 - £1,261,542
July 2020 - £1,587,019

So, in six years time, the average house in London will be selling for a touch over £1.5m! Invest now, people!

(You might be able to get in and out with a profit before the inevitable bust occurs.)

Olewithmilk posted:

On his dead mother:

“We were together all her life and there was nothing we couldn’t do. I got an audience with the Pope. Everything. But then, I was sharing her. When she died she was all mine. The best five days of my life were spent with the Duchess when she was dead. She looked marvellous. She belonged to me. It’s wonderful, is death.”

Radio Prune posted:

nopantsjack posted:

So how come the Lord Brittan stuff hasn't exploded? Its looking like there was loving child rapist conspiracy in government in the 1980s, that seems somewhat newsworthy to me. Is everyone in this up to their elbows so they aren't touching it or is this just classic libel laws strangling anybodys ability to talk about this poo poo until rich pedophiles die?

You -know- some Labour MPs must have been involved, a potential pedo-ring under Thatcher would destroy the tories if it came out so I can't see why they wouldnt be harping on it otherwise.

E: What is it about male elite that makes them bang kids? Is it a power thing or a secrecy thing? Whats the deal, I really just don't understand in a way that doesn't make me think of them as comical monsters.

Jedit posted:

Oh come on, Gonzo, he stopped when he died.

Spangly A posted:

It's still ongoing. I really loving wish I could name names but I don't fancy a libel case right now. A friend of mine was a child prostitute and has seen sitting MPs on the news that she was raped by.

She's 20 so feel free to do some maths, if in a year or so her therapy has got her to a point she feels ready to press charges you can bet I'll let y'all know.

Crashbee posted:

Is it still a common's problem if the police threatened to murder anyone who did try and stop it?

Discendo Vox posted:

Is this a credible source?

JoylessJester posted:

A former Mps come out in favor of reforming our legal/prison system? Hurrah. Let's have a look...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/06/andy-coulson-jail-term-prison-obsession?commentpage=1

Oh.

Gum posted:

And if they're espousing marginal views on politics?

Lord Twisted posted:

So what are people's thoughts on the paedo inquiry? Seems like it isn't a shockingly awful structure for it, which does surprise me. Would prefer a public inquiry but this isn't exactly sweeping it under the rug.

quote:

Once upon a time, David Cameron said that general wellbeing matters as much GDP. What's it all for if a country grows richer but its people feel no better? A genuine attempt at prioritising wellbeing would be revolutionary, because the happiest people live in more equal societies, are less ridden by anxiety, enjoy good employment, are well housed and more trusting. Yet in Britain all those fundamentals indices of wellbeing are in retreat.

If aiming for happiness is beyond this government, minimising extreme pain could be within reach, if it began by prioritising scarce NHS resources entirely according to suffering. If pain was measured in a Benthamite way – the relief of the greatest suffering for the greatest number of patients – mental illness would trump most other conditions. One sufferer describes getting his broken leg slammed in a door as less excruciating than the agony caused by his depression. Yet an ingrowing toenail gets treated within a mandatory 18 weeks, while there is no waiting limit at all for treating mental illness. More than half of those referred by GPs never get any treatment, and of those who do, some wait for over a year in the deepest despair. It's even more shocking that so often children get no help.

Professors Richard Layard, an economist, and David Clark, a clinical psychologist, ratchet up their campaign for better mental treatment with their new book, Thrive. These champions of cognitive behavioural therapy have done more to turn mental health into practical politics than anyone before, though progress is slow. Their skill has been to produce evidence that a course of CBT, costing £650, can permanently rescue half of those who take the course from disabling mental illnesses. For politicians, their evidence shows that a highly systemised treatment with specifically trained therapists saves lives and money. Nice guidelines say everyone with depression and anxiety should referred for CBT – but that's not binding, so most are not. The mechanised approach invites criticism, but this strictly evidence-based therapy has the best chance of gaining political traction.

The coalition promised that mental health would get "parity of esteem" with physical health, but so far there is little sign of it. Instead the government has just cut the tariff paid for mental healthcare by more than it cut the tariff for physical treatments. Norman Lamb spoke at the launch of the Layard and Clark campaign in the Commons, protesting that mental health "was first to be cut and isn't getting a fair share of attention". Had he forgotten that he is himself a health minister who could say no?

On some other planet, Nick Clegg made an eye-catching announcement in December that all mental patients could choose where they go for treatment – NHS or private – but most wait for anything, anywhere, and many get nothing. A shortage of beds means in-patients are now often sent hundreds of miles from home, certainly not by choice. NHS England's website claims "parity of esteem" but only promises that 15% will get CBT by 2015.

As it is, cancer and heart disease rule the roost, surgeons are king and psychiatry is low in the pecking order. Politicians are not entirely to blame; they know that mental and community services, where 90% of patients are treated, should get priority, but NHS politics is governed by front-page demands for every new drug, and for intensive care to prolong the miserable last six months of life. Oppositions protest at rising waiting lists or ambulance waiting times. Jeremy Hunt doesn't call community mental services to ask who they're neglecting, he calls A&E to bellow at them for overstepping a four-hour wait. Can mental health be made as politically sensitive?

Neglect of the mentally ill is bad enough, but now consider how the Department for Work and Pensions deliberately torments them. I just met a jobcentre manager. It had to be in secret, in a Midlands hotel, several train stops away from where she works. She told me how the sick are treated and what harsh targets she is under to push them off benefits. A high proportion on employment and support allowance have mental illnesses or learning difficulties. The department denies there are targets, but she showed me a printed sheet of what are called "spinning plates", red for missed, green for hit. They just missed their 50.5% target for "off flows", getting people off ESA. They have been told to "disrupt and upset" them – in other words, bullying. That's officially described, in Orwellian fashion, as "offering further support". As all ESA claimants approach the target deadline of 65 weeks on benefits – advisers are told to report them all to the fraud department for maximum pressure. In this manager's area 16% are "sanctioned" or cut off benefits.

Of course it's not written down anywhere, but it's in the development plans of individual advisers or "work coaches". Managers repeatedly question them on why more people haven't been sanctioned. Letters are sent to the vulnerable who don't legally have to come in, but in such ambiguous wording that they look like an order to attend. Tricks are played: those ending their contributory entitlement to a year on ESA need to fill in a form for income-based ESA. But jobcentres are forbidden to stock those forms. These ill people's benefits are suddenly stopped without explanation: if they call, they're told to collect a form from the jobcentre, which doesn't stock them either. If someone calls to query an appointment they are told they will be sanctioned if they don't turn up, whatever. She said: "The DWP's hope is they won't pursue the claim."

Good advisers genuinely try to help the mentally ill left marooned on sickness benefit for years. The manager spoke of a woman with acute agoraphobia who hadn't left home for 20 years: "With tiny steps, we were getting her out, helping her see how her life could be better – a long process." But here's another perversity: if someone passes the 65-week deadline, they are abandoned. All further help is a dead loss to "spinning plates" success rates. That woman was sent back to her life of isolation: she certainly wasn't referred for CBT. For all this bullying, the work programme finds few jobs for those on ESA.

Failing to treat the mentally ill is bad enough, but this is maltreatment. There has been much outrage about lack of kindness and care in hospitals. Neglect of mental patients is every bit as bad, but deliberate cruelty by the DWP defies any concern for the wellbeing for the most vulnerable, let alone "parity of esteem".

quote:

'Flawed' Work Programme contracts costing millions, watchdog says

Tens of millions of pounds could be paid in bonuses to underperforming contractors responsible for the government's flagship back-to-work scheme, a watchdog has warned.

Flaws in contracts mean the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has to pay incentives for the Work Programme to even the worst-performing providers, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.

The bill for such bonuses is likely to reach £31m in 2014-15, it added.

The DWP disputes the report's figures.

It said no bonuses had been paid to Work Programme providers, and any future "incentive payments" - which would not be due for another year - would be part of negotiating improved contract performance.

Unusually, the report was not signed off by the DWP, which is led by secretary of state Iain Duncan Smith, before publication on the grounds that it did not reflect its view of the "relevant facts".

The programme was launched in 2011 with the aim of helping 2.1 million people by March 2016.

It is being run by 18 "prime contractors", which are providing support and training to people on jobseeker's allowance (JSA) and employment and support allowance (ESA) and being remunerated on the basis of the number of people finding and staying in work.

The NAO said the programme had "improved after a poor start" and could potentially offer value for money over the long term. It said half a million people had been placed in a job while nearly 300,000 were still in work after six months.

But it raised concerns, saying problems with contracts and performance benchmarks had led to "unnecessary" costs.

It suggested firms may have received £11m between June 2011 and May 2014 "for performance they may not actually have achieved".

The amount of overpayments could rise to £25m, it warned.

It suggested the system put in place to keep track of workers - with contractors expected to contact employers 27 times during a two-year period - was delivering patchy results, with some employers not bothering to return calls.

And it warned that the system for rewarding suppliers for good performance - based on the number of people finding work as a proportion of the number of people joining the programme - was flawed.

While firms should be receiving £6m in bonuses this year, they were actually likely to receive £31m.
Different groups

The watchdog acknowledged steps had been taken to control costs, with payments between June 2011 and March 2014 set to be £300m less than first thought. It also said the Work Programme was likely to be more cost-effective than its predecessors.

Ministers expect the entire programme to yield £450m in savings by reducing the benefits bill, but the watchdog warned that there was a marked difference in performance between different groups.

Of JSA claimants aged over 25, 27% of those who had completed the programme found work lasting six months or longer.

The watchdog said this performance was in line with previous comparable schemes, although lower than the 39% success rate forecast by ministers when the programme started and the 33% set minimum performance level.

And it said the record of helping people facing the greatest barriers to finding work had fallen "well short" of the government's expectations, with 89% of ESA claimants remaining out of work after six months.
'Mountain to climb'

Amyas Morse, the head of the NAO, said there were signs of improvement, adding: "The department must now deliver the significant increases in performance it expects, in particular improving outcomes for harder-to-help groups."

Labour MP Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said it had a "mountain to climb" to help those most in need of support.

"It beggars belief that the department expects to pay at least £31m in bonuses to all of its contractors despite their poor performance," she said.

The Department for Work and Pensions said the £11m in overpayments accounted for less than 1% of total payments and verification procedures were "more robust" than previous employment schemes. It also insisted that no bonuses would be paid this year.

A spokeswoman said: "Even starting in the recession, the Work Programme performed as well as previous schemes, and with performance improving rapidly it is on track to deliver significantly more jobs than previous schemes."

Suppliers to the Work Programme, which include companies and charities, said they had increased support for the most vulnerable participants.

"Work Programme providers are spending on average 60% more on ESA jobseekers than the NAO report claims," said Kirsty McHugh, chief executive of the Employment Related Services Association.

"This is why performance here is improving, albeit more slowly as many of these jobseekers are a long way from the labour market."

twoot posted:

I like the tartan but dear god those shirts need to be burned.

quote:

Alderman Alfred Roberts, revered father of Margaret Thatcher and inspirer of her Victorian values, sexually harassed young female assistants working in the grocer's shop where she grew up, according to the distinguished political biographer Professor Bernard Crick.

Writing in the satirical magazine Punch, the political theorist, commentator and biographer of George Orwell recounts claims from contemporaries of the one-time Methodist preacher, pillar of society and Mayor of Grantham, Lincolnshire, that he "was a notorious toucher-up".

The assaults supposedly took place about 60 years ago, behind the counter of the shop, next to the "splendid mahogany spice drawers with sparkling brass handles (and) large, black, lacquered tea canisters", recalled in her autobiography by Baroness Thatcher, whose decisive endorsement of William Hague as Conservative leader last week has renewed her influence with the Tory right.

"Older teachers," Professor Crick was told by a Grantham friend, "all remembered their difficulty in trying, good women, to steer girls away from taking jobs at his shop.

"They were frightened to hint at the real reason: for he was a figure of real power in the town."

Crick, emeritus professor of the University of London, said that he learnt of the allegations in the mid-1980s, when the then Prime Minister was promoting the Victorian values of thrift and self-reliance that she had admired in her Rotarian father.

Her comments made the left-wing academic realise that he held the seeds of a story that could damage the Conservatives. Before the 1987 general election, he said, he gave the story to a friendly Daily Mirror journalist, who then declined to alert his newsdesk, fearing the wrath of owner Robert Maxwell, should it create too much controversy.

The story remained a secret until it appeared in Punch last week, although he had tried to persuade the magazine to publish it before this year's election.

Lady Thatcher's office said that the former Prime Minister had no comment.

However, although tales of her father's alleged sexual misconduct might not have been known nationally, they have been common currency in Grantham for years, it was clear last week.

Peter Hadlow, 76, lived next-door-but-one to the Robertses, and overheard many conversations about the scandal when working as an apprentice electrician. "Quite a broad spectrum of people said it. It was all over Grantham virtually," he said. "I would hear the boss talking about it. My ears were flapping - that sounds juicy, I thought.

"These stories were bandied about, and eventually you begin to believe there was some truth in them. But he was an Alderman and so that sort of thing got hushed up. It was a question of who do you believe - a teenage girl, or Mr Roberts?"

Mr Hadlow still lives in the same area of the town and added: "Funnily enough, when he gave up running the shop, he changed into a really nice bloke".

More significant still were the comments of a 74-year-old woman from Grantham, who told the Independent on Sunday that she had been molested on frequent occasions by Alderman Roberts, when she worked in his shop, aged just 15.

She said: "He was a bad one. He came round and put his arms around me, feeling my breasts. He used to put his tongue in my mouth.

"I got quite frightened. I didn't like it and I'd push him away. He'd say nothing and go, but then he would come back again. He used to chase other girls round the counter." She worked at the shop for six months until she told her parents what was happening. Her father told her she should not return.

The woman, who does not wish to be named, was then a chorister at the Methodist chapel where Alderman Roberts was a lay preacher. "One Sunday, I got up and walked out. I couldn't stand him standing up there and preaching," she said.

It was only then, when her parents challenged her to explain her behaviour, that she told them about the harassment she had suffered at the hands of the Alderman.

Professor Crick said that his piece was "written in the spirit of good- humoured satiric rage".

He said he had wanted it to be published before the general election. "I was so angry at the Conservative Party using all that family values stuff. To use it for political purposes is really quite off. It debases politics and in the end, you get caught out. It's a great offence to exploit and mythologise the past for political purposes."

Punch also sent a reporter to Grantham, who found pensioners willing to recount lurid tales about the grocer. One elderly resident claimed that she had two cousins working at the shop. "He was forever pinching their bums when they bent over - and looking up their skirts."

Journalist Richard Creasy wrote: "Memories of Alderman Alf raise a smirk amongst the pensioners who remember him far from fondly."

Paul Spike, editor of Punch, said: "People have been talking about this, but no one has been willing to run this until now. Crick has been talking about it for decades - he's a known responsible figure.

"We're not saying this has been established in a court of law. We thought we should check it out further. That's as much as we could get."

The rumours about Alderman Roberts took on fictional form in a novel about Thirties Grantham, Rotten Borough, written by local journalist Oliver Anderson and published in 1937. It featured a councillor who ran a corner grocery shop and was given to frolicking with his female assistants. At one point he is caught in flagrante beside the pork pies and polony sausages when a faulty light is switched on and passers-by see him, trousers down, through the shop window.

Rotten Borough was withdrawn from sale after just three weeks following threats from the Grantham establishment, including an earl and MP, of legal action. In 1989 it was republished by Fourth Estate. Its author died last year.

LemonDrizzle posted:

I'm all for a good round of Thatcher-bashing, but she can hardly be held accountable for her father's misdeeds.

Saki posted:

I got caught with MDMA last year in London. Police didn't care at all. Just got lucky I guess?

thehustler posted:

Apparently some Tory just raised the possibility of forcing schools to stay open on strike days. How would that work?

HortonNash posted:

And teachers are terrible scabs, literally the worst when it comes to crossing picket lines.

quote:

Apprenticeships are failing to help young people find work and improve their skills, a report has found.

Rather than helping to boost young people's economic prospects, the majority of apprenticeships are "low skilled" and "dead end", according to Dr Martin Allen and Professor Patrick Ainley from the University of Greenwich.

One of the major problems is that too many people are taking an apprenticeship at intermediate level – equivalent to GCSEs – according to Allen. "Last year, figures from the Skills Funding Agency showed that 56% of people on the programme were at intermediate level and provisional figures for the first half of the 2013-14 financial year show it to be at 70%," he said.

"With 80% of the population already qualified at this level, including most school leavers, it's questionable whether apprenticeships are helping to upskill the workforce and make the economy more competitive."

The number of advanced-level apprentices has increased, but they are still in the minority. Of the 891,600 apprentices in 2012-13, just 12,900 were training at the higher level.

The report also criticises the fact that many apprentices are adults, arguing that it contradicts the government's claim that the scheme is focused on helping young people find work. In 2012-13 40% of apprentices in England were over 25.

Matthew Hancock, the skills and enterprise minister, said the government is focused on improving the quality of the scheme and has stripped out nearly 200,000 apprenticeships that don't meet "tough new standards". He added that, along with the record number of private-sector jobs created, apprenticeship reforms have contributed to the 32.8% fall in youth unemployment over the past year.

In the German apprenticeship system, which is held up as an ideal model, 90% of apprentices secure employment by the end of the scheme. But in England, there is often no guarantee that the apprenticeship will secure a permanent job or higher training. Allen would like to see a number of changes to how England's system works.

"We need to make sure apprenticeships are of sufficient quality to be a real alternative to university. In order for this to happen, we've got to improve the level of training, we've got to guarantee employment at the end and we've got to look at other countries like Germany and take on some of their approaches.

"When an employer takes on an apprentice, they should have to show that there is actually a role for them to go into at the end of the scheme," he said.

Allen would also like apprenticeships to give people a licence to practise, as they do in Germany. "Rather than our ad hoc system that depends on an individual employer, we need to provide apprentices with transferable skills that they can take elsewhere."

In response, Hancock highlighted rule changes that mean apprentices must now be formally employed and have the same employment status as other employees. He said: "Apprenticeships must involve meaningful on-the-job training, as well as English and maths for young people who haven't yet achieved good GCSEs in these essential subjects.

"And where a licence to practise is a requirement of an apprenticeship, this should have been specified in the apprentice framework developed by the sector."

The minister also pointed to the trailblazer scheme, that gives employers the power to design apprenticeships for their industry.

More than 220,000 workplaces in England now employ apprentices, while the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills says 70% of employers report that apprenticeships have improved their productivity or the quality of their product.

"These business benefits ripple throughout the economy," Hancock said. "The National Audit Office has estimated that, for every pound the government invests in apprenticeships the economy gets £18 back. And when wider benefits are included this return is even higher, at £28."

But in the report, Allen and Ainley disputed that apprenticeships are boosting the economy.

"The idea that simply creating more apprenticeships will rebuild the economy is highly questionable," said Allen. "Without policies for creating real, secure employment opportunities, it isn't clear if employers will really want to spend time and money training more apprentices, especially when there continue to be huge numbers of graduates to choose from – surveys show up to a third of university leavers end up in jobs for which they are overqualified."

quote:

Two victims of alleged child abuse claim they were raped by MPs in one of London’s most exclusive blocks of flats, reports the Sunday People.

They came forward separately – and are ready to give evidence to the new inquiry into a paedophile network at Westminster .

They claim they were 11 and 13 when they were first taken to “parties” at Dolphin Square, which is a short walk from the Commons and has been home for up to 59 MPs at a time.

Two Tory MPs, one an ex-Cabinet minister, are among the VIPs accused of abusing terrified kids they had first plied with whisky, according to an investigation by website Exaro for the Sunday People.

One of the men told how the MPs held his head under water as they raped him.

He recalled being taken to the riverside block a short walk from the Commons about 10 times over a couple of years either side of 1980.

He was around 11 when he first went there for a Christmas party.

The man said: “Sometimes I would be driven there with other children. On other occasions I would be driven there alone and join other children there.”

But the kids were not allowed to speak to one another, he claimed.

He described being led to a heavily curtained flat via several flights of stairs and a “dimly lit, musty” corridor.

He added: “We were asked if we wanted a drink – but it was always whisky.

“Both MPs were brutal. I was raped over a bath-tub while my head was beneath the water."

House-of-Commons Accusation: the flats are a short walk from the House of Commons


He claimed one MP told him to thrash another lad – and “sexually punished” him when he refused.

He added: “I was held down by a group of men and my feet were stabbed with something.”

One of the abusers was known as the Doctor and he treated any injuries.

The second man said he was about 13 when an MP took him to a “dinner party” for 12 people in the early 80s in a flat with “lots of artwork”.

Several guests left after the meal, he said, but a group of men remained with kids they had brought with them.

He said: “They were boys and girls between 13 and 15.

"The men openly discussed the fact we were young and joked about who had brought along the most attractive boy, like it was a competition.”

He said as soon as he got to know any of the other children they would vanish.

The man added: “You could never make proper friends with them but there was a bond between us all.”

He claimed the kids were often raped after their abusers had watched porn.

And he alleged he was raped by the same ex-Cabinet minister as his fellow accuser.

The shock claims come as the Government is still reeling from a series of reports over two years by the Sunday People and Exaro alleging a secret child-abuse network in corridors of power in the past.

Dolphin Square has long been a place of intrigue.

Previous residents include MI5 chiefs , Soviet spy John Vassall and Nazi traitor William Joyce, known as Lord Haw-Haw.

ThirdPartyView posted:

You can't defame the dead, though?

Not Operator posted:

I wonder if her corpse is too decayed for a Pope Formosus trial.

nuzak posted:

Not to defend Labour, but had they gone through this Butler-Sloss poo poo, heads would have rolled, the media would have seen to that. And that's not even touching on the mountains of other poo poo going on right now, in the recent past, in the last year or even further back. Tory cruelty and incompetence is at an all time high and where is anybody even marking it down, let alone tackling people on it?

Poison Jam posted:

Why does IDS get to stay? WHY?

Whitefish posted:

I don't think it's ridiculous to suggest that Gove's looks could be a factor that determines his political success. I doubt he's been demoted because of his looks today, but I do think that if he was better looking he would be taken more seriously as a candidate for PM.

Saki posted:

Does he actually really upset the right? Are the right dreadfully annoyed at Guardian writers? Somehow I doubt it.

quote:

Former education secretary Michael Gove got stuck in a toilet on the first day of his new job as chief whip.

A light was cast on the embarrassing episode during Labour MP Angela Eagle’s speech in the House of Commons.

She said Gove had ‘got stuck in the toilet in the wrong lobby’ yesterday.

Twitter posted:

New chief whip Gove "got stuck in the toilet in the wrong lobby" yesterday so not a good start says @angelaeagle

Twitter posted:

.@WilliamJHague says Gove being in the toilet shows he was "carrying out his duties very assiduously" as chief whip

To which new commons leader William Hague reportedly commented that he was ‘carrying out his duties very assiduously’.

Westminster figureheads are easing into their new roles after David Cameron announced his most dramatic reshuffle since becoming leader of the Conservatives.

There has been a cull of middle-aged men to make way for women.

Raphus C posted:

I would cap at fewer children but make it non-retrospective. Force people to make better choices rather than penalise people for making choices that they made in the past.