'Bonfire Of The Quangos': Over 100 Bodies Gone

The Coalition says it is on course to make savings of £2.6bn with its cull of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations.

 

The Government's "bonfire of the quangos" has led to 114 public bodies being axed since it came to power, according to a Cabinet Office report.

More than 150 of the 900 organisations that existed in May 2010 are also being merged into fewer than 70.

But the Coalition has also created nine new quangos since the general election.

The most significant is the Office for Budget Responsibility, which produces independent economic forecasts for the Government.

Others include the Independent Commission for Aid Impact and the National Employment Savings Trust.

The influential Commons Public Accounts Committee has previously questioned government claims the reforms will generate savings of £2.6bn.

It warned they were based on "incomplete and imprecise" information.

But in a report entitled Public Bodies 2012 Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude insisted the "bonfire" is having the desired effect.

"By reducing duplication, waste and unnecessary bureaucracy departments tell us they are well on track to reduce the administrative cost of public bodies by at least £2.6bn by 2015," he said.

He went on: "Today's announcement shows we are more transparent about quangos than any Government before.

"But there is still a long way to go and our reviews will routinely test whether each public body is fit for purpose and providing the value for money that the taxpayer expects.

"We can also announce that the workforce numbers in scope of the Public Bodies Reform programme are projected to reduce by approximately 29% over the Spending Review period - more than was expected."

Start-Up Loans Scheme Gets £30m Boost

Thousands more young entrepreneurs could get loans to start their own businesses as the Government announces it is boosting its scheme.

Prime Minister David Cameron said funding for the coalition's Start-Up Loans scheme was being boosted by £30m to £110m over three years.

The age limit for applying was also being raised from 24 to 30 in response to what Downing Street aides said was "high demand".

Number 10 insisted the initiative was on target to issue more than 2,500 loans by March - despite criticism that only a small portion of loans had been finalised since the scheme was formally launched last autumn.

Some 3,000 people are said to have registered an interest in the money and mentoring packages, which are only available in England and being delivered through charities such as The Prince's Trust.

Those whose business plans are deemed "robust" typically receive £2,500, which can be repaid over five years at a relatively low interest rate.

"Start-Up loans are an important part of my mission to back aspiration, and all those young people who want to work hard and get on in life, so this country competes and thrives in the global race," Mr Cameron said.

He said the scheme was a "great way to help this next generation of entrepreneurs get the financial help - and the confidence - to turn that spark of an idea into a growing, thriving business."

James Caan, panellist of the Dragons' Den BBC show and chairman of the company, said: "There has been a major shift in the way business is viewed by the public, and entrepreneurs are now seen as creative and exciting role models".

He added: "I am delighted to see that more and more young people are now looking to set up their own business."

Falklands Row Reopened By President's Letter

The president of Argentina has written an open letter to David Cameron calling once again for him to relinquish British control of the Falkland Islands.

The letter by Cristina Kirchner has appeared as an advertisement in The Guardian newspaper and says Argentina was forcibly stripped of the islands her country calls Las Malvinas in a "blatant exercise of 19th-century colonialism".

The 59-year-old president urged the Prime Minister to abide by United Nations resolutions she says back the Argentinian cause.

Ms Kirchner first made calls for the return of the islands during last year's 30th anniversary of the two countries going to war.

"One hundred and eighty years ago on the same date, January 3, in a blatant exercise of 19th-century colonialism, Argentina was forcibly stripped of the Malvinas Islands, which are situated 14,000km (8700 miles) away from London," she said in the letter, copied to United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

"The Argentines on the Islands were expelled by the Royal Navy and the United Kingdom subsequently began a population implantation process similar to that applied to other territories under colonial rule.

"Since then, Britain, the colonial power, has refused to return the territories to the Argentine Republic, thus preventing it from restoring its territorial integrity.

"The Question of the Malvinas Islands is also a cause embraced by Latin America and by a vast majority of peoples and governments around the world that reject colonialism."

Mr Cameron and Ms Kirchner clashed over the Falklands when the pair came face-to-face at the G20 summit in Mexico last June.

He rejected her demand for negotiations over the sovereignty of the islands and told her that she should respect the result of a referendum due to be held in March, when the Falklanders will vote on whether they wish to retain their ties with Britain.

The Argentine president had earlier taken her demands to the United Nations, appearing at the annual meeting of the little-known UN Decolonisation Committee on the 30th anniversary of Britain's ousting of an Argentinian invasion force from the Falklands.

She used the occasion to reiterate Argentina's opposition to any more wars and to criticise the Prime Minister's decision to mark the day by flying the Falklands flag over Number 10.

In December Argentina protested at Britain's decision to name a vast swathe of Antarctica Queen Elizabeth Land. Its foreign ministry handed a formal protest note to British ambassador John Freeman in Buenos Aires.

The area, which makes up around a third of the British Antarctic Territory, is also claimed by the South American country.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the Falkland Islanders "are British and have chosen to be so".

"They remain free to choose their own futures, both politically and economically, and have a right to self-determination as enshrined in the UN Charter," she added.

"This is a fundamental human right for all peoples.

"There are three parties to this debate, not just two as Argentina likes to pretend.

"The islanders can't just be written out of history.

"As such, there can be no negotiations on the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands unless and until such time as the islanders so wish."

If I were Argentinian, I think I'd be far more concered with inflation that is running at over 20%!

4,000 foreign murderers and rapists we can't throw out. . . and, yes, you can blame human rights again

Government wants to deport them but admits many cannot be kicked out

Thousands cite Human Rights Act that guarantees the 'right to family life'

Parliamentary answer reveals scale of foreign criminals 'living in the community'

Nearly 4,000 foreign murderers, rapists and other criminals are roaming the streets, free to commit new crimes.

The Government wants to deport them but admits that many cannot be kicked out because of their human rights.

A Parliamentary answer reveals that 3,980 foreign criminals who should have been sent back to their country of origin are ‘living in the community’.


Officials say thousands use the Human Rights Act, which guarantees the ‘right to family life’, or fears about violence in the countries they left as a way of dodging deportation.
Around 800 of the foreign criminals have been at large in Britain for more than five years.

 

The revelations last night prompted calls for the Government to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights so that the foreign offenders can be sent home.

Ministers admitted last year that a string of murders and sex attacks have been committed by foreign nationals who should already have been kicked out.

Foreign criminals on immigration bail have committed three murders, three kidnappings and 14 sexual offences, including rape.
Official figures show that there have also been arrests in relation to 27 other ‘violent crimes’ and 64 thefts.

 

Home Office Minister Mark Harper used a Parliamentary written answer to release the most recent figures, recorded at the end of September.

He said: ‘There are 3,980 foreign nationals in the UK subject to deportation action living in the community. We continue to pursue removal in all these cases.

‘The principal barriers to removal are non-compliance on the part of individuals which means we have insufficient evidence of nationality and identity to obtain a travel document, ongoing legal challenges and the situations in countries of return.’

 

Home Secretary Theresa May has issued new guidance to judges saying Section 8 of the Human Rights Act, which guarantees the right to family life, should not override serious criminality in deportation cases.

But critics say that is not enough to solve the problem. Tory MP Priti Patel, who asked the Parliamentary question that led to the publication of the figures, called for the abolition of the Human Rights Act.

She said: ‘Lax immigration and border controls inherited from the previous Labour government have left this mess and the current Government must take all steps necessary, including abolishing the Human Rights Act, to get these people removed from Britain.

‘The public deserve to have a robust immigration system in place to keep them safe instead of laws and rules designed to help foreigners remain in Britain when they should have no right to be here.

‘Hard-pressed taxpayers will be disgusted to learn that they are footing the legal fees and living costs associated with this number of foreigners overstaying their welcome.’

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of MigrationWatch UK, said: ‘This is an extraordinary number. Offenders and their lawyers are clearly playing the legal system.

‘The case for pulling out of the 60-year-old ECHR gets stronger by the day.The Government is trying to give better guidance to the courts but that is most unlikely to have the necessary impact.
'The only long-term solution is to pull out of the ECHR completely and write our own human rights law.’

David Cameron has set up a review into whether a British Bill of Rights could replace the Human Rights Act, but his Lib Dem partners will oppose any move to leave the ECHR.

Ministers say they are speeding up the deportation process.
The average number of days between a foreign national offender finishing his or her sentence and being removed has fallen from 131 days in 2008 to 74 in 2011.

A UK Border Agency spokesman said: ‘We are absolutely determined that any foreign national who fails to abide by our laws should face the consequences and in 2011 we deported more than 4,600 foreign criminals.'

• Illegal immigrants injured five staff during a riot at a detention centre. About 40 detainees were involved in the incident at Morton Hall immigration removal centre in Swinderby, Lincolnshire, on December 30. One detainee was taken to hospital. Up to 50 detainees took part in a protest on Christmas Day, in which no one was hurt.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2256285/4-000-foreign-murderers-rapists-throw--yes-blame-human-rights-again.html#ixzz2GuJsuRd3
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Hollande's France is a preview of Miliband's Britain

To see what a future Miliband government would look like we do not need a crystal ball, we simply need look across the Channel

By Guy Bentley

For all the rhetoric we hear about how Ed Miliband is not really a socialist and can be trusted on the economy, about how he recognises the need for cuts in public spending, Hollande may be the best example of what the reality of a Miliband-run Britain truly is.

In the run up to Hollande’s electoral success, Miliband and the now French President made great play of their closeness on policy issues.

In fact, this is what Miliband had to say when he met Hollande in Paris:

“I think it’s a significant moment… What does the Left have to prove across Europe and indeed in Britain? … That we are the people who can work well in the tough times as well as in the easier times. That’s what he is trying to show in France, and that is what we are trying to show [in Britain]''.

The similarities between the two run deeper than kind words between sister parties. Both believe that what they term 'neo-liberalism' has failed and that the time for the state to come and manage capitalism has come.

Both believe that the economy can be moulded by politicians into ‘desirable’ shapes of fairness or social justice. Ed Miliband has said so much himself: “I'm arguing for a very big reshaping of the way our economy works.” This reshaping will include, among other things, a green industrial revolution.

"To attract the investment we need, governments must cover that risk and commit to a clear goal of decarbonising the power sector by 2030, as the independent Committee on Climate Change has recommended”, said the leader of the opposition. We have all become familiar with what comes with government ‘covering risk’, be it the iron lung of continued subsidies or the disastrous policies of guaranteeing loans which we have seen fail in the United States in cases such as the Solyndra affair.

Both parties have flirted with the idea of nationalisation too. In France we saw the Industry minister threaten the company ArcelorMittal with nationalisation outright, while in Britain Ed Miliband has vowed to take an active role in the energy market and has threatened banks that if they do not separate their retail and investment arms a future Labour government will "break them up".

And let us not forget that Ed Miliband, whilst not campaigning on a 75 percent top tax rate, has opposed the cut in the 50 percent top rate and said he would reverse it, has continuously proposed a bankers’ bonus tax, and is opposing the government’s welfare reforms.

FA Hayek once said, “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.” Sage advice for politicians like Hollande and Miliband who are seemingly incapable of significant restraint when it comes to public spending or confiscatory tax rates. The purpose of both of their political lives is to be compassionate with other people’s money.

In fact there is only one real difference between Ed Miliband and Francois Hollande and that is that one is in office and can carry out his agenda whilst the other cannot.

Should Ed Miliband win the 2015 general election the consequence would be somewhat analogous to a drug addict winning the lottery. He simply would not be able to help himself from gorging on the productivity of the private sector to feed the Labour Party’s addiction to government spending.

2015 is still some time off but to see what a future Miliband government would look like we do not need a crystal ball, we simply need look across the Channel.

Guy Bentley is a Libertarian blogger and a former editorial assistant at the Commentator

Overweight People Could Face Benefit Cuts

Westminster City council has published a report looking at how councils can link benefit payments to claimants' lifestyles.

It describes how some local authorities have begun allowing GPs to prescribe leisure activities like swimming and fitness classes.

It is hoped that by using technology such as smart cards, the use of leisure facilities can be monitored leading to housing and council benefit payouts being cut for those not attempting to lose weight.

The document, written with the think-tank the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU), states: "Where an exercise package is prescribed to a resident, housing and council tax benefit payments could be varied to reward or incentivise residents."

Obesity costs the NHS £5.1bn a year and the number of Britons who are overweight is expected to increase by 10% over the next decade.

In recent years the responsibility for tackling public health has moved back to local government, despite many councils experiencing funding cuts.

Councillor Philippa Roe, Leader of Westminster City Council, said: "Councils have a great opportunity to improve lives by thinking how public health can be integrated into existing local services, this can lead to savings being shared across the entire public sector.

"This report contains exactly the sort of bright, forward-thinking and radical ideas that need to be looked at."

Boris CUTS Council Tax again for Londoners

Good news for Council Taxpayers in the capital. The Mayor of London Boris Johnson is cutting his share of the Council Tax precept by In his draft budget the Mayor sets out his intention to reduce the Greater London Authority share of the Council Tax bill by 1.2% from April. If the budget is approves it means the bill for a Band D property falling from £306.72 to £303.00. It follows a 1% cut in this financial year.

It means Boris has either frozen or reduced the precept every year since his election in 2008. He is pledged to reduce the GLA share of the council tax bill by 10 per cent over his second term as Mayor; and has already cut his share by 20 per cent in real terms since becoming Mayor.

The budget plans to maintain the police at 32,000 while rationalising the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade buildings.

Boris says:

“Against a difficult economic background my planned budget will cut council tax while making significant strides in growing our economy, fighting crime and improving transport. Next year the Government will carry out its spending review and I will continue to champion the capital to ensure we get the funding necessary to support the economy and quality of life in this great city.”

Now if only we had a Council in Eastbourne so serious about putting money back into the pockets of local residents???