Sally Bercow

I know I was critical about Sally Bercow and her involvment with big brother but she raised 100k for her charity by entering the 'show' so it could be argued that she did well...

Nick Venedi

Cyprus and NATO

Astonishing how two NATO countries have not been able to resolve the conflict they have and by doing so allowing part of Cyprus territory to remain under occupation.

Sally Bercow is out

As predicted previously on this splendid blog Sally Bercow has been the first to be voted out from the big brother household. It would appear that the public wanted to punish the speaker of the commons by sending his wife back to him. Good that she has, however, raised 100k for charities she should be congratulated for that...

Nick Venedi

Get Sally Bercow out

Not that I watch big brother on channel 5 but I have managed to see two repeats on the odd night and judging by what I have seen the non celebrities in the house are definitely not worth watching. But saying that I feel that the 5 people who watch the 'show' (is it a show?) should vote Sally out so that she can go back to her husband and continue arguing about the meaning of life and why the house of commons should be painted grey? Or whatever..

Nick Venedi

Tulisa Contostavlos

Excellent documentary with Tulisa on Tuesday night showing the plight of young carers who take time to look after sick relatives who depend on them. She presented the programme with dignity and also knowledge which comes from being in the same situation herself when she was younger. I hope we will see more of Tulisa in the near future and not just on the x factor. She is great!

Nick Venedi

Hug it forward movement

A charity worth getting involved with

David Beckham

Its official D Beckham was photographed from the back displaying a bare patch on top of his head meaning he is getting bald. It will be amazing to see how he looks like if he loses all his hair! On the other hand, who cares?

Nick Venedi

Sign online pensions petition

Most union members in a pension scheme will be detrimentally affected by the Government's change to a worse measure for increasing pensions when in payment each year.


For some, this change represents a 15% reduction in their benefits. Please sign up to this e-petition to seek to spark a Parliamentary debate. 100,000 signatures are needed for this purpose – at the point of sending this email there were 10,655 signatures so please forward this email on and encourage others to sign the petition as well.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1535

Nick Venedi

Tellyland on Monday, by Nick Venedi

Good telly on tonight Monday is perhaps the only night where British tv is reasonably good with the soaps on and a few good documentaries. Coronation street is my fav followed by dirty sexy things and then Pineapple studios. Stay in and relax and forget about Tony Blairs obsession with himself...

Nick Venedi

X Factor 2011

Really like the fact that Gary Barlow is on the panel this year and also like Tulisa Contostavlos who is fresh and interesting. Lets hope the participants will do their best to impress.

Nick Venedi

Is X factor any good?

Well ex factor to me signifies the beginning of the end of summer and the start of the pre Xmas season. Meaning it starts now and finishes in time for Xmas number one etc.

The programme has been criticised a lot for being too panel orientated and that is true to a large extent but on the other hand it gives people who have some talent the opportunity to exhibit their talents and for us to become armchair critics, so on balance its interesting for providing low quality fun?

Benefit changes to save money

DWP figures revealing that only one in 14 people assessed for the new incapacity benefit will be entitled to claim the payout in the long term showed the changes were designed to save money not help the disabled, the TUC said in response.
The TUC has heard from disabled people all around the UK who feel that the tests have been unfair and ineffective, and was interested to learn that 39 per cent of appeals against the initial judgements were successful.
Further information @
http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-19851-f0.cfm

Pensions petition

Union members are encouraged to sign the online petition which can be found on the government site as shown below

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1535

Nick Venedi

Evictions

I see very little point with evicting those who have been found to be guilty of criminal acts during the riots. These people are thugs but evicting them will not help society, it will simply mean that other councils will have to rehouse them? So how does that resolve a problem? Thought that Cameron was into hugging a hoodie?

Nick Venedi

Diane Abbott

Don't care what anyone says about Diane Abbott and her school preferences the fact is that on the worst day of the riots she put her self out there and did her best to try and calm people down in Hackney, she deserves full respect for that.

Nick Venedi

BBC panels

It is appalling to see that the BBC constantly fails to have women appear on telly programmes. Last nights question time had 6 people on the panel and only one was a woman? Why do we constantly fail with this?

nick venedi

Culture of fear

We must not allow a culture of fear to reign in our streets as a result of the recent riots. Those who committed the criminal acts must be punished severely there are no excuses.

nick venedi

Clapham clean up

Conngratulations to the citizens of Clapham (not subjects) who have taken to the steets to clean up their community area after it was smashed by criminal thugs during the so called riots. Well done to all who gave up their time.

Nick venedi

Benefit changes

DWP figures revealing that only one in 14 people assessed for the new incapacity benefit will be entitled to claim the payout in the long term showed the changes were designed to save money not help the disabled, the TUC said in response.



The TUC has heard from disabled people all around the UK who feel that the tests have been unfair and ineffective, and was interested to learn that 39 per cent of appeals against the initial judgements were successful.

Further information @


nick venedi

Talks continue

Earlier in the month, a meeting of public service unions agreed to extend the TUC negotiations with the Government on pensions.




Further talks will take place centrally, while individual unions were actively considering also participating in scheme-level talks. The TUC made it clear to government that agreement to continue negotiations did not mean that unions had accepted or agreed any of the Government's objectives or the change in indexation from RPI to CPI.

Meanwhile, the TUC said that new Treasury estimates for the cost of future public sector pensions liabilities were 'scary, meaningless' numbers. The figures were a 'nakedly political' attempt by government to strengthen its hand in the negotiations on public sector pensions, after its continued failure to sustain the argument that schemes were unaffordable

Lansley on pensions

A leaked letter from Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander endorsed almost every point unions had made on public sector pensions, the TUC said in response at the end of July.




The letter 'could have been written by any of the union negotiators', the TUC said, adding that Mr Lansley confirmed that the Government was grabbing money from public sector workers to pay down a deficit they did nothing to create.

The Government's approach would have the perverse consequence of making the deficit worse, as the state would still have to pay current schemes but would get no benefit from the contributions of those who leave their schemes.

Back Bombardier call

The Government should reverse its decision to award the Thameslink rolling stock contract to Siemens in Germany in preference to Bombardier in the UK, the TUC and unions urged last month.




Following a meeting with Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, Deputy General Secretary Frances O'Grady expressed grave disappointment that the Government refused to review its decision.



'We were appalled to learn that no jobs impact assessment has been carried out and we have urged the Secretary of State to do so because we believe that the long-term costs to the taxpayer of the loss of thousands of jobs will prove to be more expensive', she said.

Markets panic? by Nick Venedi

Apparently the markets are panicking and the value of shares is going down in the meantime I did not see any evidence of this when I was in Brixton market, the price of bananas was the same as the week before so maybe the markets are just getting bored with life?

Nick Venedi

Italian crisis, Nick Venedi

Looks like the Italian economy is also in trouble. Many were aware of this years ago as the Italian economy is very much a cash economy (especially in the south) Can Italy survive the crisis and if they can how would the Euro be affected?

Nick venedi

SERTUC Women's Rights Committee - Annual Walking Tour

Tuesday 20th September, places are limited to just 25. Take a tour around Belgravia, where at the end of the 19th century, it was also home to an army of domestic servants, most of them women and girls. This tour gives centre stage to the work and lives of cooks, maids and tweenies


http://www.tuc.org.uk/equality/tuc-19889-f0.cfm

One O'Clocl clubs, by Nick Venedi

The O'clock clubs are under threat of closure. Please come to the meeting on the 6 September in Lambeth Town Hall to protest against the proposed closures.

Nick Venedi

Tony Blair, by Nick Venedi

Looks like Tony Blair is back in the news again for the wrong reason. Would appear that he made an agreement with old Bush to go to war in Iraq without telling his cabinet? If that's true then that needs to be looked at?

Nick Venedi