In the news this week:
Tour de France costs us £6.8m- "The 94th race will have
its "Grand Départ" in London on Saturday... Starting the tour in Britain has
cost £6.8 million, including a £1.5 million fee for the event's organisers.
Transport for London has stumped up £3.2 million and the London Development
Agency a further £2.4 million. Remaining costs will be met by Kent, Canterbury
and Medway councils, UK Sport, Sport England, British Cycling and the South East
of England Development Agency." (S
Telegraph 1.7.07)
£700 takeaways for prisoners- "Police stations are
spending thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money on takeaway food for prisoners
held in their cells because of prison
overcrowding. Police officers are buying the take-outs for
overspill prisoners because they do not have time to cook for them. One station,
at Halesworth, in Suffolk, spent £700 a week on takeaways for inmates, the BBC
reported." (Telegraph
25.6.07)
£3.8bn pa on EU brainwashing campaign- "The European
Union is spending £3.8 billion a year on "propaganda" to win over its sceptical
citizens, it is claimed. As well as publishing a plethora of pamphlets and
employing an army of public relations staff, the EU has spent hundreds of
millions of pounds on teaching aids, school trips and even cartoons... Let's
Explore Europe Together, an online teaching aid aimed at nine to 12-year-olds,
describes the EU as a "really good plan that had never been tried before". The
European Parliament has also funded a cartoon called Operation Red Dragon,
featuring a daring, fictitious MEP, Elisa Correr, who becomes "embroiled in a
risky and fascinating adventure while in pursuit of her parliamentary
activities". (Sunday
Telegraph 1.7.07)
Yet another useless NHS website for £15m- "Doctors have
accused the Government of needlessly stoking anxiety among the "worried well" by
launching a website that predicts which illnesses people are likely to fall
victim to. The new NHS Choices website features a "health profile",
based on an individual's age, sex and postcode, which calculates the five
serious conditions most likely to lead to him or her being hospitalised. The
website reveals that a 40-year-old woman living in Westminster, central London,
is most likely to be hospitalised for breast cancer. A man of the same age,
living in the same area, is most likely to suffer a hernia. If the pair moved to
Manchester, however, the man is most likely to be struck down by heart disease,
while the woman would most likely find herself facing gynaecological procedures.
Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association, accused the
Government of offering patients "totally misleading and useless" information
which only increases anxiety. The Patients Association described the
£15 million website as "an absolute nonsense". (S
Telegraph 1.7.07)
Total for week- £3,821,800,700
- Mike Denham
In the news this week:
Tour de France costs us £6.8m- "The 94th race will have
its "Grand Départ" in London on Saturday... Starting the tour in Britain has
cost £6.8 million, including a £1.5 million fee for the event's organisers.
Transport for London has stumped up £3.2 million and the London Development
Agency a further £2.4 million. Remaining costs will be met by Kent, Canterbury
and Medway councils, UK Sport, Sport England, British Cycling and the South East
of England Development Agency." (S
Telegraph 1.7.07)
£700 takeaways for prisoners- "Police stations are
spending thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money on takeaway food for prisoners
held in their cells because of prison
overcrowding. Police officers are buying the take-outs for
overspill prisoners because they do not have time to cook for them. One station,
at Halesworth, in Suffolk, spent £700 a week on takeaways for inmates, the BBC
reported." (Telegraph
25.6.07)
£3.8bn pa on EU brainwashing campaign- "The European
Union is spending £3.8 billion a year on "propaganda" to win over its sceptical
citizens, it is claimed. As well as publishing a plethora of pamphlets and
employing an army of public relations staff, the EU has spent hundreds of
millions of pounds on teaching aids, school trips and even cartoons... Let's
Explore Europe Together, an online teaching aid aimed at nine to 12-year-olds,
describes the EU as a "really good plan that had never been tried before". The
European Parliament has also funded a cartoon called Operation Red Dragon,
featuring a daring, fictitious MEP, Elisa Correr, who becomes "embroiled in a
risky and fascinating adventure while in pursuit of her parliamentary
activities". (Sunday
Telegraph 1.7.07)
Yet another useless NHS website for £15m- "Doctors have
accused the Government of needlessly stoking anxiety among the "worried well" by
launching a website that predicts which illnesses people are likely to fall
victim to. The new NHS Choices website features a "health profile",
based on an individual's age, sex and postcode, which calculates the five
serious conditions most likely to lead to him or her being hospitalised. The
website reveals that a 40-year-old woman living in Westminster, central London,
is most likely to be hospitalised for breast cancer. A man of the same age,
living in the same area, is most likely to suffer a hernia. If the pair moved to
Manchester, however, the man is most likely to be struck down by heart disease,
while the woman would most likely find herself facing gynaecological procedures.
Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association, accused the
Government of offering patients "totally misleading and useless" information
which only increases anxiety. The Patients Association described the
£15 million website as "an absolute nonsense". (S
Telegraph 1.7.07)
Total for week- £3,821,800,700
- Mike Denham