Ash from Iceland’s Grimsvötn volcano could affect Heathrow by the end of the weekThis article titled “Ash cloud moves towards UK airspace” was written by Dan Milmo and Adam Gabbatt, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 23rd May 2011 10.04 UTCAirlines and airports have been warned to expect ash from an erupting Icelandic volcano to arrive in UK airspace by Tuesday, with the possibility that it could affect Heathrow airport by the end of the week.The safety watchdog for British airlines and airports, the Civil Aviation Authority, said today that particles from the Grimsvötn volcano could reach Scotland by midnight tonight and western England by Thursday or Friday, depending on wind direction.If airspace in western England, Ireland and the Atlantic is affected by the smoke plume transatlantic flights in and out of Heathrow could suffer delays later this week as planes are diverted around the most dense parts of the cloud.However, the Civil Aviation Authority said it was confident that a new Europe-wide safety regime introduced after the Eyjafjallajökull eruption last year would reduce disruption significantly and avoid the continental shutdown that stranded millions. Under the new operating procedures, it is understood that the effect of last year’s plume on commercial routes would have been 75% smaller.Nonetheless, some disruption is expected as airplanes divert around the heaviest parts of the cloud. According to the latest forecasts, Inverness and Aberdeen are the most likely airports to suffer disruption tomorrow, although the most accurate estimates can only predict six hours ahead.“Our number one priority is to ensure the safety of people both on board aircraft and on the ground. We can’t rule out disruption, but the new arrangements that have been put in place since last year’s ash cloud mean the aviation sector is better prepared and will help to reduce any disruption in the event that volcanic ash affects UK airspace,” said Andrew Haines, CAA chief executive.Under previous guidelines, aircraft were summarily grounded if there was any volcanic ash in the air. Now, airlines can fly through ash plumes if they can demonstrate that their fleets can handle medium or high-level densities of ash.The Met Office’s volcanic ash advisory centre will identify the density and location of the cloud, aided by satellite images, weather balloons and a radar specially installed for monitoring purposes in Iceland last year. Once those zones are relayed to airlines, they will need to prove that they can fly through them by producing “safety cases” that will include information from aircraft and engine manufacturers on the airline’s tolerance to volcanic ash.A CAA spokesman said all major UK airlines already had safety preparations for medium-density ash clouds.“We are in a much better position than last time,” he said. “Safety will still be paramount but we will be able to drastically reduce disruption compared to last time, provided there is not a huge amount of high-density ash.” The spokesman said a similar level of ash to the Eyjafjallajökull incident would not result in a mass-grounding. “It will be a different picture.” However, jets will have to divert around high-density clouds, causing delays on some routes, because no UK airline has submitted a safety case for flying through heavy ash plumes.BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports, has convened a crisis support team to prepare for a reduction in flights, as airlines and airports await a further briefing from Eurocontrol and the UK air traffic controller, Nats. “We are working closely with the CAA and Nats in preparing contingency plans if ash enters UK airspace,” it said.Under the new ash guidelines, cloud densities are split into three levels: low, medium and high. Once the Met Office assigns a particular density of ash to a section of airspace, airlines must prove they have the safety case to fly through it. A low density cloud is 2g of ash per 10 cubic metres of air, with medium being 2g to 4g of ash per 10 cubic metres. Anything above 4g is deemed high density.The Grimsvötn volcano began erupting on Sunday, causing flights to be cancelled at Iceland’s main Keflavik airport after it sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam 12 miles into the air. Experts have said the eruption was unlikely to have the dramatic impact that the Eyjafjallajökull volcano had in April 2010.“At the moment if the volcano continues to erupt to the same level it has been, and is now, the UK could be at risk of seeing volcanic ash later this week,” said Helen Chivers, a Met Office spokeswoman. “Quite when and how much we can’t really define at the moment.”She said the weather situation was likely to be different from last year, with the wind direction set to change continuously. She added: “If it moves in the way that we’re currently looking, with the eruption continuing the way it is, then if the UK is at risk later this week, then France and Spain could be as well.”While the ash has grounded aircraft in Iceland, it is not anticipated that it will have a similar impact in the rest of Europe.Dr Dave McGarvie, volcanologist at the Open University, said the amount of ash reaching the UK was “likely to be less than in the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption”, and the last two times Grimsvötn erupted it had not affected UK air travel.“In addition, the experience gained from the 2010 eruption, especially by the Met Office, the airline industry, and the engine manufacturers, should mean less disruption to travellers,” he said.The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in south-east Iceland in April 2010 caused the worst disruption to international air travel since 9/11. Flights across Europe were cancelled for six days, stranding tens of thousands of people, and the eruption was estimated to have cost airlines £130m a day.Eurocontrol said in a statement: “There is currently no impact on European or transatlantic flights and the situation is expected to remain so for the next 24 hours. Aircraft operators are constantly being kept informed of the evolving situation.” guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogAsh cloud moves towards UK airspaceRelated posts:How to pronounce EyjafjallajoekullAsh Grounds Planes, Rest Of World Cut OffTag Cloud
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Ash cloud moves towards UK airspace
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/23/ash-cloud-moves-towards-uk-airspace
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May 23 2011, 4:09pm | Comments »
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Never has London’s atmosphere as a rich city-state felt so extreme
Geographically, never mind socially, we are not all in this together. Life in London feels different to anywhere outside. By London, though, we are only talking about a small area of central, west and north london. Out in the banlieu, you might as well be in Bradford.
This article titled “Never has London’s atmosphere as a rich city-state felt so extreme” was written by Ian Jack, for The Guardian on Saturday 16th April 2011 07.30 UTC In Bradford on a winter’s night 25 years ago, I stood in front of an estate agent’s window and made a calculation. For the price of our terrace house in north London – two up and two down and a bit of garden at the back – I could buy 10 similar houses in Bradford. This month I read that Burnley has the lowest property prices in England, and made another calculation. For the price of our London house I could buy 40 houses in Burnley that were averagely cheap and 80 of the very cheapest. This doesn’t mean that the differential in house prices between London and northern England has grown by more than 400% since 1986. I live in a bigger house now, and Burnley isn’t Bradford. But the gap is certainly widening: according to Halifax figures, houses in Newcastle-on-Tyne cost on average 28.8% less than they did in 2007, while in Islington they’ve risen 9.7% in the past year after changing very little – up or down – in the previous two. I look at pictures of the cheap houses in Burnley. They’re Victorian terraces. Their doors open straight on to the street, but they look solidly built from Pennine stone, no frills, but handsome. I imagine workers came home to them from cotton mills. Our house is certainly more imposing, three floors rather than two, with bow windows and ornamental red brick. But it has shallow foundations in London clay, so whether it’s sturdier is doubtful. I imagine someone who earned money in a suit, a senior clerk or a shopkeeper, first moved in when the terrace was completed in 1890. Without substantial inherited wealth, not even two-income families in the modern equivalent of those jobs could move in now. Newspapers sometimes write that the coalition cabinet contains “18 millionaires” as though it were a peculiar outrage, but everybody who’s paid off their mortgage in my street is a millionaire, if property is counted among their assets. And I stress that this is an ordinary street; until 30 or 40 years ago, a schoolteacher or a Fleet Street sub-editor could have afforded a house here. What explains my good fortune? To some extent many of my generation share it, especially if they worked in a trade or profession that blossomed in the 1980s (better, on the whole, to have been a national-newspaper journalist than a mechanical engineer). Most people I know have grander homes than their parents, no matter where they live in the United Kingdom. If they live in favoured parts of cities such as Edinburgh and Leeds, their homes are often enviable for their architecture and space. Only the very grandest of them, however, could be swapped for 40 cheap houses in Burnley. Above every other consideration – career, age – the combination of judgement and happenstance that made me a London house-owner is what explains my relative wealth. To a certain degree, this is an old story, and common to every metropolis. Moving to London four decades ago, I discovered one-bedroom flats were double the price of those I’d left behind in Glasgow. But then the 1980s arrived and the British economy’s centre of gravity shifted sharply (and to date, permanently) south. Between 1979 and 1986, jobs in manufacturing industry declined by almost two million; 94% of jobs lost in every sector in those years were north of a line drawn between the Wash and the Bristol Channel. The traditional idea of Britain – one taught in school geography books – was a country that made its money in the midlands and the north (including Scotland, and not forgetting Wales) and spent the profits mainly in the south. But now both the generation and consumption of wealth grew concentrated in the same place, and the north-south divide suddenly marked something more fundamental than dialects and traditions. It was during this time, soon after the miners’ strike, that I stood with a notebook in a Bradford street and worked out the house price ratio. I wondered then if it could last. It didn’t seem possible that it could get worse – and for several years around the turn of the century it didn’t. Public spending financed by European grants and taxes raised in the City of London secured for many northern towns at least the suggestion of a viable future, if viability is measured in warehouse conversions, art galleries, warm cappuccino and rising property costs. The crash has since jeopardised all these simulacra of metropolitan living. The odd thing – the unfair thing, considering where the crash originated – is that the metropolis itself is immune. Geographically, never mind socially, we are not all in this together. Life in London now feels different to anywhere outside, as though you leave through city gates at turn-offs on the M25. Never has its atmosphere as a rich city-state felt so extreme. “Revenues have bounced back and we are again seeing strong sales growth. The outlook for the UK as a whole may be gloomy but I think the long-term prospects for London, especially with the Olympics, are very good.” These are the words of Des Gunewardena, who runs a chain of expensive restaurants (Le Pont de la Tour, Quaglino’s) and I read them last week in the Evening Standard, underneath the headline, “Surge in dining out feeds a flurry of restaurant launches”, next to a picture of Sienna Miller arriving at Sheekey’s. Each in the list of a dozen new restaurants still to open has the name of a chef attached. One of those already opened, the Pollen Street Social in Mayfair, took 5,000 calls looking for reservations in its first day. Beyond the hope that manufacturing industry can rebalance the economy, and the faraway prospect of a high-speed rail line to Birmingham, no government strategy exists to spread this wealth further north. The political tone is southern – look at the party leaders, or many of the Labour candidates parachuted to northern seats. It has been left to the BBC to do a little social engineering by – bravely or foolishly – relocating departments to Salford, Cardiff and Glasgow, so that half of its output will be produced outside London by 2016. Will better programmes result? Very few BBC staff seem to think so; on the evidence of BBC2′s Review Show, now made in Glasgow, extra expense in travel and hotel costs looks the likeliest difference. But three formerly great industrial cities will have BBC budgets and salaries added to their troubled economies; there will be job opportunities; the middle class in each place should grow a little larger. The staff who refuse to go are easily mocked. Haven’t they heard about the better quality of life, the Lowry, the easily accessed countryside, the “creative buzz” that’s now reported along the banks of the Clyde and the Manchester ship canal? Their reluctance to move is usually expressed in personal and professional terms: of not wanting to interrupt their children’s education, or being too far away from their show’s guests. But perhaps among their worries there’s something less easy to define; that by quitting London they’re removing themselves from its cultural, political and economic heft, which has grown so remorselessly and, whether or not BBC Breakfast gets done in Salford, will carry on regardless. The country’s centrifuge: both awful and interesting.
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Related posts:Compensation is only for the rich To us, it’s an obscure shift of tax law. To the City, it’s the heist of the century Arc Royal to extend London City Airport
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April 16 2011, 11:21am | Comments »
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Talk About Local Unconference 2011 gets under way in Cardiff
Tweets and news from the first Talk About Local unconference to take place in Cardiff, Wales – looking at issues around local publishing 2011
This article titled “Talk About Local Unconference 2011 gets under way in Cardiff” was written by Hannah Waldram, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 2nd April 2011 13.53 UTC Community publishers met in Cardiff today to talk about issues surrounding promoting your local area online. The first Talk About Local Unconference to take place in Wales, roughly 80 people met at the Atrium in Adamsdown for a day of tea, coffee, tweeting and sessions on all issues which affect local bloggers. Sessions, organised ad hoc in an ‘unconference’ style, looked at hyperlocal bloggers and councils, elections, law, issues around content, making money and supporting each other in a community were all discussed throughout the day. Attendees included Twitterers, bloggers, web publishers, photographers and anyone with an interest in producing content online about a place important to them – travelling from Edinburgh, Leeds, Isle of Wight, London and across the UK. Session topics were pitched and then posted onto a day schedule to run throughout the day. Networking and chatting among hyperlocal publishers will continue into the evening at Gwdihw Cafe Bar. The event was supported by Guardian Local and Rightmove. We’ve been tweeting from the event today along with others on Twitter using the hashtag #TAL11. Scroll down this Storify to follow tweets from the beginning of the day. Also see this live blog from Talk About Local here. If you went to the unconference or have any comments about it – feel free to leave them in the comment box below.
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April 2 2011, 3:00pm | Comments »
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UK Uncut’s fears over clampdown on black bloc tactics
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/01/uk-uncuts-fears-over-clampdown-on-black-bloc-tactics
Activists from UK Uncut and the Black Bloc are concerned that Theresa May’s vow to curb further violence may impinge on the group’s direct action protests
This article titled “UK Uncut’s fears over clampdown on black bloc tactics” was written by Robert Booth, for The Guardian on Friday 1st April 2011 20.54 UTC TV news footage of last Saturday’s protests focused on anarchists using black bloc tactics to smash bank windows and attack shops, but the arrest of 145 activists from UK Uncut, a completely separate group who occupied Fortnum & Mason, grabbed the headlines. The result was a blurring in many people’s minds between the two groups, which threatens to hamper UK Uncut’s ability to operate, especially after the home secretary, Theresa May, ordered a review of police powers to handle public demonstrations following the weekend’s violent disorder. There are clear differences between the two groupings: black bloc anarchists condone violence and want to smash the system, while UK Uncut supporters promote peaceful direct action, with a particular focus on the reform of tax laws that allow avoidance by big business. Many UK Uncut supporters emerged from the Climate Camp movement. Their trademark tactic is a sit-down protest in a shop owned by an allegedly tax-avoiding company. Spiky v fluffy, some observers say, although Boris Johnson claimed the Uncut activists at Fortnum & Mason “stormed that building, terrified the staff, upset the customers and caused tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage”. Confusion with the black bloc was compounded when a UK Uncut spokeswoman refused to condemn violent direct action when she appeared on BBC2′s Newsnight. Now UK Uncut is worried that talk of a crackdown to curb further violence could impinge on its activities, which this weekend are planned in Bangor, Barnstaple, Edinburgh, London and Oxford. “Theresa May’s comments are quite worrying,” said a spokesman. “She seemed to imply that anyone who goes beyond marching would be criminalised and that would be dangerous. Our actions are direct but we consider them creative civil disobedience.
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April 1 2011, 5:53pm | Comments »
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What to see: Lyn Gardner’s theatre tips
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/01/what-to-see-lyn-gardners-theatre-tips
Arts Council cuts have hit many of this week’s theatre companies, from Shared Experience to Manchester’s Greenroom. All the more important to go on theatre breaks and see them – now.
This article titled “What to see: Lyn Gardner’s theatre tips” was written by Lyn Gardner, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 1st April 2011 14.06 UTC There’s plenty of great theatre around this week, but the question after this week’s cuts is whether the same will be true in five years’ time – or even a year. The Arts Council is not to blame for the hand it’s been dealt by the government, but has it really done enough to realign the landscape and redirect money away from the haves to the have-nots? Most importantly, has ACE’s strategic thinking been as robust as it needs to be to ensure that theatre continues to thrive and audiences grow both in numbers and diversity? So let’s start What to see this week with fine companies who have been unlucky in the recent funding round. Shared Experience have been excluded from the National Portfolio but who – as their multi-layered production Brontë confirms – can deliver probing and beautiful work. Catch it at Oxford Playhouse until tomorrow, and then at London’s Tricycle Theatre from next Tuesday. Another casualty – and one of several small touring companies who have been cut, including Northumberland Theatre Company and Oxfordshire Theatre Co – is Forest Forge, which is out on the road playing village halls and venues with Peeling (tonight at the Lighthouse, Poole). Then there’s Manchester’s Greenroom, which for 28 years has been supporting artists making performance and live art in a city dominated by the Royal Exchange, and who are this week playing host to Kings of England and Levantes Dance Theatre through their Method Lab, a scheme that previously helped nurture Nic Green’s Trilogy and Drunken Chorus. Remove the venue, and where do the artists find the support they need? Despite an 11% cut for many organisations, regional theatre buildings are going to have to do a great deal more to nurture talent, support companies and present work. Feeling the pinch will be no excuse and it can’t be business as usual. Every bit of theatre is now reliant on collaboration. This week Coventry’s Belgrade theatre, which took almost a 15% hit, has a new version of Uncle Vanya, which will then transfer to London’s Arcola (which, with an 82% rise, was one of the day’s big winners). North in Bolton, the Octagon opens its tale of local hero and steeplejack Fred Dibnah, The Demolition Man, in the same week that its highly acclaimed revival of The Price transfers to the Stephen Joseph, which says goodbye to Paines Plough’s touring show, Love Love Love, which in turns is heading into the West Yorkshire Playhouse. It’s all connected, and my hunch is that it will have to be more so in the years ahead. Staying in the north, Birmingham Rep’s teenage drama of life and death, Notes to Future Self, goes into the Royal Exchange Studio, the excellent Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf continues at Sheffield Crucible before heading to Northern Stage, and Alan Bennett’s tale of the woman who took up residence in his garden, Lady in the Van, is revived at Hull Truck. While we’re in Yorkshire, do think about booking for Harrogate’s Two’s Company Festival in May, a mini version of BAC’s brilliant One-on-One Festival, which features Laura Mugridge’s delightful camper van show, Running on Air, a new piece by Analogue, and Tea is an Evening Meal, a collaboration between Northern Stage and Third Angel, (the latter very mysteriously cut by ACE). Two successes in the funding round are Freedom Studios who are behind Mill – City of Dreams in Bradford, and Theatre in the Mill, which this weekend offers the interactive thriller, The Falling Sickness, and follows it with Instant Dissidence’s One on One, When Night Falls, from Tuesday. Let’s head further south to the Royal and Derngate in Northampton, where Rattigan’s In Praise of Love opens next week, and from there into London, where the lively young Colombian circus, Circolombia, which is made up of former street kids, returns to the Roundhouse (another funding winner). Looking ahead, at the Roundhouse you should be booking for The Fat Girl Gets a Haircut and Other Stories, Mark Storor’s participatory show made with teenagers. The Almeida may have suffered a substantial 39% funding cut, but it still gets £704,000, which should be more than enough to ensure that it continues projects such as Crawling in the Dark, a new play for young people inspired by the current main house hit, David Eldridge’s addiction drama, The Knot of the Heart. Soho Theatre – another significant loser but with new artistic director Steve Marmion at the helm – has Bryony Kimmings’ Sex Idiot, a tale of STDs and pubic hair. Ireland’s Abbey Theatre bring Mark O’Rowe’s play about Dublin life Terminus to the Young Vic, which has a small uplift in funding. Cheek by Jowl take their Russian Tempest into the Barbican. Tim Etchells and Ant Hampton collaborate on The Quiet Volume, a unique experience in a library as part of the London Word Festival and check out Chisenhale Art Club, which always happens on the first Wednesday of the month. I rather like the sound of Hotel Confessions, too, which is performed in a Bermondsey hotel. Just outside London, Lee Hall’s terrific The Pitmen Painters sets off from the Theatre Royal in Windsor on a nationwide tour. Derek Jacobi’s King Lear is at the Theatre Royal in Bath. Fevered Sleep’s delightful children’s show And the Rain Falls Down goes into Bristol Old Vic, Comedy of Errors continues at the Tobacco Factory, Journey’s End goes into the Theatre Royal in Brighton and at the Basement choreographer Ivana Muller considers her place on the stage in 60 Minutes of Opportunism. Circus did well in the funding shake-up and its happy birthday to Circomedia in Bristol who are celebrating in style. Marivaux’s A Game of Love and Chance opens at Salisbury Playhouse. In Scotland – which is, of course, unaffected by ACE funding decisions – Liz Lochhead’s Educating Agnes, a version of Molière’s School for Wives, is at the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh. Elsewhere in the capital, the Jimmy Boyle-inspired The Hard Man is at the King’s, and Catherine Wheels’ new version of Beauty and the Beast, Caged, is at the Traverse today before moving to Aberdeen’s Lemon Tree tomorrow, with more tour dates to follow. Head to The Arches in Glasgow from Tuesday for a double showcase of award-winning work, which includes Me and the Machine’s dislocating love story When We Meet Again, Claire Duffy’s Money… the Game Show, Thickskin’s tale of teenage catastrophe, Blackout, and Gareth Nicholls’ Pause With a Smile, which lingers on everyday coincidences.
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April 1 2011, 3:47pm | Comments »
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FE colleges hit by more cuts
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/28/fe-colleges-hit-by-more-cuts
The principal at Barking and Dagenham College and others speak out against the cuts.
This article titled “FE colleges hit by more cuts” was written by Andrew Mourant, for The Guardian on Monday 28th February 2011 17.30 UTC College principals were still reeling from the news that the EMA was being scrapped when the Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA) announced that so-called entitlement funding, which covers the cost of pastoral care, tutorials and extracurricular activities for 16- to 19-year-olds, was also to be cut. The news, which slipped out quietly just a few days before Christmas, came as a big blow for college leaders. Many were left wondering how they would fund the extras, such as work experience and volunteering programmes, that make all the difference in getting young people into work and higher education. Chopping back the annual provision from 114 to 30 funded hours will hit students hard at all levels, say principals. The most academically able students competing for Russell Group university places could struggle to access the kind of extracurricular activities that impress admissions tutors. Meanwhile, those getting a taste of real work at college – for example, those on enterprise programmes reliant on entitlement funding – may see such opportunities shrink. Asha Khemka, principal of West Nottinghamshire College, has described the move as “more serious than losing the EMA”. College leaders are still working out what may have to give. Nationally, £650m is being cut, although the government claims £150m will be redirected to benefit the poorest learners. Some principals are reluctant to talk about the impact: they are, after all, in the competitive business of trying to woo students. But from those who did speak to Education Guardian, snapshots emerge of rich provision at risk and difficult choices to be made. Alton College Alton is determined its high-flying sixth-formers will continue to get coaching in subjects such as digital photography and Russian to help them get into the top universities, but the principal, Jane Machell, fears “this could be at the expense of other things”. The college may also have to consider ending funding for gifted English literature students keen to attend creative writing and poetry workshops. Alton will also consider whether it can afford to continue running the Duke of Edinburgh’s award scheme and the full scope of its music provision. “We had a student last year who went to Trinity College of Music and played in five different ensembles here,” says Machell. “He wouldn’t have got in without that. We wouldn’t axe all of them, but we have to look at the breadth and range of what we run.” Barking and Dagenham College This college serves one of the country’s most deprived areas. The principal, Cathy Walsh, says entitlement funding cuts of about £1.7m will have “a devastating impact on our ability to deliver educational priorities”. For instance, Barking and Dagenham is one of only a few colleges investing heavily in “motivational dialogue” – coaching sessions where staff work to raise learners’ aspirations by getting them to reflect on the need to change and then helping them to take the necessary steps to do so. Success stories include one student with behavioural problems who changed his outlook on life and went on to lead a fundraising project for Children in Need. The college regards this as essential rather than optional work in a borough that has the country’s third-lowest literacy rate. “Many fall into the ‘at risk’ category and we find this improves their chances of success by up to 60%,” says Walsh. The college also has a strong focus on personal coaching, setting individual targets to improve academic performance. But all this draws on staff time and money, and the college faces hard choices about how far it can all keep running. Another distinctive programme is the Enterprise Academy, which secures “real work” from within the college and externally. “This helps to shape vocational and professional skills, all of which makes our learners much more attractive to employers,” says Walsh. The scheme currently has 70 projects on its books, from providing artwork and installations for a Metropolitan Police building, to catering and car-park marshalling. It has also won contracts to provide hospitality, and for landscaping and graphic design at Barking business centre. All this offers a taste of genuine work in an area that has the country’s second-highest level of neets (young people not in education, employment or training) and where youth unemployment stands at 18%. But such projects could suffer, says Walsh. Greenhead Sixth-Form College, Huddersfield Greenhead has a strong academic tradition – last year 32 students received Oxbridge offers. The principal, Martin Rostron, says the college will do all it can to maintain the tutorials, coaching and work-shadowing opportunities it offers to help A-level candidates compete with pupils from independent schools. But, he adds, “the little things that make a difference [to education] will have to go, left, right and centre”. The college also has a strong tradition of sporting excellence.Recently, two students were picked for the British Colleges hockey squad, and its football team was crowned West Yorkshire college champions. “Every year we get requests from sports associations asking us to support our students who have made it into the national squads,” says Rostron. “But where I might budget £1,500 for that this year, it won’t be there in future.” Competing at the highest level means Greenhead sports teams have to travel for fixtures. But, with reduced funding, such opportunities will be fewer. Meanwhile, quirky but highly regarded projects such as circus skills, which the college has helped to subsidise, will also be cut back. King George V Sixth-Form College, Southport The Duke of Edinburgh’s (DofE) award scheme, long at the heart of the college’s extracurricular activities, may be axed, a situation described by the principal, Adele Wills, as “very grim”. King George currently has more than 60 students taking part and could probably double that number, says Wills. Three members of staff are involved, along with an alumni association that regularly donates equipment. “Students go on great expeditions that teach leadership skills and endurance,” says Wills. “It’s part of the college’s ethos. It looks now as if the only viable option is to charge them. It’s a dilemma – if you can afford to buy it, you’ll always get it – but if you can’t, then you won’t.” The college faces a double squeeze because Sefton council is also withdrawing funding for DofE activities and Wills is concerned the scheme may disappear from the college altogether. North Warwickshire and Hinckley College This college, which has many students from deprived areas, has a well-developed programme of personal tutorials to discuss sexual health, drug and alcohol misuse, and personal finance that are “all essential to helping young people remain in education”, says the principal, Marion Plant, who faces losing £1.3m in entitlement funding over the next year. She is anxious to protect pastoral care but is now considering running more group rather than one-to-one tutorials, and, on occasion, using volunteers rather than paid staff. Students, many of whom cannot afford it, could face contributing more towards trips. Meanwhile, the college will double its efforts to create extra income through commercial activities such as running a market stall. Wigan and Leigh College Managing work experience for students to support their university applications may have to stop, says the principal, Cath Hurst. “We’ve placed students wanting to do medicine in hospitals, and those hoping for a career in law in the crown court. One who wanted to do a degree in forensic science went to a local undertaker to see if he could cope with dead bodies,” she says. Entitlement funding has given staff the time to arrange all this. They visit placements, check health and safety and hours of work, and, where necessary, carry out CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks, essential for working with children and vulnerable adults – all of it time-consuming. “The removal of funding means students will have to arrange these visits independently, and, for some, it will be hard,” says Hurst. “Sports, trips, music, drama, things that help people become a rounded individual, are also at risk.” York College As York comes to terms with entitlement funding cuts of £1.8m this year, it has become increasingly difficult to offer students involvement in volunteering projects, according to the deputy principal, Graeme Murdoch. “As a result, they’re having to use their own time,” he says. “However, due to the rising costs of education, many are devoting their spare time to part-time jobs.” In the past, the college has been able to react to “things that look good on the CV” – for instance, helping to create a local playground, or giving time to a hospice. “We had the capacity within the timetable, but we know we won’t now be able to,” says Murdoch. Careers education and guidance has also been hit, along with work placements and trips to universities that offer a taste of what higher education is all about and the choices available. Cuts will also prevent some students from taking part in sport and music.
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February 28 2011, 11:45am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Protesters target Barclays over tax avoidance
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/19/protesters-barclays-tax-avoidance-ukuncut-bail-in
UK Uncut How to do a Bail-In
This article titled “Protesters target Barclays over tax avoidance” was written by Tracy McVeigh and Andrew Clark, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 19th February 2011 15.53 UTC Protestors have targeted more than 35 branches of Barclays bank with pickets, poetry readings and even children’s colouring competitions, in another of a series of days of direct action organised by the UK Uncut group. They were highlighting Barclays’ admission that it paid just £113m in UK corporation tax in 2009 – a year when it rang up a record £11.6bn of profits. Several branches were closed down to the public as protesters staged peaceful sit-ins, impromptu reading groups and creches in dozens of cities and towns across Britain including Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool and Lewes. At Tottenham Court Road, one of eight branches of Barclays in London to be targeted, some 40 to 50 people heard comedienne Josie Lawrence pledge her support before a mixed group of people, both old and young, pushed their way into the branch and proceeded to hold a two hour sit-in. Supporters of UK Uncut said the plan was not to shut the banks down but to “open them up”, occupy them and transform them into “something people need but will be cut”. Ruth Griffiths, 36, a UK Uncut supporter, said: “Today we are transforming the banks into schools, leisure centres and libraries and forests because it’s society that’s too big to fail, not a broken banking system.” The group staged “debate” points outside several of the branches and invited passers-by to discuss the cuts and the banks. Most of the gathered volunteers said people were angry at the refusal of Barclays’ chief executive, Bob Diamond, to apologise for the banks’ role in the economic crisis and saying the time for remorse was now over. Barclays has been accused of occupying a “parallel universe” following disclosure that it paid £113m of corporation tax on its £11.6bn of annual profits – a rate amounting to 1%. The bank revealed the figure in response to questions posed at a parliamentary select committee by Labour MP Chuka Umunna, who described its low level as “quite staggering”. It was a view shared by UK uncut supporters at the branch protests. One said: “We are here today because we are tired of companies ripping off the public and using economies of scale and clever accounting laws to get away with not paying taxes. “We are tired of us paying into the public sector and seeing our public sector decimated while corporations are effectively getting away with theft. It’s legal but immoral.” Emma Draper, 25, who was outside Piccadilly Circus Barclays, said: “The government is allowing banks such as Barclays to get away with not paying huge percentages of their taxes while at the same time slashing public services. “The cuts are not necessary, they are a political choice because the government chooses to continue to prop up banks such as Barclays instead of funding public services.” Barclays said it had operations in more than 50 countries and that it had used legitimate tactics to “carry over” losses made at the height of the financial crisis and to offset these deficits against its 2010 tax burden. Its total bill to the UK taxman was £2m – but most of this comprised payroll tax on employees’ wages. “The corporate tax affairs of an organisation with the global footprint of Barclays are complex, and not reducible to simplistic comparisons,” said a Barclays spokesman. But Umunna, who sits on the Treasury select committee, said the figure was totally inadequate: “We need to ensure the banks make a fairer contribution to reducing the deficit that they helped to create.” Campaigners have contrasted Barclays, which paid out £2.5bn in salaries and bonuses last year, to the austerity squeezing the broader population. Max Lawson, a spokesman for the Robin Hood Tax Campaign, said: “This is proof that banks live in a parallel universe to the rest of us – paying billions in bonuses and unhampered by the inconvenience of paying tax.”
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
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February 19 2011, 12:28pm | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
St Andrew’s Day
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2010/11/30/st-andrews-day-2
Today, 30th November is St Andrew’s day. So in some countries, this would be my namesake saint’s day, which is like a kind of second birthday. Happy Birthday me. St Andrew’s Day in Edinburgh, however, has been cancelled due to snow! Tomorrow’s St Andrew’s Day celebrations have been cancelled. Organisers said the snow damaged two of the marquees, creating a potential public safety issue, and with the extreme weather set to continue, all events, including Tuesday evening’s Ceilidh Finale, have been cancelled. – Edinburgh Snowed Under at St Andrew’s Day
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November 29 2010, 6:16pm | Comments »
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