Agenda 2019

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42503230 NHS parking charges: Hospitals made £174m in a year A tax on sickness as the companies running the car parking "facilities" at our hospitals make £174 million in 12 months. They state that the profits are "ploughed back" into car park improvements and maintenance or into "patient care". However, there is little evidence to support this claim as the standards of car parking facilities and availability in our hospitals continues to decline as parking charges increase. This is just another racket to extort money from those who have no option but to pay. Hospital workers, patients, visitors, carers, long term out patients having cardiac, chemotherapy or other such treatments on a daily basis, all are victims to the greed and intimidation of the companies where the pursuit of increasing profits is the sole motivation. This is an outrage of national proportions affecting all hospitals around...

https://www.standard.co.uk/help-a-hungry-child/like-victorian-london-child-food-poverty-sparks-comeback-of-rickets-a3722086.html ‘Like Victorian London’... child food poverty sparks comeback of rickets This is Rickets. A condition that affects bone development in children. It causes the bones to become soft and weak, which can lead to bone deformities. The most common cause of rickets is a lack of vitamin D or calcium in a child's diet. Both are essential for children to develop strong and healthy bones. Sources of vitamin D are: ... food – vitamin D is also found in some foods, such as oily fish, eggs and fortified breakfast cereals. Rickets was virtually eradicated in the United Kingdom more than 50 years ago but has seen a resurgence over the past few years as living standards have fallen rapidly and child poverty has increased due to government cuts in welfare and austerity measures generally. Notwithstanding how the Coalition government and the subsequent conse...

A huge thank you and appreciation to all readers, followers, friends and others for sparing the time over the past year, to visit New Agenda, Twitter, New Agenda on Sunday and Facebook. Have a wonderful Christmas time 2017. A very Happy Christmas to you all. عيد ميلاد سعيد Nadolig Llawen Feliz Natal God jul Joyeux Noël Frohe Weihnachten Христовым С Рождеством Христовым Feliz Natal christmas С Рождеством Христовым John

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/downing-street-aware-damian-green-claims-kate-maltby-sexual-harassment-a8123651.html 'No 10 knew' of Damian Green claims in 2016. How far into the corridors of power, does the stench of cover up and chicanery in this sordid complicity actually stretch? The campaign of smear, threat and vilification against two former police officers is being orchestrated by certain sections of the media and by those Green allies, determined to deflect attention and create smokescreens to hide the reality that Green repeatedly lied to police, media and colleagues in respect of his knowledge and active part in the downloading of pornographic material onto his office computers. It is not the police who are the villain's in this story. It is Green and those seeking to protect him. We now learn that the circumstances which initiated the investigation into Greens behaviour were rather more than a "fleeting touch" of Kat...

I t has arrived at last. The date that I and probably thousands of others have been waiting for since last June. It is the date when the days begin to get longer and the endless hours of darkness which we have endured for months, become shorter and shorter as we move towards the next milestone when we can rectify the mischief done last October and put our clocks forward by the "stolen" hour. Roll on March 25th 2018.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/13/rubbish-sit-tory-mps-savaged-brexit-labour-laughed/ Tory Brexit rebels inflict major defeat on Theresa May The conservative civil war got a whole lot hotter during yesterdays debate and last nights vote. Screaming at each other across their benches with shouts of "rubbish" or "sit down", tempers became even shorter as the debate wore on.. Accusing Kenneth Clarke of misleading the House, Marcus Fysh was drowned out in howls of protest from other "remainers" demanding that he withdraw the comment. For the conservatives and the government, things went from bad to worse as the animosity became more frenzied and even more hostile. The government lost the vote and the amendment was carried. No sooner had the Deputy Speaker finished saying "The Ayes have it" than the row erupted into corridors of Westminster with Nadine Dorries hysterically screaming that, "They (the rebel conservat...

http://www.independent.co.uk/helpahungrychild/food-banks-christmas-hackney-london-uk-run-dry-trussell-trust-demand-high-help-a-hungry-child-a8092711.html Food banks could run dry this Christmas as demand soars. This is the United Kingdom in the first quarter of the 21st Century.This is the United Kingdom where zero hour contracts, cuts in benefits and delays in payments, low pay and below living wage or salaries, increased mortgage payments and rents, ever increasing costs of fuel for heating, cooking and lighting are driving people into poverty. It is not only benefit claimants who are being forced to turn to the Foodbank and other charities in order to feed themselves and their families. Increasing numbers of working people now resort to regular referrals and visits to the local Foodbank in order to provide some sort of meal for their families.We have all seen the reports and perhaps some of us have first hand knowledge, of situations where nurses and other NHS sta...

https://paper.li/f-1346065353#/ G ood morning everyone. Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, is a very dangerous man. Made all the more dangerous by his irrational policy decisions and his vitriolic outbursts against any who criticise or oppose him. His domestic policies in respect of scrapping Obamacare, withdrawing the United States from the Paris  Agreement  and other measures, coupled with his foreign policy decisions in connection with Syria, North Korea, Iran demonstrate a man who has no grasp of the subject and no plan or intention to resolve the issues. His latest miscalculation in recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, undermines and contradicts 70 years of United Nations efforts and defies International law and opinion. Perhaps even worse, his action totally destroy any prospect of a "Two State Solution", and condemn  the region and its people to bloody conflict for years to come. Read the full comment at:  http...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/08/uk-cabinet-soon-to-hold-debate-about-ultimate-brexit-aims-sources-say Theresa May secur es Tory goodwill but preparations for next battle begin Now that the dust begins to settle after the frenetic and premature jubilation and plaudits flowing around parts of the media and amongst certain amongst Conservative MP's, hailing Theresa May's performance and early morning dash to Brussels as a "victory", there emerge strong rumblings from "sources", that all is not well in cabinet and government.  Notwithstanding all the praise heaped upon the Prime Minister from some very unlikely quarters, Iain Duncan-Smith, Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and a particularly bizarre contribution from Michael Gove who claimed that, "the final whistle had blown and that Theresa May had won", it seems that closer examination of the "deal" reveals that, certainly from the hardline "Brexitee...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/08/sufficient-progress-in-brexit-talks-announced-after-mays-dash-to-brussels 'Sufficient progress' in Brexit talks announced after May's dash to Brussels Peeling away the euphoria of this morning's news from Brussels and the sketchy reports of late night or early morning meetings involving Theresa May, Arlene Foster, Jean Claude Junker,  Leo Varadkar, Donald Tusk et al, there seems to me at least,  to be a number of issues which remain outstanding and have perhaps been "kicked into the long grass" for resolution at a later date, if ever. The most contentious of these is the question of the border between Ulster and the Irish republic. Arlene Foster has said within the last few minutes that "there are still issues which need to be clarified". It seems to me that the statements, "no hard border between the Republic and Northern Ireland" and "no border down the Irish Sea", ...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/06/donald-trump-us-jerusalem-israel-capital Trump confirms US will recognise Jerusalem as capital of Israel. A stupid, provocative and bigoted announcement from an opinionated megalomaniac and dangerous man who demonstrates a complete ignorance of the complexities of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. His decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel attempts to appease an estimated 8.7 million people in one small country, but at the same time alienates billions of others around the world. His press conference yesterday at 1pm American Time, has destroyed any prospect of a "Two State" solution or any other kind of settlement and has ensured that fighting and resistance to Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and East Jerusalem will continue and intensify as resentment to on going occupation and the expansion of illegal settlements accelerates in the coming months and years. In one brief st...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2017/dec/06/david-davis-questioned-by-brexit-committee-about-impact-assessments-politics-live MP's renew demands for contempt of Parliament vote against David Davis after Brexit hearing. Calling David Davis a liar in the house of Commons would be considered as "Un parliamentary language". However, we are not in the Commons, and Davis recently said that the Assessment reports existed "in excruciating detail". This morning he told the Brexit Committee that the Impact Assessment Reports do not exist. Either Davis was lying then or he is lying now. Whichever way you look at it, David Davis is a liar.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/05/pressure-grows-on-theresa-may-as-dup-reveals-brexit-shock Pressure grows on Theresa May as DUP reveals Brexit 'shock' It always was a bad idea. Bad for the country that is and bad for democracy in the United Kingdom. The only one to benefit from the sordid backroom bribe of £1.5 billion paid to the DUP in June of this year was Theresa May herself, who has managed to cling to the office of Prime Minister with the support of the 10 MP's from Ulster. That support collapsed on Monday (4th December) as Arlene Foster appeared in front of the cameras to announce that the DUP, " will not accept any kind of  regulatory divergence which separates us economically or politically from the rest of the UK" adding that,  "The Republic of Ireland government is trying to unilaterally change the Belfast agreement without our input and without our consent.  Of course, we will not stand for that." With those few words...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/04/met-chief-cressida-dick-condemns-former-officers-over-damian-green-claims Metropolitan police chief condemns former officers over Damian Green claims As I have argued before, any other person, in any other job, would, by now, have been sacked for gross misconduct and misuse of company facilities. Why is Damian Green so different from the rest of us? What is it about this long term friend and associate of Theresa May, (pictured below, side by side at at an Oxford University Edmund Burke Society dinner in 1976, with Green's future wife sitting in the front row) that make him, apparently, immune from investigation or even criticism?. The way in which the political "establishment" are now rallying to the support of the First Secretary of State, Minister for the Cabinet Office and de facto Deputy Prime Minister, demonstrates quite clearly that retaining Green in government and in cabinet far outweighs th...