Britcoin
Express
BRITAIN must beat the European Union to the punch when it comes to the launch of a digital currency, previously dubbed “Britcoin” by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, a City-based think tank has said.
Daniel Hodson, Chairman of the CityUnited Project, warned failure to do so risks handing the initiative to Brussels – and with it the opportunity to damage the City’s “European leadership” in a move he fears would represent an “existential crisis” for the Square Mile – and a threat to the £40billion in tax revenue it contributes annually. Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), also known as digital fiat currencies or digital base money, were inspired by Bitcoin – but are not themselves defined as cryptocurrencies.
China’s digital renminbi is the first CDBC to be issued by a major economy, and began undergoing public testing in April.
That same month, Mr Sunak confirmed the launch of a taskforce to coordinate “exploratory work” on Britain doing likewise, telling a financial industry conference: “The consultation process aims to deliver a rulebook that is fair, outcomes-based and supports competitiveness, whilst ensuring the UK maintains the highest regulatory standards.”
He later tweeted the single word “Britcoin” in reply to the Treasury’s announcement about the new taskforce initiative.
NHS
Mail
New ‘anti-racism’ guidance has been shared ‘for white people’ working within the national health service in a blog post on an official NHS website.
The NHS Leadership Academy, which prepares staff to take steps into more senior roles within the organisation, shared guidance for employees including recommendations to read up on ‘white privilege’ and ready themselves for political discussions at work.
In five new tips published by Aishnine Benjamin, the head of equality, diversity and inclusion at the Nursing and Midwifery Council, white members of staff are told they should not be defensive and that ‘ignorance isn’t an excuse.’
Employees were also advised to listen to the lived experience of staff who come from an ethnic minority background, and to ‘work on your empathy’.
In a final word of ambiguous advice, staff are reminded to ‘be uncomfortable’.
But some MPs have slammed the advice as typical ‘woke nonsense’, and warned public funds should not be spent on concepts that ‘encourage division and resentment.’
National Insurance
Telegraph
Boris Johnson is next week expected to announce a manifesto-breaking tax hike to pay for the biggest overhaul in social care in a generation and bring down NHS waiting lists.
In a major political gamble, the Prime Minister will reveal a rise in National Insurance that will see around 25 million people pay extra tax.
In return, he will promise to cap the amount an individual will ever pay in social care costs – possibly at between £60,000 and £80,000 – and better protect people from having to sell their homes to meet care bills.
However, Number 10 and the Treasury remain at loggerheads about how big the tax rise should be as negotiations on the specifics continue despite months of planning.
The Telegraph has been told Downing Street favours a one per cent rise in National Insurance – but the Treasury is pushing to go higher, possibly up to 1.25 per cent. A government source said there was nervousness about going above the 1p rise Tony Blair and Gordon Brown pushed through to raise NHS funds, the model for the move.
Similar stories can be read in the Independent, Express, Mirror, Mail, Guardian, Times, BBC News
Dog theft
Mail
Dognappers could be jailed for seven years in a major crackdown on the ‘heartless trade’ in stolen animals.
Thieves will be charged with a new offence of ‘pet abduction’ that will lead to longer prison sentences.
The tougher law is being introduced to reflect that cherished pets mean more to their families than the laptops or phones they may lose in a burglary, and that the animals themselves suffer when snatched from their homes.
A government taskforce recommended the move following fears that criminal gangs were targeting dogs after demand during lockdown led to a surge in the price of puppies.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said last night: ‘Stealing a pet is an awful crime which can cause families great emotional distress while callous criminals line their pockets.
‘The new offence of pet abduction acknowledges that animals are far more than just property and will give police an additional tool to bring these sickening individuals to justice.’
Other moves in the crackdown include making it easier for details of stolen animals to be found by police and vets on microchipping databases, tracking unscrupulous sellers by forcing them to show ID when they place adverts and banning cash sales.
Owners could even register their dogs with police and store their DNA on a database in projects considered by some forces.
Read more in the Telegraph, Guardian, Times, Independent, Evening Standard, BBC News, GB News
Vaccine
Mail
Millions of elderly Britons will get third doses of the Covid vaccine this autumn, Boris Johnson said last night.
But it may be weeks before the final details of the booster programme are set out by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
The Prime Minister confirmed yesterday that top-up doses will go ahead this month, adding that the UK needs to ‘go faster’ on vaccinating 16 and 17-year-olds.
The NHS had originally been instructed to start giving boosters to up to 32million people from Monday, but ministers are still waiting for the JCVI to sign off the programme.
Mr Johnson said: ‘The priorities now are the older generation going into autumn and winter, and we have always said there would be a booster programme in September – in this month – and we are going ahead with that.
‘What I would also say is 16 to 17-year-olds are eligible, they have been approved, they are a very important group for potential transmission … It is very encouraging to see more and more 16 to 17-year-olds taking the jab, but we need to go faster with those.’
He added: ‘I would just urge everybody who hasn’t yet had a jab to go and get one.’
ITV News also has a report.
Covid antibodies
Independent
Covid antibody levels are falling among people aged over 70, fuelling further questions about when the government’s vaccine “booster” programme will be rolled out.
New data from the Office for National Statistics shows that, although immunity remains high in the elderly, there has been a decline in the number of people of this age testing positive for antibodies.
Ninety-two per cent of over-eighties still have antibodies to fight against coronavirus, a decrease from 94.4 per cent in July.
Experts think these numbers will continue to fall and some are concerned about the downward trend leading up to the winter months.
Dr Quinton Fivelman, of the London Medical Laboratory, said: “Because the most elderly and vulnerable were the first people to receive both jabs, they are the first to begin losing their level of protection, just as colder weather approaches.
“Covid levels are likely to climb during the autumn and winter, and we will see this compounded with other illnesses like flu.
Education
Mail
Top A-level students could be awarded a mark of A** next year to tackle grade inflation, according to Ofqual.
The exams regulator wants a focus group to discuss how grading should be allocated following the disruption of the pandemic.
One of the options to be considered is adding an extra category at the top to help pinpoint the truly exceptional pupils.
Almost half of all A-level grades last year were awarded an A or A* – a record.
The surge came because exams were cancelled due to the pandemic, leaving teachers to decide marks instead.
Exams will be back in 2022, but experts are trying to decide how they will be assessed without anyone being penalised.
Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, has spoken about a ‘glide path’ back to more normal proportions of pupils getting the top grades.
Before the pandemic, only around 25 per cent used to get A or A*. In a document seen by the Times Education Supplement, Ofqual indicated that pupils taking exams next year will not be held to the same standards as those sitting exams pre-pandemic.
BBC
Express
THE BBC has sparked a furious backlash after being accused of “desperately trying” to blame escalating supply chain issues on Brexit.
Over recent weeks several household names across the food and drink industry, including the Wetherspoons pub chain and Coca Cola, have reported a shortage of products. But Defund The BBC has lashed out at the Corporation, warning their “campaign” to pin the problems on Brexit has “failed”. The campaign group posted a video of BBC News presenter Huw Edwards introducing a piece on the recent supply chain issues. He said: “The Wetherspoons chain said a number of its pubs have run out of some brands of beer because of problems with supplies.
“A shortage of lorry drivers is said to be an important factor in recent problems with logistics across the food and drink industry.
“Experts say the pandemic is partly to blame, as are the effects of Brexit.”
But Defund The BBC has hit back, and wrote on Twitter: “The whole world is grappling with supply chain issues and yet the anti-British Broadcasting Corporation are desperately trying to pin it on Brexit.
“Your campaigning failed, get over it!”
Child sexual abuse
Mail
Most major religions in Britain were today accused in a child sex abuse inquiry of ‘moral failings’ as it found ‘blatantly hypocritical’ faith leaders discourage alleged victims from coming forward by creating a ‘culture of fear’.
The damning 226-page report found sexual abuse takes place in a broad range of religious settings and is likely to be ‘significantly under-reported’.
Victim-blaming, ideas of sexual ‘purity’, abuse of power and the discouraging of external reports of alleged abuse are among the ‘shocking’ and ‘moral failings’ outlined in the report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
The Inquiry also found alleged victims were reluctant to come forward due to ‘concern about prejudices, including Islamophobia or anti-Semitism’, adding: ‘Minority religious and racial communities are sometimes frightened of the backlash that may accompany the reporting of abuse.’
The report, based on 16 days of public hearings held during March, May and August last year, examined evidence of failings across 38 religious organisations present in England and Wales including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, Methodists, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and non-conformist Christian denominations.
Between early 2015 and January 2020, of all known institutions where abuse had taken place, 11 per cent (443 instances) were committed within a religious organisation or setting. Ten per cent of suspects (726 people) were employed by – or somehow linked to – a religious organisation or setting.
However, there is likely to be ‘significant’ under-reporting, the IICSA said, adding: ‘There is no way of knowing the true scale of such abuse.’
Times and ITV News also have the story.
GPs
Mail
GPs are holding 3.4million fewer face-to-face appointments a month compared with before the pandemic.
The shocking figures reveal the scale of the shift towards consultations held remotely.
There were seven million more appointments every month conducted over the phone in June this year when compared with the same month in 2019, before coronavirus struck.
The Alzheimer’s Society said virtual appointments do not work for people with dementia, while Labour, which analysed the NHS England data, said the shift increased the risk of serious illness being misdiagnosed.
In June, 56.3 per cent of GP appointments were face-to-face – only slightly up on the 52.9 per cent in January when England was in lockdown.
The data also shows far fewer home visits are taking place, despite restrictions easing in May to allow up to six people to gather indoors.
In June 2019 there were 18,441,483 appointments conducted face-to-face by GPs in their surgeries, representing 79.7 per cent of the total number of consultations.
The proportion fell after March 2020, when the Covid pandemic took hold and lockdowns were imposed – and the figure is yet to recover 18 months on.
Dog thefts. 7yrs in prison seems very reasonable for stealing a dog BUT the worrying thing is making it illegal to sell something for cash. A first move towards the STATE owning and tracking everything and everybody.
Very convenient isn’t it that Covid is a seasonal flu when pushing the jabs yet waves will strike in the middle of summer when imposing lock downs, tracking etc.
Britcoin. Hmm well is that also a move towards a cashless society where everything we do is known about by the State. Like in China.
GPs. Well I’d say phone consultations have some merit in some cases. Supposing I was worried about some new symptom. I’d rather not have to traipse in to the surgery and wait for hours just to be told that’s nothing to worry about, it’s because . . .
On the other hand, how often does a doctor say that? Usually it’s ‘here’s a prescription for more drugs’. (Because pharmaceutical companies make it worth while for GP’s to push their products.)
Defund the BBC. There is a petition. I’ll look into that.
‘GPs are holding 3.4million fewer face-to-face appointments a month’
Which county was that?
Visiting my ‘GP practice’ in three (3) blood check visits in three months, I sat in the waiting room, counting of all patients waiting to be seen. There was exactly one patient waiting in three visits. Yes, one in three visits – one visit in mid morning, one early afternoon and last visit mid afternoon. Total ONE patient.
There are only six doctors in the non-practising practice. Clearly run off their feet, poor devils. They need a pay rise.
(blood testing over the phone is too tricky for now. Eye exam over the phone works well for the ‘No Health Service’ (but not for me)).
Front page of a ‘Daily Paper’ this week had a cartoon on the front page. Picture a reception with guests mingling. One man says to another:-
‘I don’t believe we have met. You must be my GP’.
Boris is set to experiment with a third jab on the pensioners. Well heres one who has not had one jab and I suggest that Boris sticks his so called vaccine where the sun does not shine.
I hope a lot have learned form the first and second fiasco and tell him to shove it
Express
BRITAIN must beat the European Union to the punch when it comes to the launch of a digital currency,
Why?
Answer provided: Daniel Hodson, Chairman of the CityUnited Project, warned failure to do so risks handing the initiative to Brussels – and with it the opportunity to damage the City’s “European leadership” in a move he fears would represent an “existential crisis” for the Square Mile – and a threat to the £40billion in tax revenue it contributes annually.
Tell ’em about the money, Mummy. It’s all about the money – sometimes described as a root of all evil in one of the books I’ve read.
Might that be true? I wonder. I note there is no mention of what is better for anyone or anything else beyond the Square Mile.
Indeed Michael; no use whatever to most of us.
More tax solves nothing.
More bureaucrats makes you worse at your job.
The future can be read with a taxless sector.
We still want our fish.
Politics failed disastrously. So we get Islam ( Afghans )
Christian Afghans will die
Let us have the worlds biggest collection of PC & Woke to corrupt Glasgow.
How to make a lazy world.and Chinese prosperity.
And American theft..
Etc.
Every semblance of GB must go..
Warning. This link contains information that could make your blood boil. Operation Warm Welcome is here, it is to priority and no expense spared.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/operation-warm-welcome-underway-to-support-afghan-arrivals-in-the-uk?fbclid=IwAR0_M6JNB9I1FisSMAzZjmhxYYCwd0QZIb0fgCLrzs9qCH1arzsuJOhk9bg
Blood boiling indeed, especially when it costs a good deal to get one’s foreign born wife here together with proficiency in the English language and medical insurance.
Then even more expense for ILR…
“The government is making twelve million available to make school spaces available for Afghan children.”
What this means is as the government has no money of its own is this: The government is taking twelve million from the pockets of the British taxpayer to educate the children of invaders that will one day blow you up and kill you.
As long as the government can wrap this betrayal up in a parcel of virtue then the gullible public will buy it.
And already there is this:
“New Zealand supermarket stabbings carried out by ‘IS-inspired’ extremist on terror watchlist”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/09/03/new-zealand-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-says-mall-stabbing/
Yeah, let’s just pay to send them to school or put them up in four star hotels until they can kill us.
We need a UKIP government or at least a party in power that shares the same values. I just want UKIP to start stepping up to the plate….
Colin The framework/admin/brand is there but we need more members/activists to accelerate its revival. Let’s us hope a good conference turnout in October can kickstart national interest in UKIP.
Agreed but how do they get the media coverage which they are blacked out of?
It certainly did make my blood boil. A picture of a smiling kindly lady and a cute child not the military aged terrorists that will really be here.
“child sex abuse inquiry of ‘moral failings’ ”
Did the BBC cult feature?
JF