What’s in a Name, is it Londonderry or Derry ?

 

  A proposal by Sinn Féin to change the official name of Londonderry to Derry has been described as "sectarian" by unionists.

A motion supporting the name change was passed at a meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council on Thursday.

The council will now write to the environment minister to seek clarification on how to go about the change.

All previous attempts to change the name have failed.

The London prefix was added to Derry when the city was granted a Royal Charter by King James I in 1613.

In 1984, the name of the nationalist-controlled council was changed from Londonderry to Derry City Council, but the city itself continues to be officially known as Londonderry.

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Comment:

Despite the suggestions  of Sein  Fein,  regardless of what some people think,  it's Londonderry not Derry.

Nick Clegg Could Be Prime Minister For Month After …… Says Lib Dem Sir Nick Harvey, Huffington Post

Nick Clegg could serve as prime minister for a month after the general election until a new coalition is formed, a senior Lib Dem MP has suggested.

Former defence minister Sir Nick Harvey said unlike the 2010 coalition deal which was hammered out in just five days, any negotiations after this May's poll should take much longer.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, Harvey said this would require an "interim government" to be in place while political parties haggled over the formation of a new administration.

Harvey said as the incumbent, David Cameron should remain in Downing Street until a deal was struck. But that if the Conservative leader "was so fucked off" he wanted to leave then there was "no reason" why Clegg could not fill the role - assuming of course the deputy prime minister keeps his seat.

The veteran Lib Dem MP also said it would be "much harder" for the party leadership to convince its members to vote for another coalition and said he would be "certainly willing" to argue in favour of the party staying out of power.

Harvey, who predicted Ed Miliband would wake up on 8 May with the most MPs, also said the Lib Dems could fill half its ministerial positions in a future coalition with members of the House of Lords - if the party sees its number of MPs reduced to around 30.

He was speaking to HufPost following the publication of his book, After the Rose Garden, which examines the mistakes the Lib Dems made during the 2010 negotiations with the Tories.

"I personally think that they should take at least a month," Harvey said when asked how long any negotiations should last. "And I think that what you need during the course of that month is some sort of interim government. Where you've got a prime minister and home secretary and a chancellor. And maybe a deputy prime minister. I don't think it is right to appoint a government of 121 members until such time as you have a deal. If the deal is going to take a month, you could just appoint a government of eight or ten ministers.

Scottish nationalists will hold us to ransom if Labour blocks English votes', William Hague warns, Daily Mail

 England risks being held to ransom by Scottish Nationalists unless Labour agrees to implement a system of ‘English votes for English laws’ at Westminster, William Hague said yesterday.

The Leader of the Commons said Ed Miliband was refusing to back a veto for English MPs over legislation that applies only to their constituents, to keep open the possibility of a Labour-SNP coalition.

The Conservatives said they planned to strip Scottish MPs of the power to impose tax changes, education and health reforms on England, given the Scottish Parliament will soon have control of all these issues.

The reform would make it impossible for an incoming Labour government to press ahead with its plan to raise the top rate of tax to 50p in England, for example, without winning the support of a majority of English MPs.

Mr Hague said it was a ‘simple matter of fairness’. But his blueprint prompted a furious response from Labour and the SNP – as well as some Right-wing Tories who want to go further and create an effective English Parliament.

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Comment:

Why should  Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh Members of Parliament have the right to vote on matters such as Education, Health etc  that only effects English hospitals and schools etc, etc when those matters in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland and Welsh Assemblies  for the electorate and the citizens of those parts of the United Kingdom ?.   I believe those matters only affecting England should only be voted on by English MP’s. This is known as the West Lothian Question.

Read more on the West Lothian Question

The decade of despair: The businessmen warning that Miliband wants to take Britain back to the 1970s are right - it would be a catastrophe, writes DOMINIC SANDBROOK

 First, the Boots boss, now a string of other senior business figures are queuing up to attack Labour’s beleaguered leader.

In the past few days, it has seemed that Ed Miliband is heading for all-out war with the High Street over his increasingly strident attacks on Britain’s businesses.

As Lord Rose, the man who saved M&S, put it in yesterday’s Mail, the Labour leader is in danger of looking like a ‘Seventies throwback’.

Indeed, with his planned National Insurance and corporation tax rises, as well as his attacks on so-called business ‘predators’, Mr Miliband seems determined to rekindle the spirit of the decade that fashion forgot.

Labour MPs naturally shrink at comparisons with the Seventies, when strikes brought the country to a standstill and Jim Callaghan’s government was forced to go cap in hand to the IMF for the biggest bailout in history.

Yet from his cynical pledge to cap energy prices to his controversial mansion tax, Mr Miliband seems intent on banishing all memories of the New Labour years, when Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were eager to prove their business-friendly credentials.

For all Labour’s synthetic outrage, therefore, I think Lord Rose was entirely justified in recalling the climate of the mid-Seventies, which he called ‘the old days of punitive taxes on business-people, of class war and the stirring of resentment’.

In 1974, rather like today, Britain faced a choice between a governing Conservative Party that often seemed out of touch with its own supporters, and a lacklustre Labour Opposition happiest when bashing business and pandering to its Left-wing activists.

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Comment:

If you want to see the United Kingdom bankrupt by punitive taxes, and ruined by neo-communist/left wing/socialist and self interested parties like the Greens and Scottish Nationalist  Parties and see Alex Salmond  as Deputy Prime Minister intent on breaking up the United Kingdom because of his self-inflated ego. vote for Labour, If you want our country to continue to see economic growth,  well the choice is easy, vote the Conservatives.  I know what choice I will be making and it’s not voting for Labour

British economy on course to be world's best performing economy after growing faster than at any point since the crash. Daily Mail

Britain is in 'poll position' to be the best performing major economy in the world after securing growth of 2.6 per cent in 2014, new figures showed today.

It is the highest level of annual growth since before the financial crash, which David Cameron said was proof that the government's economic plan is working.

But the data showed the pace of expansion slowed more sharply than expected in the last three months of the year.

The annual figure for the whole of 2014 is the best since 2007, before the recession. It puts the UK on course to have been the world's fastest growing major economy last year.

But gross domestic product (GDP) rose by just 0.5 per cent in the fourth quarter, the weakest level in a year, weighed down by a construction sector which shrunk at its worst pace for more than two years.

Growth of 0.5 per cent puts the UK in poll position to be the fastest growing G7 economy in 2014   Lib Dem Danny Alexander

The growth figure for 2014 was widely expected, though falls short of the 3 per cent forecast last month by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). It beats 2013's figure of 1.7 per cent and matches the 2.6 per cent recorded in 2007.

US growth figures are due to be published on Friday. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates its growth at 2.4 per cent.

The British economy is now 3.4 per cent bigger than the pre-recession peak at the start of 2008, according to the ONS.

Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander said: 'Quarterly growth of 0.5 per cent puts the UK in poll position to be the fastest growing G7 economy in 2014.

'There is much more to do, but this figure represents solid progress, especially against a backdrop that sees many of our key markets still suffering from economic problems.'

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Legal challenge against 'named person' plans dismissed, BBC Scotland.

A judge has dismissed a legal challenge against Scottish government proposals to appoint a "named person" for every child under 18.

It was brought by a coalition of charities and individuals who argued it breached human rights.

In a judgement issued at the Court of Session, Lord Pentland said the case "fails on all points".

The Scottish government says the proposals would help vulnerable children and families in need.

They are contained in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, and are due to come into force in 2016.

Read more here:

Further Reading

Named Person legal challenge dismissed – appeal considered, The Christian Institute

Boycotting The Sun won't help reach the working class.

Boycotting The Sun won't help reach the working class.

By: Carl Beech | Jan 2015

The EA are asking Christians to boycott The Sun, but if the church wants to reach it's average reader, we need to think differently says Carl Beech.

I live in Derbyshire and I sometimes go to my local pub called The Rose and Crown. I was there last week chatting to the parish priest whilst observing the largely male clientèle as they laughed and moaned and played dominoes very loudly. (Yes it can be a loud game). I’ve spent a great deal of the last ten years of my life talking to working class men (which is my background too) about Jesus Christ in pubs, working mens clubs, curry houses and sports clubs.

Its often a little bit “cold” to start with but humour and food normally cuts through. I’ve got many reflections after all these years but one of them is that the Christian world I view in church, on social media and on TV/radio is light years away from the lives that these men live. Sometimes I think even Scotty wouldn't be able to get the warp drive pumping fast enough to make up the distance any time soon.

The Sun claims its has over 7 million readers. 44% of them are apparently women. It also reaches more men under the age of 35 than its next three nearest competitors. Crucially its readership is 68% in the C2DE demographic. That's manual workers (skilled and unskilled), working class, and those not working.

Now, I don't read The Sun and I’ve actually never, ever purchased a copy. I have older teenage daughters. I see men looking at them in a way that objectifies them. I have campaigned to see the eradication of violence against women. I have counselled countless numbers of men with addictions to pornography. I know the score.  I can't help but feel however that not many Christians actually read The Sun anyway? I’m not aware of any. I bet they read The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, The Telegraph.

Daughter's tears over 'lesbian' quiz: Ten-year-old left humiliated after being questioned over homosexuality and asked if she felt 'trapped in her own body', Daily Mail

  Ariella Wilkinson came home crying over Oftsed inspectors' questions

  The schoolgirl had been asked if she felt trapped in her own body

  After becoming embarrassed she is said to have given 'wrong answer'

  She feels to blame for Grindon Hall Christian School's branding as 'intolerant' 

A mother has told of her ten-year-old daughter’s devastation that her school was branded ‘intolerant’ after she gave the wrong answer when asked ‘what is a lesbian’.

Ariella Wilkinson came home crying after Ofsted inspectors interrogated her about homosexuality during a visit to Grindon Hall Christian School.

The free school, in Sunderland, has now been put in special measures after an official report found that discrimination ‘persisted’ at the school because of ‘homophobic language’.

Parents say inspectors ‘aggressively’ questioned just a few young children about lesbian relationships to form the basis of their judgement.

They deny their children are intolerant and are compiling a petition against Ofsted’s decision, which has the potential to close down the well-performing faith school.

Ariella’s mother Lena, 46, said: ‘The questioning was completely inappropriate. They asked her what lesbians were, and whether she felt trapped in someone else’s body.

‘She said she didn’t want to talk about it, because she was embarrassed. She didn’t know why they were asking and she wasn’t prepared for it.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

Is anyone in your school gay? The 'inappropriate' Ofsted questions for children aged just 11 at school where children were branded bigots

MEP ‘appalled’ by Ofsted inspectors’ questions

How Saudi Wahhabism Is the Fountainhead of Islamist Terrorism Huffington Post by Yousaf Butt.

 Dr. Yousaf Butt is a senior advisor to the British American Security Information Council and director at the Cultural Intelligence Institute. The views expressed here are his own.

LONDON -- The horrific terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo weekly in Paris have led to speculation as to whether the killers -- the brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi -- were lone wolves or tied to masterminds in ISIS or its rival, Al-Qaeda. Although Al-Qaeda in Yemen has taken credit for the attack, it is unclear how closely the affiliate actually directed the operation. No matter which organizational connections (if any) ultimately prove to be real, one thing is clear: the fountainhead of Islamic extremism that promotes and legitimizes such violence lies with the fanatical "Wahhabi" strain of Islam centered in Saudi Arabia. And if the world wants to tamp down and eliminate such violent extremism, it must confront this primary host and facilitator.

Perversely, while the Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri took part in a "Je suis Charlie" solidarity rally in Beirut following the Paris attacks, back home the Saudi blogger Raif Badawi received the first 50 of 1,000 lashes he is due each Friday over the next 20 weeks. His crime? Running a liberal website promoting the freedom of speech. (Thankfully, in recent days it seems the Saudi authorities have buckled to international pressure and suspended the sentence.)

It would be troublesome but perhaps acceptable for the House of Saud to promote the intolerant and extremist Wahhabi creed just domestically. But, unfortunately, for decades the Saudis have also lavishly financed its propagation abroad. Exact numbers are not known, but it is thought that more than $100 billion have been spent on exporting fanatical Wahhabism to various much poorer Muslim nations worldwide over the past three decades. It might well be twice that number. By comparison, the Soviets spent about $7 billion spreading communism worldwide in the 70 years from 1921 and 1991.

This appears to be a monumental campaign to bulldoze the more moderate strains of Islam, and replace them with the theo-fascist Saudi variety. Despite being well aware of the issue, Western powers continue to coddle the Saudis or, at most, protest meekly from time to time.

Read the rest of the article here:

More on Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism.

US senators urge Saudi Arabia to halt ‘barbaric’ flogging of blogger

Some details on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,

Some details on Wahhabism

Shut down, Christian school under attack because pupil did not know what a Muslim was: Inspectors brand it educational failure, Daily Mail Story.

Pupils at a Christian school have been branded bigots after a young boy gave the wrong answer when asked what a Muslim was.

Durham Free has been told to close after inspectors branded it an educational failure and said some children displayed ‘discriminatory views’ toward people of other faiths. The boy’s answer to the Muslim question apparently included a reference to terrorism.

But teachers said the verdict was grossly unfair and based on a throwaway and ignorant comment made by a single pupil. They said the school’s Christian ethos made it an easy target for officials who wanted to show they were promoting the Government’s diversity agenda.

A second Christian school in the area has been put into special measures. Inspectors also concluded its children were intolerant after allegedly asking ten-year-old pupils what lesbians ‘did’.

Teachers at Grindon Hall Christian School in Sunderland said the critical Ofsted report came as a shock because it was performing well. 

There are claims that some schools – mainly those with a religious ethos or in areas with few ethnic minority pupils – have been put under undue pressure by a requirement to promote British values such as tolerance, fairness, respect for other faiths and the rule of law and democracy.

These two cases highlight important issues about how Ofsted are interpreting the guidance they have been given.’

Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute said: ‘The Government’s British values regime is twisting Ofsted’s priorities out of all proportion. Inspectors are asking all kinds of invasive questions and then issuing reports that the parents whose children attend the school don’t recognise.’

Durham Free School, which has 94 pupils aged 11 to 13, was praised by then education secretary Michael Gove after it opened in September 2013. But when it was inspected in November, Ofsted failed it on a wide range of factors including poor teaching, attainment and behaviour. ‘Standards are low and progress is inadequate,’ inspectors said. ‘Students’ achievement is weak.’

Read more here:

Further reading:

Christian school facing closure

“A Christian free school in County Durham has been ordered to close down, after a watchdog said it found bad behaviour, prejudice towards non-Christians, bullying, and the recruitment of staff for their faith rather than their ability. 

Durham Free School opened in September 2013. Free schools receive their funding directly from central government, rather than their Local Authority. As such, they are not under Local Authority control. Free schools are governed by charities or other non-profit groups.

The Education Funding Agency, which allocates money for schools, also said it has "serious concerns about financial management, control and governance" at Durham Free School.” Premier Radio

Labour and the NHS stitch-up (continued), Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire

: How watchdog that shut down first privately run NHS hospital ignored 300-patient survey backing it in favour of critical poll of just 17 people 

The watchdog which branded the first privately run NHS hospital as 'inadequate' ignored a large survey showing patients were very happy with the care they received.

A damning report by the Care Quality Commission last week gave Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire the lowest ever score for standards of care.

The report was particularly scathing of Hinchingbrooke's  A&E unit, with inspectors saying that 16 out of the 17 patients they had spoken to were unhappy with their treatment.

But new evidence has emerged showing the watchdog ignored its own much larger survey of nearly 300 patients carried out eight months earlier and published only last month.

This found patients gave it an average score of 8.4 out of ten, rising to nine out of ten for the respect and dignity patients were treated with.

Read more here:

Revealed: Shame of the growing number of working Scots who have to rely on food banks, by Andy Philip, Daily Record

 DESPERATE Scots on low wages are forced to rely on charity hand-outs over Christmas.

RECORD numbers of desperate Scots on low wages were forced to rely on food banks over Christmas, a major charity said yesterday.

About 10,500 adults and children were given a three-day supply of “emergency” food in December, according to the Trussell Trust.

Shockingly, low income climbed above benefit changes or delays as the main reason given by people referred for help across the country.

The total was a 13 per cent increase from the 9263 people using the trust’s 48 food banks in the same month in 2013.

The final figure is likely to be even higher as volunteers continue to update their databases.

Ewan Gurr, the charity’s network manager for Scotland, said: “Low income is normally behind benefit problems, but topped the reasons in December last year and 2013.

“It highlights the impact of the rising cost of food and fuel.

“When you add to that insecure employment and poor wages, it’s a lethal

cocktail. Deeply concerning are the words to describe it.”

He added: “In the most harrowing accounts, we hear from the families choosing whether to prioritise heating their homes or feeding their families and parents losing weight because they overlook their own health and wellbeing to feed their children.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

Record numbers use Scottish food banks by By Marc Ellison Data journalist, BBC Scotland

Labour's private hospital stitch-up: Shocking evidence of how the Left sabotaged NHS success story by Guy Adams & Sophie Borland, Daily Mail Story.

Shocking evidence of how Labour and union figures had the first privately run NHS hospital declared a failure has been uncovered by the Daily Mail.

There are growing calls for an inquiry into how Hinchingbrooke in Cambridgeshire was rated ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission watchdog – only months after winning an award for patient care.

But the Mail has learned that:

·         Individuals who helped draw up the CQC’s damning report have close ties to the Labour Party and unions which oppose NHS privatisation.

·         The local NHS body, which suddenly slashed the hospital’s funding and imposed arbitrary fines, is heavily influenced by Labour activists.

·         The watchdog’s lead inspector, Dr Jonathan Fielden, was previously a senior member of the doctors’ trade union, the British Medical Association, and has warned of the dangers of privatisation.

·         A second inspector, Dr Nigel Sturrock, has been associated with the Keep Our NHS Public group.

·         And a doctor employed by the hospital who is suspected of briefing the CQC about its supposed failings happens to be the Labour candidate to be the area’s MP. Dr Nik Johnson is believed to have influenced the report’s severe criticism of children’s services in the A&E unit.

The inspection report by the CQC last week led to Circle, the firm running Hinchingbrooke, withdrawing its contract. The hospital has now been placed in special measures and could be closed down.

MPs whose constituents include hospital staff and patients are urging the Health Secretary to begin an inquiry into the inspection. They say the report’s findings are entirely at odds with an award last May naming it as the best performing NHS trust in the country.

David Campbell Bannerman, Tory MEP for the Eastern Region, said: ‘This is a Labour stitch-up. I wonder how many of the CQC’s other inspectors are quietly sympathetic to keeping the NHS public

Read more here:

David Robertson: Using the Charlie Hebdo killings to attack religion is just cowardice. Christianity Today

Many times I have been presented with the mantra of the New Fundamentalist Atheists, "Atheists don't fly planes into buildings". To which the obvious response is "Neither do Presbyterians, Anglicans, Catholics or charismatics – not even the most extremist wacko charismatics. When did you last hear of Benny Hinn suicide squads?" But those who don't think about the consequences and harm of their prejudices far too often rush into this demonization of all religious people.

Meanwhile the Guardian was 'brave' as it published examples of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. Yet they did not publish the cartoons that were the actual cause of the attacks – instead they published ones attacking the Pope. Doubtless they will also be 'brave' and publish numerous articles in the next few weeks on how we need to avoid Islamophobia and how at the same time we need to tar all religions with the same brush and marginalise them all.

I have noticed this tendency among many of the liberal intelligentsia to portray themselves as brave because they attack all religions in general (carefully avoiding any offence to the one that would actually have some consequences for them), or because they create meaningless awards that cost themselves nothing, for those who really are brave. The publishers and staff of Charlie Hebdo were indeed brave, knowing that what they did could endanger their lives. Those who salute their bravery and then refuse to imitate their actions, but instead use their memory to further their own agenda, are cowards.

And it is a cowardice that has consequences. Despite all the boasts about how "we will not be intimidated" the fact is that most of the mainstream media will be intimidated. The BBC and most newspapers in the UK would not dare to publish such cartoons. That is understandable, but it would be better if they did not boast about how brave they are and then take out their frustrations and sick sense of humour on other religions that won't kill them. Today I noticed that one secular society did not publish the cartoons but did publish a grossly sick and offensive sexual cartoon about all the major religious figures in the world – except, of course, Mohammed. Perversity, irrationality and cowardice combined.

I find it disturbing the way it has become standard practice for some people to use others' tragic stories in order to exploit and further their own agenda. Take for example the tragic story of Joshua Ryan Alcorn, the transgender teenager who committed suicide. I have lost count of the number of articles pontificating about this case, demonizing the parents and offering simplistic solutions. The argument is simplistic: if only if it were not for religion there would be no confused and messed up teenagers. If Stonewall and the British Humanists could just be in charge of educating us all then teenage angst, confusion and suicide would just disappear!

Read more here: