We will curb the parking cowboys, says Cabinet Minister: Victory for Mail campaign as official probe is launched into bully boys, Daily Mail

 Eric Pickles

  Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said rogue firms will not be tolerated, and launched Government investigation

  Parking squads across the country issue official-looking £100 fines, in some cases targeting the elderly and disabled

  Senior adviser to David Cameron today said the abuse by parking firms is worse than the PPI scandal

  Founders of parking firms have become rich from motorists' misery - including a CBE adviser to John Prescott 

Parking cowboys who threaten drivers with huge ‘fines’ will face a Government investigation, in a victory for the Daily Mail.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said ‘bully boy’ tactics would not be tolerated and rogue firms could be prosecuted.

The probe was announced as a leading adviser to David Cameron said abuse by private parking squads was worse than the PPI scandal.

Over the past week, the Daily Mail has revealed the aggressive tactics used by firms to coerce hundreds of thousands of drivers into paying inflated charges.

The parking squads issue official-looking £100 tickets, often to drivers just a few minutes late returning to their cars. Elderly and disabled people have been specifically targeted at hospitals and High Street stores.

Meanwhile, the firms’ founders have become multi-millionaires on the back of motorists’ misery. As the Mail reveals today, they include David Taylor CBE – who was a special adviser to John Prescott when he was Deputy Prime Minister.

Last night, Mr Pickles said: ‘We will stand up to rogue practices by corporate bully-boys, and we will be investigating the clear abuses that the Daily Mail has identified.

'It is not acceptable for any firm to be making money through misleading marketing or aggressive enforcement tactics.’

He warned major High Street firms they could also be breaking the law by employing parking cowboys and said they risk boycotts from consumers.

Mr Pickles said the Government was already ‘taking firm action to rein in the over-zealous town hall parking wardens who make life a misery for local shops, undoing Labour’s war on the motorist’.

Ros Altmann, a government adviser and pensions expert, compared the abuses to the PPI scandal, in which customers were mis-sold payment protection insurance.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

Ticket the old, they'll always pay: How the ruthless parking cowboys tell their wardens to exploit the vulnerable Daily Mail Parking Campaign

The parking ticket fat cats - one's a chum of Prezza and two drive Aston Martins. Meet the men who've made millions from motorists' misery 

Scientist who claims fracking is dangerous and argues against drilling applications is a 'fraud who has lied about his credentials' Daily Mail

·        David Smythe accused of being less than totally honest over his credentials as shale gas expert

·        Retired geologist has been prominent in highlighting dangers of fracking

·        Professor at his old university accuses him of 'pseudo-scientific scaremongering'

·        Geological Society demands he stops claiming to be chartered geologist

·        Mr Smythe insists he has done extensive research into unconventional energy extraction

• 

 The retired geologist and former punk rock guitarist has been prominent in highlighting the dangers of fracking and last week helped to persuade a county council to reject an application to drill an exploratory shale well.

But a professor at his old university now accuses him of ‘pseudo-scientific scaremongering’.

The Geological Society has also written to Mr Smythe – who has the title ‘Emeritus Professor of Geophysics, University of Glasgow’ – demanding that he stops claiming to be a chartered geologist.

Glasgow University, where he last worked in 1998, has told him he must not suggest that its academics share his views. And Prof Paul Younger, Glasgow’s professor of energy engineering, said Mr Smythe – who played bass guitar in the 70s punk band The Rezillos – was unqualified to give expert evidence on fracking, having retired 16 years ago.

’He has published nothing on (shale gas) in any proper scientific forum – no doubt because he knows he would never get past peer review with his pseudo-scientific scaremongering

Read more here

Militant Atheists Give up on Forcing IRS to Censor Sermons

Militant Atheists Give up on Forcing IRS to Censor Sermons









On Friday a federal judge in Wisconsin dismissed the Freedom from Religion Foundation's (FFRF) attempt to use the Internal Revenue Service as a weapon to censor houses of worship that preach on moral issues having political implications.

After almost two years of litigation, FFRF asked the court to dismiss its own lawsuit once the Becket Fund stepped in to defend the rights of a small Wisconsin church and its pastor. FFRF had relied on the so-called Johnson Amendment, a law that politicians use to restrict what some private groups can say about them, and which—by an accident of history—caught houses of worship in its web when it was passed 60 years ago.

"This lawsuit was a bad idea from the beginning. Who thinks the IRS should be deciding what a preacher says in a sermon?" said Daniel Blomberg, legal counsel for the Becket Fund. 

Follow Your Heart' and 3 Other Potentially Dangerous Theories About Knowing God's Will, Charisma Magazine

Where do we find God's will? Is it in one of the following theories?

1. The Tightrope Theory

This teaching declares God's will is like a tightrope where one wrong move will ruin your life and require you to start all over again--or worse, be eternally out of God's will. This view assumes God is powerless to work through the faults of man.

The tightrope theory has a difficult time explaining how Moses could lead the children of Israel out of Egypt with first-degree murder on his record (Exodus 2:11-12) or how Peter could preach powerfully at Pentecost (Acts 2:14-41) when months earlier Jesus rebuked him and called Him Satan (Matt. 16:23). It seems God is not wringing His hands worried that imperfect men will mess up His will.

Read more here: