Tuesday 6 August 2013

Abba - Chiquitita

Monday 5 August 2013

Declining seaside towns being used as 'dumping grounds' for the vulnerable

1 Samuel 22 :1ff

David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became captain over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.

CT Studd.

“Some want to live within the sound Of church or chapel bell;

I want to run a rescue shop, Within a yard of hell.”

Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The time of waiting is past! The hour of God has struck! War is declared! In God's Holy Name let us arise and build! 'The God of Heaven, He will fight for us', as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us. Should such men as we fear? Before the world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ. Ct Studd

Does it not stir up our hearts to go forth and help them, does it not make us long to leave our luxury, our exceeding abundant light, and go to them that sit in darkness?" - Amy Carmichael

Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world." William Booth.

BRITISH seaside towns are suffering a “severe social breakdown” as holidaymakers desert the UK for overseas resorts, a report warned today.

By: Benjamin Russell

Published: Mon, August 5, 2013

Blackpool local authority has the highest rate of children in care in the whole of England

Living standards in some of the UK's best-known coastal towns have declined beyond recognition

CSJ director Christian Guy

Levels of school failure, teenage pregnancy, lone parenting

and worklessness are now rivaling inner-city areas which have previously set the benchmark for deprivation.

The report, by the Centre for Social Justice, found that Britain is spending almost £2 billion a year on welfare payments to people of working age in seaside towns.

It also said that councils in wealthier areas are using former hotels converted into cheap flats as "dumping grounds" for vulnerable people such as children in care.

The report, entitled Turning the Tide, called for action to revive the fortunes of seaside towns like Rhyl in North Wales, Margate in Kent, Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, Great Yarmouth in Norfolk and Blackpool in Lancashire.

Derelict holiday chalets await demolition at Pontins Holiday Camp

In one part of Rhyl, two-thirds of working-age people are dependent on out-of-work benefits, while 41 per cent of adults in Clacton have no qualifications, said the report.

Of the 10 wards in England and Wales with the highest rates

of teenage pregnancy, four are in seaside towns - the highest rate is in Great Yarmouth - said the report. In some neighborhoods, more than 40 per cent of families with children are fatherless.

Blackpool local authority has the highest rate

of children in care in the whole of England - 150 per 10,000 population - far exceeding the English average of 59.

The report said: "Whilst each town has its own particular problems, a recurring theme has been that of poverty attracting poverty.

"As employment has dried up, so house prices

have fallen and so less economically-active people, such as single-parent families and pensioners, have moved in, seeking cheaper accommodation and living costs."

Following the report the CSJ has called skills to be improved in seaside towns

"Similarly, vulnerable people - such as children in care and ex-offenders - have been moved in as authorities take advantage of low-cost housing as large properties have been chopped into HMOs. Many parts of these towns have become dumping grounds, further depressing the desirability of such areas and so perpetuating the cycle

."

CSJ director Christian Guy said: "Living standards in some of the UK's best-known coastal towns have declined beyond recognition and locals are now bearing the brunt of severe levels of social breakdown.

"We have found inspiring local people, services and charities working hard to turn things around, but they are struggling to do this alone.

"Some of these areas have been left behind. We must ramp up efforts to revive Britain's coastal towns, not just for visitors but for the people who live there."

The CSJ recommended measures to improve skills in seaside towns and devolve greater powers to local level.

Jesus Culture - Holy

Church

1 Samuel 22 :1ff

David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became captain over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.

CT Studd.

“Some want to live within the sound Of church or chapel bell;

I want to run a rescue shop, Within a yard of hell.”

Hell will freeze over before we bow to Spain - Gibraltar's defiant message to Madrid

GIBRALTAR’S chief minister said this morning that “hell will freeze over” before it removes an artificial reef that has angered Spanish fishermen and which has led to what many see as a road blockade of the Rock.

By: Ted Jeory & Owen Bennett

Published: Mon, August 5, 2013

Spain is taking a more belligerent approach to the row, causing misery to workers in Gibraltar

Fabian Picardo said the reef was required for Gibraltar’s economy and was no different to others built by Spain

in its own coastal waters.

And he said Spanish threats to close its airspace around the Mediterranean outpost would make landings more difficult for pilots

and so endanger the lives of passengers.

He accused Spain of acting like North Korea and sabre-rattling over the country's new hard-line stance on Gibraltar.

Madrid’s foreign minister Jose Garcia-Margallo has become increasingly belligerent in his language, threatening to impose a toll charge of 50 euros (£43.40) on vehicles entering and leaving the British Overseas Territory.

Gibraltar's defiant chief minister Fabian Picardo (centre; from Facebook)

He has said the proceeds could be used to help Spanish fishermen who have lost out because of damage to fishing

grounds allegedly caused by Gibraltarian authorities.

Such a fee could impose punitive costs on Gibraltarians who regularly commute into Spain to work.

Spain is also considering closing its airspace to flights heading to the Rock.

Mr Picardo said any border costs would violate European Union freedom of movement rules.

He added Spain’s threats were the “politics of madness”.He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "What we have seen this weekend is sabre-rattling of the sort that we haven't seen for some time.

"The things that Mr Garcia-Margallo has said are more reminiscent of the type of statement

you'd hear from North Korea than from an EU partner.

"We've seen it before during Franco's time during the 1960s but I think all of us hoped that those politics were never going to come back and that the much more enlightened politics of Mr Moratinos (Miguel Angel Moratinos), who was the previous but one foreign minister of Spain, would prevail, which talked about people working together and creating economic benefits for the citizens on both sides of the frontier rather than the belligerence we are seeing now.”

What we have seen this weekend is sabre-rattling of the sort that we haven't seen for some time

Fabian Picardo

His comments came three weeks after the Sunday Express broke the story about the escalating row, with Mr Picardo demanding Britain send a gun boat to patrol Gibraltar in a show of strength.

Last week, Express Online revealed that Spain had been turning away lorries full of concrete thought to be destined for the artificial reef.

Thousands of other motorists have been forced to queue for hours in sweltering heat as Spanish border guards began to check every vehicle at the border post.

Yesterday, the Foreign Office voiced concerns over Mr Garcia-Margallo's comments and said Britain would not compromise its sovereignty over Gibraltar.A spokesman made clear that the UK expects Madrid to live up to the commitments it made in the 2006 Cordoba Agreement, which included deals on issues like border crossings and access for flights

, as well as establishing a tripartite forum for regular dialogue between Britain, Spain and Gibraltar.

Spain claims sovereignty over the Rock, which stands on the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsula but has been a British Overseas Territory since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

But the UK Government has made clear that it will not negotiate over sovereignty as long as Gibraltar's people want to remain British.Foreign Secretary William Hague last month phoned Mr Garcia-Margallo to complain about Spain ramping up border checks, which forced drivers to wait for up to seven hours in searing heat.

The Foreign Office yesterday summoned the Spanish ambassador to demand assurances that there would be no repeat of the excessive checks.

Our seaside town dumping grounds: Faded resorts filled with workless cost £2bn in benefits

Unemployment is twice or even several times the national average
Plummeting property prices mean hotels turned into cheap housing
Report said it was a case of 'poverty attracting poverty'

By TAMARA COHEN

PUBLISHED: 00:14, 5 August 2013 | UPDATED: 07:38, 5 August 2013

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Declining seaside towns have become ‘dumping grounds’ following the destruction of their economies by cheap foreign travel, a report warns today.

Once-thriving resorts are now heavily populated by welfare claimants, those with substance abuse and mental health problems and patients leaving the care system, it claims.

Unemployment is twice or even several times the national average – with working age benefits costing almost £2billion per year.

Run-down: Seaside towns like Margate are full of empty shops and benefits claimants

A report from the Centre for Social Justice said seaside towns underwent rapid decline in the 1970s with the advent of cheap flights abroad.

While some, such as Brighton and Bournemouth, have retained their tourist industry by attracting the business community, many others have suffered ‘severe social breakdown’, the report says.

More...

The numbers of pupils leaving school with no qualifications, teenage pregnancy, lone parenting, and joblessness are among the highest in the country.

In areas of Blackpool, the researchers found more than 40 per cent of children were fatherless, and in one deprived area of Rhyl, north Wales, 67 per cent of people were out of work. The national average is 7.8 per cent.

One phenomenon found in all five towns they examined – Blackpool, Rhyl, Margate in Kent, Clacton-on-Sea in Essex and Great Yarmouth in Norfolk – was a plummeting of property prices which has seen former hotels and bed and breakfasts in town centres turned into cheap housing.

Desolate: The seaside town of Jaywick, near Clacton on Sea, is one of the most run down areas of Britain

'Dumping ground': Jaywick, near Clacton on Sea, where unusually high numbers of residents are on out-of-work benefits

'Dumping ground': Jaywick, where unusually high numbers of residents are on out-of-work benefits

This has attracted vulnerable people from nearby towns and cities, putting a drain on public services, said the CSJ, a conservative-leaning think-tank founded by the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith.

The report said: ‘A recurring theme has been that of poverty attracting poverty.

‘Many parts of these towns have become dumping grounds, further depressing the desirability of such areas and so perpetuating the cycle.’

Of the 20 neighbourhoods across the UK with the highest levels of out-of-work benefits, seven are in coastal towns that once attracted millions of holidaymakers.

The Turning the Tide report says there is a clear case for more investment in transport and infrastructure in coastal areas.

The report recommends giving these towns funding for initiatives such as improving local housing and schools to attract more upwardly-mobile residents, and grants for businesses outside the tourist industry.

It claims the new Universal Credit benefits system would help more unemployed into minimum-wage jobs. And it says the Government’s Coastal Communities Fund should be devolved to a more local level.

Traditional high streets are set to disappear and be replaced by small clusters of shops, with empty properties converted into homes.

Planning minister Nick Boles said councils should attempt to preserve high street shopping on just one or two ‘prime streets’.

Town hall chiefs will get greater freedom to convert retail premises into private housing because we are doing more shopping online.

CSj Report http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/UserStorage/pdf/Pdf%20reports/Turning-the-Tide.pdf

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2384597/Our-seaside-town-dumping-grounds-Faded-resorts-filled-workless-cost-2bn-benefits.html#ixzz2b55WbjkU
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