Ten coastal towns get £8.5m for projects, BBC News

Ten coastal towns have been given £8.5m in government cash to help create nearly 1,400 jobs and repair storm-damaged areas.

Schemes set to benefit include the Jubilee Pool in Penzance, Old Portsmouth's historic arches, and the South West Coastal Path.

The cash will be used to create tourist attractions, regenerate historic sites and provide new flood defences.

The awards come from the Big Lottery's Coastal Community Fund.

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Funding award list

• ·        Jubilee Pool, Penzance, Cornwall - £1.95m
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• ·        Historic arches, Old Portsmouth, Hampshire - £1.755m
• ·        South West Coastal Path, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset - £999,000
• ·        Historic Fruit Market, Kingston upon Hull - £800,000
• ·        Waldringfield Flood Defence, Suffolk - £633,000
• ·        Maltings Building, Wells-next-the-Sea, near Cromer, Norfolk - £610,000
• ·        Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Spurn Point - £498,000
• ·        RSPB Nature Reserve, Bempton Cliffs, Humberside - £452,000
• ·        Youth Hostels in Brighton, East Sussex, and Robin Hoods Bay, North Yorkshire - £401,000
• ·        Park View 4 U, near Lytham St Annes, Lancashire - £395,000
• ·        Coastal Communities minister Penny Mordaunt said the money was set to make a "big difference" to towns affected by the winter storms.

British taxpayers help fund £20billion EU handout to struggling Portugal, Daily Express

Jose Manuel Barroso

FURY erupted today after the EU gifted cash-strapped Portugal a £20 billion handout to help boost its crumbling economy.

Most of the money will be spent on training and education in a bid to cut rampant unemployment and revive Portuguese economic fortunes by the end of the decade.

Critics warned it means British taxpayers' will be effectively forking out up to £2.7 billion over the next seven years to help prop up one of Europe's basket case nations.

Unemployment in Portugal is currently surging at 14.3 per cent, while one of its biggest banks is teetering on the brink following massive losses.

It was also suggested that the 'growth fund' was a parting gift from Portuguese European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso before he leaves later this year.

Ukip MEP and the party's Economy spokesman Patrick O'Flynn blasted the deal, saying that it was "tipping money down the drain".

He added: "There is only one way for Portugal's economy to recover and generate new jobs and investment and that will be to leave the Euro and restore its own national currency.

"This must amount to the most expensive sticking plaster in history and British voters will be outraged."

Read more here:

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The Myth of Mary Seacole

Lessons in lies: How  the BBC, school text books and even exam boards have twisted history to smear Florence Nightingale and make a saint of this woman, Daily Mail  by  PROFESSOR LYNN MCDONALD

·         Commemorative statue of Mary Seacole was unveiled in London last month

·         Seacole has been treated with huge reverence - but is surrounded by myth

·         Presented as medical pioneer - though she was never even a nurse

·         Even school exams award marks for repeating falsehoods about Seacole

·         Florence Nightingale - an actual pioneer - is often denigrated in comparison 

Across the river from the Houses of Parliament in London, a small yet significant ceremony took place last month.

As a few dignitaries looked on in the gardens of St Thomas’ Hospital, a Church of England chaplain blessed the ground where a 10ft statue is to be erected next summer.

While few public artworks are treated with quite such reverence, all the great and good who gathered for the event were conscious that the £500,000 bronze will be the first public memorial to celebrate the ‘black pioneer nurse’ Mary Seacole.

Although some would say she was morally deserving of recognition –- and indeed a statue - for her warm heart and personal courage, the story of Mary Seacole has been spun out of all proportion, her memory hijacked and her achievements embellished in order to provide a role model.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

The black Florence Nightingale and the making of a PC myth: One historian explains how Mary Seacole's story never stood up

Florence Nightingale, Nursing Legend, British Icon

Vue cinema apologises after friends 'are turned away by security guard because they were not a Muslim family celebrating Eid' Daily Mail.

  Leon Jennings visited Birmingham's Star City complex with two friends 

  Claims security guard said film showings at Vue were only for Muslims

  Allegedly told his group that they 'did not look like they celebrated Eid'

  Venue based in Aston area of city, where 87% residents are non-white

  Vue is investigating and 'sincerely apologises for inconvenience caused'

  Star City management claim 'there is no truth in the recent allegations'

A sales consultant was allegedly turned away from a busy cinema yesterday because he was not a Muslim celebrating Eid.

Leon Jennings had been visiting Birmingham’s Star City entertainment complex with two friends.

But as the 22-year-old tried to enter the Vue cinema based on the site, which includes dozens or bars and restaurants, he said he was turned away by a security guard.

After asking them why, Mr Jennings claimed he was told by staff that film showings were only for couples and families celebrating the end of the Muslim festival.

Mr Jennings and his three friends were allegedly forced to turn around and go home unable to watch a film at the complex, because ‘they did not look like they celebrated Eid’.

Today he said he was left feeling embarrassed by the incident and felt discriminated against for being white.

The revelation has caused outrage as other visitors reported similar experiences across the venue, which is based in the Aston area of the city, where 87 per cent of residents are from an ethnic group other than white.

Mr Jennings, a viewing consultant at a photography studio, from Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, said: ‘I was going there with my pals to the cinema as it’s Orange Wednesdays, so you get two for one.

‘As we drove in the bloke on the gate said to use “not tonight guys, it’s couples and families only”. We thought he was just joking and went and parked up.

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Is this is the real reason, Alex Salmond wants Scotland to be Independent?

Salmond currency plan dismissed by top bankers, Scottish Daily Express

They believe Mr Salmond’s claim that “nothing much will change” and the pound will stay after a “Yes” is a “huge deception”.

“The best way to keep the pound would be through a currency union like today,” said Sir Martin Jacomb, former chairman of Prudential, and Sir Andrew Large, former deputy governor of the Bank of England. This is not compatible with Scotland being politically independent, and is therefore not on offer,”

The robust intervention by two of the UK’s top bankers came as stock market analysts warned millions could be wiped off companies if Scots vote Yes.

The Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems have told Mr Salmond that there would be no currency union, but he dismissed that as “bluff and bluster.”

Jacomb and Large said: “Alex Salmond claims that nothing much will change, that threats otherwise are a bluff and would keep the pound sterling.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

Battle for Scotland is ‘still too close to call’

Economic crisis which will hit independent Scotland 

Scotland could run out of cash just like Greece

Scottish Independence, a Vehicle for Alex Salmond's Grandiose Ego ?