Meanwhile some MP’s are donating to charity pay rises that they don’t believe they are entitled to take.
Faced with having to accept the 10% pay rise given to all MPs by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, a figure that PM David Cameron has said he will pocket, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, along with Labour ministers Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall and Yvette Cooper have all said they will give theirs to charity.
Seventeen aid workers for charity International Rescue Committee (IRC) have been expelled by separatists from the Ukranian city of Donetsk, accused of spying on rebel operations there.
The aid workers were a team sent to Donetsk in April by IRC president and former British Foreign Secretary David Milliband, to focus on the hygiene and safety needs of women and young girls affected by the conflict.
Tightening up on money laundering has caused some banks to pull out of emerging markets, this then making it difficult for charities to send money to those countries affected.
Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney has explained that some of those banks caught providing accounts and services to money launderers have chosen to dump the region, or the line of business altogether, to avoid further punishments.
Singer Sir Elton John has topped a list of those giving up a generous proportion of their wealth for charitable causes, having donated £24.1 million, equating to 8.92% of his total wealth.
Others from the world of music in the charitable top ten are bands Coldplay at number five, giving 1.82%/ £3.8 million, and One Direction at number seven, giving 0.92% /£1.2 million, Eric Clapton at number eight, giving 0.88%/ £1.4 million, and Dhani Harisson, musical son of Beatle George Harrison, and George’s widow, film producer and author Olivia, who with Dhani gave 0.55%/ £1.1 million for the number ten slot. Continue reading
One of a number of allegations made against members and past members of the Fiddles in Football Association (Fifa) is that former Fifa vice president Jack Warner diverted almost £500,000 intended for victims of the Haiti earthquake into bank accounts controlled by, er, himself.
Warner, 72, who faces extradition from Trinidad to the USA to answer a number of charges of corruption and money laundering, claims to have “an avalanche of secrets” about the misconduct of others at the disgraced football body, including its outgoing president Sett Blatter.
Alongside the news that a serious malfunction and crash on the extreme Smiler roller-coaster at Alton Towers theme park on Tuesday June 2 has left four young people in their teens and twenties with serious and potentially life-changing injuries, the advertorial for theme parks published in this month’s issue of Mash Media’s Conference News – “Paul Colston joins the roller-coaster”- makes unintentionally grim and thought-provoking reading.
This advises readers that “The UK theme parks and major attractions are geared up for corporate events like never before” and features Alton Tower’s head of trade and corporate sales Rachael Cotton asking “Where else can you ride the world’s most inverted roller-coaster before crashing (a prescient choice of word there by Ms Cotton) for the night in a giant hot air balloon?” She also opines that her firm’s “newly launched adrenaline add-on packages are the perfect way to wake delegates up during a corporate fun day” Well you would certainly have problems falling asleep if the roller-coaster car you were travelling in smashed into a stationary empty one at more than 50 miles an hour, we’d agree. Perhaps the much-quoted and sought-after WOW factor should stand for Why Oh Why? Continue reading
Travel firm Thomas Cook faces a new investigation by the Crown Prosecution Service into the deaths of two children during a £2,000 holiday booked through it at one of its recommended Corfu hotels in 2006.
Christie Shepherd, seven, and her brother Bobby, six, died when a faulty boiler pumped out poisonous carbon monoxide gas which, due to botched building works leaked into their room at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel. At the inquest held last month the coroner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing, and that Thomas Cook had breached its duty of care to customers, aspects that have legal implications for civil liability and corporate manslaughter. Continue reading
Those who smoke, women who are pregnant or taking the contraceptive pill or hormone replacement therapy (HRT), those who have recently had leg or pelvic region surgery and those who are dehydrated are all in extra danger of suffering a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) on a long-haul flight.
This happens when a blood clot forms in a deep vein in the leg, a more common occurrence the older you are, and can be fatal if a piece breaks away and reaches the heart or lungs. (embolism) A warning sign, not always given, is a painful swelling in the leg and at this point the clot will need to be treated, usually with anti-coagulant drugs and occasionally with surgery. Continue reading
For an amusingly acerbic look at the dark side of the artistic mentality LISTEN UP PHILIP, a stiletto-sharp study of self-absorbed and misanthropic New Yorkers, ticks the boxes for those who can watch the emotional car crashes of the seriously unpleasant.
Philip Lewis Friedman (Jason Schwartzman), a young and angry writer having his second book published, hates everyone except himself and shows it at every opportunity, treating his long-suffering girlfriend Ashley Kane(Elizabeth Moss) appallingly and berating an old college friend, who shared his ambition and is now in a wheelchair, for being a failure. Thus our Phil is truly a compellingly watchable and nasty piece of work too arrogant to promote his book he learns from his publisher that one man out there, older and more successful author Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce) actually liked his work. Continue reading
Canadian adultery website Ashley Madison, credited with helping to break up thousands of marriages, is having problems with its plans to go public in a European country, where its operators believe there is a “more relaxed attitude to infidelity” than in North American or Asian markets.
Reportedly however our City brokers are “queasy” about associating themselves or their clients with something many view as immoral and sordid, an arguably hypocritical view given the enthusiasm for profits from gambling, tobacco, alcohol, bent banking and weapons that kill people. Continue reading