Organisers wanting to get their delegates doing something physical, or cerebral, for purposes of serious team-building or just serious fun have a number of options we explored on our recent press trip to the Belgian capital, courtesy of visitbrussels. Continue reading
Claims that some restaurants and groups keep service charges that diners believe are shared among the waiting staff have sparked calls for changes in the practice of tipping.
Under fire in the media has been French chain Cote, who refute the claims, but the row has focused attention on tipping. On the one hand are those who say that the waiting staff are underpaid by their employers for what they do and rely on the generosity of restaurant customers to make up their wages with tax-free cash tips. Others say that the restaurants should pay their staff better and not rely on them being compensated for their employer’s meanness by their customers. Continue reading
Event organisers are invited to join a complimentary three-day, two night familiarisation trip to Leeds, the Leeds Big Sleepover 2015.
This takes place Thursday 8 to Saturday 10 October, organisers are welcome to bring colleagues, partners or clients and there will be opportunities for individual inspections of chosen venues as well as a programme of hosted meals and entertainment.
Applications to Web: leedsbigsleepover.co.uk
Those interested in the broadcast media, whether to praise them for broadcasting without fear or favour or to condemn them for manufacturing news and for bias toward the sensational, will find Medium Cool a thought-provoking film.
This is ultimately set against the backdrop of the protests, and subsequent Chicago police rioting and mindless brutality at the city’s Democratic National Convention of August 1968, and features the attacks on journalists and camera operators by police who were keen not to be identified. As it turned out they needn’t have worried since police violence had gone unpunished before in the Windy City, and it was to be no different this time, even if the whole world was watching. Continue reading
SOME GOOD FROM SAD DEATH The suicide of poppy-seller Olive Cooke in Bristol in May this year has highlighted the aggressive fundraising tactics used by some charities…
SPITE NOT RIGHT The Court of Appeal has confirmed that a widow broke the law by leaving her entire £489,000 estate to animal welfare charities and nothing to her …
TRUTH TO OUT? The National Association of People Abused in Childhood claim that they are in touch with more than 30 police officers who were ordered not to investigate …
NO MORE CRUELTY AT HALAL ABATTOIR Bowood Farms Ltd, which ran a halal abattoir in Thirsk, Yorkshire where sheep were cruelly treated for fun before being …
KIDS COMPANY FOLDS Children’s charity Kids Company ceased trading on Wednesday August 5 after 20 years, and funding by taxpayers money of £37 million …
GOVERNMENT OUT-FOXED A government plan to effectively bring back fox-hunting in England and Wales has been put on hold. This was an amendment to the Hunting Act …
MORE SICK PLEASURES Meanwhile other killers of animals for pleasure are facing widespread disgust, condemnation, censure and calls for their punishment after Walter …
CHARITABLE? A 75 year-old female volunteer has been sacked from the hospice shop where she worked free for 30 years, because she was uncomfortable about using …
CHEERS! The launch of a beer brand into pubs could generate £1.5 million for Prostate Cancer UK. The Two Fingers Brewing Company, which was set up two years ago …
The suicide of poppy-seller Olive Cooke in Bristol in May this year has highlighted the aggressive fundraising tactics used by some charities, and prompted new laws to be drafted to stop the abuses.
Ms Cooke, 92, was a generous donor to and worker for charities and was accordingly targeted to be bombarded with direct mail and cold telephone calls, from her name being on lists of likely donors bought from list brokers by the charities and given to direct marketing companies. Continue reading
The Court of Appeal has confirmed that a widow broke the law by leaving her entire £489,000 estate to animal welfare charities and nothing to her daughter, to spite her.
Melita Jackson died in 2004 and, due to disagreements over her daughter Heather Ilott’s choice of husband, and the naming of one of the five children she had, left instructions that all her money should be given to the Blue Cross, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). Her daughter Heather was to get nothing, and all attempts by her to claim anything were to be robustly resisted by the charities. Continue reading
The National Association of People Abused in Childhood claim that they are in touch with more than 30 police officers who were ordered not to investigate allegations of child abuse against VIP men. According to chief executive Peter Saunders there is “a history of cover ups”.
Meanwhile a former brothel-keeper who says that former PM Sir Edward Heath was one of her VIP customers, and that she escaped a prosecution by threatening to expose him, allegations that the Independent Police Complaints Commission is now looking into. Continue reading
Bowood Farms Ltd, which ran a halal abattoir in Thirsk, Yorkshire where sheep were cruelly treated for fun before being slaughtered, has ceased trading. (The Business Desk)
The move comes six months after charity Animal Aid released secretly-filmed footage of the cruelty to the Food Standards Agency, who started an investigation with a view to prosecution. The company has collapsed and all fifty staff have been made redundant.
Our government currently allows halal slaughter in the UK, where animals are not stunned before their throats are cut, for fear of offending religious sensibilities.
Children’s charity Kids Company ceased trading on Wednesday August 5 after 20 years, and funding by taxpayers money of £37 million.
Its founder, the colourful Camila Batmangheldidih was recently forced to step down as its chief executive when the Cabinet Office refused to approve another £3 million of public funding unless she did, amid concerns about how the charity was being run by her, and how taxpayer’s money was being spent. Continue reading