Multimillion-pound Barracks Claim

Summary:
The property developer Christian Candy came out of high court with a lost case on his multimillion-pound claim over the Chelsea Barracks development in London. The judge found Mr Candy’s Qatari partners in the project violated the terms of their agreement by withdrawing the planning permission after the intervention of the Prince of Wales. He also said that Mr Candy’s company, CPC Group, was not entitled to the early payment of 68,5 million under the terms of the contract. The issue will be considered if CPC seeks damages for the breach of contract.

Opinion:
I think that the judge has a point in this case, since contracts are not made for nothing. However, if a company breaks a contract there should be some form of compensation. I think that big companies are getting way too much freedom already and should be more regulated by rules through government. The power that these multimillion-pound companies have is just too much. So in this case I do think that Mr Candy deserves to get his money. Since his partners have violated their contract.

Article:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/no-payout-for-property-developer-despite-court-ruling-2010291.html

Cuts Social Sector

Summary:
A co-ordinated strike is a possible threat due to the government treating public sector workers as “devils”. This is a result in cuts being made in their budgets. A two-year public sector pay freeze for six million workers and a thirty-two billion cut in the welfare sector. If the workers have confidence and work together, anything is possible. The biggest support for the strike comes from the private sector, from British Airways cabin crew to fuel truck drivers. All unions should work together to oppose the cuts.

Opinion:
I think it is great that people stand up for themselves when they feel that their government does them wrong. Especially the social sector which is, in my eyes, more focused on helping people then it is on earning money. Cuts should not be made in this sector, you can get more money from the bigger and richer companies anyway, so why not make cuts on them? I think this has to do with the general influence and power these big companies have due to their access to vast sums of money. I sincerely hope that it will not have to come to a strike, but if it does go that far, the government got what they deserved.

Article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/25/strike-threat-public-sector-fury

Global Economy Talks

Summary:
David Cameron tried to warn other world leaders to reduce the amount of global financial meetings they have due to the fact that these are overly expensive. Cameron did this when he prepared to attend his first summit in Canada. In a Canadian article, Cameron said that even though he is new to summits, he remains sceptical about them. Since somehow things have not really advanced when there’s a new summit the next year. Cameron said that unlike Gordon Brown, he is focused on a small amount of key priorities and will keep falling back to these year in year out.

Opinion:
I think that David Cameron has the correct view on these summits after I read the article. Even though he will keep going each year, which means it will still be a waste of money. I think they will have to make sure that they actually make plans and do something with them, instead of just drinking a way to expensive cup of coffee with each other and generally do nothing. I do think that it is important that countries work together to solve the recent problems with the global economy. After all, we all live on this world together.

Article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/25/david-cameron-global-recovery-g8-g20-summit

Free Food For Pupils

Summary:
Healthy school meals are barely affordable for poor working parents. Critics have asked the government to change their mind about free school meals. Some of the parents are so tight on money that their children have to take turns in getting a nutritious lunch from school. Labour wanted to give free school meals for every pupil below the poverty line. Another problem that connects with this one is that a lot of the school do not even serve healthy meals yet. Campaigners say that giving free school lunches to all primary school pupils living below the poverty line, would lift fifty thousand children out of poverty.

Opinion:
I think it would be great if pupils, although not just the poor, are able to get free healthy school lunches in primary school. The fact that a lot of the people are not eating healthy food is quite a big problem these days. Because in some cases this may lead to obesity and premature deaths. So I think that stimulating people, especially kids, will greatly improve the general health of the public. On the other side, it’s still the parents responsibility to take care of their children and somehow save up for money for proper food for their kids.

Article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jun/25/poor-children-need-free-meals

Whale Wars The Sequel

Article:
The attempt to scrap the international moratorium on commercial whaling collapsed. This to the delight of anti-whaling campaigners. Japan, Norway and Iceland are not too happy with this decision and they continue their whaling activities ignoring world opinion. Speakers from the 88 member states of the International Whaling Commission, who met in Agadir, Morocco, were not able to come to an agreement. They had been talking for two days about the three-year-old proposal to abandon the official whaling ban and allow them to get smaller and agreed kills. The issue will not be discussed for at least a year now.

Opinion:
I think that this conversation of delegates has led to nothing at all. Letting this rule pass or not does not make the slightest difference in my eyes. Japan, Norway and Iceland will continue whaling anyways. For some reason, I can’t really blame them. As it is as much a part of their as windmills are of ours. Who are we to say what they can and cannot do? This does not mean that I approve of whaling however, especially since I feel that we should prevent whole species from becoming extinct, unless this happens in a natural way. I believe that the extinction of wildlife will eventually lead to the extinction of mankind.

Article:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/victory-for-antiwhaling-campaigners-2008900.html

Pull The Brake On Private Health Screenings

Summary:
Present day Doctor’s leaders demand restrains on the rapid growth in private screening clinics offering services costing more than £1.000. They feel that patients are being exploited due to “irresponsible” marketing of health screenings. The British Medical Association and the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges wrote a letter to health secretary Andrew Lansely explaining some of the downsides. There are significant risks with direct-to-consumer tests. Private companies ignore these risks and are only highlighting the benefits of such screenings. A lot of these tests are also inaccurate, which either falsely reassures people or depresses them because the screening resulted in a disease. Meldrum and Douglas ask the government to introduce tougher regulations on the marketing private screening tests to make sure it is factual and balanced.

Opinion:
I think it is a good thing to regulate the marketing on private screenings because a lot of people are just being scammed through these. I feel that if you really want to find out if you are sick, you are either already showing some pretty obvious symptoms or you should just go to the hospital and ask if they can check you. I think that the risk of just losing your money while not getting anything in return is far too high. So making sure the rules on private screenings are firm enough is in my eyes a great solution to this problem.

Article:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/the-1631000-body-scans-that-ought-to-come-with-a-health-warning-2008808.html

Child Protection System Overhauled

Summary:
A big review of the child protection system will allow social workers to better create a relationship with vulnerable families. Children’s minister Tim Loughton, would be happy if social policy expert Professor Eileen Munro’s inquiry recommended removing a lot of the rules. SCRs (Serious Case Reviews) hidden by Labour will be made public. All future SCRs will be published so social workers are able to learn from previous mistakes of others. This is all meant to restore public confidence in the system. It will make sure that the social workers can actually keep an eye on vulnerable families instead of being shackled to their computers.

Opinion:
I think it is a good thing to make social workers less bound to rules and to make them able to keep an eye out on vulnerable families more. This because in my opinion, a lot of problems can be prevented if social workers have access to Serious Case Reviews. Crimes involving children are just absolutely hideous and anything that can be done against them, should be done against them. Reducing the chance these things happen by improving social help will be a great step in the right direction. Less rules (to a degree) will make it easier for social workers to actually do their job.

Article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jun/10/review-child-protection