Three-Quarters Of BBC TV Licence Fee Convictions Are Women

The BBC has said it will investigate whether the enforcement of TV licence fee payments discriminates against females after figures revealed women make up three-quarters of convictions.

The corporation’s latest data showed that women made up 76 per cent of the 52,376 people convicted for TV licence evasion in 2020.

The BBC agreed to carry out a gender disparity review after a 32-year-old single mother from Essex threatened a judicial review of the system on the grounds of sex discrimination when she faced prosecution for not paying the fee.

The woman, who moved to the United Kingdom from Rwanda in 2015, said she made tiny errors when attempting to switch her TV licencing payments to direct debits before she was charged with non-payment in March last year.

She contacted Appeal, a charity fighting miscarriage of justice, who argued charging her for the offence was not in the public interest.

TV Licencing agreed and dropped the charges, but believing the system was unfair, the woman sought assistance from the Public Law Project who informed the BBC they were seeking a judicial review.

Plans to push for the review were then dropped when the BBC, who considered the woman’s claim unfounded, agreed to carry out an internal gender disparity review.

The woman told a newspaper outlet that she felt that they target people who are vulnerable, such as single mums, and that this needed to be challenged.

She said that she did this to stop other women from being targeted unfairly, and so that they can see if there’s discrimination.

Ministry of Justice figures show Licence fee evasion was the common offence for which women were convicted in

Ministry of Justice figures show Licence fee evasion was the common offence for which women were convicted in 2019. It accounted for 30 per cent of female convictions and just 4 per cent of male convictions.

The Ministry of Justice said this was because women were more likely to be at home when an inspector knocks at the door.

Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary who last month said the TV licence fee would be frozen at £159 for two years, told a newspaper outlet she was extremely concerned that women were disproportionately facing criminal charges for non-payment.

The woman from Essex said inspectors visited her house during the November 2020 lockdown and having just moved into her new home, she said she wasn’t on top of her bills but then signed up for Paypoint so she could pay the licence fee in cash or on a credit card in certain shops.

This licencing fee has now run its time and is now becoming a disgrace by hounding pensioners and single women with threats of fines, but unfortunately, women are more easily intimidated by male inspectors – don’t give them your name or any information and definitely don’t let them in – slam the door in their faces and ignore their empty threats.

Or, failing that, ditch the BBC – problem solved because nobody’s interested anymore when there are hundreds of channels to watch and quite frankly they show much better content.

Nobody should be prosecuted for not having a TV licence, it’s absurd. They’ve purchased the TV, they’ve paid for the electricity to run it, so why should they need to buy a licence on top?

Could you envision being forced to pay for Netflix and if we didn’t, then we could face prison time, but that’s not the case, you pay for it if you watch it and if you don’t then you don’t pay a penny, so why should we be forced to pay for the BBC if we don’t watch it live? The BBC is a disgrace and should be broken up and privatised, that way if we want to watch it we can and if we don’t want to we don’t have to pay.

Boris Johnson Is Talking To His Lawyers

Downing Street insiders have claimed that Boris Johnson is threatening to take legal action over Lord Ashcroft’s bio of his wife Carrie.

The Prime Minister was said to be raging about the book, which was serialised in a newspaper outlet last weekend.

A newspaper outlet reported that Boris Johnson told colleagues the book was defamatory and said he was taking advice from his lawyers.

Reading the extracts left the Prime Minister distracted and angry all weekend, despite the Partygate political scandal swirling around him and criticism of him over his Jimmy Savile attack on Sir Keir Starmer.

The book, First Lady: Intrigue at the Court of Carrie and Boris Johnson, makes a string of claims about Carrie Johnson and her influence over her husband.

It proffers the view that faultlines in her relationship with the Prime Minister have had an impact on No 10, with one source describing it as a Greek tragedy.

It follows allegations over her involvement in Wallpapergate, the redecoration of their No 11 flat, and her role in the evacuation of animals from the Nowzad charity in Afghanistan.

Sources close to Carrie Johnson have claimed bitter ex-officials are using the book to conduct a brutal briefing campaign against her.

Her spokesman said that she’s a private person who plays no part in government, and on Monday Health Secretary Sajid Javid accused the author of sexism.

He said that first of all, the partners of politicians should be off-limits and that he did believe there was sexism involved in this and that going after Carrie Johnson was extremely unfair, that it was undignified and it was just wrong.

A number 10 spokesman said it was completely untrue that Boris Johnson was contemplating legal action, and a spokesman for the book’s publisher, Biteback, told a newspaper outlet that it should help worldwide books sales and publicity and that all authors’ royalties were being donated to NHS charities.

But before Boris Johnson decides to take this to court, he needs to be certain of his grounds because more may come out than he might want because clearly someone or multiple people have given Lord Ashcroft the information for his book, and Lord Ashcroft got the title of his book wrong, Carrie Johnson isn’t the First Lady, the Queen is.

Boris Johnson should just bail out now because if he has time to worry about what people say about his wife while our country falls to pieces, then he’s not focusing on the job he’s paid to do, and now, maybe, Boris Johnson will understand how infuriating and damaging it is to throw lies around and smear people in the way that he does.

Boris Johnson spent years in Fleet Street belittling other people. What goes around, comes around and he should just get over it and do his job.

Boris Johnson should be attempting to lower the cost of living in the United Kingdom, telling us the truth about the wasted billions on poor PPE contracts, the thousands of illegal immigrants that are costing the taxpayers millions a week, telling us the truth about Partygate, explaining why the Track and Trace cost £37 billion among other things, and he should be getting his priorities in order.

And I hope this private matter doesn’t cost the taxpayer money while he pays for the expenses for his lawyer to take this case to court, and it’s Lord Ashcroft that’s talking about Carrie Johnson, so shouldn’t it be her who sues?

Vladimir Putin Warns Of The Possibility Of A Nuclear War

Vladimir Putin warned nuclear war could break out if Ukraine joins NATO and accused the West of complete disregard for their concerns hours after discussions with French President Emmanuel Macron in Moscow.

The Russian strongman said he wanted to emphasise one more time that if Ukraine allies NATO, the European countries will be automatically drawn into a war conflict with Russia.

He said that states wouldn’t even have time to blink before invoking Article 5 of NATO which demands collective defence of members.

Vladimir Putin also said he recognised Moscow’s military strength was incomparable with NATO but cautioned Russia was one of the leading nuclear states and that there would be no victors in a hot war.

His comments came after long negotiations with Emmanuel Macron over the situation in Ukraine, which Vladimir Putin described as constructive after using the familiar ‘ty’ form of ‘you’ to address the French President, seen as a sign of a good rapport between the leaders.

Vladimir Putin has spent months massing some 135,000 troops backed by tanks and artillery on Ukraine borders, sparking repeated warnings from Washington that he’s about to invade.

Kommersant reported that it came after it emerged Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had no plans to take part in the Munich Security Conference set to take place on February 18-20.

Kremlin representative Dmitry Peskov has already confirmed Vladimir Putin won’t attend the two-day summit, an annual cross Atlantic conference held in Munich since 1963 that focuses on international security issues.

Vladimir Putin claimed his Moscow talks with President Emmanuel Macron were constructive but said that he wanted to stress it one more time, that’s he’s been saying it, but that he wanted everyone to listen to him, and to deliver it to the audience in print, TV and online.

And that if we understood it or not, if Ukraine joins NATO and endeavours to bring Crimea back by military means, the European countries will be automatically pulled into a war conflict with Russia.

Vladimir Putin warned that of course, the military potential of NATO and Russia are incomparable and that they understand that, but that they also understand that Russia is one of the leading nuclear states, and by some modern components it even surpasses many, and that there will be no winners, and that we will be drawn into this war against our will.

He said that we won’t even have time to blink when the executive Article 5, collective defence of NATO members, and that, of course, Emmanuel Macron doesn’t want this, which was why he was there, torturing him for six straight hours.

Why can’t Vladimir Putin just chill out? He appears to be such an angry man, or is he just a warmonger? He appears to be an ageing dictator with an ego problem.

The problem is war today means mutually assured destruction for everyone and there would be no victors.

Vladimir Putin has accused the West of a total disregard for Russian feelings, what about those of the Ukrainian people? Don’t they have a right to live a peaceful life, but he appears to be completely disregarding them.

Eighty years on and humans still haven’t progressed past war, what a shameful species we really are! This man really does know how to cheer up one’s morning.

Obviously, it’s extremely difficult navigating the situation as we only hear a fraction of what’s actually going on behind the scenes. What we should be doing is respecting each other, it’s really not that difficult. What they should do is take a step back and come to some mutual agreement, however long it takes, it’s definitely better than nuclear war where no one will win.

Boris Johnson Is Ordered To Dismiss Openly Manoeuvring Rishi Sunak

Boris Johnson has reportedly been told to sack Rishi Sunak after the Chancellor publicly criticised the Prime Minister over his claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.

Boris Johnson is desperately trying to see off the growing threat of a vote of no confidence, as more than a dozen Tory MPs have now written no-confidence letters.

It’s thought that as many as 15 members have publicly written letters while the real number is believed to be far higher because most don’t make their actions known.

The latest MP to call on Boris to resign is ex-minister Nick Gibb who said the Prime Minister hadn’t been truthful in his explanations of parties reportedly held in No 10 and across Whitehall during COVID measures.

Downing Street also suffered a day of chaos on Thursday as four of Boris Johnson’s most senior aides opted to quit including the shock resignation of one of his closest allies, policy chief Munira Mirza.

According to a newspaper outlet, the Cabinet descended into civil war as one member called for the Prime Minister to sack Rishi Sunak while two others accused him of being on manoeuvres, evidenced by his public criticism of the Prime Minister.

It comes after Boris Johnson was publicly criticised by Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Thursday over the incendiary claim regarding Sir Keir Starmer’s time as DPP.

Rishi Sunak publicly condemned the Prime Minister over the false claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute paedophile Jimmy Savile.

Addressing the issue in a live broadcast on the cost of living situation, Rishi Sunak said of Boris Johnson’s attack on Sir Keir Starmer, that he wouldn’t have said that.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Sajid Javid yesterday became the latest minister to distance himself from the Prime Minister’s criticism of Sir Keir Starmer.

In a television interview, he said the Labour leader deserved total respect for the job he did as director of public prosecutions.

One cabinet minister told a newspaper outlet that he who wields the knife never wears the crown and that it was just so blatant.

And that once the May elections were out of the way there would be a reshuffle, and that Rishi Sunak had to go, and that they didn’t see how Boris Johnson could keep someone who’s so openly on manoeuvres.

Another said that they thought highly of Rishi Sunak but there were people around him who were not giving him sound advice.

They all seem to be as flawed as each other, fighting like children whilst the most vulnerable in society must decide between heating and eating, and we should be able to do better than this as a nation, but it seems that we can’t trust any of them.

Rishi Sunak is, quite possibly, the biggest threat to the United Kingdom that exists today.

Rishi Sunak represents a return to the politicians of old, with their empty promises, high taxation, but good for large corporations and banks, and now we just need a General Election.

We need to do better for this country, but of course, we won’t because we keep voting for boneheads, so people need to start taking responsibility for voting for Boris Johnson and get rid of him, and the way to do that is to pressure MPs to do their duty and write letters of no confidence, and if people are whinging but haven’t written to their MP, then they’re not doing their duty to fix this chaos.

And it’s now evident that Rishi Sunak is a liar and a purebred Tory. He told everyone that bills have increased because of the cold weather over the winter when it’s been warmer than average. He also pushed and got the National Insurance rise whilst letting his MP buddies make millions from COVID contracts. THIS GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO BE CLEARED OUT AND RESET!

Johnson & Johnson Tried To Avoid Paying Victims $3.5 Billion

Johnson & Johnson created a plan last year to limit the financial bleeding from billions of dollars in jury awards to complainants who alleged the company’s Baby Powder and other talc products caused deadly cancers.

The healthcare and consumer goods colossus assigned more than 30 staffers to ‘Project Plato’. In a memorandum on the project in July, a company lawyer warned the team: Tell no one, not even your spouse.

Chris Andrew, a Johnson & Johnson lawyer, wrote in an internal memorandum reviewed by Reuters that it was essential that any activities connected to Project Plato, including the very fact the project exists, be kept in strict confidence.

The undercover team would go on to evaluate a plan to shift all the liability from approximately 38,000 pending talc cases onto a newly formed subsidiary, which would immediately declare bankruptcy.

The goal, as a lawyer for the subsidiary, said in a court filing, that it was to halt all the litigation and transfer the cases to bankruptcy court, where plaintiffs would compete for compensation from a limited pool of money.

Tens of thousands of plaintiffs, many with mesothelioma or ovarian cancer, have filed lawsuits alleging that exposure to talc in Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder and other company products made them sick.

One complainant was Thomas McHattie, 78 years old, who travelled the world as an obstetrician-gynaecologist before receiving a mesothelioma diagnosis in March 2020.

Thomas McHattie said he recommended Baby Powder to numerous pregnant women while using it himself. He said that he endured five courses of chemotherapy to treat tumours in his abdomen, and has suffered from pronounced fatigue and shortness of breath.

He sued Johnson & Johnson in New York in July, a few months after receiving his diagnosis. His case had not yet gone to trial when Johnson & Johnson subsidiary LTL Management filed for bankruptcy.

In a 2020 court filing, Johnson & Johnson said it denied ‘each and every allegation statement, matter and thing’ asserted by McHattie in his lawsuit.

McHattie told Reuters in an interview that he was disappointed that they’ve decided to do what’s expedient and not what’s right, and he said that there was no reason for them filing bankruptcy and that this was a solvent company.

Securities filings show that Johnson & Johnson, valued at more than $540 billion, had approximately $31 billion in case and marketable securities on hand at the end of the third quarter.

It doesn’t seem like we can trust big pharma. They say they’re looking after the well being of the people, but now this is looking like a joke because they don’t actually give a shizzle about anyone and will always worm their way out of a settlement.

And this is why people don’t trust vaccines because if Johnson & Johnson can do this to women and babies, then they can do it to anyone, and why is this stuff still on the shelves? And if there’s ever a justifiable time to cancel culture, it’s now, and people should quit purchasing Johnson & Johnson products because this is immoral and appalling.

Johnson & Johnson are involved with so many recalls, lawsuits and scandals, it astounds me how they’re even still in business.

Sadly, most people are clueless about all the pharmaceutical atrocities as many of them don’t get publicised, and families battle for years to get some kind of settlement.

If We Stand Up For Ukraine, Vladimir Putin Will Unleash His Cyber Thugs Against Britain

Just before Christmas, a manager for a small charity in Orkney was baffled to learn she couldn’t access some of her computer files. Parts of the database were locked, she saw, encrypted by a virus.

Then came the real shock. In order to unlock the files belonging to the Dial-a-Bus charity, hackers were demanding £1,000 in an untraceable Bitcoin payment.

The attack was petty, immoral, and all too predictable. Fortunately for the disabled people who relied on this service in the remote Scottish islands, all their bookings could be located on a second computer.

The incident, one of hundreds of ransom attacks around the world that month alone, revealed how common this type of crime has been.

This is piracy in the digital age.

And today, with relations between Russia and the West on the verge of decay, cybercrime, although a serious concern, could yield far more widespread disruption across the United Kingdom in the weeks and months ahead.

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister warned Moscow that Britain will impose sanctions, the moment the first Russian toe cap crosses into Ukraine, and in America, there are already warnings of blowback including cyberattacks, if Britain and its allies stand with Kiev against Russian attack.

Russia is already one of the world’s most notorious centres of cyberattacks. These criminals are not under the direct control of the Kremlin, but Vladimir Putin definitely tolerates their operations as long as they spare Russian businesses and interests.

Let’s be clear about this, this isn’t the result of a lone hacker in a bedroom. It requires pricey gear, the latest software and an army of operatives, and if relations between Britain and Russia degenerate further, experts warn further attacks could be unleashed against us.

Sensational commentators have conjured apocalyptic scenarios, with Russian hackers shutting down our banks or causing airliners to spiral out of the sky.

Save that for Hollywood. British banks have excellent protection against hacking, and even if our entire air traffic control system suffered a blackout, pilots could still land every aircraft safely.

Vladimir Putin is extremely unlikely to consider such attacks in any case, just as he wouldn’t order the shutdown of Britain’s national electricity grid, the way he twice sought to shut down power in parts of Kiev during the bitter winters of 2015 and 2016.

Such immense, blatant retaliation by Russia to swingeing sanctions is doubtful. Applying it against any Nato country would risk serious escalation.

But if the Russians do attempt to strike, the Americans and most of Europe would have been hacking for a long time, but they’ve been keeping their powder dry so they can deliver a devastating blow when needed.

Although it’s far more likely that the American’s will bombard our systems, blame Russia and then demand broad embargoes on Russia be triggered, and is the UK actually powerful enough and does it have enough resources to fight a cyberwar with Russia? Because there’s a huge difference between wishful thinking and reality.

And why is the United Kingdom getting involved in other countries affairs again? Perhaps it’s so that they can deflect the troubles and incompetences at home?

The United Kingdom should just stay out of this completely because our military is weak, which has been diluted by buffoon Boris Johnson, and now he wants to look the big man.

However, it’s evident that the Russian foe is already at work to yield as much disarray as possible, and it would be right to point out how much more destructive it could get unless defensive measures are taken.

Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP Will Spend £300,000 Removing The Bottoms Of School Doors

The SNP government has been criticised for a crackpot proposal to spend £300,000 trimming the bottom off classroom doors to lessen the spread of coronavirus.

Scottish Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said there were an estimated 2,000 classrooms with problematic ventilation where doors could be undercut to improve airflow.

The proposal is part of a £4.3 million package to tackle persistently elevated CO2 levels in certain rooms.

In a letter to Holyrood’s Education Committee, Shirley-Anne Somerville set out the projected expenditures to improve air quality, including £1.6 million on air filters, £2.4 million for mechanical fans and £300,000 for doors to be undercut to improve airflow.

She highlighted the costs, to be borne by an extra £5 million allocated for capital spending in schools, and that they would vary greatly in practice, but were based on councils calculates that between 2 per cent and 4 per cent of rooms have been found to be problematic spaces where CO2 levels were too high.

Ms Somerville’s letter says that based on informal local authority feedback, they expect that only a very small number of learning, teaching or play spaces would have persistently elevated CO2 levels, and it was said that Scottish Government guidance, based on the existing weight of expert advice, is that the primary focus of mitigating activity should be on regular CO2 monitoring and associated remedial measures to improve ventilation, ie. the introduction of fresh air into spaces.

And it was said that where this can’t be readily achieved, and the CO2 readings remain high, air cleaning/filtration devices may be used as temporary mitigation to decrease risks in problematic areas while more suitable, ventilation based solutions are implemented.

The informal local authority feedback revealed that about 2-4 per cent of spaces have so far fallen into that problematic category, with around 2,000 spaces out of 50,000 learning, teaching and play spaces across all local authority school and ELC settings.

Meghan Gallacher, the Scottish Tories Shadow Children’s Minister, told a newspaper outlet that if this issue wasn’t so serious, you’d be hard-pressed not to laugh at this crackpot SNP proposal, and she said that was sawing off the bottom of classroom doors seriously Scottish Government policy to tackle the ventilation problem in classrooms?

Scottish Liberal Democrats education spokesman Willie Rennie said that rather than putting an air filter in every classroom, the Education Secretary’s answer was to send in a handyman to chop up the classroom.

And most doors, including fire doors, already have clearance from the floor, so cutting an extra 20mm off the bottom serves no purpose whatsoever, and it would probably be more cost-effective and easier to just drill holes along the bottom of the door.

Better still, that’s if someone would use their brain. Why not just keep the doors open during lessons? Or we could just blow the bl–dy doors off.

But if Nicola Sturgeon is so intent on this, which breaches fire regulations, it might be smarter to just remove the doors intact for the time being, then rehang them when she gets a dose of reality from the insurers and fire department.

Once the handyman has cut the bottom of the doors, eventually COVID will vanish and the doors will have to be replaced, all at the taxpayer’s money may I add, and it will cost millions to replace them, and do Scottish schools not have windows they can open – let’s face it, it would make more sense.

Nicola Sturgeon always came across as being politically dangerous, but now, she’s literally dangerous!

For The First Time Ever, Facebook Loses Users

Facebook lost daily users for the first time in its 18 year history which CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes was caused by the TikTik boom.

Mark Zuckerberg said during an earnings call, according to a newspaper outlet that people have a ton of choices for how they want to spend their time, and apps like TikTok were developing extremely fast.

Facebook reported a decline of almost 500,000 in daily logins during the last three months of 2021.

Mark Zuckerberg reiterated that Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, was pushing hard to develop its short-form video Reels in an effort to compete with TikTok.

He added that this was why their emphasis on Reels was so significant over the long term.

Facebook, which now only has 1.93 billion users logging in each day, also saw its shares fall more than 20 per cent in extended trading on Wednesday after unexpectedly heavy spending on its Metaverse project led to a rare plunge in its fourth-quarter profit.

Meta saw its stock fall 22.6 per cent to $249.90 in after-hours trading, wiping about $200 billion off the company’s market value.

The company heavily invested in its Reality Labs segment, which includes its virtual reality headsets and augmented reality technology, during the final quarter of 2021, accounting for much of the profit decline.

According to Investopedia, Mark Zuckerberg, who’s worth around $107 billion, held more than 398 million shares of Meta at the end of 2020 and based on his reported holdings, the CEO personally experienced more than $29 billion loss when the company’s stock plunged on Wednesday.

Analysts allege investors had anticipated signs of declining user growth but were taken aback by the number of ad dollars the company lost in the wake of TikTok’s growth.

TikTok is dominating the short form user-generated video market, despite Meta offering its own Reels product on Instagram.

According to Bloomberg, data reveals the platform lost consumers to TikTok and saw lower income from ads destined for its short-form videos.

The figures, however, shouldn’t have blindsided investors as there have been repeated signs that Meta was trying to compete with the new video format.

Last summer, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri pushed the flatform’s focus to embrace videos instead of its usual emphasis on photo sharing, a move Mosseri said was inspired by TikTok’s growing popularity.

Mark Zuckerberg highlighted the move during Wednesday’s earnings call, reiterating that Instagram would continue to focus on Reels.

Facebook is full of ads and is set up for Facebook to make money, and it’s not a fun place to connect with friends anymore, and I find it ironic that there are people out there who think they can find friends by using a vehicle developed and managed by someone with all of his billions.

Nobody seems to live in the real world anymore, everything is virtual, filled with none real friends, and most people have been booted off the platform for not liking the right flavour ice cream, and most people end up in Facebook jail or being dogpiled by wokes.

It’s been ruined now. It was entertaining in the beginning and it was what it claimed to be, and it was a fantastic way to effortlessly keep in contact with friends and family from around the world, but not now!

And it also gets money from data. Data is a new manufacturing and can be sold on for a vast profit, and people still haven’t realised that in the United Kingdom, the government has sold all your GP and NHS data for millions to various drug and health companies, unless of course, you’ve opted out by filling in a form they just sell away. Although apparently it’s made anonymous, but with the incompetence of this government, who knows!

Families Brace For Rising Costs Of Living

Families will encounter a cost of living double whammy with an energy cap increase adding hundreds of pounds to bills alongside a new hike in interest rates.

Energy regulator Ofgem is bringing forward what’s expected to be a crippling rise in gas bills for millions of households from Monday to Thursday.

The new level will come into force in April, and the latest prediction is that it will be about £1,900 for an average household for at least six months, with possible additional increases thereafter.

And it would be a 49 per cent rise from the current price cap, which was already on a record high when it was fixed at £1,277 in October.

About 22 million households are presently believed to be on an energy deal that is linked to the price cap.

Many of these households will probably be put under major economic distress because of the price spike, which has been caused by a manifold increase in global gas prices.

Additionally, the Bank of England is widely expected to boost interest rates again on Thursday and more hikes are firmly on the cards as policymakers fight to cool zooming inflation.

Members of the nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) are set to increase rates from 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent as the Bank’s quarterly set of forecasts is likely to show eye-watering inflation this spring.

It would mark the Bank’s first back to back increase since June 2004, coming after it lifted rates from 0.1 per cent to 0.25 per cent in December to try to rein in unbridled inflation.

It comes as Boris Johnson prepares to announce energy bill rebates worth billions of pounds to lessen the impact of soaring fuel prices, and he encountered accusations of hitting employees in the pocket at Prime Minister’s Questions today, with Labour accusing him of plotting stealth taxes with a National Insurance increase.

Opposition Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that one of the most outrageous claims made on behalf of Operation Save Big Dog is the Prime Minister and Chancellor writing in the Sunday Times that they’re the tax-cutting Conservatives.

So, if this is the case who do these alleged tax-cutters keep increasing taxes on working people?

Energy price rises are expected to come alongside an overall spike in the cost of living across the United Kingdom.

Current figures from the Office of National Statistics reveal that inflation reached 5.4 per cent in the year to December.

If this scheme is the best the Tories can come up with, then we’re all doomed, and those who work but aren’t on earnings above benefit claiming level are going to be the worst hit, along with single households with a single income.

And for those who work or are pensioners on a basic pension with perhaps a tiny works pension, well, they will always suffer while our government keep thousands of migrants in the lap of luxury – all things paid for, and I have no idea how the elderly, disabled and impoverished of this country are going to cope with this inflation of prices, and Boris Johnson couldn’t care less because he’s only interested in his own pleasures.

Boris Johnson promised Brexit would mean cheaper energy. He also promised secure borders, and this has ended extremely badly for him, but they all tell people what they want to hear and they just believe it, but if a person is told enough times that it’s so, in the end, they will believe it, whether it’s true or not because as humans we can only see as far as the end of our nose.

Pregnant Women Being Asked If They’re Returning To Work Before Maternity Leave IS Discriminatory

And employment tribunal has ruled that asking a pregnant woman whether she’s coming back to work before she goes on maternity leave is discrimination.

Laura Jo Duffy, who worked as a PA at Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust in North London, successfully sued the health service after her boss nodded towards her belly while asking about her forthcoming plans.

A hearing in Watford was told that the NHS employee was also asked by a coworker if she’d informed managers she wouldn’t be returning after maternity leave, even though she’d never said what her intentions were.

The tribunal ruled this comment was based on a stereotypical assumption about new mothers not returning to employment.

Laura Jo Duffy, who was accused of planning her baby to achieve a promotion, is now in line for compensation after winning her claim of pregnancy discrimination.

At the time, Laura Jo Duffy was paid as a Band Four-level employee, meaning she earned up to £25,000 a year.

The NHS worker, whose pregnancy was deemed high risk, was told in August 2019 there was to be restructuring to the personal assistant team and bosses planned to automatically match her position to a new band five roles, where salaries are increased to up to £28,000.

The tribunal heard her coworker, fellow PA Joanne Cleasby, was annoyed about this because she believed it was unfair for Ms Duffy to be job matched when she herself was told she would have to apply to be promoted to a higher band.

The hearing was told Ms Cleasby wrongly thought Ms Duffy was receiving preferential treatment because she was pregnant, and complained to colleagues.

In its decision, the tribunal said that Ms Cleasby made two unwanted remarks related to Ms Duffy’s pregnancy, i.e., that she planned her pregnancy well and that she hadn’t told her boss that she wouldn’t be coming back after maternity leave.

And that the reason Ms Cleasby said those things was because she was vexed and resentful about what she perceived was Ms Duffy’s unfair preferential treatment.

The tribunal ruled the remarks were discriminatory because Ms Duffy’s pregnancy was a significant motivation behind them.

Employment Judge David Maxwell said that the question posed to Ms Duffy as to whether she had told her boss she wouldn’t be coming back after maternity leave was not based on anything Ms Duffy had said to Ms Cleasby about her intentions, instead, it involved a stereotypical assumption about new mothers not returning to work.

Surely the Health NHS Trust would have arranged to get temporary staff in to cover her maternity leave, so why would they need to know her plans after her baby was born? The baby hadn’t even been born yet, so this was just sour grapes from a colleague and the boss should have stamped it out. Instead, he just cost the Trust money and bad publicity.

The premise should be that people will return to work, comparable to when people are off work because they’re sick or on other leave such as bereavement, and it’s discrimination to be treated otherwise.

This isn’t fair to ask unless, of course, they ask every single member of staff what their intentions are going to be in six, nine or twelve months time, but of course, we don’t do that.

The big picture here is that it’s a totally unanswerable question, and there should be guidelines in place which cover any kind of long term leave.

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