Ramanisblog

Tag: UK

  • Plastic bag charges by May 2011-BBC

    Why not close down the copmanies that manufacture these items,give them incentives to venture into eco friendly products and assure them Business from Govt for a period of 5 years .?
    Story:
    Compulsory charges for plastic carrier bags will be introduced in Wales before May 2011, it has been announced.

    The charge for single-use bags has not yet been decided, but it is expected to be between 5p and 15p.

    Wales will become the first nation in the UK to introduce charging for one-trip carrier bags to curb their use.

    Environment Minister Jane Davidson said she would seek voluntary agreements with large retailers to direct the proceeds to environmental causes.

    The charge will be introduced before the next assembly election.

    An estimated 480m carrier bags are used in Wales each year and it takes 500 to 1,000 years for them to degrade
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8339049.stm

  • Libya talks over IRA compensation -BBC.Accepting Blood Money?

    Accepting Blood Money from Libya?Is this an offshoot of the deal of releasing Lockerbie Bomber? What message are you sending out?-that if you have money you can kill people and pay compensation later, when the bereaved come abegging?Where is your National pride,Ireland?Forget Britain,if they can get a few pounds , they shall compromise any thing.
    Look at Iarael and learn to deal with terrorists.    Story:
    Libya will come under renewed pressure to compensate victims of IRA violence later when Northern Ireland politicians arrive in Tripoli for talks.

    Colonel Gaddafi’s regime secretly supplied the IRA with weapons and explosives in the 1980s.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8335199.stm

  • Israel-Guilty.

    Israel is guiilty of the crimes Netanyahu accuses of Hamas.
    They called for destruction of Israel;you are calling for the destruction of them,which as you have rightly called as’war crime-incitement to genocide’
    They fired against civilians so are you firing at civilians.
    They hide behind civilians, you attack civilians frontally.
    They are keeping one solddier of yours;how many of them are you holding?
    What sort of maturity is this?
    Netanyahu is clear in that is Israel is a Jewish state but he will not concede that it was Palestine’s before and does not seem to remember the present Israel was carved out of Palestine after Britain washed its hands off the mess it created.Basing on Mythology and playing on the guilty conscience of Europe,Israel skilfully played on the Holocaust and deprived Palestinians of their homeland, forgetting Israel was a usurper.Now that Palestine has recognised Israel,why do not you recognise them?Typical argumentative Jewish statement
    ‘They say they’ve recognized Israel, but now they are being asked to recognize it as a Jewish state.(question)
    That’s right(Netanyahu.)’
    You usurp a Nation and then call it bi national?
    Plaestinian refugee problem-Israel is concerned?Who has created it?
    If Palestininians should go only to Palestine,the all Jews must be only in Israel.
    When the whole world is trying to become one ,at least in communication,and allowing people of other Nations to settle in there, where is Netanyahu living?
    This sort of bigotry inflames passions and alienates Jews in the world, which had been feeling sorry for them because of Holocaust.If you practice what Hitler has done to Jews, against Palestinians, you shall lose world’s sympathy.
    You may not know that non Palentinians and Non Arabis feel strongly aginst Israel’s recalcitrant behavior.
    Israel’s asset has been its suffering;now its liability is its arrogance and insensitivity to people who are suffering the same fate,which is of Israel’s making.
    Be sensible.Live and let live.Harping on old sufferings shall not lead any where.
    You want Iran problem solved?
    Stop your illegal settlements,maintain status quo.Accept the fact there have been excesses from Israel
    Do not pretend Israel has no Nuclear device.
    Story:
    WEYMOUTH: What did you think of the Goldstone report?
    NETANYAHU: I thought there were limits to hypocrisy, but I was obviously wrong. The so-called human-rights commission accuses Israel—which legitimately defended itself against Hamas—of war crimes. Mind you, Hamas didn’t commit just one type of war crime. It committed four. First, they called for the destruction of Israel, which under the U.N. charter is considered a war crime—incitement to genocide; secondly, they fired deliberately on civilians; third, they hid behind civilians; and fourth, they’ve been holding our captured soldier Gilad Shalit, without access to the Red Cross, for three years. And who gets accused of criminal behavior at the end of the day?

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/219375

  • 15 Horrifying Reasons to Never Let Anyone You Love Near a McDonald’s.

    No Comments.
    Story.
    The Golden Arches: the ultimate American icon. Super Size Me taught us that fast food culture brings obesity, heart disease, hypertension and a whole slew of other problems. How bad do you really want that Big Mac? Here are 15 reasons you’ll never let anyone you love get near those Golden Arches.

    1. Real food is perishable. With time, it begins to decay. It’s a natural process, it just happens. Beef will rot, bread will mold. But what about a McDonald’s burger? Karen Hanrahan saved a McDonald’s burger from 1996 and, oddly enough, it looks just as “appetizing” and “fresh” as a burger you might buy today. Is this real food?

    2. You would have to walk 7 hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fries and Big Mac. Even indulging in fast food as an occasional treat is a recipe for weight gain…unless you’re planning to hit each treadmill in the treadmill bay afterwards.

    3. Containing less fat, salt and sugar, your pet’s food may be healthier than what they serve at McDonald’s.

    4. In 2007, the employees of an Orlando-area McDonald’s were caught on camera pouring milk into the milkshake machine out of a bucket labeled “Soiled Towels Only.” That particular restaurant had already been cited for 12 different sanitary violations. Though McDonald’s proudly stands by its safety standards, and not every restaurant has such notorious incidents, the setting of a fast food restaurant staffed with low-paid employees at a high turnover rate arguably encourages bending the rules. (McDonald’s isn’t alone in this, of course – Burger King is actually ranked as the dirtiest of all the fast food chains.)

    5. McDonald’s supports the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Much of the soy-based animal feed used to fatten fast-food chickens is grown in the Amazon. Are those chicken nuggets really worth acres of irreplaceable trees? (Especially considering how important carbon sinks like the rainforest are to halt global warming!) Fast food supports a completely unsustainable system of agriculture. It’s cruel to animals, unhealthy for humans, and bad for the planet.

    6. Even Prince Charles, while touring a diabetes center in the United Arab Emirates, commented that banning McDonald’s is key to health and nutrition. Don’t let the salads and chicken breasts fool you. The “chicken” at McDonald’s, by the way, comes with a whole lot more than chicken.

    7. As if feeding children high-fat, high-sodium, low-nutrition “food” weren’t bad enough, some Happy Meals in 2006 contained toy Hummers. It’s as if McDonald’s was encouraging a whole generation of kids not only to guzzle food, but to guzzle gas as well. Would you like a few barrels of petroleum with that?

    8. The processed fat in McDonald’s food (and other fast food) promotes endothelial dysfunction for up to 5 hours after eating the meal. Endothelial tissue is what lines the inside of blood vessels.

    9. For those who enjoy sex, take note: erectile dysfunction is connected to endothelial dysfunction. Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me commented that his normally healthy sexual function deteriorated in just one month when he ate only food from McDonald’s. Even his girlfriend commented on camera that “he’s having a hard time, you know, getting it up.”

    10. How many cows does it take to keep the world loaded with Big Macs? I had to do a some research and a little math, but according to a brief video inside one of McDonald’s 6 meat processing plants, about 500,000 pounds of beef is processed per day, per plant. If an average beef cow weighs 1,150 pounds, that means 2609 cows a day are turned into burgers. That’s 952,285 cows per year. And that’s just in the United States. Eating a hamburger may not be worse than driving a Hummer, but it’s bad. One hamburger patty does not necessarily come from one cow. Think about that. You’re eating bits of hundreds of cows.

    11. Maybe you just pop in for an inexpensive latte. Watch out for the caramel syrup (Sugar, water, fructose, natural (plant source) and artificial flavor, salt, caramel color (with sulfites), potassium sorbate (preservative), citric acid, malic acid) or the chocolate drizzle (Corn syrup, water, hydrogenated coconut oil, high fructose corn syrup, glycerin, nonfat milk, cocoa, cocoa (processed with alkali), food starch-modified, disodium phosphate, potassium sorbate (preservative), xanthan gum, artificial flavor (vanillin), salt, soy lecithin). Please don’t put that stuff into your body. Eat healthy cheap food instead – you can be well and still save cash.

    12. Are you a vegetarian with a French fry craving? You better skip McDonald’s because their fries actually contain milk (and wheat) and though they’re fried in vegetable oil, the oil is flavored with beef extract. (McDonald’s famously misled customers for years.)

    13. Do you want high blood pressure? Hit the drive-through. Eating a McDonald’s chicken sandwich (any of “˜em, take your pick) will give you about 2/3 of the recommended daily amount of sodium. And if you actually do have high blood pressure, that’s way more than you really need.

    14. Finally unveiled: the secret of the Big Mac’s “secret sauce.”

    Soybean oil, pickle relish [diced pickles, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, calcium chloride, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate (preservative), spice extractives, polysorbate 80], distilled vinegar, water, egg yolks, high fructose corn syrup, onion powder, mustard seed, salt, spices, propylene glycol alginate, sodium benzoate (preservative), mustard bran, sugar, garlic powder, vegetable protein (hydrolyzed corn, soy and wheat), caramel color, extractives of paprika, soy lecithin, turmeric (color), calcium disodium EDTA (protect flavor).

    Yum. Cheap oil and cheap syrup. Many people depend upon cheap food such as the sort offered at McDonald’s, whether due to the economic conditions we currently face or low incomes. So shouldn’t we be examining regulations that subsidize corn syrup but consider fruits and vegetables – the building blocks of a healthy body and green planet – to be “speciality” crops? Shouldn’t we be promoting urban gardening, community gardens and spreading information about low-cost farmers’ markets and CSAs? And focusing on the abundant choices of cheap food that are tasty and green?

    15. Still not convinced? Maybe this 1970s trip through McDonaldland will give you enough nightmares to keep your loved ones away forever.
    http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/141959/15_horrifying_reasons_to_never_let_anyone_you_love_near_a_mcdonald’s/?page=entire

  • Nick Griffin uses BBC appearance to attack Muslims and gays.

    One need not agree with Mr.Griffin;but certain points are to be noted.
    The language he used ,may be incorrect.
    1.Islam is not only incompatible with British Society of today,but of most societies in the world of today as well.Many of us are scared to voice this opinion because it does not seem to be the right thing to say.
    2.Homosexuals are definitely an aberration;accept it;they are abnormal and sick;do not justify them,but treat them.
    His remarks on coloreds are not appropriate.
    If people were to retaliate they can say that ,in fact Britain was colonising the world till yesterday.May be, sins of fathers are visiting sons!
    More over, Britain today depends on coloreds for their survival, Brown in paritcular.If they decide to leave,you shall be in a bleak island, a US surrogate.
    3.His remarks on Holocaust is totally abhorrent.Totally inhumane.
    4.However ,BBC has done a good job of interviewing him.Democracy is all about discussion and clarification and no gagging.

    Story:
    Mr Griffin said Islam was not compatible with life in Britain, while describing homosexuals as “creepy”.
    The remarks provoked indignation from other members of the BBC panel and hostile parts of the audience, some of whom booed, calling him “a disgrace”.

    The BNP leader could not explain why he had previously sought to play down the Holocaust and defended his use of Sir Winston Churchill on BNP literature on the basis that his father had fought in the Second World War.

    He claimed that Churchill would have been a member of the BNP and was “Islamaphobic” by “today’s standard”.

    Asked whether he denied that millions of Jews and other minorities had been killed by the Nazis, Mr Griffin would only reply: “I do not have a conviction for Holocaust denial.”

    He was then chastised by David Dimbleby, the host of the programme, for smiling.

    The controversial statements were made in response to intense questioning by members of the audience from ethnic minorities.

    BBC Television Centre in west London came under siege as filming took place, with MPs joining hundreds of protesters behind lines of police. There were six arrests as dozens of protesters attempted to storm the studio.

    BBC studios in Hull, Scotland and Wales were also targeted by demonstrators. The cost of the police operation was estimated to be more than £100,000.

    The BBC was certain to be questioned over why it allowed Mr Griffin to air such controversial views but executives were hoping that the intensive questioning that he faced would justify their decision to invite him on the Question Time panel for the first time.

    The BBC, which Mr Griffin denounced on the programme as “ultra-Leftist”, had claimed that impartiality rules meant that it had little choice but to invite him on to the programme after the BNP won seats in the European Parliament in elections earlier this year.

    He was joined on the panel by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, Baroness Warsi, the Tory spokesman on community cohesion, Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesman, and Bonnie Greer, a black American playwright.

    Mr Griffin was seated next to Miss Greer.

    One of the most controversial moments came when Mr Dimbleby asked the BNP leader why he had been pictured with David Duke, the former leader of the Klan. Mr Griffin claimed that parts of the racist group, officially classed as a “hate organisation” in America, were “non-violent”.

    However, he insisted: “I’m not a Nazi and never have been.”

    He claimed that he was “the most loathed man in Britain” among British fascists.

    He was questioned over his views on Islam and said it had “good points” but “does not fit in with the fundamental values of British society”. He was also attacked for describing white Britons as the “indigenous” population who faced “genocide”. We are the Aborigines here, he said.

    Amid angry scenes, one Asian member of the audience asked Mr Griffin where he would like him to be sent and then suggested that he himself might find the South Pole a good destination because it was “a colourless landscape”.

    Mr Griffin boasted to BNP supporters before the programme that he was “relishing” the prospect of “political blood sport”. “I will, no doubt, be interrupted, shouted down, slandered, put on the spot, and subjected to a scrutiny that would be a thousand times more intense than anything directed at other panellists,” he said. “It will, in other words, be political blood sport. But I am relishing this opportunity.”

    Speaking after filming had finished, Mr Griffin claimed that he had been able to “land some punches”.

    About one million people voted for the BNP at the European elections, leading to Mr Griffin taking up one of its two seats in the European Parliament. As a result, BBC executives said strict impartiality rules effectively forced them to include the party in Question Time.

    Mark Thompson, the director-general of the BBC, said the Government should ban the BNP if it felt that Mr Griffin should not have been allowed to take part in the broadcast.

    “If there is a case for censorship, it should be debated and decided in Parliament,” he said. “Political censorship cannot be outsourced to the BBC or anyone else.”

    He said the BNP had “demonstrated a level of support that would normally lead to an occasional invitation to join the panel on Question Time”.

    Politicians from minor parties, including George Galloway, the Respect MP, and Caroline Lucas, the leader of the Green party, regularly appeared on Question Time.

    Mr Thompson insisted that Mr Griffin had been invited so that the public could challenge his views, rather than any “misguided desire to be controversial”.

    Speaking before the programme, Gordon Brown said the BNP’s appearance was a matter for the BBC and that he was confident that Mr Griffin would be exposed for his “unacceptable” views.

    “I hope that the exposure of the BNP will make people see what they are really like,” the Prime Minister said.

    However, there were fears that Mr Griffin’s appearance would lead to an increase in support.

    He had said he was hopeful his party would be propelled into “the big time” as a result of the broadcast and described his appearance on the show as “a milestone in the indomitable march of the British National Party towards saving our country”.

    Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London and the chairman of Unite Against Fascism, claimed that the broadcast could lead to an increase in racist attacks and views.

    “For the angry racist it’s a trigger that turns into an attack,” he said.

    “We first saw this when Enoch Powell made his Rivers of Blood speech. There was a huge surge of attacks on black conductors on our buses, and that is why I think you apply a different standard to the BNP to those parties that do not legitimise this sort of violence against minorities.”
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6410764/BNP-on-Question-Time-Nick-Griffin-uses-BBC-appearance-to-attack-Muslims-and-gays.html#