The authorities in the UK are coming round to the idea that the so-called ‘war on drugs’ cannot be won, at least in the forseeable future, and that the traditional law enforcement approach of arrests and seizures has no long term benefit on the situation. The UK Drug Policy Commission, one of those ‘think tanks’, concludes that a policy of …
No nutritional difference
Organic food may be tastier, may make people ‘feel’ better, but according to the Foods Standards Agency, there is little, if any, nutritional difference between organic and conventionally-produced food and that there is no evidence of additional health benefits from eating organic food.
Outrage in Germany
Germans are not too happy with one of their politicians, Health Minister Ulla Schmidt, after she took her armoured Mercedes Limousine to Spain….and lost it. The limo, stolen near Alicante, has been recovered, but the storm over ‘wasted money’ continues. Ms Schmidt actually flew to Spain for her holiday, paying for the flight herself, but told her official chauffeur to drive …
There is always a choice
The UK Foods Standards Agency wants the manufacturers of cholocate bars to voluntarily reduce the size of their products by one fifth in order to reduce daily calorie intake and help fight what is described as an obesity ‘epidemic’. If they hadn’t noticed, manufacturers have regularly been reducing the size of chocolate bars over the years and without a corresponding …
Bye bye BA sarnies
British Airways is set to scrap all meals, except breakfast, on short-haul flights, namely flights of two-and-a-half hours or less. On short-haul flights after 10:00, only drinks and snacks will be served and there will be no option to buy food. Instead of the traditional sandwiches usually handed out on short-haul flights, passengers will get a bag of nuts or …
It’s business as usual
Did anyone really expect that MP’s in the UK would really change their ways after the recent expenses scandal? There was much talk of a ‘clean-up’ and transparency in the future, a new Speaker pledging to reform the system as part of his election campaign. So what has happened? It would appear that the only regret was being ‘found out’, …
It won’t be long before ‘special powers’ are no longer ‘special’
Bouncers (or ‘Door Supervisors’), Neighbourhood Wardens and Parking Attendants are the latest group to be given ‘special powers’ by the Home Office in the UK. This will give such individuals the right to patrol streets and hand out on-the-spot fines for such things as drinking in an illegal, disorder, harrassment, flyposting and dog fouling.
A costly ‘No’
Airlines often manage to misplace baggage or, in some cases, cause damage and generally they end up paying out a bit of compensation. When Canadian musician Dave Carroll had his Taylor guitar damaged at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, he contacted United Airlines to ask for compensation. After a year of trying, United Airlines finally refused his claims. So, being a songwriter, …
259 car pile-up in Germany
Sixty-six people were injured, ten of them seriously, in a 259 car pile-up on the A2 autobahn linking Berlin with the Dutch border. The monster crash was a series of three pile-ups on a 32 kilometre stretch of the A2 and over 350 firemen and other personnel were called in to clear the debris and take care of the injured.
Ryanair to cut flights from the UK
Ryanair are to cut 30% of their flights out of London’s Stansted airport this coming winter, reducing the number of flights on 30 routes and completely cutting out 10 routes.