UK Economy GDP-Q2 2012

UK economy contracts by a shock 0.7pc

The UK economy has shrunk by a shock 0.7pc in the second quarter, far more than expected as record rainfall and the Jubilee holiday added to pressure from austerity cuts and the eurozone debt crisis.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/9425611/UK-economy-contracts-by-a-shock-0.7pc.html 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2178604/Britains-economy-shrank-quarter-row-figures-today.html

     The figures from the Office for National Statistics are much worse than forecasts for a 0.2pc contraction.

It marks the third successive quarter of contraction, leaving Britain in its double-dip recession in more than 50 years. The economy shrank by 0.3pc in the first quarter of the year, following a 0.4pc contraction in the final quarter of 2011.

     The news will increase pressure on Finance Minister George Osborne to ease up on his austerity measures and push for growth. The Chancellor called the deeper-than-expected contraction disappointing and confirmed the country's deep-rooted economic problems. "We're dealing with our debts at home and the debt crisis abroad. We've made progress over the last two years in cutting the deficit by 25 per cent and businesses have created over 800,000 new jobs," he said in a statement. "But given what's happening in the world we need a relentless focus on the economy and recent announcements on infrastructure and lending show that's exactly what we're doing." Peter Dixon, economist at Commerzbank, said: "Terrible data. Frankly there's nothing good that comes out of these numbers at all ... The economy looks to be badly holed below the water line at this stage. It's a far worse period of activity than we'd expected."

     Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight called the data a "very nasty surprise". He said plunging construction and manufacturing output weighed heavily on the economy, while the dominant service sector activity also contracted marginally. Construction shrank 5.2pc - the largest drop since the first quarter of 2009. Services output contracted 0.1pc. "The steep contraction ... heaps further pressure on the government to come up with more measures to boost growth, and will undoubtedly lead to further calls for the fiscal squeeze to be eased until the economy is on a firmer footing," he said. "It also fuels speculation that the Bank of England will have to announce more stimulative measures this year." He expects UK GDP to contract by around 0.5pc overall in 2012. The work lost as a result of the extra day given for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June was a significant drag during the quarter.

     Last week the IMF warned in a report that the Britain’s recovery had stalled and the Government must be prepared to introduce a 'Plan B' to pump life into the ailing economy.

Hillary Clinton Protest in Egypt

HILLARY CLINTON 'MONICA, MONICA' PROTEST IN EGYPT

Sunday, July 16 2012

All the pictures are taken from Twitter  search of Hillary.

Egyptian protest against the visit of Hillary Clinton outside the presidential palace in Cairo on July 14, 2012 http://lockerz.com/s/225302305

Hundreds of Anti-US & Muslim Brotherhood protestors outside the hotel where Hillary Clinton is staying while in Cairo

 

Outside hotel where Clinton is staying in‪#Egypt‬. Protestor accuses US of killing Arab Spring & denounce US & MB @AymanM
 

This is how Egypt and Cairo welcomes Hillary Clinton 7/8 @matchbox20
 

This is how Egypt and Cairo welcomes Hillary Clinton 6/8 

@matchbox20

Egyptian demonstrators protest against the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary#Clinton outside the presidentia @PressTV

Hillary Clinton Taunted By Egyptian Protesters Chanting Monica And Throwing Shoes At Motorcade

Costly NHS expenditures

NHS pays £1,600 a day for nurses as agency use soars

NHS hospitals are hiring agency nurses at rates of up to £1,600 a day in a bid to cope with rising staff shortages, an investigation by the Sunday Telegraph has found.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9400079/NHS-pays-1600-a-day-for-nurses-as-agency-use-soars.html

Experts said many hospitals had made swingeing cuts to their workforce - only to find that they were left short-staffed, and forced to pay far higher rates to bring in workers at short notice Photo: Getty Images

By Laura Donnelly and Melanie Mulhern, 9:00PM BST 14 Jul 2012 

      The number of shifts filled by the temporary workers has risen by more than 50 per cent in a year - with private agencies receiving more than seven times the rate paid to nurses on the pay roll. Experts said the disclosures show how hospitals' attempts to improve their efficiency have backfired, with jobs being cut, only for temporary staff to be hired at vastly inflated rates. The scale of job losses is fiercely disputed, with unions claiming thousands of frontline posts have gone since 2009 while ministers say less than 500 posts lost involve nurses. Meanwhile, the number of nurses from overseas who have registered to work in Britain has soared by 70 per cent in just two years. Disclosures under the Freedom of Information Act show that since 2009, private agencies have been paid up to £1,600 per shift to provide the health service with specialist nurses, compared with an average rate of around £212 a day for those on the NHS pay roll.
      General nurses were on rates of up to £1,400 a day, compared with average pay of £188 for those on health service contracts.
Our investigation found:

* Derby Hospitals Foundation trust paid £1,632 for a specialist nurse to work a 12-hour shift in its Accident and Emergency (A&E) unit - a rate equivalent to an annual salary of £229,500. The NHS pays between £25,528 and £34,189 for the same role. The same trust spent £1,399 on a 13-hour shift for a general nurse;

* Princess Alexandra Hospital trust in Essex spent £1,356 on a shift for a specialist nurse to work 12.5 hours in April 2010. Last year the trust announced plans to cut 250 staff posts in order to find savings.

* Mid Staffordshire Foundation trust paid £1,303 for a specialist nurse to work a 10.5 hour shift last December, and £1,061 for a general nurse;

* Figures from NHS Professionals, which supplies a pool of "bank staff" to hospitals, show that in just 12 months, the total number of nursing shifts filled by agency workers has risen by 51 per cent;

      Previous investigations by this newspaper have disclosed doctors being hired at rates of £20,000 a week to cover hospital staff shortages caused by European rules. Although the NHS has been protected from cuts by being guaranteed a rise in annual spending in line with inflation, the service is attempting to save £20 billion by 2015, to ensure there are sufficient funds to cope with the rising demands of an ageing population. Experts said many hospitals had made swingeing cuts to their workforce - only to find that they were left short-staffed, and forced to pay far higher rates to bring in workers at short notice. Research from 39 trusts - around one quarter of those in England - shows that 21,000 shifts were filled by agency staff during the month of March, a rise from around 14,000 a year earlier. Experts said the true figures are likely to be far more than four times as high, because the sample was made up of trusts which use bank staff supplied by NHS Professionals before they turned to more costly private agencies.
      Figures for the group of trusts show that temporary cover was sought for 155,000 shifts in March. Of those, 90,000 posts were filled by "bank" nurses and around 21,000 by agency staff - while more than 40,000 shifts were left unfilled. Dr Peter Carter, General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said the figures demonstrated "lamentable" planning by the NHS, which had left hospitals at the mercy of high rates charged by agencies. He said: "Now the hospitals have made such drastic cuts, the agencies have got them over a barrel and can charge what they like." Earlier this year the RCN said nurses had been stretched to "breaking point" with more than 26,000 frontline posts lost during the first year of the Coalition. Ministers have said they do not recognise that figure, and that the number of qualified nursing staff has fallen by just 450 since 2009. The report by NHS Professionals says much of the demand for temporary staff in the last six months of 2011/12 was unforeseen by hospital trusts, which in fact had forecast a reduction in the number of shifts which needed to be filled.
      The quango says it is struggling to recruit staff to its bank, because demand is such that private agencies are able to offer potential candidates "almost guaranteed work" at much higher rates. Shortages were worst in the North of England, where demand for shifts rose by 24 per cent, compared with 18 per cent across England. Experts said the figures relating to agency staff alone represented at least 100,000 shifts being filled each month, often on rates of more than £100 an hour. Julia Manning, chief executive of centre-right think tank 2020 Health, said: "The figures are astonishing, and demonstrate such appalling short-sightedness on the part of NHS trusts. "It really concerns me that hospitals are drawing up plans which are based on wishful thinking, rather than reality, only to end up paying so much over the odds." The NHS trusts said the payments for agency shifts included commission to the agencies. Last year, an investigation by the Sunday Telegraph disclosed hospitals sending teams abroad to recruit doctors and nurses, even though local posts had been earmarked for cuts.
       The trips were organised despite pledges by David Cameron to cap immigration and protect British jobs, and concerns raised by Lord Winston, one of Britain's most senior doctors, that some nurses put patients in danger because of poor standards of English. New figures show that amid a global recession, there has been a 70 per cent rises in nurses who trained overseas registering to work in Britain, from 2,520 in 2009/2010 to 4,289 in 2011/12. The number of nurses from outside the European Union, where an immigration cap applies, rose from 635 to 1,178. Dartford and Gravesham Trust in Kent sent a team to Romania in November 2010 and hired 20 nurses, even though Barts and the London NHS Trust, less than 20 miles away, was drawing up plans to cut 635 posts including more than 250 jobs for nurses. Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust sent seven managers to Dublin in October of the same year, returning with seven nurses. Less than two months later, it disclosed plans for 100 redundancies.
        Earlier this year, an investigation by this newspaper found doctors being hired at rates of £20,000 a week so that hospitals can comply with the European Working Time Directive, which limits the number of hours medics can work. In some cases the amounts being paid would be the equivalent to a doctor earning an annual salary of almost £1 million. Some doctors were rewarded not just for the hours they worked, but for all the time they were on call – including when they were sleeping. North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust spent £20,000 hiring a surgeon for one week in 2010 and £14,000 on four days' cover for a gynaecologist. Shortages of medics have arisen since the introduction of the working time directive, which set a maximum 48-hour-week in August 2009. Although individual doctors are allowed to opt out of it, they still cannot exceed a limit of 56 hours. In total, 34 hospital trusts responded to requests for information about the highest rates paid for medical or nursing shifts since April 2009.
        Of those, 28 admitted to spending more than £1,000 per shift on cover. A spokesman for the Department of Health said the figures from NHS Professionals did not reflect the national picture.
He said the NHS had saved £128 million on agency staff in 2010-2011 and was confident savings would reach £300 million by the end 2013-2014.

NHS failed dehydration Patient

Hospital failed dehydration patient who died

Neglect by medical staff led to Kane Gorny, 22, dying of dehydration in a hospital bed, a coroner has ruled.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9394867/Hospital-failed-dehydration-patient-who-died.html

10:56AM BST 12 Jul 2012



       Medical staff at St George's Hospital in Tooting, south London, did not give Kane Gorny vital medication to help him retain fluids. The 22-year-old, who was a keen sportsman, even phoned police from his hospital bed as he was so desperate for a glass of water, the inquest heard. Deputy Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe told the hearing "a cascade of individual failures has lead to an incredibly tragic outcome". She recorded a narrative verdict at Westminster Coroner's court and said Mr Gorny had died from dehydration contributed to by neglect. Dr Radcliffe said: "Kane was undoubtedly let down by incompetence of staff, poor communication, lack of leadership, both medical and nursing, a culture of assumption." Speaking outside the court, James Stevenson, the solicitor for Mr Gorny's family, said they were "devastated by the number of missed opportunities" to prevent his death.
      Mr Stevenson said: "There were systemic and individual failures in the level of care provided to Kane."
Mr Stevenson, who was stood beside Mr Gorny's mother Rita Cronin, added: "Kane was a well-liked, adoring and loving son, brother and friend." Dr Radcliffe told the inquest she would write to the hospital about nurses involved in fluid management and sedation following Mr Gorny's treatment there. A post mortem examination revealed high sodium levels caused by dehydration had caused his death. Mr Gorny was suffering from diabetes insipidus, a condition which caused him to be aggressive towards nurses on May 27 2009, the day before he died. Mr Gorny, a supermarket employee, from Balham, south London, had been sedated and put in a side room following his outburst.
     Staff nurse Adela Taaca, who was the senior nurse in Mr Gorny's ward on the night of May 27, previously told the inquest she did not take observations or ensure he took his medication. She said this was because she was mindful of his earlier behaviour, and that his brother, who was sitting next to his hospital bed, asked her to let him sleep as he was sedated. Shortly after her shift ended, Mr Gorny's condition deteriorated and despite frantic efforts to save his life for two-and-a-half hours, he was pronounced dead at 11.20am.

White Muslim one of six arrested in Terror Plot

White Muslim one of six arrested over ‘terror plot'

White Muslim convert Richard Dart and a former police community support officer were among six people arrested for allegedly plotting a terror attack in Britain.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9379748/White-Muslim-one-of-six-arrested-over-terror-plot.html
By Tom Whitehead, Martin Evans and Sam Marsden, 10:00PM BST 05 Jul 2012

Image 1 of 3
Richard Dart, 29, is a white Muslim convert who featured in a BBC documentary last year filmed by his own brother about his conversion. 

Image 2 of 3
In 2010, Abu Khalid appeared in a YouTube video to say why he had stopped being a PCSO and become an Islamic fundamentalist

Image 3 of 3
A police office outside a house on Abbey Road, East London Photo: Christopher Pledger

            Richard Dart, who was radicalised by the cleric Anjem Choudary, was held following police raids in east and west London. A former PCSO and two of his brothers, who were living just over a mile from the Olympic site in Stratford, were also among those detained during the police and MI5 operation to prevent a suspected terror assault. One of the brothers was Tasered by officers. Counter-terrorism police had first searched their home last November. The Daily Telegraph understands the police moved over fears that a group had obtained a sword which could potentially be used in a terrorist attack. Mr Dart, 29, the son of Dorset teachers, featured in a BBC documentary last year filmed by his own brother about his conversion. During the film, called My Brother the Islamist, he was seen protesting about British soldiers in Afghanistan and accused them of being “murderers”.

      He also called for Sharia law to be established in Britain, as well as saying that one of his friends used to be “in the police”, but is not any more. Mr Dart has changed his name to Salahuddin al Britani. Salahuddin comes from the medieval leader who drove King Richard I from Jerusalem during the Crusades. It emerged last year that the former BBC security guard was living off state benefits in a luxury flat in Mile End, east London. Anjem Choudary said he had converted Mr Dart but had not been in contact with him for more than a year. The six, which included one woman, were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism after police raids during the early hours of Thursday, July 5. Neighbors in Stratford said one of the brothers was Jahangir Alom, 26, who served as a former Metropolitan community support officer between May 2007 and September 2009. He is understood to also go under the name of Abu Khalid.
     In 2010, Mr Khalid appeared in a YouTube video to say why he had stopped being a PCSO and had become an Islamic fundamentalist. In the film he explains that he realized he was leading a “misguided” life after meeting with some “brothers”. He said as a PCSO he was involved in stop and searches and that he now realised he was “implementing kuffur (enemies of Islam) law on the streets of London”. The other two brothers arrested are understood to be Mohammed Alomgir, 24, and Moybur Alom, 18. Mr Alomgir was hit with a police Taser during the arrests but did not require hospital treatment. At the same time, in Ealing, west London, a 29-year-old man, believed to be Mr Dart, was arrested in the street, while a 21-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman were held at separate residential premises. Police insisted that the arrests were not linked to the Olympics and that an attack was not believed to be imminent.
     The suspects had been monitored by counter-terrorism officers and MI5 for some time and the arrests were part of a pre-planned intelligence operation. Mr Dart’s stepfather Thomas Leech, speaking from the family’s home in Weymouth, Dorset, confirmed that Mr Dart had been arrested but said the family did not wish to comment further. In Stratford, another neighbour said that the three brothers had been “getting more religious throughout the years”. Another said he was “confused” because the “big one” used to be a PCSO, so the events had left him “very surprised”. Neighbors said the father of the family had left their mother to bring up three sons and one daughter on her own. During the raid at the Abbey Road address in Stratford, the front door of the house was smashed, leaving debris lying on the doorstep and a red curtain draped over the entrance. Police erected a blue tent in front of the door as officers visited and left the property throughout the day.

      A neighbour said the street lights had been extinguished and the road blocked off to traffic just before the arrest. He said: “It seemed like it was synchronised by the police. There were no sirens. However, at around 4.10am we heard a big blast. I saw from the window that the door of the house flew off. “It wasn’t a battering ram that the police used, it was an explosion that went, ‘bang’ four times. It was dark. The only thing I could see was the officers all in black in helmets and with riot shields.” Reje Rahman, 32, a child protection worker, said her 12-year-old daughter was so scared by the raid that she “couldn’t get to sleep afterwards” and thought that the “building was going to collapse”.