I just knocked up this little bar chart based on data from this article  by Polly Toynbee I think it illustrates quite nicely how benefit fraud really isn’t a problem in the grand scheme of things. Given that fewer people commit financial fraud than benefit fraud (the amounts are larger in the former) surely on [...]

1 week – time for which David Laws, Yeovil MP and former cabinet minister has been excluded from the commons after paying back #56 000 he wrongly claimed in benefits – although he is being investigated by police 15 months – prison sentence received by Timothy Harris – from Northamptonshire for benefit fraud which cost taxpayers #54000 [...]

Interesting grass roots film about the recent student protests – including ideas, kettling, new use of technologies etc. – you can make a contribution here – I just did!

Just a small contribution to the wonderful world of pie charts – taken from the data supplied by M Bunting and mentioned here too ‘Just over 200 “core” staff at Barclays took home £554m last year, while thousands of shareholders, who had lent £51bn of equity capital, were left with £653m in dividends. This is an ongoing institutionalised bank [...]

Half Term – means i’ve got time to discover all those things I really should’ve known about years ago – I just listened to a great podcast of an interview with William Easterly, I am much more sympathetic to his views than when I saw him speak at LSE last year – anyways, he plugged [...]

Nice article by Polly Toynbe outlining how banks are failing to lend to small businesses and when they do how they charge huge interest rates – of around 15% – while at the same time inflating their profits and continuing to pay out huge bonuses to their chief executives. Well worth a read, although it [...]

You may remember this incident from a protest last December – The Met acknowledged that “there is evidence that Jody McIntyre was inadvertently struck with a police baton.” But the inquiry found this was “justifiable and lawful” because of the “volatile and dangerous situation.” “The investigation has found that violent disorder was occurring at the [...]

This means that only 0.4% of British Professors are Black compared to 2.8% of the population – (2001 data – a figure which I think is likely to be higher in the next census) The research, carried out by Heidi Mirza, is due to be published this October. Although I find this area of reserch [...]

Nice piece of editing of a BBC news programme(s?) that makes the link between Glencore’s speculative investments and rising food price rises. No doubt these links would not have been made explicit by the Beeb!   Glencore only recently floated on the stock exchange and revels in its reputation as ‘the biggest company you have never heard of.’ [...]

                      I couldn’t resist this from Schnews – Those of an interactionist persuasion would argue that this explains why black people are 6 times more likely to end up in jail than white people – and they’d go on to suggests that Muslims, young people, the [...]