NowMyNews

0 shares 141 View comments General Secretary of the TUC Frances O'Grady accuses the Government of turning back the clock almost a century The majority of children in Britain will be living ‘below the breadline’ by 2015, according to an alarmist report from the TUC this week. This ludicrous scare story was seized upon by the usual Left-wing suspects as yet more evidence of how the ‘savage cuts’ were targeting the ‘most vulnerable’ in society. If you believed the Independent’s hysterical front page coverage, more than seven million children will be living ‘close to poverty’ within two years because of this heartless Government’s policies. An outraged TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady howled that these findings should ‘shame any civilised society’. She complained: ‘Families are suffering the tightest squeeze in living standards in nearly a century.’ This fatuous, sentimental drivel is what passes for intelligent political debate these days. You might imagine

0 shares 221 View comments Driving home from White Hart Lane on Sunday evening, I half-expected to discover there had been a ram-raid on the Southgate branch of the Bank of Cyprus. North London is the heart of the British Cypriot community and most people have strong links with their homeland. So you can imagine the widespread alarm across the manor at the news that the government in Nicosia had decided to confiscate people’s life savings as part of a bailout programme aimed at preventing the collapse of the euro. Worry: Like the euro, the assurance that overseas customers of Cyprus-based banks will not be affected isn't worth the paper it's printed on. But, inevitably, Britain has been dragged into this latest crisis The Bank of Cyprus has thousands of customers in this country. And although depositors in Britain have been assured their savings are safe, would you take the chance? In Cyprus, all banks and hole-in-the-wall machines remained closed yesterd

470 shares 298 View comments A couple of years ago I had a fantastic idea for a new TV reality show, a cross between Wish You Were Here and Changing Rooms. The premise was simplicity itself. Judith Chalmers would find the perfect holiday destination for a typical family. They’d spend two idyllic weeks in the sun before returning to discover that their house had been occupied by a gang of Romanian squatters, with hilarious consequences. While they were away, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen had helped the immigrants break in, change the locks and trash the place. Surprise! Maybe if Dave came home to find Number 10 occupied by Romanian squatters, it might concentrate his mind The cameras would record the reaction of the tearful home-owners as armed police in hi-viz jackets over their body armour turned up to warn them that if they made any attempt to repossess their property, they would be arrested instantly for ‘taking the law into their own hands’. If they protested too s

0 shares 83 View comments Wayne Middleton was cleared of benefit fraud after claiming £22,500 in incapacity allowance while working as a salsa teacher A part-time magistrate who claimed £22,500 in disability benefits while working as  a salsa dance teacher and taking part in a TV reality show has been cleared of benefit fraud. Wayne Middleton, 48, was found not guilty on two counts of dishonestly making false statements to the Department for Work and Pensions. He stood accused of fraudulently signing paperwork declaring he was medically unfit for work. Investigators acting on a tip-off discovered he was teaching at least two 45-minute dance classes a week despite claiming to be ‘unable to walk without severe pain’. He was also filmed abseiling, stilt-walking and skiing on grass on Channel 4’s Coach Trip programme. Mr Middleton, from Stanton Drew, near Bristol, said his doctor had recommended that he take up dancing to ease the symptoms of fibromyalgia, a long-term

1.2k shares 726 View comments Kelly Jones has instructed Pattinson Brewer solicitors to take action against a petrol station owner for 'failing to ensure' her safety during a routine break-in investigation When I read the story about a WPC suing a suspected burglary victim for damages, I had to check the date. Surely this was an April Fool’s wind-up. As usual, I should have known better. Years of writing about the absurdity of modern policing have taught me there’s virtually no limit to the stupidity and opportunism of some coppers. Kelly Jones has instructed Pattinson Brewer solicitors to take action against a petrol station owner for ‘failing to ensure’ her safety during a routine break-in investigation. She claims to be entitled to substantial compensation after allegedly tripping over a kerb and hurting her left leg and right wrist. Her lawyers maintain that the owner had a legal duty to ensure her, you guessed, ‘health and safety’. The three-page lett

0 shares 55 View comments For the best part of 25 years, You Couldn’t Make It Up has been one of the mainstays of this column. All manner of absurd stories have come my way, most of which would be impossible to parody. Every year newspapers go to elaborate lengths to spoof their readers on April Fools’ Day. Frankly, I don’t know why they still bother. Real life is far more ridiculous. Looking at the papers, it’s increasingly difficult to distinguish fact from fantasy. It is nearly impossible to tell what is real and what is an April Fools now-a-days; real life is far more ridiculous Take the story I wrote about yesterday, the WPC suing a petrol station owner for damages after tripping on a step during a routine burglary investigation. That had April Fool written all over it. Except that it was true. There was also a report of a man in the West Midlands being wrestled to the ground by two police officers on their way to a fancy dress party. Solihull Police tweet

7.3k shares 389 View comments Greater Manchester Police have revised their definition of what constitutes a ‘hate crime’ to include violent incidents involving punk rockers and heavy metal fans. Not before time, you might think. Round up the lot of them and throw away the key. Or, as my Geordie mate Black Mike always jokes when he spots a Sid Vicious lookalike gobbing his way down the High Street: ‘Gi’ us a stick and I’ll kill it.’ But that isn’t what the bold Plod have got in mind. The new rules aren’t designed to protect society from gangs of punks and heavy metal headbangers. They’ve been drawn up to protect them from the rest of society. New rules: Greater Manchester Police have now revised their definition of what constitutes a 'hate crime' to protect punk rockers and heavy metal fans from the rest of society GMP is becoming the first force to extend ‘hate crime’ status to those with ‘alternative sub-culture identity’. In future, these groups will be

220 shares 143 View comments Back in 1987, Mrs Thatcher was monstered over an interview in which she said: ‘There is no such thing as society.’ The Left seized on this remark as evidence of her heartless indifference to the plight of ordinary people. What she was actually doing was condemning the use of ‘society’ as a convenient shorthand excuse for individual deficiencies, disappointments and delinquency. A quarter of a century ago, as in some quarters today, there was a knee-jerk readiness to blame ‘society’ for everything from drug addiction to violent crime. Mrs Thatcher was also criticising the automatic tendency of people to look to the State as a cure for all ills. In 1987, Mrs Thatcher was monstered over an interview in which she said: 'There is no such thing as society' She was of the firm conviction that society is the sum of its parts — individuals, families, churches, voluntary organisations, businesses. It was her belief that people expected

107 shares 324 View comments The BBC has been finalising the arrangements for Mrs Thatcher’s funeral. Let’s hope the coverage is more balanced than the predictable Left-wing propaganda pumped out in the wake of her death. And that it manages to rise above the level of the Corporation’s dismal performance on the day of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee pageant. So what can we expect? This column has been leaked a copy of a confidential memo to staff from the BBC’s Acting Deputy Assistant Head of Ceremonial Affairs (Vision) . . .   Item: Funeral of the Lady Thatcher, Wednesday April 17. Draft schedule. The eyes of the world will be on the BBC next week and it is therefore imperative that we uphold the Corporation’s global reputation for excellence and impartiality. Lady Thatcher was a divisive figure, however, and we have a duty to reflect all shades of opinion. We also have a sacred mission both to explain and entertain, so it is vital we take pains to make this event releva