No, They Can’t Have More Of My Money…

People are more likely to quit smoking and make other healthy lifestyle choices if offered small financial incentives, researchers have said.

The ‘small financial incentive’ they get through not buying a packet of Benson & Hedges isn’t enough?

The charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said that evidence of the benefit of financial incentives to help people quit was growing and could be “particularly helpful for the poorest most disadvantaged smokers”.

One recent study in Dundee found that smokers in deprived areas who were offered £12.50 per week to quit smoking had a three-month quit rate of more than 30 per cent, compared to the 14 per cent national average.

That’s all..? 30%? Doesn't sound like much of a return on the investment to me.

And...what happens to the incentives given to the other 70%? Do they have to give them back?

‘Professional Curiosity’ Is Only For Some Families…

The report investigates the “consistent lack of professional curiosity” in the family from authorities including Bexley social services and Darent Valley Hospital - although a safeguarding representative has defended these services to News Shopper.

That'll be amusing, I'm sure...

The 32-page document describes “extraordinarily optimistic” health visitors, lack of monitoring and communication between agencies, failure of the GP to promote vitamin D, and staff confusion over forms.

Yes. 'Staff confusion over forms'. Pardon me, but isn't 'filling in forms' something they are supposed to be good at? They seem to love it so...

The report said: “The nature of the spiritual beliefs and sanctions articulated by his mother were extreme and should have raised both concern and questioning. ”

And yet, when Boris says the same sort of thing, he’s castigated for it…

But what did that ‘safeguarding representative’ have to say?

Ms Trevanion believes the balance between family privacy and protection was problematic. She said: “Everybody has a right to protect their religion but not to the extent that it puts lives at risk.

We're back to Boris again...

“People are very respectful of others’ religion and tradition and sometimes that can cloud the rights of the child.”

It only seems to affect public sector workers, though. Isn't that strange?

Well, Steve, Some People Just Do As They Like…

…you might almost say, they are known for it.

Three emaciated ponies were dumped in a Wickford field. The RSPCA was called to a field off Nevendon Road after the owner of the land found her fence had been cut and the ponies left there.

The three animals, one of which is in foal, were starved, had severe lice infestations and hooves in poor condition.

They are thought to be between 12 and 19 years old. None were marked or microchipped.

A real mystery. It’d tax Miss Marple, to be sure.

Inspector Steve Craddock said: “We would like any member of the public with information about these ponies and how they came to be abandoned to contact us.”

Why, do you actually plan to do something about it this time?

I Think I Need To Buy A Popcorn Factory…

A staunchly left-wing trade union that has fought a bitter campaign to protect the pay and conditions of 250,000 public-sector workers is poised to impose draconian terms on its own staff’s pension plans.

Documents seen by The Independent reveal the Public & Commercial Services Union faces a pensions crisis, with the combined deficit on two of its schemes estimated to be as high as £65.5 million.

Woo hoo! I haven’t laughed so much since I heard about Bob Crow’s demise…

… the PCS has privately admitted, given its limited financial resources, that “it is no longer affordable to maintain benefits at current levels” and “no one single change to benefits is going to be sufficient to bridge the gap”.

The documents show the Pensions Regulator criticised the PCS’s previous valuations of its pension schemes as being too optimistic over its ability to afford them.

So no wonder they are so optimistic about others’ ability to afford them…

A union source said that the “Government is going to have a field day with this” , given the PCS’s “Protect our pensions” campaign that condemned the Coalition for wanting public-sector workers to “work longer and retire with less”.

The Scottish Secretary, Alistair Carmichael, said last night: “Changes to public-sector pensions were inevitable and necessary but difficult – and made all the more difficult by the obstructive politicisation by unions like the PCS. To see them now imposing on their own staff a worse deal than we offered their members is a bit rich.”

Indeed so. But then, wasn’t hypocrisy always a hallmark of the Left?

A Police Force Designed By Progressives..?

Owen Jones gets on his high horse over the Met’s ‘scandals’:

If hacking someone's voicemail is a gross invasion of privacy, what words are left to describe agents of the state with fake identities having sex with women they're spying on?

‘The novels of Ian Fleming’, Owen. You’re welcome.

But police spies stealing the identities of dead children and duplicitously sharing the homes, beds and lives of women is only the latest in a string of damning scandals about the Metropolitan police…

And of course, little Owen immediately starts to do what progressives always accuse their opponents of doing – condemning an entire sector of society based on the actions of a small minority. It’s different, you see, when Owen or his chums want to do it…

Each scandal is examined in isolation, treated as the action of rogue officers. But together they suggest an institutionally rotten system. Londoners need a force devoted to protecting their security, which treats all sections of the community equally, and which enjoys the consent and trust of everyone. Currently they do not have one, and so it must be built on new foundations.

Hmmm, let’s see if that works for any other groups, shall we?

“Each scandal is examined in isolation, treated as the action of rogue civil servants/social workers/doctors/broadcasters. But together they suggest an institutionally rotten system. Londoners need a department/hospital system/tv station devoted to serving them, which treats all sections of the community equally, and which enjoys the consent and trust of everyone. Currently they do not have one, and so it must be built on new foundations.”

Nope, I can already see the Left getting out of their tree about such comparisons. In fact, they already have done.

What would a new police force look like? That should be left to a royal commission – headed by an independent figure, not an establishment patsy – which calls evidence from all sections of the community. Structures, training, forms of accountability: all need to be designed from scratch. It needs to be a body stripped of prejudice and bigotry, that defends hard-won democratic freedoms, as well as protecting people's security.

So…what would a police force designed by the Left according to these rules look like? Discuss.

Oh, You’ll Regret Asking This Question…

Ms Hopwood said: “Why should my son’s uncle share with him in a room when he’s at a point in his life when he’s doing GCSEs?

“I wouldn’t expect to share a room with my auntie, yet I’m being told that I have to pay £15 extra a week.

“I struggle to pay catch up with rent at the minute anyway and I don’t think that is right when they ask me to pay for a bedroom that isn’t spare.”

I’ll tell you why, Ms Hopwood – because the taxpayer has had enough of paying for the lifestyle choices of the benefit class to have better and larger homes than they are currently working all the hours god sends to pay for.

And if you are having problems paying the rent now, WHY ARE YOU BREEDING!?!

Ms Hopwood’s situation is set to change later this year because she is pregnant.

*hurls PC across room*

A Good News Story At Last!

A widow in her 80s today told of her shock after a burglar fleeing her back garden apparently broke his neck and died after being trapped under a fence.

The man, aged 34, was said by neighbours to have been “guillotined” as he crawled under a garden fence. A heavy wooden panel crashed down, snapping his neck and trapping him.

Gotta admit, I laughed…

Homeowner Ilonka Simon, 89, told the Standard she had disturbed the man after spotting him in the garden. She said: “I looked out the back window and there was this youngster standing there. I shouted ‘Oi! What are you doing?’

“He looked startled and tried to jump back over the fence, but he couldn’t make it.”

*chuckles*

The ‘Standard’ didn’t name him, but the ‘Mail’ went a bit further:

Local villain Stephen Pope, 34…

No doubt the grieving relatives will be complaining about that!

H/T: Ron Hughes via email

Another Day, Another Pressure Group…

There are huge disparities in the outcomes of young people in different London boroughs, according to the Children’s Rights Alliance for England.

That’s because there are huge disparities in the behaviours of ‘young people’ in different London boroughs. Though don’t worry, the other areas are fast catching up!

The report also states that police in London tasered children 131 times between 2008 and 2012. But 40 per cent of the taserings took place in just four boroughs - Croydon, Southwark, Lambeth and Lewisham.

Well, yes. That’s because those ‘children’ are quite likely to be animals.

Two examples of vulnerable children who shouldn't be shot with Tasers... 

And I’d be just as happy for the police to use real bullets, frankly.

Creating A ‘Cycling Culture’? Or Something Else?

It is a collaborative staff effort: while the kids weave in and out of cones Lindsey, the school’s PSHE (personal social health and economic education) teacher, and one of the driving forces behind the school’s cycling programme, tells me about one girl she taught to ride.

“She had come from another country and had never ridden a bike. One hour it took me to teach her. She fell off a few times but she kept getting back on,” she said.

“For children who come from another country who don’t speak English it is hard for them to excel at first academically so it is great for them to excel at something.”

All must have prizes, even if they are for…well, something of no academic value whatsover.

Sally, like many parents here, sometimes drives part way and the kids cycle the last leg to school on the pavement.

Though she wants her and her kids to cycle on the roads, she understandably has concerns about safety.

Her kids’ safety, that is. The poor pedestrian having to dodge out of the way of them, not so much…

Well, Technically, They Are Right…

It is the latest attack by what is thought to be an American pitbull-type dog.

Last month 11-month-old Ava Jayne Marie Corless was mauled to death by a dog believed to be of that species while in bed at a house in Emily Street, Blackburn, Lancashire.

…after all, all domestic dogs belong to the same species - canis familiaris - but I think the word they were looking for here was ‘breed’.