NHS Failing Cancer Patients

More than 10,000 people die needlessly in the UK each year because their cancers are not diagnosed in time, a study says.

Only 53 per cent of women and 42 per cent of men with cancer survive for more than five years.

... The failure of GPs comes despite their pay soaring by more than 50 per cent - to over £100,000 - since a new contract was agreed in 2004.

Lying Teaching Profession Exposed

Cheating The Inspectors A teacher covertly filmed senior staff attempting to cheat official inspectors to expose the truth behind England's poor education standards, a hearing was told.

The 33-year-old is appearing before the General Teaching Council - the profession's regulatory body - accused of unacceptable professional conduct after making the documentary for Channel 4's Dispatches series. She faces being banned from the classroom.

Serious Threat To Democracy

Serious Threat To Democracy Hundreds of thousands of workers could lose their right to earn extra money working overtime after Brussels voted to scrap Britain's opt-out from the 48-hour working week. - probably only of interest to Brits.

Labour Euro MPs defied Gordon Brown and backed the move to end our special deal on the issue.

This is an absolutely outrageous state of affairs.

Basically, these almost faceless Euro-MPs are pursuing their own agenda having been elected on a Labour ticket!

Very few people know who these MPs are, and what they represent, because of the way in which elections to the European Parliament are conducted. These MPs presented themselves as Labour Party candidates, as Labour Party members and as Labour Party supporters, but now that they have been elected, they are going entirely their own way and following their own socialist agenda.

They are defying Gordon Brown, and so they have absolutely no mandate to do what they are doing.

They are, in essence, a small group of highly-paid socialists who are now wielding enormous power without being subject to any real democratic processes.

Soldiers Die Through Government's Negligence

The commander of Britain's SAS troops in Afghanistan has resigned in disgust, accusing the Government of "gross negligence" over the deaths of four of his soldiers.

The EU Farewell Package Hits the Jackpot

by Peter Oborne (Link)

In the real world inhabited by ordinary voters and taxpayers, severance payments are made only to employees who are sacked or laid off unfairly or against their will.

However, in the world of EU politics, the compensation system works very differently.

Take the case of Peter Mandelson, who quit as European Commissioner at a moment's notice to take a well-paid job in the British Cabinet.

Far from losing out financially, his reward is a farewell package worth approximately £1million. I have discovered that his successor, Baroness Ashton, whose tenure will be for less than a year, is set to benefit financially in even more spectacular fashion.

She will be paid almost £200,000. After she leaves her post, she will be entitled to a further £250,000 of so-called 'transitional payments' spread over three years.

Her single year of service will also furnish her with an annual pension of approximately £8,000 a year - that's more than twice what a British pensioner gets from the state after working all their life.

Taking into account other freebies, Baroness Ashton (the former leader of the House of Lords) has hit the jackpot with a total package worth the best part of three-quarters of a million pounds.

...

Not bad for a year's 'work'!

More Of Blair's Lies Exposed

But for the collapse of the financial markets, last week's devastating revelation that Tony Blair lied to Parliament at the height of the Ecclestone affair would have had a far more deadly impact. Peter Oborne

Now I can provide compelling evidence that the former prime minister lied to Parliament over an infinitely more serious matter - the extent of British government knowledge of what was happening in the Iraqi prison, Abu Ghraib.

Council Chief Retains £116,000 Salary for Four Day Week

A council chief executive is to retain his £116,000 salary despite cutting down to a four-day week so he can "indulge" his passion for music.

Pensioner Ordered to Stop Mowing Grass

A pensioner has been ordered by his council to stop mowing the grass outside his home because it makes the road look too tidy.

This is an example of the appalling extent to which government workers seek to justify their own jobs - jobs which, in this case, they do not appear to be doing.