Out of atmospheric movement, oodles of lack of warm, overdone
on the solar stuff and only a smidge of skywater at the Castle this morn, last
day of putting white glossy stuff on the woodwork-just one door and a few yards
of skirting to go.
Allegedly IPSA (the Independent Parliamentary Standards
Authority) has come up with a cunning plan to increase costs during this age of
“austerity”, they want to bump up MPs salaries from £65,738 to £92,000 per horriblis
annum from 2015 under plans to link politicians’ pay to average earnings.
In a consultation document yesterday Ipsa dismissed the idea
that their salaries should be linked to those of higher-earning public sector
professionals, such as doctors or head teachers.
It said, however, that there could be a case for a “simple
formula” to determine MPs’ pay increases during a five-year parliament.
“There have been suggestions that we could base the level of
MPs’ pay on a multiple of national average earnings. We could then also index
MPs’ pay so that it would remain at the same multiple of national average
earnings each year,” it said.
“At the moment, MPs’ annual salary is approximately 2.5 to
2.9 times national annual average earnings, depending on which measure is
used.”
Its review said suggestions for the appropriate multiplier
for calculating salaries had ranged “from 1.5 to 4 times national average
earnings”.
On the basis that the current average pay is £23,000 a year,
four times that amount would produce a pay packet of around £92,000 for MPs.
It also rejected the notion of basing remuneration on
performance or time served in the Commons and suggested a link to earnings
before entering parliament would “disadvantage some candidates”.
But don’t forget- we aren’t all in this together...
Apparently bollixed up Blighty may face an extra £1.5
billion bill to pay for the increased costs of Brussels bureaucracy, as
governments warn that the cost of pensions for EU officials is set to double.
According to the Torygraph they have seen a confidential
letter, signed by Britain and seven other governments, which reveals that they
are "very concerned" because the cost of EU pensions is forecast to
double to more than £2 billion a year by 2045.
Eurocrats already retire on a gold-plated 60 per cent of
final salary scheme – on average £57,000 each – which costs the cash-strapped
national governments almost £1 billion a year. But it is growing fast because
of the increased number of staff employed as the EU expanded from 15 to 27
countries since 2004.
The letter, from the eight countries that pay more into the
EU budget than they get out of it in benefits, also reveals that the European
Commission is demanding a 26 per cent increase to pay for the costs of its
civil service for the next seven year budget period.
The proposed 2014 to 2020 budget would take the cost of the
European civil service from £45 billion to £57bn, an increase that countries
say is wrong at a time when national public sector workers are facing job
losses and pay freezes or cuts.
Fuck orf!!!
An Australian Institute of Petroleum weekly report shows the
national price for unleaded petrol rose 0.8 cents to an average price of 146.5
cents a litre for the week ending October 14.
The metropolitan price rose 0.5 cents to 145.1 cents a
litre, while the average regional price increased 1.1 cents to 149.3 cents a
litre.
CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian says fuel prices are
near the highest prices in five months and the likelihood is for more petrol
rises.
"The terminal gate (wholesale price) has risen by a
further two cents over the past week and it is likely that fuel prices will
track highly over the coming fortnight," he said.
The average national terminal gate price for unleaded petrol
was 137.9 cents a litre on Monday, up 2.0 cents on a week ago, CommSec said.
He said CommSec forecast the national average petrol price
could rise between two to three cents a litre over the next fortnight.
Melbourne had the cheapest unleaded fuel last week, down 1.7
cents to 142.2 cents a litre*, while Darwin remained the dearest, up 0.3 cents
to 161.6 cents a litre.
*which works out at 90.48p per litre of go juice, lucky
buggers, think I will move to Oz and get a job as a barman....
To the land where they are all in Blighty the Polish Gov is
considering a draft law, which stipulates a tax for rainwater. Common citizens,
who own a house or an apartment, as well as businessmen and traders, will have
to pay for rain. The amount of the tax will directly depend on the square
footage of the roof that they have in their property, Noviye Izvestia
reports.
The bill was prepared by the ruling party of Poland, Civic
Platform. In reality, it does not go about rain - the bill targets the
collective disposal of sewage. During rainfalls, the sewage system deals with a
significant load which is particularly high at such places as car parks, near
major shopping centres and in industrial areas, reports The 8th
Channel.
As an experiment, this procedure has already been introduced
in several cities of the country. The majority of ministers believe that the
experiment was successful. The residents of Poznan, Koszalin, Bielsko-Biala,
Bytom and Vrotslav have paid the tax. They pay an average of $10-15 per year,
whereas the municipal budget receives $1.5-2 million, Vesti.ru
reports.
Do not even think about it Prime Monster...
Scientists have developed underwear with built-in electrodes
that deliver small electric shocks to combat bed sores in patients who are in a
coma or who have injuries that have immobilised them.
At the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans on Monday, they
reported results from a trial of the "Smart-e-Pants"
system, a way to reduce the incidence and costs of treating bed sores – also
known as pressure ulcers – by electrically stimulating the buttock muscles of
patients.
Sean Dukelow of the department of clinical neuroscience at
the University of Calgary in Canada, who led the study, said the pants worked
so well in the small trial that none of the patients involved got pressure
ulcers for the month of the experiment. "Most of them wanted to keep the
device after they were done," he said.
Wonder if you can wear them back to front?
And finally:
At 1,650 pounds, this bike built by Wouter van den Bosch of
the Netherlands is the heaviest rideable bike in the world -- and was ridden in
Arnhem (also in the Netherlands) back in 2010.
He’s been smoking some good shit....
That’s it: I’m
orf to check out Spintronic technology
And today’s thought:
Jim fixed it for anyone he could get his hands on
Angus
