Double-Oh 20 Bensons – Licenced to Smoke

In a staggering new move proposed by yet another pointless government think-tank, it’s been proposed that smokers should be forced to buy a £10 license in order to buy cigarettes. Just how much do these imbeciles think the people of Britian will take before they fight back?

I’d like to propose an idiot tax, payable by people called Julian, health-commies and the entire Government back-bench for consuming too much air without giving anything back. In fact, taking a lead from London’s demented Lord Mayor, the odious Livingstone, perhaps we should charge fat people more in idiot tax as they consume more oxygen then is reasonable and pollute society with their evil obese presence …

Smokers could be forced to pay £10 for a permit to buy tobacco if a government health advisory body gets its way.

No one would be able to buy cigarettes without the permit, under the idea proposed by Health England.

Its chairman, Professor Julian Le Grand, told BBC Radio 5 Live the scheme would make a big difference to the number of people giving up smoking.

But smokers’ rights group Forest described the idea as “outrageous”, given how much tax smokers already pay.

Professor Le Grand, a former adviser to ex-PM Tony Blair, said cash raised by the proposed scheme would go to the NHS.

He said it was the inconvenience of getting a permit – as much as the cost – that would deter people from persisting with the smoking habit.

“You’ve got to get a form, a complex form – the government’s good at complex forms; you have got to get a photograph.

“It’s a little bit of a problem to actually do it, so you have got to make a conscious decision every year to opt in to being a smoker.”

‘Extra bureaucracy’

He added: “70% of smokers actually want to stop smoking.

“So if you just make it that little bit more difficult for them to actually re-start or even to start in the first place, yes I think it will make a big difference.”

But Forest said it would be “an extra form of taxation, while tobacco taxation is already at record levels”.

Forest spokesman Simon Clark said that when the cost of administration, extra bureaucracy and enforcement are taken into account, “the mind boggles”.

He added that the people most affected by the proposals would be “the elderly and people on low incomes”.

Mr Clark added: “The senior government advisor putting this idea forward is not only adding to the red tape and bureaucracy we already have in this country.

“He is openly bragging that he wants to make the form as complex as possible to fill in.”

A department of health spokeswoman did not rule out such a scheme as part of the next wave of tobacco regulation.

She said: “We will be consulting later this year on the next steps on tobacco control.

“Ministers are seeking input from a whole range of stakeholders.”

From the BBC

At the mercy of the Saudi’s

A late posting, but worthy of comment I feel.

Last week it was revealed that the Saudi’s forced arch-traitor Tony Bliar to stop investigations into their arms-dealing activities or they’d make it easier for terrorists to launch attacks on British soil.

Like a true Briton, Bliar immediately gave in and gave them what they wanted, ensuring that (in the words of the street) we become their bitch forever.

Funny how he was so keen to invade Iraq but so defensive in this instance, but then, the cult of history and celebrity only remembers those who fight wars they actually “won”…

Saudi Arabia’s rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced “another 7/7″ and the loss of “British lives on British streets” if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

He was accused in yesterday’s high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family.

The threats halted the fraud inquiry, but triggered an international outcry, with allegations that Britain had broken international anti-bribery treaties.

Lord Justice Moses, hearing the civil case with Mr Justice Sullivan, said the government appeared to have “rolled over” after the threats. He said one possible view was that it was “just as if a gun had been held to the head” of the government.

The SFO investigation began in 2004, when Robert Wardle, its director, studied evidence unearthed by the Guardian. This revealed that massive secret payments were going from BAE to Saudi Arabian princes, to promote arms deals.

Yesterday, anti-corruption campaigners began a legal action to overturn the decision to halt the case. They want the original investigation restarted, arguing the government had caved into blackmail.

The judge said he was surprised the government had not tried to persuade the Saudis to withdraw their threats. He said: “If that happened in our jurisdiction [the UK], they would have been guilty of a criminal offence”. Counsel for the claimants said it would amount to perverting the course of justice.

Wardle told the court in a witness statement: “The idea of discontinuing the investigation went against my every instinct as a prosecutor. I wanted to see where the evidence led.”

But a paper trail set out in court showed that days after Bandar flew to London to lobby the government, Blair had written to the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, and the SFO was pressed to halt its investigation.

The case officer on the inquiry, Matthew Cowie, was described by the judge as “a complete hero” for standing up to pressure from BAE’s lawyers, who went behind his back and tried to secretly lobby the attorney general to step in at an early stage and halt the investigations.

The campaigners argued yesterday that when BAE failed at its first attempt to stop the case, it changed tactics. Having argued it should not be investigated in order to promote arms sales, it then recruited ministers and their Saudi associates to make the case that “national security” demanded the case be covered up.

Moses said that after BAE’s commercial arguments failed, “Lo and behold, the next thing there is a threat to national security!” Dinah Rose, counsel for the Corner House and the Campaign against the Arms Trade, said: “Yes, they start to think of a different way of putting it.” Moses responded: “That’s very unkind!”

Documents seen yesterday also show the SFO warned the attorney general that if he dropped the case, it was likely it would be taken up by the Swiss and the US. These predictions proved accurate.

Bandar’s payments were published in the Guardian and Switzerland subsequently launched a money-laundering inquiry into the Saudi arms deal. The US department of justice has launched its own investigation under the foreign corrupt practices act into the British money received in the US by Bandar while he was ambassador to Washington.

Prince Bandar yesterday did not contest a US court order preventing him from taking the proceeds of property sales out of the country. The order will stay in place until a lawsuit brought by a group of BAE shareholders is decided. The group alleges that BAE made £1bn of “illegal bribe payments” to Bandar while claiming to be a “highly ethical, law-abiding corporation”.

From The Guardian

Is it because I is white?

Lance Cpl Ben Mayer, a former regimental cop with the Royal Anglians has been refused a job with the police force because he’s white, male and Christian.

The words boot, other and foot spring to mind … Remember folks, keep Britain … foreign!

A SOLDIER who saw nine comrades killed in Afghanistan told yesterday how he was stopped from becoming a cop — because he is the wrong colour.

Brave Lance Cpl Ben Mayer, a regimental police officer with the Royal Anglians, was shown capturing Taliban terrorists on a telly documentary screened last week.

But when he quit the Army last month to fulfil his ambition of becoming a cop, the Metropolitan Police refused to even send him a recruitment pack — and told him in a letter they were only “actively seeking to raise interest from black and minority ethnic communities and females”.

But he could apply to be a volunteer special constable or a Community Support Officer.

Stunned Ben, 23, said: “After all I went through for my country to defend it, I just wanted to help the community at home — especially at a time when terrorism is such a threat.

“While I was in Helmand, I risked my life constantly to take on terrorists.

“To get back and learn that I am the wrong colour or sex to even be considered for the police has left me speechless.

“I feel discriminated against.”

Ben, of Billericay, Essex, was shown operating on Helmand frontline with 1st Battalion, the Royal Anglian Regiment, in Sky One’s Ross Kemp In Afghanistan. He was seen interrogating terrorists in Army jails.

The soldier, who also served in Iraq, left the Army after seven years.

He added: “I’ve always wanted to be a cop and my experiences dealing with prisoners in Afghanistan just strengthened that because I enjoyed it so much. I find it very disheartening. ”

Non-white officers make up 24 per cent of the London force — an increase of seven per cent last year.

 

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The Met confirmed Ben had been refused a recruitment pack — but said that the force was not recruiting right now.

A spokeswoman added: “This is the case for everyone regardless of gender or ethnic origin.”

In 2006, Gloucestershire Police were forced to pay £2,500 compensation after “deselecting” white male candidates who had applied to become coppers.

From The Sun

Coming soon to a court near you …

Stoning, hanging and the repression of women if the so-called leader of the Christian church has his way.

The Archbishop of Canterbury (that bloke who’s allegedly in charge of the well-being of Christians throughout the country) has said there’s no point in standing up to the evil of Sharia law and we might as well give in now and let them do whatever they please. No matter then that we already have our own legal system, laws and ways of doing things, we’ll just ignore hundreds of years of history in the usual attempt to appease the hatemongers who shout the loudest.

Once upon a time, we used to have spirit, fire, backbone. We were a country that stood together whatever was thrown at us. These days, we’re just a sad bunch of appeasers who spend far too much time and energy on the wasters, the apologists and the crooks to have any regard for the majority.

The ArchTraitor said Muslims should be allowed to have their own laws and do things their own way as we need to “face the fact” that some Muslims don’t relate to British laws.

There’s a simple answer of course – if you don’t like British law, sod off somewhere else. Perhaps the ArchTraitor would like to taek this Anti-British contingent and clear off somewhere were we don’t have to hear their whining voices. That way the Church of England could elect a reasonable head who speaks for it’s followers, rahter then appointing some loon who wants to give it all away.

THE Archbishop of Canterbury handed al-Qaeda a victory last night by saying the introduction of Sharia law in Britain is inevitable.

In an explosive outburst Dr Rowan Williams, the country’s top Anglican, said there should be one set of rules for Muslims — and another for everyone else.

He maintained it was WRONG for followers of Islam to be forced to choose between “the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty”.

Instead he said the country must “face the fact” that some Muslims do not relate to the law in Britain.

The 57-year-old insisted we accept aspects of Sharia law with a “constructive accommodation” in areas like marriage so Muslim women would not have to use British divorce courts.

He added: “It seems unavoidable.”

Dr Williams’ extraordinary claim is a huge propaganda coup for extremists plotting to end centuries of the British way of life.

And it was roundly condemned from all quarters last night.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, branded his outburst “muddled and unhelpful”.

He said: “As far as I am aware no serious body of Muslim opinion supports the idea of special treatment or exemption from the law of the land based on some vague ‘conscientious objection’.

“Raising this idea will give fuel to anti-Muslim extremism and dismay everyone who is working towards a more integrated society.”

He went on: “His implication that British courts should treat people differently based on their faith is divisive and dangerous. It risks removing the protection afforded by law, for example to children in custody cases or women in divorce proceedings.

“There is a fundamental principle that when you appear before a court in Britain you appear as a citizen, equal to any other and you should be treated equally to any other. There can be no opt outs.”

Paul Dadge, famously pictured helping masked 7/7 victim Davina Turrell, 24, was left stunned.

Proud

The 31-year-old former fireman, of Cannock, Staffs, said: “The Archbishop’s remarks are unhelpful. I am proud to be British and find the idea that Sharia law would ever become part of British law incredible.”

Mary Burke, 50 — who survived the King’s Cross bomb on July 7 2005 — said: “Britain is a Christian country and should stay a Christian country. I don’t want Islamic law here and I believe most of the British public agree with me.”

Dr Williams’ intervention was also savaged by former Home Secretary and Sun columnist David Blunkett.

He said: “The Archbishop’s remarks are not only inflammatory they are dangerous. There will be a backlash of which he appears to be oblivious.”

PM Gordon Brown made it clear a two-tier legal system was totally unacceptable.

His official spokesman said: “The Prime Minister believes British law should apply in this country, based on British values.”

 

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Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said Dr Williams was “wrong”.

He added: “You cannot run two systems of law alongside each other. That would be a recipe for chaos.”

Muslim Labour MP Khalid Mahmood was outraged.

He said: “This is the sort of woolly thinking that gets people into trouble. This sort of talk makes people think Muslims want to separate themselves from the rest of the community and be treated differently. The truth is most Muslims do not want Sharia law.”

Dr Williams spoke out in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s World at One.

He did stress he opposed the extreme elements of Islamic law — including stoning and whipping — but went on: “There is a place for finding what would be a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law as we already do with aspects of other kinds of religious law.”

His comments were welcomed by some Muslims.

Mohammed Shafiq, director of the Ramadhan Foundation, said: “Sharia law for civil matters has been introduced in some western countries with much success. I believe Muslims would take huge comfort from the Government allowing civil matters being resolved according to their faith.”

From The Sun

“Sympathy” for the devil

In yet another staggering display of contempt for the British people, the coward Brown and his gang of no-hopers, liars and cheats have refused to ban Muslim hate preachers from entering Britain. Indeed, support of the Sub-Humans Yusuf al-Qaradawi has been been granted a medical visa to enter the country for treatment for an undisclosed illness.

A Government lackey said refusing entry to al-Qaradawi would effectively be playing into the hands of extremists, the indication being that it’s better to let him in to preach loathing and hatred then to do the sensible thing and ban him.

In the past al-Qaradawi (a plague of lice be upon him) has openly supported the execution of gays and defended suicide bombers  saying: “Through his (Allah) infinite wisdom he has given the weak a weapon the strong do not have and and that is their ability to turn their bodies into bombs as Palestinians do.”

This is just another reason why the spineless, gutless Brown should be stripped of power immediately and replaced with someone who has the British people’s best interests at heart.

In related news, a “British” man pleaded guilty to hatching a plot to behead a  soldier in Birmingham (for my money it’s impossible to British and a terrorist …) and on the day both stories broke, what was the Prime Incompetent doing? Announcing that it’s possible to get qualifications from the University of McDonalds – questions about terrorism, the state of the nation, knife crime and immigration were carefully sidestepped by the old technique of “pretending to not hear the question”.

Perhaps the epithet coward lacks sufficient punch for Brown, traitor would be closer to the mark – we still have the death penalty for traitors, don’t we?

Disgraced Conservative MP Derek Conway to stand down at next elections

Another MP up to no good – this time it’s Conservative who are in the dog house.  I hope he does more than stand down – he should be kicked out.

We are supposed to trust MPs, we are asked to give them our support and backing, when clearly many of them these days are only out to make their own lives better, while their country suffers. So who should we trust?

 Derek Conway, the disgraced Tory MP who sparked outrage by paying his family more than £200,000 of taxpayers’ money, has announced he will stand down at the next election.

The MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup bowed to public pressure, after attracting widespread criticism for paying his son an excessive parliamentary salary for work as a researcher.

From the Times Online

Maternity units turn away British mums as immigrants’ baby boom costs NHS £350m

Yet another example of how this government’s policy of immigration is destroying our country.

From the Daily Mail

Maternity wards are being forced to turn away expectant mothers because they cannot cope with soaring demand from immigrants.

One hospital even had to shut its maternity ward for two months because its staff were needed elsewhere to deliver babies from foreign-born mothers.

An investigation has found the cost of providing maternity services for immigrants has more than doubled in only a decade to £350million a year.

But the Government has massively underestimated the scale of the problem, and last year the number of midwives actually fell for the first time since Labour came to power.

According to an investigation by the BBC’s Ten O’Clock News, one baby in eight was born to an immigrant mother in 1997.

Now, the figure is almost one in four.

Can our government not see that by letting all these immigrants in, our country is now crumbling under their weight? Are they so busy trying to find ways to hide the money they keep getting given (but know nothing about!), that they miss the fact that British people, who were born here are simply being pushed aside in favour of the ‘new kids’.

Enough is enough – this HAS TO STOP NOW.

And YOU – the hard working taxpayer – have no choice but to pay for this…

From The Telegraph

While the number of babies born to British mothers has fallen by 44,000 a year since the mid-1990s, the figure for babies born to foreign mothers has risen by 64,000. The overall birth rate is at its highest level for 26 years.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed in 2006 there were 15,000 more Eastern European babies born here than a decade earlier, 11,000 more babies from the Indian sub-continent and 8,000 extra babies from African-born mothers.

In parts of London, seven out of 10 babies are now delivered to mothers born overseas. London’s chief nurse, Trish Morris-Thompson, admitted the NHS had not realised how immigration would affect maternity services.

“The timing of the impact is much quicker than we had anticipated”, she said.

Today’s headlines

It’s staggering, I’m not even going to post the stories today – just a selection of headlines that can be found in today’s newspapers:

• Islamic extremist gang ‘plotted to kidnap British Muslim soldier and behead him like a pig’
• Girl, 11, in ’sex clip’: Five held
• Ex-cop jailed for sex crimes
• ‘Foreign gangsters behind most of organised crime in UK’
• Bloody Sunday inquiry has taken 10 years and £174m – but still no report
• Death crash police officer fined for wreckless driving
• Muslim women who wouldn’t change clothes to swim awarded £1,500 after being kicked out of pool
• Cameron calls for ban on ‘hate cleric’ entering UK for medical treatment
• Primary school evacuated after teacher finds fake guns in gym cupboard
• No room to pray at the BBC as no worship area is built for Arabic channel staff

Why is it such a major issue for Muslims not to have prayer rooms – do you ever hear of Christians, Jews or Catholics asking for a place to pray at work?

This is just a few of the annoying things out there today. When are we going to get a prime minister with a spine?

Another reason to loathe the EU

According to the Daily Mail, gypsies from Eastern Europe are trafficking hundreds of children into Britain to act as thieves as part of a scheme that nets them more than £1 billion a year, which is syphoned off “home” to transform poor villages into wealthy places to live.

As one would expect the current “government” is doing next to bugger all about the situation and we can expect them to start offering the Gypos cash incentives pretty soon – it’s all they ever seem to do.

No-one seems to have the balls to point out that immigration isn’t working, it’s actively harming the indiginous population of the country and it should be stopped now before we completely lose control of what used to be known as “Great” Britain.

Fagin-style criminal gangs from Romania are making vast amounts of money from trafficking children into Britain to work as pickpockets and beggars, it is revealed today.

The money amassed by the gangs is being funnelled back to Romania, often to build lavish homes back for the gang members, the Daily Mail has discovered.

The revelation comes as police staged a dramatic series of dawn raids yesterday in a campaign to stamp out the trafficking of Romanian slave children smuggled into Britain.

Many of the youngsters watched in terror from bedroom windows before being carried away. Ten children were taken into care.

The journey from Romania to Britain has become one of the most lucrative moves for those leaving Eastern Europe.

Many of those making the 1,500-mile trip are Roma gypsieswho have embarked on a life of crime in the UK.

Much of the money they make is sent back home, transforming villages where once horses and carts were the only form of transport, into places with expensive cars and glitzy mansions.

Hundreds have settled in Slough – just a £3 bus journey to London Victoria Station.

By the end of May last year 88 Romanian gipsy children, apparently without children, had turned up at the town’s civic centre.

Yestewrday 24 suspected “controllers” were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking and running a “highly-organised” theft business involving up to £1billion a year. The youngsters ranged in age from less than one to 17.

Many such children are made to travel to central London every day and carry out crimes including pickpocketing, credit card cloning and distraction thefts targeting commuters and tourists.

Their “takings” are sent back home – to Romania.

The money is transfoming villages where horses and carts were once the only form of transport into places with expensive cars and glitzy mansions.

Almost 400 officers were involved in the raids yesterday on rundown properties in Slough, Berkshire.

But detectives said the operation was only the start and predicted more raids to tackle the dramatic increase in street thefts and petty crime since Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU 12 months ago.

Officers wearing body armour and supported by dogs screamed “police, police, police” as they used sledgehammers to smash through doors of gang members.

“The objective was to disrupt and detect criminal offences in relation to organised crime networks in Romania, which represents itself in an upsurge in crime in London,” said Commander Steve Allen, who led the operation.

“We have taken to safety children who may have been bought into the country to commit crime.

“The background starts a year ago with the addition of Romania and Bulgaria into the EU, when it became clear there was quite a dramatic increase in theft from the persons around central London.

“It became clear we weren’t talking about low-level crime, but one end of a highly-organised network which involved, most seriously, the trafficking of children.

“This operation is about protecting vulnerable people, about providing reassurance to all members of the community and bringing to justice the members of serious organised crime.”

Commander Allen said the number of Romanian criminals known to them in central London rose from 12 in 2006 to 214 last year after the expansion of the EU.

He estimated that each active Romanian criminal makes about £100,000 a year, most of which is channelled back to his home country. The cash is used to fund luxury cars and homes.

The Romanian crimewave led to 700 more thefts in central London in 2007 than the previous year, he added.

The criminals have been using cheap rented properties in the Slough area as a base. At one address, police found 12 adults and eight children crammed into a small three-bedroom house.

Commander Allen believes there is more than one gang involved, and many more trafficked children still to be found.

He said: “The reason we targeted Slough is because that’s where the intelligence this time has led us. We have other intelligence available to us that would take us into other parts of London.”

Last night the freed children were being cared for by Slough Borough Council. Officials said attempts would be made to reunite them with family either in the UK or in Romania.

The adults arrested are also accused of breaches of immigration rules, deception, fraud and theft. Many were understood to be romany gipsies.

Large sums of cash and credit cards were also seized.

One of the offences associated with the gangs are so-called deception crimes. A popular trick involves a gang member asking for directions with a London Underground map while another steals a handbag or a mobile phone.

The leader of Westminster City Council, Sir Simon Milton, praised the arrests and said Eastern European gangs were behind an “unprecedented surge” in pickpocketing in Westminster.

He added: “The Government has been talking tough on crime, but it is about time it started following its words with actions and start forcibly removing those foreign nationals involved in criminal behaviour.

“We know from intelligence that many of the individuals arrested by police today have been convicted previously, which is simply unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue unchecked.”

From the Daily Mail

Not quite a fairystory…

Once upon a time there was a Government department who ran a competition to find the country’s best digital book, all was well and the Men In Charge from The Government were happy with what they’d done.

But a “naughty” man wrote a story based around the fairytale of the Three Little Pigs, called the Three Little Cowboy Builders and the Men In Charge became very, very angry because they said the story might upset Muslims due to it’s porcine-related activities and also, it said bad things about bricklayers.

So the Men In Charge banned the story and branded the man a racist. And they felt better with themselves and probably awarded themselves big pay rises. And no-one dared disagree with them, because objecting to anything which involves the word Muslim means you are a Fascist and want to gas people.

THE END.

Three Little Pigs ‘too offensive’

A story based on the Three Little Pigs has been turned down from a government agency’s annual awards because the subject matter could offend Muslims.

The digital book, re-telling the classic fairy tale, was rejected by judges who warned that “the use of pigs raises cultural issues”.

Becta, the government’s educational technology agency, is a leading partner in the annual schools award.

The judges also attacked Three Little Cowboy Builders for offending builders.

The book’s creative director, Anne Curtis, said that the idea that including pigs in a story could be interpreted as racism was “like a slap in the face”.

‘Cultural issues’

The CD-Rom digital version of the traditional story of the three little pigs, called Three Little Cowboy Builders, is aimed at primary school children.

But judges at this year’s Bett Award said that they had “concerns about the Asian community and the use of pigs raises cultural issues”.

The Three Little Cowboy Builders has already been a prize winner at the recent Education Resource Award – but its Newcastle-based publishers, Shoo-fly were turned down by the Bett Award panel, run the government’s technology agency.

The feedback from the judges explaining why they had rejected the CD-Rom highlighted that they “could not recommend this product to the Muslim community”.

They also warned that the story might “alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)”.

The judges criticised the stereotyping in the story of the unfortunate pigs: “Is it true that all builders are cowboys, builders get their work blown down, and builders are like pigs?”

Animal Farm?

Ms Curtis said that rather than preventing the spread of racism, such an attitude was likely to inflame ill-feeling. As another example, she says would that mean that secondary schools could not teach Animal Farm because it features pigs?

Her company is committed to an ethical approach to business and its products promote a message of mutual respect, she says – and banning such traditional stories will “close minds rather than open them”.

Becta, the government funded agency responsible for technology in schools and colleges, says that it is standing by the judges’ verdict.

“Becta with its partners is responsible for the judging criteria against which the 70 independent judges, mostly practising teachers, comment. All the partners stick by the judging criteria,” said a Becta spokesman.

Becta runs the awards with the Besa trade association and show organisers, Emap Education.

Merlin John, author of an educational technology website which highlighted the story, warns that such rulings can undermine the credibility of the awards.

“When benchmarks are undermined by pedestrian and pedantic tick lists, and by inflexible, unhelpful processes, it can tarnish the achievements of even the most worthy winners.

“It’s time for a rethink, and for Becta to listen to the criticisms that have been ignored for a number of years,” said Mr John.

From the BBC