February 2010 Archives

The TUC released new figures on working time yesterday to coincide with Work Your Proper Hours Day.  The data shows the number of people working 'extreme' unpaid overtime (i.e., ten hours a week or more over regular working hours) increased by 14,000 to nearly 900,000 last year.

Workers in the teaching and legal professions are most likely to do unpaid overtime - one in five clocked up 17 hours unpaid overtime a week.

Five million people across the UK worked an average of 7 hours 12 minutes unpaid overtime a week.

The value of the unpaid working time?  £27.4 billion, or £5,402 per person.

Andy Coulson, Tory spin doctor and trusted adjutant of David Cameron, has come under pressure to explain his relationship with convicted phone-hackers and other criminals during his tenure at the News of the World.

Mr. Coulson first worked as deputy editor of the tabloid and then became its editor in 2003.

A number of private investigators employed by NoW while Mr. Coulson worked at the paper - including Glenn Mulcaire, John Boyall and Steve Whittamore - were convicted of bribing police officers, intercepting private phone calls and voicemails, and illegally procuring confidential private information.

In January 2007 Mr. Coulson had to resign after Mulcaire and reporter Clive Goodman were jailed for intercepting voicemail messages.

A few months later, he assumed his current role as Conservative Party communications director.

On 23 April 2008 the Telegraph printed two articles about 21-year-old tennis player Robert Dee using the headlines 'World's worst ­tennis pro wins at last' and 'A British sensation - the world's worst'.

The paper claimed that Mr. Dee did not win a single match during his first three years as a professional, lost 54 matches in a row and compared him to ski jumper Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards and the Equatorial Guinea swimmer Eric "the Eel" Moussambani.

Mr. Dee didn't see the funny side.  He decided to sue the paper for libel.  Having already secured 30+ apologies and tens of thousands of pounds in damages from other media organisations - including the BBC, Daily Mail, Guardian and Sun - he appeared in the High Court this week to present his case.

The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has urged the Government to simplify its approach to pension tax and radically reduce the annual allowance for tax-favoured pension contributions from the current limit of £245,000 to a range of between £45,000 and £60,000.  The association believes this will allow the Government to raise additional tax revenues.

The NAPF represents 1,200 workplace pension schemes in the UK with 15 million members and assets of £800 billion. 

NAPF Chief Executive Joanne Segars said:

A spokesperson for Balram Chainrai, owner of Portsmouth, has announced the football club will enter administration today.  Phil Hall said: "We have started the process of putting the club into administration and this is due to be completed at the High Court in London [today].

"The serving of this notice means the winding-up order is automatically suspended.  It means the club is safe, can fulfil its fixtures and as far as is possible it is business as usual.

The Home Office released UK immigration and asylum statistics for Q4 2009 yesterday.

The data shows asylum applications dropped to 4,765 for the quarter - a 30% reduction on the same quarter in 2008 and the lowest number since Q2 1992.

Decisions on asylum cases have risen 36% compared to the same quarter in 2008 with the grant rate for asylum falling to 12%.

Applications from Eastern Europeans to work in the UK under the worker registration scheme have stabilised at 28,495, compared to 30,600 during the same period last year and 52,765 in Q4 2007.

The Office for National Statistics data shows that that immigration from the A8 accession countries has fallen and that long term immigration to the UK remains stable at 518,000 in the year to June 2009 compared to 531,000 in the year to June 2008.

According to PinkPaper.com, London Central Employment Tribunal has upheld a claim of sexual orientation discrimination against the owners of London's first 'gay pub.'

Charles Lisboa, 41, started work at the Coleherne Arms in December 2008.  It had long attracted an exclusively gay clientele.  Things changed after its acquisition by Realpubs, however.

The new owners decided to rename the pub the Pembroke Arms and refurbish it into a 'gastro-pub' to attract more patrons from outside the gay community.

Little is known of the Spanish lady who left three million euros (£2.8 million) to Iberian lynx in AndalucÌa except she died in October 2008 aged 60; never married; came from the Canary Islands; her initials were S.V.L; and, of course, she really loved animals.

Barely 200 Iberian lynx remain in the wild, making them the world's most endangered feline species.  AndalucÌa's DoÒana National Park - a UNESCO World Heritage Site - has a six-year captive breeding programme to save the animal from extinction and has been handed responsibility for putting the deceased's three million euros to good use.

Spanish newspaper Diario Sur reports a British woman and long-time resident of M·laga, Annette Sonia Stock, also left her entire estate to DoÒana National Park recently.

Three senior Google executives have received six-month suspended sentences after they unreasonably delayed taking down an internet video showing an autistic boy being attacked and beaten up.

The Daily Mail reports the footage of the autistic teenager was posted on Google Video in September 2006.  It shows him being set upon by four sadistic bullies at a school in Turin, Italy.  Apparently the video was number one in the 'most viewed' chart for two months before being removed.

A court in Milan ruled the video violated the boy's privacy and execs David Drummond (former head of Google Italy and now senior vice president), George De Los Reyes (a retired financial executive), and Peter Fleischer (privacy director) should have acted more quickly to take it off the internet.  In so doing, it rejected Google's argument that it was impractical to veto the hundreds of thousands of videos posted on its sites.

Google have indicated they will appeal the decision, which they described as "astonishing."

HM Treasury published a draft 'Tax Framework for Business' this week.  It sets out several "key principles to underpin the development of tax policy," such as securing fairness, competitiveness and economic stability, and aims "to ensure new burdens and complexities are not created for UK business."

The Framework was developed in discussion with the Business-Government Forum on Tax and Globalisation and is intended to provide greater certainty for large businesses about the Government's approach to the development of tax policy.

The UK Government has announced a pioneering scheme to encourage the transition to ultra-low carbon vehicles.  From January 2011, it will pay consumers up to £5,000 each to buy electric cars.

The scheme has been delayed until next spring to allow time for more electric vehicles to hit the market and also to develop a national 'Plugged-In Places' infrastructure to charge vehicles.

Consumers will receive the 'Plug-in Car Grant' directly at the point of purchase, in a similar way to that made as part of the successful car scrappage scheme.  The subsidy will be capped at 25% of the car's Recommended Retail Price, up to a value of £5,000, and will be open to both private and business fleet buyers.

West Ham United have paid former manager Alan Curbishley £2.2 million compensation for constructive dismissal.

Curbishley resigned from the club 17 months ago after directors sold defenders Anton Ferdinand and George McCartney to Sunderland behind his back.

A Premier League arbitration tribunal found West Ham guilty of constructive dismissal in November, but had yet to announce how much compensation he should receive.  Curbishley claimed £3 million but initially West Ham only offered £1.2 million.

UK mortgage lending fell to £9.1 billion in January, a 32% drop from £13.4 billion in December and down 21% from £11.5 billion in January 2009, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

CML represents banks, building societies and other lenders who together undertake around 94% of all residential mortgage lending in the UK.

It says a decline is typical between December and January.  However, this is the lowest monthly total since February 2000 (£7.9 billion) and the lowest January total since 2000 (£7.4 billion).

The "larger than average drop" between December and January this year indicates house purchase activity in December received a significant boost from borrowers taking advantage of the stamp duty holiday.

Anglo-Swedish drugs company AstraZeneca has agreed to pay HM Revenue £505 million to settle a long-running dispute over 'transfer pricing' and other unspecified UK tax matters.

What is transfer pricing?

The highly contentious practice of transfer pricing allows a company to reduce its tax liability in a higher tax country by transferring intangible property - such as patents, trademarks and licences - to a subsidiary in an offshore, lower tax country.

The developed world has sought to clamp down on the practice of late as part of an international crusade against tax avoidance.

The Court of Appeal has ordered multi-millionaire heiress Elena Bowes Marano, daughter of the late Hula Hoop and Frisbee magnate John Bowes, to cough up £5 million to cover half of the losses suffered by her ex-husband Peter Marano following a slump in the City of London property market.

The Telegraph reports Ms. Bowes Marano has a personal fortune of more than £19 million and Mr. Marano is a property speculator and chairman of Gemini Commercial Investments.

The UK Border Agency has implemented three major student visa changes this week for Tier 4 sponsors.

1. Visa letters obsolete

As of February 22nd, visa letters have become obsolete.  This means all Tier 4 student visa applicants must provide a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) in their application.  All applications that do not contain a CAS will be automatically rejected.

British Airways (BA) executives will face renewed pressure to sit down with cabin crew this week and reach a negotiated settlement, rather than impose changes to pay and employment conditions, after 80.7% of union workers voted in favour of industrial action.

Unite union has so far refused to disclose any strike dates or the length of any action as it wants to continue negotiations with BA in the hope of reaching an agreement.

Legally, Unite must give a week's notice if it plans to take action - meaning strikes could begin in early March.  Unite has promised there will no stoppages over the Easter period, however.

Following last week's announcement that LVG - the parent company of driving instructor business RED Driving School - had entered administration, private equity firm Kelso Place Asset Management has issued a statement that it has acquired the business.

A female soldier who claims sexism in the Army is "rife" and sued the Ministry of Defence for sexual harassment won a paltry £6,983 in damages at the High Court last week.  All the more galling: pre-trial, she rejected a settlement offer for £60,000 damages and £125,000 costs.

Claimant Donna Rayment, 42, of Canvey Island, Essex, did not appear too upset about the level of compensation, however: "I didn't do it for money, I did it for justice."

True to her word, she says she will donate all of the money to charity!

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has released new data showing a 90% increase in the number of mortgage loans between December 2008 and December 2009.

The number of loans to first-time buyers also hit a two-year high in December, driven by a rush to buy properties in the £125,000 - £175,000 bracket before the 1% stamp duty holiday expired.

All four patrons of the National Bullying Helpline quit yesterday in response to the 'inappropriate' attack by Christine Pratt on Gordon Brown.

On Sunday, Pratt gained notoriety by claiming the charity had received calls about workplace bullying at 10 Downing Street.  Within 24 hours, however, a number of serious allegations were levelled against her.

First, claims surfaced that a "political operation" had been launched against the Prime Minister, after it emerged the charity's headquarters are located just two doors down from a local Conservative party office; two of its (now ex-) patrons, Ann Widdecombe MP and Hillingdon councillor Mary O'Connor, are well-known Tories; and its website even has a commendation from David Cameron displayed prominently on its homepage.

According to the Times, HM Revenue & Customs has set its sights on a number of high-earning Premier League footballers who receive image rights payments.

The paper claims current arrangements allow players to avoid paying an estimated £100 million a year in tax for off-field earnings by receiving payments indirectly via service companies they own.

BBC News reports a United Airlines pilot - Erwin Washington, 51, from Lakewood, Colorado - has received a 10-month suspended jail sentence for "performing an aviation function whilst exceeding the proscribed alcohol limit."

The police arrested Mr. Washington last November after a colleague smelled alcohol on his breath as he prepared to captain a Chicago-bound flight from Heathrow Airport.  A breath test showed the pilot was more than three times over the permitted alcohol limit.  He was due to fly a Boeing 767 aircraft with 124 passengers and 11 crew members on board.

Ramblers scored a landmark legal victory last week as the High Court ordered Somerset millionaire Brian Herrick to remove 8ft iron gates erected across a public footpath on his £3.8-million Barcroft Hall estate at South Petherton, near Yeovil.

The judgment marks the end of a six-year campaign by local resident and keen rambler Peter Kidner to get the gates removed. 

Along the way, landowner Herrick incurred legal costs of at least £300,000 and a criminal record, after Somerset County Council prosecuted him for wilful obstruction under the Highways Act.

A few years ago my middle-aged male boss pulled me to one side and said: "Come and look at this."  He led me over to his computer and asked me to match the photographs of breasts on the left side of the screen with the faces of ten women on the right side of the screen.

Picture the scene: early twenties, it's my first office job, I've barely known my boss a week and he's asking me to match faces to breasts.  Needless-to-say, very inappropriate behaviour...

Anyway, memories of the incident reignited this week as I read an Employment Appeals Tribunal decision concerning a case brought by a female teacher against her former employer, an inner city school in the London Borough of Hackney, for unfair and wrongful dismissal.  The school sacked the teacher for viewing and distributing porn at work.

Last summer, I wrote a blog entry about proposals from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), a Conservative think-tank led by former Tory Party leader, now David Cameron aid du camp, Iain Duncan Smith.  The post focused on a CSJ proposal to introduce mandatory "cooling off" periods before a spouse can initiate divorce proceedings.

More recently, I posted about the CSJ's Manifesto for Happy and Healthy Families.  The Manifesto argues government should recognise marriage in the tax system to incentivise parents to marry (on the basis that children of married parents are better citizens than the offspring of unmarried parents).

Well, Chris Cook wrote a really interesting article in the Financial Times last weekend about the origins of the CSJ, how its rewritten Tory party doctrine on tax and family law, and the Centre's strong links with evangelical Christians.

Cook begins:

An American friend forwarded me a link this week to find out about a truly unique individual called Toby Jones.

The friend told me Mr. Jones offers combination childcare and legal services in Oakbrook, Illinois.

And get this - for only $99.99 (£65) per month per child!

It just sounded too good to be true, so I decided to investigate...

As mums and dads prepare for increased choice and flexibility on how they use maternity and paternity leave, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has published new research on parents' awareness of their rights.

The research shows many parents - particularly fathers - simply don't know what they're entitled to.

HM Revenue & Customs has announced it's sponsoring a new mini-series called "The Business Inspector" to the tune of £370,000 to raise awareness among small businesses about the benefits of tax compliance.

The tax show will be presented by Hilary Devey, founder, chairman and chief executive of The Pall-Ex Group, and broadcast weekly on Channel Five at 8pm from 10th March.

Steel maker Corus has announced it will begin mothballing its Teesside Cast Products site today, which Unite union claims could result in up to 10,000 job losses in the Redcar area - a region already badly affected by job cuts.

Terry Pye, Unite union's national officer for the steel industry, called the mothballing "a disgraceful charade."  The plant has been up for sale since May 2009, but Mr. Pye claims Corus "never had any intention of selling it."

"Corus is trying to give the impression that it wants to mothball the Teesside site with a view to sell it once they have interested buyers," he said.  "However, we think this is a smokescreen.  We are aware that serious offers have been made to Corus that would allow production to remain at the plant, but the management has dismissed them all out of hand.

The RSPCA faces a £1 million legal bill after losing an inheritance battle over a 287-acre piece of land left to it in a will.

The land comprises Potto Carr Farm near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, valued at £2 million.

The former owner of the farm, Joyce Gill, died in August 2006, aged 82.  13 years before her death, she and husband John Gill (who died in 1999) signed "mirror wills."  The wills stated that if one of them died the farm and all their savings would pass to the other; and upon the death of the last surviving spouse, the farm would go to the animal welfare charity RSPCA.

As a consequence, the couple's daughter Dr. Christine Gill received nothing.

Dr. Gill challenged her mother's will, however, and last autumn Leeds High Court ruled in her favour.  The court said her "domineering" father had coerced her mother into changing her will to leave the farm to the RSPCA.

This week the Court of Appeal court ruled a multi-millionaire living in the Seychelles was liable to pay UK taxes estimated at about £30 million.

Robert Gaines-Cooper, 72, has not spent more than 91 days in the UK in any tax year since 1976.  But the court ruled this had no bearing on his tax status.

The court heard that Mr. Gaines-Cooper owns a house in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire; keeps a collection of paintings, classic cars and guns there; and that his second wife and son have lived on the estate for some time.  Moreover, his son went to an English school in 2002.  He also had his will drawn up under English law.

As an ageing rocker approaches retirement age, perhaps we should expect him to struggle a bit to come up with a cool name for a new band.

But when legendary Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones is having difficulty, you know something's seriously amiss...

"Every name's taken," Mr. Jones told the Wall Street Journal.  "Think of a great band name and Google it, and you'll find a French-Canadian jam band with a MySpace page."

WSJ reports there are now 1.4 million names in Rovi Corp's music artist database - and the database is expanding on average by '6,521 new names a month.'

English juries are "fair, effective and efficient" according to a report commissioned by the Ministry of Justice.

The report, Are juries fair?, written by Professor Cheryl Thomas of the Centre for Empirical Legal Studies at University College London, marks the end of a two-year survey of over 1,000 Crown Court jurors and another study of 68,000+ jury verdicts.

Married to a successful wheeler-dealer?  Does he or she have an opportunity to work abroad?  

Well, after a recent High Court ruling, you might want to reconsider any plans to accompany him or her overseas...

The Telegraph reports British national Sara Pell cannot divorce her husband Duncan in the UK because the couple were living abroad at the time their marriage collapsed.

Independent think-tank New Economics Foundation (nef) has published a report calling for a reduction in the normal working week to 21 hours.  It argues this would "help address a range of urgent, interlinked problems: overwork, unemployment, over-consumption, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, and the lack of time to live sustainably, to care for each other, and simply to enjoy life."

The nef report, 21 hours: Why a shorter working week can help us all to flourish in the 21st century, says across the world people work longer hours now than 30 years ago.  It acknowledges some people might earn less as a result of working less hours, but says these people would have more time to carry out "worthy tasks", such as looking after children or other dependents and civic duties.

So why 21 hours?

In a landmark decision, the German Federal Court of Justice has ordered a divorcÈ to repay a Ä29,000 (£25,000) cash gift to his former in-laws.  The in-laws gave the money to the man and his ex-wife to use as a down-payment to bid for a house at auction.  After the divorce, the man got the house and the in-laws asked for their money back.  "It's not just the grasping ex that Germans must contend with during a divorce, now it's the in-laws as well," quips Times writer David Charter.

The rationale for the decision lies in the law of contract.  In the judges' opinion, the "contractual basis" of the gift depended on the in-laws' child being able to benefit from the gift.  As soon as the couple divorced and the man took control of the property, the in-laws' child could no longer "enjoy the fruits" of the gift.

The Scottish government has called on the Home Office to ban the "legal high" drug mephedrone - sometimes called "bubbles", "drone", "meow meow", "meph", "M-CAT" or "white magic" - after the death of a 49-year-old woman in Dunfermline last month.

According to a briefing paper published by the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University mephedrone is widely available online and described by sellers as a "plant fertiliser" or "plant food".

While it is prominently marked "not for human consumption", it has become popular among some as a recreational drug and can be acquired for as little as £3 per dose.

52-year-old Miriam O'Reilly has commenced legal proceedings against the BBC, claiming the corporation is 'endemically sexist and ageist.'

Ms. O'Reilly spent 25 years working at the BBC and used to present the BBC1 show 'Countryfile.'  She was axed from the programme in November 2008, along with three other over-40 female presenters - Juliet Morris, Charlotte Smith and Michaela Strachan - as part of a revamp.

In January we reported on the boiler scrappage scheme, which allows up to 125,000 households in England with working "G-rated" boilers to apply through the Energy Saving Trust for a voucher entitling them to £400 off the price of a new "A-rated" boiler or a renewable heating system (e.g., a biomass boiler or a heat pump).

One and a half months on, the Department of Energy and Climate Change has announced 54,758 households have claimed vouchers.  This leaves around 70,000 vouchers, worth a total of £28 million, still up for grabs.

All major energy companies that sell and install boilers - including British Gas, E.On, npower and Scottish & Southern - have matched the Government subsidy, giving householders potentially £800 off the cost of a new energy-efficient boiler.

An increase in the standard VAT rate from 17.5% to 20% would raise an extra £13 billion a year for the public purse.  And levying VAT on food - which is currently exempt - albeit at a lower rate of 5%, would bring in an additional £3.5 billion a year. 

As reported in the Times last week, regardless of which party wins the next general election, an increase in the standard VAT rate to 20% now seems inevitable.

While levying VAT on food remains a politically sensitive topic, domestic heating fuel and children's car seats are already subject to the reduced 5% rate, so it should not be ruled out.

The scale of the problem

The Birmingham Post reports that 15 workers at delivery company TNT have commenced legal action after the firm imposed pay cuts at two depots - Atherstone and Kingsbury - in North Warwickshire.

The pay cuts total £110 a week in some cases.

What are my options if my employer cuts my pay without my consent?

Tomorrow night at 9pm on BBC1, Evan Davis will present an "immigrant life swap documentary" entitled The Day The Immigrants Left.  11 unemployed people in the Cambridgeshire town of Wisbech, near Peterborough, will take on jobs of immigrant workers for periods of between one and three days.

The participants will fill a variety of roles, including working at an asparagus farm, a building site and an Indian restaurant.

"Of course immigration is a topic that arouses complex emotions and unwanted tensions," said presenter Davis.  "But that's why broadcasters should tackle it and not avoid it.  This programme is an attempt to get beyond the abstract arguments one hears for or against immigration, and to illustrate why it occurs and what it means in human terms."

The Office for National Statistics has released new figures showing the number of people getting married continues to fall.  From a peak of 480,285 marriages in 1972, there were only 270,400 weddings in 2008 - a fall of almost 44%.

Meanwhile, the number of unmarried cohabitees continues to grow - at the last count, there were 4 million.

HM Revenue & Customs requires UK employers to report income tax and national insurance payments made by their employees once a year.  Employers meet this obligation by filing an Employer Annual Return - a P14 for each individual employee, and a P35 summarising the details for their entire workforce.

Starting this year they must file their returns for PAYE online.  The filing deadline is May 19.

The number of mortgage repossession claims issued in the courts fell from 23,705 to 20,061 - or 15% - in the last three months of 2009 compared to the previous quarter.  This number is also 26% lower than during the same period in 2008.

Why has the number fallen?

At the end of January, News Of The World published a story about celebs Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (a.k.a. Brangelina).  The story levelled a series of allegations, including:

1. the couple had agreed to separate;
   
   
2. they'd consulted a lawyer who helped them reach a settlement on the division of joint assets worth £205m and custody of their six children;
   
   
3. both parties signed the agreement; and
   
   
4. the agreement made provision for the parties' immediate separation.

The Government has announced local communities will soon have greater powers to challenge the number and location of strip bars in their area.

From the 6 April 2010, local authorities will be able to require all strip bars and lap dancing clubs in their area, including existing venues, to apply for a sex establishment licence if they want to continue to operate lawfully.

And for the first time, local people will be able to oppose an application for a strip bar on the basis that it would be inappropriate given the character of their local neighbourhood.

Currently local people can only object to the establishment of a lap dancing club in their area on the basis that it would infringe one of the four licensing objectives set out in the Licensing Act 2003.  These are the prevention of crime and disorder; public safety; prevention of public nuisance; and the protection of children from harm.

Under the new regime, if adopted by the local authority, local people will be able to oppose an application for a lap dancing club on the basis that it would be inappropriate given the character of the locality, and local authorities will be able to impose a wide range of conditions on a licence and set a quota on the number of lap dancing clubs they feel would be appropriate for a particular area, rejecting any further applications once such a quota has been met.

The Department of Work and Pensions has announced thousands of people with serious industrial diseases who miss out on compensation because they cannot trace their employers' insurance records will soon be able to obtain redress through a new Employers' Liability Tracing Office and Employers' Liability Insurance Bureau.

The Employers' Liability Tracing Office will help people track down their employers' liability insurance policies and the Employers' Liability Insurance Bureau will provide a fund of last resort for those who are unable to trace them.

Northern Ireland's Londonderry Sentinel reports a young pregnant woman was, in the words of Waterside-based SDLP MLA Pat Ramsey, "literally bullied onto the street by her employer and has nowhere to go."

"This young woman found herself in a position where she had her hours cut continually to the point where she felt she couldn't go on," said Mr. Ramsey.

The woman, a foreign national, cannot be named for legal reasons, but she was employed by a company in the Waterside, and may have a strong claim for constructive dismissal against her former employer.

The Guardian reports Birmingham City Council, the country's largest local authority, plans to make up to 2,000 workers redundant over the next 12 months.  The council employs around 40,000 staff.  Areas earmarked for cuts include adult social care, housing, libraries, sports centres, and museums.

The city also intends to freeze pay in an attempt to save around £75million.  BBC News quotes Conservative council leader Mike Whitby as saying:

"Quite simply we have to do more for less.

"Birmingham is demonstrating how frontline services and significant regeneration schemes can be delivered without punishing taxpayers.

"I am proud that we are able to do this."

One year after the inauguration of a new Bolivian constitution, the Associated Press reports the government of Evo Morales has made significant progress in the fight for gender equality.

Half of Bolivia's Cabinet is now female, reflecting the indigenous Quechua principle of "Chacha Warmi" - two sexes, working together to attain equilibrium in the cosmos.

"We still have men who don't want women to participate in Bolivia, but we have fought against that and here we are with more power than ever," comments Bartolina Sisa Federation of Indigenous Peasant Women leader Leonilda Zurita.

Few expected Morales to act so quickly to advance gender equality.  Since he took power in 2006, women have assumed roles as president of the senate; head of customs; and leader of the ruling party in congress.  Moreover, women now occupy 28% of congressional seats and 47% in the senate.

The Grimsby Telegraph reports that 17 workers at a car logistics company have won a legal battle over the introduction of a zero hours contract.

Staff at Paragon Automotive in Stallingborough, South Humberside pursued claims of unfair dismissal against the company after it changed their employment contracts to dictate the number of hours they could work.  The workers' previous contracts provided for 40 or 45 hour work weeks.

Chris Randall of Bridge McFarland, the law firm representing the workers, said zero hours contracts are condemned because "they provide no certainty for the workers and can provide absolute power to the employer."

All 17 claimants were members of Unite union agreed to sign the new zero hours contracts on the proviso that they would challenge it.  Apparently 63 other workers at Paragon, who are not union members, signed the contracts with no formal objection.

Yesterday, we reported on the disturbing case of Michael Wright, who sold his disabled sister to a man hoping to secure UK residency through a marriage visa.  Today, we switch tacks and outline six basic things you need to know before you apply to obtain a UK marriage visa, or any other kind of partner visa, legally.

1. There are three ways to stay in the UK 

For those in a relationship with a person in the UK, you may be able to apply to live in this country as his or her:

The furore surrounding Tory billionaire benefactor and deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft ratcheted up another notch this week after the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, George Young, told BBC Newsnight the peer is indeed a non-domicile for tax purposes. 

Significance?

As already highlighted on this blog, Michael Ashcroft has funnelled millions of pounds to the Tories through the corporate vehicle Bearwood Corporate Services.  This money is helping bankroll the party's election campaign in marginal constituencies up and down the land.

Under UK law political parties can only accept donations from those registered to vote in this country or from companies "carrying on business" here.  Bearwood stands accused of operating as a front to circumvent this rule.

Moreover, the Guardian alleges Ashcroft has not only failed to declare all his business interests to parliamentary authorities, he has also failed to fulfil the terms under which he received a peerage in 2000.

Last year, we published an entry about Michael Wright, 22, of Swindon, who 'sold' his disabled sister to a Chinese man who hoped to secure residency through a UK marriage visa.  Police stormed Reading Register Office to stop the sham wedding, however, moments before the 'couple' could say 'I do'.  They arrested Wright, would-be groom Ligang Qiao, 29, and two other Chinese conspirators - Li Fan, 33, and boyfriend Bing Liu, 30.

Apparently the four convicts met while working at a fast food restaurant.  First, Wright agreed to marry Li in April 2008 for £4,000.  He then agreed to sell his 24-year-old disabled sister to Ligang in August 2009 for £8,000.

BBC News reports the four admitted a variety of immigration and perjury offences at Reading Crown Court and received lengthy prison sentences this week: the court sentenced Wright to four years; Ligang to 15 months; Li to 18 months; and Bing to two years.  Ligang, Li, and Bing face deportation back to China at the end of their sentences.

The Times reports a 12-year-old girl married to a 80-year-old man in the middle east will receive legal assistance from the state-run Saudi Human Rights Commission.

The paper says the girl's fight for freedom in Buraidah, a conservative town near the capital Riyadh, "could become a test case for banning child marriage in the kingdom."

Currently, Saudi Arabia has no legal minimum age for marriage and many older men take child brides, particularly in poor tribal areas.

Cadbury's new parent company, Kraft, has announced it plans to close its Somerdale plant in Keynsham, near Bristol and Bath, with the loss of 400 jobs.

Before the £11.7 billion takeover, Cadbury's senior management had earmarked the eighty-year-old factory for closure.  (The Bath Chronicle reports the factory was in the process of being run down by Cadbury, which had been switching production to Poland.)

During the takeover battle, however, U.S. corporate monolith Kraft promised the plant a reprieve.

But yesterday Kraft chairman and chief executive Irene Rosenfeld announced the company had changed its mind:

The UK Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, published a report on the UK Border Agency entitled 'Fast and Fair?' this week.

The Ombudsman is appointed by the Crown / executive branch of Government and investigates whether public agencies have acted improperly or unfairly.  In the first nine months of 2009-10 the Ombudsman received 478 complaints about the Agency.  It reported on 33 investigations of which 97% were upheld in full or in part.

'Fast and Fair?' includes analysis of eleven case studies referred to the Ombudsman by MPs.  In one case, a Jamaican man was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK in 1990.  But it took the Agency 3 1/2 years to provide him with a No Time Limit stamp confirming his right to stay in the UK for his new 2004 Jamaican passport.  During this time the man was threatened with deportation and missed the funerals of his father and sister and was unable to visit his ill mother in the Caribbean as he was afraid he would not be allowed back into the country.

The Guardian reports that in the five months since the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission began operating it has seized around 340 properties and frozen the bank accounts of more than 200 parents who defaulted on child maintenance payments.

Latest figures show a record 809,800 children are now benefiting from maintenance payments through the agency.  Compliance by non-resident parents rose to 74.5% and total arrears dropped slightly to £3.78bn.

The Government has today accepted formal commitments from Sky that it will divest a sizable chunk of its 17.9% shareholding in ITV.

Sky first announced it had acquired shares in ITV at the tail end of 2006.  In the spring of 2007, however, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry called in the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Ofcom to investigate.

The Times reports John Terry paid lover Vanessa Perroncel £750,000 in hush money to stop her speaking out about the affair.

The costly gambit failed, however, after the story broke three weeks ago and he then lost his case for an injunction against the Sunday newspaper News of the World.

However, the gag has prevented Perroncel - until recently the girlfriend of Terry's former Chelsea teammate, neighbour and fellow England player Wayne Bridge - accepting a "six-figure offer" for her story.

The Observer reports Belize has failed to abide by a global accord to improve international transparency and exchange of information on tax.

Anyone who has visited Belize City, the country's capital, for more than a few hours knows it's a pretty lawless place.  Drugs and murder have ravaged the city and brought it to its knees.

But Belize itself is a country of contrasts: while there's terrible poverty and endemic gang crime in the capital, there's also incredible wealth.  Billionaires, including Conservative party benefactor and deputy chairman Michael Ashcroft, flock there to take advantage of the glorious sunshine, paradise cayes, and low tax rates.

Who is Michael Ashcroft?

Ashcroft has bankrolled the Tories for the best part of three decades.  Yet it would seem he's spent most of that time in Belize.  Not only does he own significant property interests there, he's also the chairman of the country's biggest bank.

In 2000, Ashcroft was granted a seat in the Lords after promising to return to the UK and pay UK income tax.  It remains unclear, however, whether he ever fulfilled that pledge.

Under new student visa rules, Home Secretary Alan Johnson hopes to close the door to "tens of thousands" of purported international students.

According to BBC News, the new student visa rules do not require legislation and come into effect immediately.  They include:

• a requirement that students from outside the EU speak English to near-GCSE level, rather than beginner level;
  
  
• a 10 hour part-time work limit on students taking below degree-level courses (instead of a 20 hour limit);
  
  
• banning students enrolled on courses lasting less than six months bringing dependants with them;
  
  
• banning dependants of students on below degree-level courses working; &
  
  
• only granting student visas for courses below degree-level to institutions on a new register, the Highly Trusted Sponsors List.

A former dock worker at Inverness harbour has claimed the stevedoring company he used to work for failed to provide protective clothing.  William MacDonald, 35, of Evan Barron Road, Inverness is suing Scotlog Sales Ltd. for unfair constructive dismissal.  He claims "terrible" working conditions at the harbour forced him to quit the company in April last year.

The Press and Journal reports Mr. MacDonald drove a forklift truck for Scotlog.  He claims all the company gave him to work through the Highland winter was "a pair of boots and a high-visibility jacket."

He complained to line manager James Fraser that he felt like an "ice block" after loading a ship at the harbour in November 2007.  But Mr. Fraser responded: "If you don't like it, you know where the gate is."

The Ministry of Justice has begun a consultation on whether property owners who have failed to repay consumer credit debts should have a minimum level of debt before a court can order the sale of their home.

Under the current system, a court can place a 'charging order' on a property if the owner has failed to pay unsecured debts, for example on credit or store cards.  In some cases an 'order for sale' may follow if a judge decides a homeowner can only settle the unsecured debt by selling the property.  There is no minimum level of consumer credit debt required before an order for sale can be issued.

Twitter started out as a fairly cool way for individuals to connect.  Then, to the chagrin of some, businesses got in on the act.

What started out as a good-faith attempt to interact with customers, however, has actually had the inverse effect.

Last year, for example, the Telegraph newspaper set up an unmoderated "Twitterfall" account to cover the budget and received a deluge of embarrassing tweets, including the following: "Telegraph wankers #budget Didn't work".

But the embarrassment caused by that calamitous episode pales in comparison to the latest one enveloping Vodafone.  Last week a homophobic employee wrote the following message on its official Twitter account: "VodafoneUK is fed up of dirty homos and is going after beaver".

The UK Border Agency immigration crime team arrested six people - four Armenians and two Latvians - on suspicion of people trafficking at North Shields ferry terminal last week.  Agency staff at the port identified a 15-year-old Armenian girl, who had arrived on a ferry from Holland, attempting to enter the UK using a Latvian passport.

Two Armenian men, aged 49 and 25, and two Latvian women, aged 33 and 26, accompanied the girl.  The four adults said they were bound for Manchester.  Following further investigation, the UK Border Agency immigration crime team arrested two other Armenian men, aged 30 and 19, both from the Manchester area, on suspicion of people trafficking.

All of the arrested parties have been released on bail.  The girl remains in the care of the local authority.

Police have arrested 12 people in dawn raids across the UK on suspicion of VAT repayment fraud.  They're believed to be part of an organised crime organisation that purports to trade in the construction industry.

Collectively, they're suspected of trying to hoodwink the Revenue out of over £2 million.  It's alleged they created a contrived chain of companies that tried to reclaim VAT they never actually paid on the sale of non-existent equipment and concrete crushing machines.

Jilted ex- Lakhvir Singh, 45, of Southall faces charges of murder and attempted murder after her secret lover of 16 years Lakhvinder Cheema, 32, of Feltham, west London, died and his fiancÈe Gurjeet Choongh, 22, fell ill after eating a curry laced with the deadly toxin aconite.

The prosecution allege married mother-of-three Ms. Singh poisoned the curry because she could not accept Mr. Cheema's imminent marriage to Ms. Choongh.

Her trial drew to a close at the Old Bailey on Wednesday and a twelve person jury panel retired to deliberate their verdict.  BBC News report they asked to take the Tupperware that held the poisonous curry into the jury room with them.  Judge Worsley agreed but sensibly advised them not to remove the container from the transparent exhibit bag.

A knicker nicking ex-mayor was jailed for two years this week after breaking into the homes of three women and stealing their underwear.

BBC News reports Ian Stafford, 59, burglarised properties in the Lancashire towns of Preesall, Poulton-le-Fylde and Stalmine between 1 January and 26 June last year. 

Female residents called the police after multiple pairs of underwear disappeared.

One woman became so worried she installed a hidden camcorder in her bedroom.  The Sun reports she videoed a half-naked man break in, rummage through her drawers, and don the knickers before performing a sex act.

Bachelor Stafford worked as a handyman at the victim's homes and it didn't take long before the police identified him as the culprit.  According to The Sun, officers found "a haul of underwear" in his possession.

A High Court judge has ordered the destruction of a mock Tudor castle, secretly built on farmland and hidden behind giant bales of straw, because the landowner failed to apply for planning permission.

The Guardian reports Robert Fidler, 61, from Honeycrock farm, Redhill, Surrey started building the luxury four-bedroom property ("complete with ramparts, turrets, a cannon ... and two redundant grain silos transformed into towers") in 2002.

It took him two years to complete construction and he lived in the castle with his wife and son without disturbance (albeit behind haystacks and under a giant tarpaulin) from 2002 until 2006.

The Government has announced local authorities will soon have the power to impose blanket bans on the sale of alcohol after 3am in areas blighted by alcohol-related anti-social behaviour and disorder.

New rules contained in the Crime and Security Bill currently before Parliament would mean that, where disorder or public nuisance cannot be attributed to specific premises, local authorities could force businesses to close across an entire area.

In the latest twist in the ongoing BA cabin crew dispute, Unite union has alleged the airline may have leaked employees' private information to the press.

Unite union represents around 13,000 BA cabin crew.  It has challenged BA to explain how confidential information relating to cabin crew earnings, holiday records and unlisted home addresses fell into the hands of Daily Mail journalists in the run up to proposed industrial action last December.

The information subsequently formed the basis of a story printed in the paper.  Unite says the article caused "tremendous distress" to the individuals concerned and stoked a great deal of public resentment against cabin crew generally. 

The union has written to the Information Commissioner, the body charged with ensuring the Data Protection Act 1998 is upheld, to request an immediate investigation into the leak.

Polluters Beware: the Environment Agency and Natural England have new powers to enforce environmental law and punish polluting companies.

Under new legislation, the regulators will be able to:

An immigration case worker claims UK Border Agency staff in Cardiff routinely mistreat, trick and humiliate asylum seekers.

Louise Perrett, 29, worked at the UK Border Agency office in Cardiff for three and a half months last summer.  On her first day at work, one manager said of asylum seekers: "If it was up to me I'd take them all outside and shoot them."  Another told her: "No one in this office is very PC.  In fact everyone is the exact opposite."

Ms. Perrett's also alleges staff, including supervisors:

The Halifax Courier reports a Leeds employment tribunal has withdrawn to consider its verdict on Haley Tansey's claims of sexual harassment and constructive dismissal against HBOS. 

As reported in December, Ms. Tansey worked for HBOS for 17 years and alleges a male colleague tricked his way into her hotel room during a business trip by telling the night porter he was her girlfriend.  She said she had no choice but to resign from her £39,000-a-year "dream" job due to stress induced by the "harassing and laddish culture" at the bank.

BBC News reports many Muslim marriages in the UK are legally invalid.

Muslim couples who have a traditional 'nikah' wedding in the UK but fail to register the marriage are not recognised as married under British law.

The BBC spoke to a young student from Birmingham who learned her nikah was legally invalid when she enrolled at university and was asked to produce a marriage certificate.  "It was then I realised I didn't have one and it came as a big shock to me," she said.

Apparently she asked her husband to register their marriage but he was against the idea.  Then, a few months later, she came home and found that the locks to her front door had been changed and that she had been thrown out of her home:

"I took legal action but I got nothing.  I'd paid the mortgage on the house but my husband held legal title to the property so I lost everything.

"It was as though the marriage had never happened.  It was the worst time of my life."

The Financial Times reports Britain's super-rich are preparing to flee the country in hordes.

The reason?  In April, the top rate of personal income tax will increase to 50% for earned income above £150,000 a year.

A poll of bankers, accountants, independent financial advisers and head-hunters by international law firm Withers reveals that three quarters of respondents were "likely or somewhat likely" to move abroad in the next 12 months.  Moreover, almost 70% said they would move both their family and their business abroad.

Approaches to childcare have changed considerably over the last forty years.  Looking after children is no longer considered a "woman's job" and fathers play an increasingly significant role in caring for their children.

Indeed, 56% of parents believe they can share work and care equally with their partners.

More than half of fathers surveyed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission have taken paternity leave.  And the Maternity and Paternity Rights Survey 2005 shows that almost all fathers (93%) take time off when their wives give birth.

Yesterday we reported that the UK Border Agency has stopped accepting student visa applications in North India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

The announcement follows the publication of several stories in the national press about student visa abuses.

Last week, BBC News reported the number of students coming to the UK from India and Bangladesh has nearly tripled since last April since the new points-based immigration system was introduced.

A £4.3m court case brought by Proactive Sports Management against Manchester United star Wayne Rooney and his wife Coleen Rooney has commenced at Manchester Mercantile Court.

Proactive used to represent the Rooneys through agent Paul Stretford.  But Mr. Stretford quit the firm in 2008 to set up a new sports management business and took the Rooneys with him.

Before Mr. Stretford's departure, Proactive received payments of up to 20% commission on multi-million pound deals involving the Rooneys with companies like Nike, Coca-Cola and EA games.

The commission dried up, however, after Mr. Stretford left and refused to authorise further payments.

During a lecture on Family Relationships and the Law yesterday, Gresham College Law Professor Ruth Deech challenged the political and legal establishment with two questions: 

1. Why does the law treat siblings less favourably than married or civil partners?
2. Why doesn't the law expect adults to care for their parents and grandparents?

The BA cabin crew dispute returned to the High Court yesterday.  Sir Christopher Holland will adjudicate whether there should be a permanent injunction preventing BA from imposing cost-cutting proposals.

Unite union national officer for civil aviation Steve Turner said: "This court case is about a matter of huge importance to workers everywhere.  It's about whether an employer can, without due notice or negotiation, systematically change the long-standing contracts of employment of its workforce.

Starting April 1st, property owners who install green energy generating technologies - such as small wind turbines and solar panels - can claim payments for the low carbon electricity they produce, even if they use it all themselves.

The level of payment depends on the technology and is linked to inflation, but power from a solar panel could earn someone £900 - in addition to a £140 reduction on their household energy bill.

New data from the Office for National Statistics shows the UK divorce rate fell by 2.5% in 2008.  Divorce rates normally dip during recession, so the statistics won't surprise too many.

The 2008 divorce rate is, however, the lowest since 1979.  In 2008, there were 11.5 divorcing people per 1,000 married people.  This compares with 11.8 in 2007 and 11.2 in 1979.

The Social Security (Medical Evidence) and the Statutory Sick Pay (Medical Evidence) (Amendment) Regulations 2010 come into effect on 6th April.  From then on, if you're off sick and your employer asks you to provide written evidence, you'll have to ask your doctor for a 'fit note', also known as a 'statement of fitness for work.'

The deadline for submitting 2009 self assessment tax returns has now passed and HM Revenue & Customs reports a record number of taxpayers filed their returns online this year.

Over six million people - 6,429,899 to be exact - filed online by the 31st January deadline this year.  That equates to three quarters of all returns submitted and represents an increase of nearly 12% on last year's total, when around 5.8 million people filed online.

The UK Border Agency has announced it has stopped accepting student visa applications in North India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

The suspension affects seven visa application centres:

• North India: New Delhi, Jalandhar, and Chandigarh;
  
  
• Bangladesh: Dhaka, Sylhet, and Chittagong; &
  
  
• Nepal: Kathmandu.

Announcing the suspension, UK Border Agency spokesman Jeremy Oppenheim said:

Self-employed corporate events organiser Michael Frosh, 57, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, submitted false self assessment tax returns from 2002 to 2007 to illegally evade around £65,000 in income tax on commission paid to him in the United Arab Emirates.  Gross commission was paid into his Dubai bank account, which he then withdrew using ATMs in the UK to avoid detection. 

The tax scam came to light in February 2007 after officers from Wiltshire Police Economic Crime Unit spoke with Frosh in relation to suspected money laundering offences.  They then referred the matter to HM Revenue & Customs, who charged Frosh with fraudulent evasion of income tax, contrary to section 144(1) of the Finance Act 2000.

The Northern Echo reports a self-proclaimed UK immigration law "expert" who fleeced thousands of pounds out of vulnerable immigrants has been jailed for 15 months.

Cephas Matanhire, 50, of The Orchard, Ingleby Barwick in Cleveland, first owned a cleaning business in Middlesbrough - called Staff Scene Agency and Legal Advisors - and then set himself up as an immigration advisor.

The Costa Blanca and Costa Calida Leader reports that 60% of people visiting international property shows in the UK last year indicated a preference for Spain; France came second in the survey; the USA, Australia and New Zealand placed highly too.

The paper, which is targeted at British ÈmigrÈs living in Spain, says that despite the downturn "there are signs that things are beginning to happen" in the expat property market and that "green shoots of recovery" are starting to make an appearance.

Many people delayed moving abroad in 2009 because of the credit crunch and economic uncertainty.  But now that house prices have bottomed out, hundreds look set to take the plunge and buy the home in the sun they always dreamed about.

Overseas property buyers beware, however: the Leader says it's hearing of "more and more cases concerning expats duped into buying illegal properties or falling foul of a law that has previously been ignored."

In one case, the Leader reports nine British landowners stand to lose their homes in Almeria following a demolition order.  The homes have defective building licences, which local officials blame on the 'speculative interests of professional defrauders' who attract foreign investors by offering cheap land and fail to explain local building restrictions.

Drivers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland could soon challenge rogue wheel clamping firms by taking their grievances to independent tribunals.  Under Government plans, motorist appeals about instances of unfair practice would be heard by powerful and independent adjudicators who could require clamping companies pay back excessive fees to motorists and award compensation.  Firms will also face a cap on fines as the Government moves to drive down abuses within the clamping industry.

The policy has been tabled as an amendment to the new Crime and Security Bill and builds on existing Government plans for a compulsory licensing scheme for clamping firms.  The scheme will impose a strict code of conduct on wheel clamping companies, including standards for: