Archive for November, 2007
Posted by Cptn
The announcement that fuel prices are set to rise by 10 per cent come the new year is chilling news to the one in five older people in the South West who live in one room to keep warm and save money in winter.
The figures were released by Help the Aged as it battles to prevent the winter deaths caused by fuel poverty.
And the much-heralded Governmental support of these vulnerable members of society is called into question with £4.5 billion of unclaimed benefits for older people swishing around in a drawer somewhere.
As Anna Pearson, British Gas Help the Aged Partnership spokesperson, told the PRSD: “Each year over 25,000 older people lose their lives to a preventable cold-related illness. In the South West alone, between 2000-2006 the number of excess winter deaths for older people was over 14,500. The Government is literally gambling with people’s lives by not doing nearly enough to end fuel poverty. The Government has a potential jackpot of £4.5 billion waiting for older people, but it dangles this vital cash behind a complex maze of means-tested benefits and as a result, money continually fails to reach those who need it to survive.
“If it is serious about meeting its fuel poverty target, central and local government must commit more funding to face-to-face services, such as the British Gas Help the Aged Partnership Benefits Advice Programme. It’s time to stop the cheating and start the heating.”
Help the Aged is pushing the campaign ‘you’ve got to claim it to gain it’ in an attempt to increase the odds of older people receiving the benefit they need to survive the winter. There’s also a Your Winter Warm UP pack available if you call British Gas Help the Aged Partnership on 0870 7700 446
If you liked this story, you could buy us a coffee
November 24th, 2007
Posted by Cptn
Our up-beat friends over at the Plymouth Environment Centre are holding a charity art auction which kicks off tonight at the B-bar and the lobby of the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth.
There’s everything from young and old, near and far, and established and up-coming artists. Peter Randall-Page has donated works, as has New York-based British artist Sue Coe and acclaimed wildlife artists David Shepherd and Pollyanna Pickering, to name but four. There’s digital photography, original oil paintings and signed number prints.
For more on the auction, visit the Plymouth Environment Centre auction page on their site.
If you liked this story, you could buy us a coffee
November 23rd, 2007
Posted by Cptn
We’ve just pulled this staight off the D+CFilm site. To unearth more check out the View From Here stories about the film festival next week in South Devon
How annoying is not getting a signal? Try not getting a signal when you really want to escape your infuriating family. Crossed Lines, directed by Felek Werpachowsk, part of the Vanland’s Village Screen is premiered in The View From Here: a celebration of moving image in South Devon.
If you liked this story, you could buy us a coffee
November 22nd, 2007
West Country working class history is getting a well-deserved airing tomorrow (Friday) at UNISON, Emperor Way, Exeter Business Park.
The fun starts, because fun it is, at 10am and lasts until 3.30pm in a free day-long conference, which aims to highlight the often hidden story of labour history.
According to the blurb: ‘The West Country has a rich history of working class and radical struggle. It is often hidden or lost amongst old minute books or in dusty attics. When uncovered it tells of brave acts of defiance and solidarity.’
And according to Nigel Costley, of the TUC: ‘The all-day event will give people practical advice about how to discover and store archives and will expose some of the fascinating stories that are often overlooked in the region’s history.’
To know how many people strove for so long may give a bit of perspective into our own position, so even if you don’t make it to the popular event, keep this in mind when you’re enjoying a paid holiday or other such benefit we take for granted.
If you liked this story, you could buy us a coffee
November 22nd, 2007
Posted by Cptn
We can only hope that it was our coverage of Fair Shares, Fair Choice that convinced Conservative MP for Totnes, Anthony Steen, to sign up to the idea. Fair Shares, Fair Choice supporter Mark Lynas, author and climate change campaigner, said: ‘Joining the Fair Shares, Fair Choice movement is a fantastic way to support real progress on cutting CO2 emissions.
‘A personal carbon budget gives us a realistic idea about what we each need to do to help avert the extremes of climate change.’
And the PRSD’s environmental tip for the week is to take public transport, you can avoid all those sticky parking issues.
If you liked this story, you could buy us a coffee
November 21st, 2007
Posted by Cptn
Unscrupulous employers beware, the TUC has launched a new Polish website to support the increasing number of Polish workers in the UK.
The website, Pracawbrytanii, is run by the TUC in partnership with Citizens Advice and Solidarnosc – explains the rights workers can expect at work, from the minimum wage and working time to holiday entitlement and sick pay; information about social issues such as housing and health; and guidance about what living and working in the UK is really like, as well as all kinds of other useful info on bank accounts and schools and what nots.
If you liked this story, you could buy us a coffee
November 20th, 2007
Posted by Cptn
Poor old Plymouth University. In its head-long rush to consolidate all its educational assets in one place it seems to have upset the very people who are its main clients - the students. In the face of the organisation’s new arts building some of the students have carried out a demonstration about their courses and the, err, new building.
So we’d just like to ask - does anyone have anything good to say about Plymouth University?
Just put your comments down here.
If you liked this story, you could buy us a coffee
November 19th, 2007
Posted by Cptn
If you’re feeling a little multi-culturally bereft, you can find out about ethnic diversity in the South West with the Cultural Champions programme, run ar the Global Centre in Devon.
On the site, the Cultural Champions quote Brummie Benjamin Zephaniah from the foreword to ‘We all came here from somewhere’ Diversity identities and citizenship, published by Foreign & Commonwealth Office/QIA
‘The British are not a single tribe, or a single religion, and we don’t come from a single place. But we are building a home where we are all able to be who we want to be, yet still be British. That is what we do: we take, we adapt and we move forward…
‘Young people can help to keep Britain a place where everyone is accepted, all cultural identities are respected, and where we delight in the diversity of our nation… The future of Britain relies on people understanding each other.’
(Of course, the same is true of the People’s Republic of South Devon.)
If you liked this story, you could buy us a coffee
November 19th, 2007
Posted by Eddie Dyke
Between 1840 and 1900 the Devon Great Consol, the copper mine at Gulworthy, was the richest and most productive mine in the world. By 1901 the mine was run down and the 7th Duke of Bedford, who owned the land, decreed that all but one part of the great mine was to be demolished and returned to forest by planting thousands of conifers.
Wheal Josiah was the part of the mine that remained. At that time the boll weevil was prevalent in the cotton fields of the southern USA, and the only known pesticide was arsenic, a by-product of the Devon Great Consul and arsenic processing plant was built at Josiah. Production continued until the mid-1920s, with the refined arsenic being shipped out from nearby Morwellham Quay.
Much of the machinery still stands today, hidden in the forest thoughtfully planted by the duke.
If you liked this story, you could buy us a coffee
November 18th, 2007
Posted by Cptn
Is it surprising, when even the most ardent young women turns up her nose at the idea of feminism, that women earn 18.7 per cent less than men in the South West?
We at the PRSD have worked with plenty of people who would be all for that (before finding this idyll of fairly like-minded do gooders). But not us.
And not Nigel Costly, the South West TUC’s regional secretary, who told us: ‘Decisive action is needed to reverse the sorry state of pay inequality at work. We need a range of measures to tackle segregation of employment into low paid jobs dominated by women and those dominated by men. Greater transparency and fairness in pay systems would help employers eliminate pay discrimination, but the voluntary approach has failed so mandatory pay audits are needed.
‘Progress on closing the gender pay gap has slowed to a snail’s pace. It is completely unacceptable that despite making great strides at work and in education, women in the region are still being paid 18.7 per cent less than men.
‘Women need better access to good quality part-time and flexible work so they can make full use of their skills and are not penalised for having a family. Government plans to extend the right to request flexible working to all parents is a welcome step towards closing the pay gap.’
If you liked this story, you could buy us a coffee
November 17th, 2007
Next Posts
Previous Posts
