Some excellent stuff on our broken voting system from Richard Murphy…
Source: People vote for the least worst options. It’s time they were offered real choice
Tag: Richard Murphy
The current state of play on tax avoidance
Excellent stuff from Professor Murphy. I have reproduced the Mind Map that is the heart of this post below the link.
Source: The current state of play on tax avoidance
Autism and Other Stuff
Some stuff about autism, some important links and some photographs.
INTRODUCTION
Although this post includes some links that are not specific to autism, and of course some photos, enough of it is autism related to warrant the first word of the title.
AN IMPORTANT EVENT ON MONDAY
This Monday an ‘autism positive’ event is taking place at the Theatre Royal in Norwich. I will be present in the dual capacity of autistic adult and branch secretary of NAS West Norfolk. As well as a display with full information about our branch we will be distributing leaflets about efforts to get some adult oriented events and activities going. Apart from the official NAS branding and header which I copied and pasted from the website the leaflets are entirely my work…
Advertising attended to, the second part of this section relates to:
AUTISM AND EMPLOYMENT
First of all, here is the grim truth about autistic people and employment in the UK:
- 75% of us are unemployed.
- Others are employed in low paid and/ or part time work, so that 85% of us are classed as underemployed.
So, what can be done about this? Well, recruitment practices need to change and here is for me the single most important thing that could be done:
Abolish standard interviews, which place one in a position that one will never be in when in the job, making skills testing mandatory instead. Many autistic people however mujch preparation they put in cannot do themselves justice in interviews, while if you have them do the kind of work that they would be doing in the job they will fare much better, and you will learn not whether they can say the right things but whether they can actually do the work.
As a segue into the next section of the post, here is a link to a petition created by an autistic adult (Chris Packham), which calls on the Government to:
Introduce a moratorium on the hunting
of critically declining wading birds
LINKS
My first link in this section comes courtesy of the consumer group Which? who have managed to get the Consumer Rights Act to cover all travel sectors. Please read the full piece here.
My second link, courtesy of Richard Murphy at Tax Research UK is to a piece that demonstrates that Jeremy Corbyn’s investment program will cost less than the Tories current QE program.
I give the last word before the photographs to DPAC, who have prepared some online action to coincide with the Tory conference for the benefit of those who cannot make it to Birmingham but want to be part of the protest. Please click the link below to see how you can be part of…
ONLINE SHENANIGANS FOR THE TORY PARTY CONFERENCE
PHOTOGRAPHS
All the photographs below were taken yesterday…
The time has come to licence company directors
Wise and important words from Prof. Murphy at Tax Research UK…
The Conservatives have been the biggest borrowers over the last 70 years
Next time someone dares to suggest in your hearing that only Tories can be trusted with the economy point them in the direction of this very detailed piece of analysis by Richard Murphy…
Source: The Conservatives have been the biggest borrowers over the last 70 years
A sample image just to encourage you…
John McDonnell: analysis of a speech
This is a link to a post on Richard Murphy’s blog Tax Research UK
The Joy of Tax in Orlando
This is a signpost to Richard Murphy’s summary of a talk he recently gave in Orlando. It is not open for comments as these should be directed to the source.
The links below take you to Richard Murphy’s outline of a talk he gave in Orlando recently. The main link is to the straight text version, the subsidiary link is to a mind map. I am closing this post to comments because I want all feedback to go the original.
Source:
Why we must not replace corporation tax with a sales tax
Lord Lawson says abolish corporation tax and replace it with a sales tax – Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK explains in great detail why this is nonsense…
Source: Why we must not replace corporation tax with a sales tax
On Appreciating Nature
This post may be considered my personal response to the death of Cecil the lion.
INTRODUCTION
This post can be considered as my response to the tragedy involving Cecil the lion. Before getting into the main body of it I am once again going to share details (as I did in my previous post) of The Art of Autism’s calendar for 2016, currently being sold for $12. Full details can be seen on their own post on the subject, but I offer you this picture as extra inducement…
ON APPRECIATING NATURE
We are now in the main part of the post, which as well as what I am writing on my account will feature some photographic highlights relating to nature from the last few months, a variety of important links, and leading from here into the rest of the post my first essay in the craft of infographic creation…
CECIL THE LION
Cecil, a 13 year-old lion who jointly controlled his pride with another lion called Jericho, was shot by a wealthy American who had paid $50,000 to have him lured out of the reserve in which he lived. Walter Palmer, the shooter, has a long and bloody history of such activities, including at least one felony conviction involving poaching. Cecil was a huge tourist attraction, and even from the purely monetary angle (not a viewpoint with which I identify) his death has cost far than the $50,000 that was paid to bring it about. Before moving on from this introduction I have a bunch of Cecil related links to share with you:
- A public response from World Animal Protection
- Two links to the petition site:
1)The original petition
2)The current state of play - Sumofus calling on airlines to refuse to carry the “trophies” of such activities
- Take Part have produced this splendid article by way of response
- Patheos have offered this interesting view
- Finally, mashable have produced their own petition relating to this issue
There seems little doubt that Mr Palmer’s activities, and those activities that were paid for with his blood money were in breach of Zimbabwean law, and as a staunch internationalist I would say that the American government has a duty to ensure that Mr Palmer gets appropriately punished, either by putting him on the next plane to Zimbabwe to be punished in the country where he committed the crime or by arranging for him to be tried, convicted and punished in America.
I would also like to see a blanket ban on “trophy hunting”, enforced with stringent penalties for those who breach it. Also, I have concentrated on the American, rather than the two Zimbabweans involved in the atrocity because it is the American who bears full responsibility – without his money the two Zimbabweans would have had no motive for their nefarious contact – Mr Palmer is guilty on his own account and has made criminals of the other two involved.
SOME PICTORIAL HIGHLIGHTS
This subsection is devoted the only kind of shooting I am interested in performing – that done with my trusty Nikon Coolpix P530. Yes I have recently acquired a set of five obsidian arrowheads – but that was purchased as on object of interest, not with any intention of using them as weapons!
Every single photo in this subsection was bagged within walking distance of my “compact” town centre flat – if you truly appreciate nature you do not have go very far to find glorious sights, and nothing need be harmed.
A FEW NATURE RELATED LINKS
These two links are both to petitions that anyone who takes an interest i nature should sign and share:
1)This from 38Degrees is an emergeny petition about bees
2)Take Part are running this petition against unsafe drilling in the Arctic Ocean.
A FINAL REMINDER
To finish the main section of this blog I have another infographic, which gives the same message as the one I opened the section with – the fundamental message of this post…
GENERAL LINKS
Just a handful of links today:
- Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK on the “power of capital well used”.
- An update on the change.org petition launched by the Sweets Way Campaign.
- Two from Vox Political:
1)A splendid attack on the despicable Jeremy Hunt.
2)A scathing indictment of Tory plans that would amount to legalising bribery and corruption. - Finally, to end the post, a link to a new find that came by way of Fargaregardsanna, Harsh Reality, who are offering the opportunity to share a blog post, which I shall by accepting!
aspiblog 