Since the expression of communication through the face is such an important mechanism of socialising in the western world, it is clear that wearing such clothing on the face is not conducive to western culture. The image of a Muslim women dressed in garments that essentially conceal her from the outside world provoke images of repression and inwardness in a society that values the freedom of individual expression.

However, the concept of ’freedom'in regards to individual expression has often been the vital fuel that has prevented governments from initiating a blanket ban on the wearing of the full veil, particularly in Britain and the United States. It is clear that examples set governments in other countries such as France, which has recently upheld its ban on wearing the burka in public, cannot easily be imitated in others. This is due to strong cultural differences in regards to the role that religion plays in public life, which contrasts significantly between different countries.

In the US, the right to freedom of religious expression is enshrined in the US constitution - America’s second bible. In France, however, religion is predominantly a private matter. Such to the extent that the use of religious vocabulary by French politicians is often met with strong hostility due to France’s historical feat in being the first country to develop the concept of the separation of church and state. In the US it is quite common for atheists to be quietly ’banned'from running for office in a number of states and virtually all of the high ranking politicians are religious to a degree. It would appear for now that countries that have more secular outlooks express more discontent with the wearing of certain types of clothing, such as the burka. It is clear that in France, the image of the burka as a hostile form of dressing far outweighs the concept of a Muslim’s individual right to expression. In the United States and Britain, however, the intertwining of religion and individual liberty facilitate in protecting the Islamic full veil from facing a blanket ban.

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The media’s influence however can be seen in terms of the music, fashion, relationship, and the resulting behavior. A lot of the problems in school and delinquencies are in part attributed to media influence. Whether it is glorifying bad behavior and violence or simply the way youths dress the media plays a large role. The problem for the youth is that of finding their own identity without too much outside influences. This has proven to be a great challenge for today’s youth.

The media’s obsession with the youth began with the punk. It was only when this phenomenon started did the British media realize how much their papers could sell if they covered this phenomenon. But some young people nowadays are smarter than these journalists and marketers because now they have started sporting styles that are difficult to define without ambiguity. That is, these styles can’t be clearly defined. This is a direct indication to the media that the youth are just fed up of their tactics and they are no longer willing to be dominated by them or for that matter being known by their birth year.

It is important that parents and the government protect the youths from the negative effects of the media as the social problems that arise if they do not is likely to be costly to the country and to the youths themselves. It is difficult to legislate how the media presents itself but what needs to be done must be done.

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This basic inequality is apparent when one considers that those who own most of the wealth in the UK are those many people work for and earn their wages from. These people tend to not only give themselves higher than normal salaries but they also pay themselves higher dividends as owners. Research done by independent financial advisors has shown that ten years ago on average bosses earned close to fifty times what their works did and as of 2009 they were earning almost one hundred and thirty time more than their workers.

This inequality has led to great division in the country. This includes class division, based on money, to religious division. This then extends to other areas such as who gets a particular job to the kinds of education and health care received by the different sects of people. Inequality often is shown in terms of ethnic background as persons of certain ethnicity tend to be treated unfairly by not only the state by persons within the community.

What has arisen out of the level of inequality in British society is the frustrations and anger many feel. Some believe that they are being marginalized and have retaliated in ways not acceptable to the society in general.

It has been said that a society that is unequal is not healthy and certainly not happier.

It is difficult for a government to change the behaviour of its people and many people tend to want to keep the status quo in spite of the resulting problems. This is where labour leaders need to get actively involved and fight to get the people what they deserve from their employers and from the government. Also people will need to find creative ways to build their wealth. The distribution of social services should be done in an equitable manner.

It is unlikely that inequality will ever be eradicated from the society in general but it can surely be reduced.

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A poll conducted by MORI, the Liberal Democrats have increased their pool standings by 11 points over the previous month and are currently running in a tie with the Conservatives who command some 32% of the possible votes. In fact, they are ahead of the Labour Party, who are likely to receive close to 28% of the votes.

The debate reflected more the each leader’s personality, rather than the policies they are going to adopt if elected. They discussed in details policies related to Afghanistan wars, gas oil prices, nuclear weapons and many more. Though many people are not supportive of the policies adopted by Liberal Democrats, they have really fallen in love of their leader. There is a huge desire for change so any person who can convince the electorate that he can be the architect of that change, is bound to win. It seems Nick Clegg has somehow filled up that slot.

Chances are also there that the UK may go for a hung parliament and Clegg can become the kingmaker in that case. As a human face, he is opposed to the war on Iraq and Afghanistan. He has got a Dutch mother, a Spanish wife and a Russian grandparent. This combination has given him a perfect blend of a European leader.

This is however just one of the debating series involving the leaders so it is difficult to say what will happen in the rest of them. The question really is how much does the public listen to during these debates and how do they affect their decisions on Election Day. People are likely to vote for the party which will bring about the change they so desperately want.

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There has been a fair bit of moaning from the music industry regarding the lack of government and bank support for the music industry. Specifically, the music industry has complained that banks have refused to give loans to start up record labels and independent musicians, and because of this the music industry is up in arms. This is fascinating; why should the music industry receive special treatment? There seems to be no grounds for this type of complaint.

According to Music Management Forum’s chairman and Radiohead manager, Brian Message, the government that’s in power has to recognise that there is blatant discrimination when it comes on to the music industry and how it is treated by those institutions with the money. Something should be done to rectify the situation he believes and suggests that they either fix the system that currently exists or come up with something that brand new.

Maybe I’m just an old man, but I remember the days when a band had to work their way up from the bottom. They would make their bones in the clubs and maybe record something in their basements or garages and they would hope to get discovered based on their skills and abilities. These days, it appears that musicians want special treatment because they are “rockers”; and therefore deserve for the government to pay for financial advisers? This is ludicrous. Why should the banks bend over for the music industry? Let’s look at it this way: a loan officer at a bank has the ability to give two loans. He receives 3 applicants: two from small business owners and one from a garage band. Why should the garage band get the loan instead of the two small business owners? What is better for the economy?

Becoming a successful musician (that is to say a band that can actually earn a living from their craft) is radically low. For a bank to want to help a small emerging musician is a dangerous roll of the dice for banks.

But the British music industry has over the years earned billions of pounds from their music and other sources, so shouldn’t it be able to support itself whenever a time of crisis occurs. I think they should. What these people want is something for nothing.

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Citizen advocacy is simply defined as giving aid and support by citizens to those with physical or mental disabilities. Many people rarely if ever think about the welfare and lives of those with disabilities, unless they are directly affected, for example if you have a loved one who suffers from such a disability. Under these circumstances, the need for citizen advocacy is seen as a vital contribution. There are three main reasons why citizen advocacy is important: 1) provide help for those who need it most; 2) provide guidance to those that may not have it; 3) altruistic acts are the backbone of citizen responsibility.

1. In regards to providing help, individuals with mental or physical disabilities who also have no loved ones to help them, require the need for citizen advocacy. These advocates – who are regular citizens, but have a desire to help – can be crucial in the support of a person with disabilities. This help could be something as simple as providing company for a lonely person, or it could be even greater, such as helping with medicine and therapy. The help that an advocate can provide can mean the difference in a person’s life.

2. An advocate can provide much needed guidance for a person with disabilities. This is especially true with physical disabilities. In some cases, those with physical disabilities have trouble finding motivation and purpose in their lives. An advocate can provide such motivation and change their protégé’s mental image and morale.

3. The sheer altruistic nature of citizen advocacy should be seen as the main reason why it is important. Caring for one another and showing concern and interest in other citizen’s plights is the key role of all citizens. We cannot afford to simply ignore the difficulties faced by people with disabilities simply because it does not affect us or it doesn’t concern us. We must support each other in order to create a unified culture.

In the UK there seems to be not much citizen’s advocacy these days as most are content to let things be as they are. It would be nice if people recognise the power they have to demand social changes and improvements. Maybe it should be made mandatory.

One last thing, I was chatting to my brother who works in the business world and he believes that there is massive return in buying stocks for boiler juice. He is one of those types of people who is of the standpoint that America is trying to colonize the world by taking over the Middle East. I must say I am getting pretty tired of the fact that everyone seems to have the same justification on this.

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The UK’s “top down” policy was designed to create a sense of educational equality; however, it was woefully unsuccessful, due to the top applicants only applying to higher ranking Secondary education job offers. Many schools in poorer regions of the UK struggle to reach the same levels of education that are apparent in more affluent regions. Is this caused by the teachers or the Ministry? The answer is no. The “top down” policy has limited the importance of the role of parents; therefore the problem here lies with the parents. Educational success lies not only with what can be done in the classroom, but what can be done at home. Since less than 15 percent of a child’s time is spent at school; it is the role of the parents to continue their children’s education after the school bell rings. The support and guidance by parents especially in these lower-income schools can make the difference between success and failure.

The national government also needs to play a significant role. There are very few incentives to help lower-income schools in the UK, and this needs to change in order to create equality in education. Although they are aware of the need for educational equality, very little has been done to counteract this problem.

The fact that there are schools that get the support they need to provide a better service to the students and the community seems to hold out the belief that it is the inequalities that are in part responsible for the failures. Some school will have the support from the community at large others won’t. Thus resources become scarce in schools with little or no support and this leads to eminent student failures.

The schools themselves must encourage educational betterment, and this does not require a large sum of money. Teachers and headmasters alike must work together to encourage disadvantaged students to work harder and succeed in school. This could be done in many ways, ranging from grade postings in the school corridors to entice students to do better, or even offering extra assistance to those that have fallen behind.

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Have we ever thought that why should poor nations always bear the brunt of calamities, poverty and backwardness? Why do these poor nations always have to stay under the burden of undesirable conditions? We are so busy leading our fast- paced lives that we do not even get the time to think and find answers to these questions. But even if we do not have any relation with the ill fated people living in the third world nations, we do share a relation of humanity. This relation gives rise to a moral obligation, which cannot be denied. So we should put some thought in finding out the three ways first world countries can better help the poor nations.

The people living in poor nations have to bear with natural calamities, extreme poverty and many other adverse conditions. The first world countries should always take the initiative of providing these nations with unconditional help whenever they are hit by natural calamities. Even wealthy nations are not spared by natural calamities, but then they have the ability and resources (such as our seemingly unedning supply of heating oil) to overcome the devastation caused by the calamity. On the other hand, the poor nations lack these necessary resources, hence are always in need of financial and material aid.

The second way in which a poor nation can be helped by its wealthy counterpart is through health care aid. The people of poor nations do not even have the access to basic health utilities. But if the wealthy nations endeavor to help these nations build a universal health care system they would help to build a healthy and beautiful world. This will help reduce the overall health care cost and their reliance on foreign assistance. It will also help improve mortality rate and reduce or eradicate the spread of certain diseases.

Thirdly they can help by offering debt forgiveness. Many if not all of the poorer nations are in serious debt and many have no way of getting away from that debt. Countries like Haiti will never be better off if they have to continue to repay a debt they cannot and potentially will never be able to repay. Debt burden has stifled progress and the development of social amenities and infrastructure.

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Throughout England and Wales central government requests for data from local authorities are costing close to £6 million annually. According to a new report, this equates to almost 50% of the earnings of an additional trading standards or environmental health officer for each council.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) produced a report, which identified the load given to local authorities such as licensing and trading standards and environmental health services, due to the extra administrative work involved in producing the data.

The Local Better Regulation Office has joined forces with local and national regulators to highlight this issue and to identify ways to make the local regulatory system more productive.

The LBRO is also working to cut the amount of documents to be filled out and the questions therein, eliminating duplicate requests, promoting the use of common wording and also to develop a uniformed data sharing protocol in a bid to lessen the burden placed on local councils.

The report found that councils had to send back just about 140 forms and in some case the same form a couple of times. These forms were used by 22 central bodies to ask for over 15,000 pieces of information.

Although 50% of the requested information was noted in the report as being compulsory and there was a large amount of duplicate questions asked. CIPFA also found that the bulk of the requests were directed at the environmental health services of the local authority (63%), while the Trading standards services is responsible the rest

Now that this data is available, the LBRO will look at what the central bodies uses the information for.

This report has revealed a lot of cracks in the way services are rendered. The current system uses a lot of resources, leading to inefficiency. There needs to be continuous improvement in the way that regulatory services are made available across the UK and they also need to seize any available opportunities. It is obvious that the government must play an important role in changing this situation. The question is will they do what is necessary and if so when?

I have exciting news for you all, I was chatting to my brother last week and he has just got a amazing new place at an hr software company. Well done Dan!

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The topic of immigration is a prickly one with many people quick to declare anyone who is against it a racist. This is simply not true. It is definitely a taboo topic, but only because people are ignorant about the issue. I propose a closed door policy on immigration now and I believe that I share this view with many, many people.

The simple fact is, there are far too many people who are allowed to get into this country. People who are in no way benefiting our society. I am not against letting those who are victims of persecution in. Or those who suffer as the victims of other crimes, but that is where the line should be drawn.

Before anyone calls me a racist I must re-iterate that if anyone benefits the country, then by all means they should be allowed in. Let us look at the policy that Australia and New Zealand use. There is a points system in place. If you hit the minimum points score required, then you are given a permit to move there. However, that system is based on your qualifications, what work is needed in New Zealand and your education levels.

To me this is fair. And that is not to say that all applicants need to have a dream education. If a country needs plumbers, then plumbers are allowed in because they are directly benefiting the society. Those without qualifications who are looking to work in MacDonalds, or drive a taxi, can look elsewhere, as they are not benefiting the society. If we let too many in then we become over-crowded, just as we are today.

It is not a case of disliking foreigners or being an “England for the English"individual. It is just common sense. Other countries do it, and they benefit from it. However, the UK seems to have an open door policy that is very easy to bypass which results in having many thousands of illegal, as well as legal immigrants who are just taking up space.

Why is it these people don’t go to France or Germany? Because it is difficult, and rightly so, to get in to those countries. We need to change our stance on immigration and become far stricter. Finding a leader who will be strong enough to do it is another matter.

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