Russell and Carol - hayle and hearty

From Wikipedia

In 2011 UNESCO awarded Battir a $15,000 prize for "Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes" due to its care for its ancient terraces and irrigation system.^[8]

What a season! What an ending... just three points!

So near and yet so far

Income Related Benefits: Estimates of Take-Up from DWP

Key points from latest release are:

Income Support and Employment and Support Allowance (Income Related) (IS/ESA (IR)) - Take-up in 2009-10 was in the range 77 per cent to 89 per cent by caseload and 82 per cent to 92 per cent by expenditure. There was no evidence of a change in overall caseload take-up between 2008-09 and 2009-10.

In 2009-10 there were 2.09 million recipients claiming £9.08 billion of IS/ESA (IR). The number of people that were entitled to but not claiming IS/ESA (IR) was between 260 thousand and 620 thousand. The total amount of IS/ESA (IR) unclaimed was between £0.75 billion and £2.04 billion.

Interesting article by David Mitchell

Which brings me to George Osborne. "Just as we should never balance the budget on the backs of the poor, so it is an economic delusion to think you can balance it only on the wallets of the rich," he said in his speech to the Conservative party conference last week. I think he's misunderstood the whole balancing metaphor. The challenge for a chancellor isn't to balance the budget on something but just to balance it – to make it balance.

...

I was struck today on seeing the seascape picture in the walk on the National Trust website - it's our painting ;)

Was surprised to spot a reference to Hayle while watching Michael Portillo's latest railway jaunt - stopping at Didcot

So, the top man at Thomas Cook trousers £15m in 'hard earned and decent' (my sarcasm) bonuses over the last couple of years and now Thomas Cook is in dire trouble and planning to lay off thousands.  Well thank goodness for Free markets.  Nurses, teachers and other public servants must have their pensions cut, but goold old chief executives must have huge payouts even in times of trouble.  We're all in it together of course....

On a lighter note, there was some really interesting historical sleuthing behind the story of

More troubles for the IPCC

Saw a piece earlier in the Guardian about Steve Keen, the Australian econonmist who seems to have been more right than most on the crisis and actually saw it coming.

Larry Elliot has a good piece in The Guardian today