The latest photo of my granddaughter Catrin
February 24th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I know that regular visitors to NightHawk enjoy receiving updates on my granddaughter Catrin whom I try to see each week, so here is a new photograph of her taken this week.
She’s wearing a jacket that I bought for her in Helsinki at an open air stall staffed by the Peruvian woman who knitted the jacket. I chose a size for the jacket that was larger than Catrin at the time (last summer), but she is growing so fast that she is already wearing it – together with that impish smile.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (5)
A review of “I Give It A Year”
February 23rd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Hard to put a new spin on an old genre, but this rom-com tries by being more com than rom – as explained in my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Where did the United Nations have its first meeting?
February 23rd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Everyone knows that the United Nations is headquartered in New York City where meetings of the General Assembly and the Security Council are held. But very few people realise that the first meeting of the General Assembly took place in my home city of London in the Methodist Central Hall opposite Westminster Abbey.
I met some friends there this week – the basement has a good cafe – and showed them the little-noticed commemorative plaque on the side wall.
Posted in History | Comments (1)
When did Mississippi ratify the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery?
February 22nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
If you’re American, you probably know the answer to this question. But, if you live anywhere else in the world, the answer may well surprise you.
Posted in American current affairs, History | Comments (0)
Which are the 11 states supporting the new financial transaction tax?
February 22nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
It was originally called the Tobin tax after the economist who first proposed the idea some 40 years ago and I first blogged about it more than three years ago here; subsequently it became known as the Robin Hood tax in a effort to popularise its appeal; it is a financial transaction tax (FTT) and it is about to be introduced by the European Commissioner Algirdas Semeta as he explains here.
This small but lucrative tax will be just 0.1% on bonds and shares and 0.01% on derivatives and it will raise around €30-35bn (£26-30bn or $40-47bn) per year.
Eleven European Union member states have agreed to implement the tax. They are the Eurozone countries Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Greece and Estonia.
Although the tax is not being adopted by the UK (which already charges 0.5% stamp duty on trading in shares), it will nonetheless have to be paid by investors trading on the London Stock Exchange who are based in one of the 11 countries.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Word of the day: meteorism
February 20th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
“Hitler suffered acutely from meteorism: perhaps he did not suffer so acutely as those around him, since meteorism is uncontrolled farting, a condition exacerbated by Hitler’s strictly vegetarian diet.”
This is a quote from a book I’m currently reading: “Hitler: A Short Biography” by A N Wilson.
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
What’s HMRC doing about tax avoidance?
February 19th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
If you are a private citizen and you cheat on your benefit claim or tax return, you are liable to serious consequences – which is as it should be. But, if you a corporation pushing tax avoidance schemes as far as you can, you are likely to get away with it totally.
As explained in this news item, the Chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee Margaret Hodge has highlighted the appalling record of Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs in catching corporate tax cheats. HMRC has fined just 11 people for promoting tax avoidance since 2004 – despite 10,000 people a year coming forward to report tax avoidance schemes. The 11 tax avoidance promoters taken to tribunal were fined just £5,000 each despite the maximum penalty being £1M.
As Larry Elliott explains in this comment:
” .. life is made easy for the avoidance industry because the complexity of the tax system provides too many loopholes and the existence of offshore tax havens provides too many boltholes. Without tax simplification and a crackdown on tax havens, the avoidance industry – big, powerful and well dug in – will continue to thrive.”
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
The facts behind British and global obesity
February 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
The British media today covers a new report on obesity titled “Measuring Up” produced by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. The foreward to the report states:
“The UK is the ‘fat man’ of Europe. Latest figures from the Health Survey for England 2009-11 shows that one quarter of men and women are obese (BMI over 30) and two thirds of adults are obese or overweight (BMI over 25). The National Child Measurement Programme 2011-12 shows that for children aged 10-11, one in five are obese and one in three are overweight or obese. In the last 20 years, the number of morbidly obese adults (BMI over 40) has more than doubled to over one million UK citizens.”
Of course, obesity is a global issue, especially in richer countries and those becoming richer. The BBC has a two-minute film which explains this here.
Posted in British current affairs, World current affairs | Comments (0)
How big is Australia?
February 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I will shortly be visiting Australia for the first time. Since the country is on the other side of the globe to Europe, it is difficult to assess from an atlas what is the relative size of Australia – so I’ve checked.
At 7,692,024 km2, Australia is the planet’s sixth largest country after Russia, Canada, China, the USA, and Brazil. Although it is the smallest continental land mass, it is the world’s largest island.
Europe, as properly defined, is bigger than Australia, at 10,180,000 km2 – but what many people think of as Continental Europe would fit neatly into the land mass of Australia. To see how Australia compares with Europe or the United States, check out these illustrations.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (2)
How big is New Zealand?
February 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I will shortly be visiting New Zealand for the first time. Since the country is on the other side of the globe to Britain, it is difficult to assess from an atlas what is the relative size of New Zealand – so I’ve checked.
The two countries are very similar in size. The UK is 244,820 km² or 94,526 sq mi. New Zealand is 268,680 km² or 103,738 sq mi. So New Zealand is just slightly bigger.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)