ANECDOTES AND ANTIDOTES: February 2014

ANECDOTES AND ANTIDOTES: February 2014

Monday 24 February 2014

NHS HAVE SOLD 47MILLION HOSPITAL IN-PATIENTS DATA TO INSURANCE COMPANY.

If you have spent time in hospital in the last ten years then your data will undoubtabley be in the hands of The Staple Inn Actuarial Society. Report says data covering in-patient stays between 1997 and 2010 were used to track patients' medical histories. Patients have been identified by their date of birth and their postcode according to the Daily Telegraph. and the data used by the insurance body to work out premiums. when they combined the data alongside credit ratings it resulted in higher premiums for most people under the age of 50. The newly formed Health & Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), which collects national health and social care data, said that the records referred to by the Staple Inn Actuarial Society had been provided by a predecessor body, the NHS Information Centre. This comes less than a week after the NHS had to postpone the roll out of the GPs and hospital data sharing scheme amidst worries of data protection for individuals.The HSCIC insisted that the records were not used to analyse individual insurance premiums but to analyse general variances in critical illness. This is what the Association of Medical Research Charities chief executive Sharmila Nebhrajani had to say about data sharing on the 18th of february 2014, she said " any sharing of data must be done with care, competence and consent" " care that respects the sensitivity of the data, competence to ensure that information is held securely and most importantly with the informed consent of the public. This has obviously been overlooked by the NSCICs predecessor body, the NHS Information Centre. So who is to be held accountable for the selling off of peoples sensitive data and what assurances can the government give that the data will not be further sold on ? I suspect that this government does not have the answers. When the NHS put their massive data share scheme on hold for six months who had the knowledge that this was happening and why were we not informed? privacy experts warn there will be no way for the public to work out who has their medical records or to what use their data will be put.

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Wednesday 19 February 2014

AN 18 YEAR OLD WHO WAS GANG RAPED FACES STONING FOR ADULTERY.

9 MONTHS PREGNANT TEENAGER WHO WAS GANG RAPED STANDS ACCUSED OF ADULTERY AND NOW COULD BE STONED TO DEATH IN SUDAN. Last august when the teenage divorcee Ethiopian girl was around 3months pregnant , she was lured by seven men to an empty property in the capital Khartoum and violently gang raped, she later reported it to police but the officer in charge did not pursue an investigation because it was the Eid holiday. The officer was initialy charged with negligence but the charge was dropped on tuesday. The 18 year old, now 9 months pregnant, is currently being held in a bare cell, sleeping on a concrete floor without a mattress or suitable clothing after being charged with adultery, according to the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) network. SIHA accused Sudan of discriminating against the alleged victim because she is both a woman and a migrant, and demanded her immediate release or transfer to hospital.

According to SIHA one of the attackers filmed the rape and posted it on social media six months later which led to the arrest of both perpetrators and victim. When the case came to court earlier this month 5 of the men between the ages of 18 and 22 stood accused of adultery, another man who said that he didnt have sex with the teenager stood accused of gross indecency. The woman is charged with adultery, although she denied the charges and is pleading not guilty on the basis that the sexual act was against her will. Her attempt to make a complaint of rape has been denied on the technicality that she is under investigation on other charges and she should have complained at the time of the incident. Her request for bail has been denied by the attorney general. Sudans judiciary has been given up to £20.6m over the period March 2010 to March 2014 to fund a "safety and access to justice programme" in Sudan and South Sudan. A Department for International Development (DfID) spokesman said on Tuesday: "We condemn absolutely all human rights abuses and stoning is an abhorrent practice. DfID recently ended its support to the Sudanese judiciary in light of the deteriorating operating environment and our deep concerns about human rights abuses."

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Monday 17 February 2014

NYLON STOCKINGS:75 YEARS SINCE START OF PRODUCTION.

At the start of london fashion week its good to take a look back at the start of a fashion revolution that marked the start of production of the new " miracle " fibre come to be known as Nylon, Originaly DuPont wanted to call the new fibre No-Run but decided against it when the material obviously did. Developed by Dr Wallace Carothers and his team, nylon stockings were cheaper, more durable and looked sheer alongside the silk stockings of that time. there was huge demand for the product when they went on sale the following year.    72 thousand pairs were sold on the first day of selling and more than 64million in the first year.    Costing around $1.25 a pair the price escalated to around $10 or more on the black market when the US entered the second world war at the end of 1941. Nylon production was switched to making parachutes,tents, ropes,clothes and even tyres , then at the end of the war in 1945 production was then switched back to making stockings and women once again stood in line outside stores to buy their favourite hosiery, it is said that Macy's in New York sold 50.000 pairs in six hours of trading.    Not just on valentines day stockings and suspenders have had many a mans pulse racing with the introduction of many a colour and style, injecting a slice of playful fun into any outfit. So unashamedly here is a selection of modern stockings and suspenders to feast your eyes on.

Nothing makes a woman feel more glamorous than donning a pair of stockings or hold-ups. It's the thrill of wearing something that isn't destined for doing the washing-up in that instantly perks a lady (and a man) up.

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Thursday 6 February 2014

SCOTLAND VOTES TO END BEDROOM TAX FOR ALL.

Scottish Parliament seating

Scottish Parliament seating (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

82,500 Homes in Scotland will now not be liable for bedroom subsidy payments after Labour, Scottish National Party and Scottish Liberal Party voted to absorb cost imposed by Westminster. The Scottish Government’s annual Budget was passed with £35 million set aside to fully mitigate against the impact of the welfare reform which affects almost 82,500 Scottish households. It means no Scot can now face eviction from their home over the “tax”, which sees cuts in housing benefits for those considered to have a spare bedroom. Finance Secretary, Mr Swinney’s Budget was passed by 108 votes to 15 with only the Tories voting against. It also confirms another year of the council tax freeze, support for free university tuition, free prescriptions and free personal care. Alex Salmond's ministers repeatedly cite it and other welfare cuts as clear evidence that Tory-led governments in London are introducing damaging policies alien to Scotlands liberal ethos. Swinney told Holyrood that the bedroom tax would be abolished after independence, stating "Our actions on the bedroom tax shows the values and priorities that matter in this parliament [as] when Westminster targets the most vulnerable as part of its austerity drive, we will do all we can to protect them" This comes soon after the UN's special investigator Raquel Rolnik announced she wanted the UK government to scrap the bedroom tax. She was denounced by the Tory party chair Grant Shapps as "that woman from Brazil". Fellow Tory MP Stuart Jackson weighed in with the classy jibe: "Loopy Brazilian Leftie".with housing minister Kris Hopkins dismissing Rolnik's report as a "Marxist diatribe"

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