GAMBLING!

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Raha-automaattiyhdistys (Finland’s Slot Machine Association), which is generally referred to as RAY, was established in 1938 to raise funds through gaming operations to support Finnish health and welfare organizations. RAY has an exclusive right in Finland to operate slot machines and casino table games, and to run a casino. RAY’s activities are based on four values: reliability, efficiency, customer-orientation, and respect for the individual.

Through its gaming activities RAY generates funds to support the work of voluntary health and welfare organizations. Of total revenues, around 92% comes from slot machines, 5% from casino table games and 3% from Grand Casino Helsinki.

RAY is to provide EUR 306 million in funding for health and social welfare organizations.

If a casino is good for Cardiff now and Swansea now why are we waiting for British permission and why do we have to follow a British model? Better to look at other models and develop our own to benefit the people of Wales.

Time now for a Wales Prison Service

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The Irish Prison Service Core values:

* Recognises its obligation to serve the community with full respect for the human dignity and rights of every person, both in custody and in the wider community
* Recognises that it is obliged to help every offender live as a law abiding person and that the Service can contribute to their realising their potential
* Believes in making available to each person in custody conditions and services appropriate to their well-being and personal development
* Commits itself to minimising the detrimental effects of imprisonment
* Endeavours to help prisoners, where possible and appropriate, to maintain relationships with their families
* Values the resources available to it, especially all staff working in the prison system who are the most important asset in fulfilling the Service's mission
* Commits itself to being courteous and fair in all its dealings
* Accepts that it is accountable for its actions and endeavours to demonstrate this accountability in public

The key Aims (the Mission Statement) of the Scottish Prison Service are:

Custody
Order
Care
Opportunity

These aims have not changed, indeed they are central to our new Vision for the future.

Our Mission tells us what to do, the vision is aimed at making us do it better by concentrating on key themes. There are five:

Leadership in correctional Service
A prison estate that is fit for the purpose
Highest Standards of Service
Respect for our Staff
Value for Money for the Taxpayer

The jail system faces a "serious crisis" for which the government (British) has completely failed to plan, the prisons watchdog said today.

One of the most beneficial tax systems in Europe

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Why is Catalonia is the fifth most important European region in terms of employment in the technology sector?

Maybe because:

Catalonia also offers one of the most beneficial tax systems in Europe, including significant deductions on Corporate Tax for R&D activities, training, ICTs, offshore activities and environmental investments, among others. Catalonia also has one of the most favourable tax regimes for holding companies in the world.

For companies in Catalonia performing R&D&I (Innovation) activities, Corporate tax reductions of up to 50% can be made by the Ministry of Economy and Treasury.

Wales needs to get the powers to decide it's own Corporate tax rates to compete on a level playing filed with our competitors.

JUSTICE WALES

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The British prove their incompetence again, again and again!

The Sun

The Home Secretary was on the ropes yesterday after a SECOND child pervert escaped jail — despite posing a threat to young boys.

The Daily Mail

The justice system was in turmoil last night as judges staged an unprecedented revolt over the full prisons scandal

The Mirror

HOME OFFICE IN CRISIS Head of youth justice resigns post Judges slam Reid's prison plea System's in meltdown say officers Tories in blast at 'risk to the public'

Powers over Justice should be devolved immediately because the British cannot deliver a safe society for all.

A Minister of Justice in Wales: Mission, Vision and Values

Mission

The mission of the Minister (department of justice) is to ensure adherence to the rule of law in Welsh society and to preserve a credible and dependable system of justice in Wales in which individual and collective rights are respected and maintained.

Vision

The Minister of Justice is committed to administering a system of justice that is closer to citizens, more readily accessible and more efficient.

Values

The Minister of Justice embraces the values of respect, trust, fairness and integrity.

Source

The Swedish Institute

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Inspiring confidence in Sweden as a country and spreading goodwill on its behalf is an important part of Swedish foreign policy. As international interdependency and cooperation increases, it has become more important than ever for a country like Sweden to establish a place for itself on the world map. Disseminating knowledge and heightening awareness about our country is a way of achieving this goal.

A task for the Swedish Institute then and they deliver.

Sweden is to become the first country to establish diplomatic representation in the virtual reality world of Second Life, officials said on Friday.

"We are planning to establish a Swedish embassy in Second Life primarily as an information portal for Sweden," Swedish Institute (SI) director Olle Wästberg told AFP

Could Wales be the second country in Europe to have an Embassy in Second Life?

On Friday, according to the Second Life website (http://secondlife.com), there were 2,938,247 inhabitants in its alternative reality, more than one third of them having signed up in the last 60 days.

T. O. M.

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The Welsh Version

The Welsh film t.o.m. created as a graduating film by Dan and Tom has been selected by Sundance as one of the 71 short films to be screened from the 4445 international submissions received. The film - one of the only 4 animated short films chosen - will be competing for the short film prize to be awarded for outstanding achievement and merit.

The British version

The Screen Academy Wales has also just announced that a graduation animated film t.o.m, has been shortlisted for the Sundance Film Festival in Utah this month – one of the only 4 animated short films selected from 4445 international entries

The Result

Please scroll down this page for T.O.M and click on more.

It is titled.

T. O. M.

United Kingdom, 2006, 3 Minutes, color

What the Result should have been.

T. O. M.

Cymru - Wales, 2006, 3 Minutes, color

I think Cymru - Wales would have raised the profile of Welsh film to a much greater extent than the term UK. Lets stop wasting these marketing opportunities.

Wales Green Card

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The Irish have control.

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, has announced new work permit arrangements for migrants from outside the EU, to come into force on 1 February.

There will be four new categories.

The British do not!

THE Home Office has hired one of the most famous names in political advertising to help to “sell” its discredited immigration policies to a sceptical public,

Describing the campaign’s “target audiences”, the marketing memo notes: “General public — a segmentation exercise on the key audiences for a reassurance message has been conducted by M&C Saatchi.” The memo provides no further information on what work Saatchi’s is doing for the Home Office campaign

Funded by BLOOD COAL

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From Interfax

Violations of repairs rules may have a caused Lenin mine explosion KARAGANDA. Sept 21 (Interfax) -

A methane explosion at Mittal Steel Temirtau's Lenin mine in the Karaganda region, Kazakhstan, which killed 41 miners on Monday, may have been caused by violations of repairs rules.

The chief engineer ordered the ventilation system to be stopped for repairs shortly before the explosion, Mittal Steel Temirtau Grigory Present told a Thursday press briefing.

"I do not rule out that something was done wrong in the course of repairs," he said.

From the Times of India

LONDON: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has thanked NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal for his contribution of £2 million to the ruling Labour Party and said he was "delighted" to receive such a sizeable donation from one of the "world's most successful businessmen".

And

LONDON: British Prime Minister Tony Blair is considering honouring prominent Indian-origin businessman Lakshmi Niwas Mittal who last week made a 2-million pound donation to the Labour Party.

How much money of this money is being used by Labour in Wales?

1 penny is too much!

Irish Times versus English Times

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How the Irish Govern themselves.

A €50 billion investment plan to promote social inclusion, aimed primarily at children and older people living in poverty, will be a central element of the Government's National Development Plan (NDP) 2007-2013 to be announced tomorrow by Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, write Miriam Donohoe and Stephen Collins.

The other priority areas will be social infrastructure, mainly social and affordable housing, which will get €30 billion and the education and training sector which will get €25 billion.

The Government will also make a major investment in computers and information technology for schools.

How the British Govern England.

Find your nearest 'Respect Zone' - the full list here.

How much Welsh taxpayers money is being used in this extra funding to address anti-social behaviour in England?

It would be better spent to promote social inclusion in Wales.

POLICE - QUALITY

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A model for devolved policing.

QUALITY CERTIFICATION ISO 9002 ENDORSES THE PROCEDURE USED BY THE "ERTZAINTZA" (BASQUE POLICE FORCE) DURING ARRESTS

As of December 2002, the Ertzaintza is the first and only police force in Europe that has been awarded a UNE-EN-ISO 9002 certificate, granted by AENOR, to endorse the quality of a procedure applied to the tasks undertaken.

The certified procedure supervises all arrests undertaken at the main Ertzaintza centre, the main police station in Bilbao, where over six hundred police agents are working to handle around a third of the total arrests carried out every year in the Basque Country.

The procedure that has been regulated by AENOR was set up by the Ertzaintza in June 2002, and has, since then, been applied in thousands of arrests. The result has shown important improvements as regards management and more guarantees for the people arrested.

The new procedure enables an exhaustive control over each of the steps that takes place during an arrest. The system "monitors" the whole process, analyses each step and achieves substantial improvements in aspects such as the speed during which the family of the detainee is informed, as well as the judges, lawyers, etc.

This novel method of working is in the process of being implemented throughout the rest of the police stations of the Ertzaintza, and similar procedures are expected to be started up, which will also be controlled by AENOR, in other fields of work pertaining to the Ertzaintza, with the ultimate objective of providing an increasingly better service and to delve into the guarantees provided for citizen's rights.

Policing should be devolved because the British implemented paper work bureaucracy means fewer and fewer police officers are available for operational duties.

POLICE - UNION

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EuroCOP - 30 Police Staff Organisations from 23 Countries - 500,000 police employees

The Scots, Irish, Catalans, Basques, Swedes and Finns for example already have Organisations representing their members on a European level. No reason then for Wales to be left out when Policing is devolved and should Welsh Police Officers wish it.

Police officers take many personal risks to serve the public. They are entitled to ask their authorities to research and minimise possible and foreseeable risks.

EuroCOP works on the European level to assure high safety standards for police officers and encourages research into reducing health and welfare risks for police officers as much as possible.

Link to Constables' National Representative - Region No.7 Wales/Cymru
Link to The Scottish Police Federation

Would you go on holiday to a racist country or study in one?

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This is the news being read by potential visitors and students for Wales.

This is a racist country; to the vast majority of couch potatoes out there, Shilpa is a 'Paki bird',"

At the center of this manufactured maelstrom is the beauteous figure of Shilpa Shetty, 31, a Bollywood star whose treatment by British housemates in the television reality show has provoked 16,000 viewers to complain to regulators that she is the victim of racist bullying

Contestant Jack Tweed also called Shetty a "f***ing ****", with the second word bleeped out. This was widely reported to have been "Paki" -- a British term of abuse for people from the Indian sub-continent. However this was later denied by the producers, who stated that the word used was in fact "c**t".

As long as our Wales Brand continues to be associated with the British our success in global markets is being being put at risk. Wales must market itself alone as others do.

Pea Soup, Rye Bread and Fresh Fruit

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Pea Soup, Rye Bread and Fresh Fruit is on the menu today (free for all school children in the city of Tampere and everywhere else in Finland, as it has been for the last 50 years by law).

Free school meals is not about tackling poverty, it is about PUBLIC HEALTH - having a healthy population.

Professor Pekka Puska the Director General of the National Public health Institute in Finland

drew attention to the conclusions presented at the symposium by Professor Nils Stenby of the Department of Pathology, University Hospital MAS, University of Lund, Sweden, of a broad WHO study on young subjects who had died violent deaths. The study showed that atherosclerosis, in the form of fatty streak, develops in all individuals early in life, in their second decade, and which appears related to dietary and other lifestyle aspects. "This is a significant study showing that disease is traceable back to childhood," said Puska.

Wales should learn and act on this finding.

A UNITED ENGLAND PARLIAMENT

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England announces it's dissatisfaction with being ruled by the British.

The poll, commissioned to mark today's 300th anniversary of the former Scottish parliament voting for full political union with Westminster, suggests that 61% of voters in England want their own parliament, with the support of roughly half of all Scottish and Welsh voters

Which seems to leave Mr Hain's political vision of devolution to the artificial English regions in tatters.

The BBC WALES ST. DAVID'S DAY POLL - FEBRUARY 2006

Showed 16% in favour of an independent Wales
Showed 80% in favour of Wales remaining in the UK

The NEWSNIGHT ACT OF UNION POLL - JANUARY 2007

Showed 19% in favour of an independent Wales
Sowed 69% in favour of Wales remaining in the UK

After the English get their own Parliament it would be reasonable to assume that the percentage in favour of remaining in the UK would fall at an even faster rate.

Northern Secretary Lost In Self Interest

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Peter Hain asks this question in the Western Mail.

Who seriously imagines a tiny nation like Wales (estimated population about 3 million)
would have any clout on the world stage isolated and alone?

Would he dare ask the same question about "tiny" Ireland our celtic neighbour (estimated population about 3,7 million)?

I think not, but then he knows he can't get a job out of it.

Today, Mr Ahern will give a speech on the political situation in the Middle East, and Ireland's position on the issues, when he addresses the King Faisal Foundation in Riyadh.

He will also pay a courtesy call on Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, the governor of Riyadh, and one of the most significant political figures in the Saudi kingdom.

The expedition has been organised by Enterprise Ireland as part of a drive to increase exports to the region by €3 billion by the end of 2007.

The british elite are looking desperate in trying to keep their gravy train running.

LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE BY REFERENDUM

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more than half of Scots - 51 per cent - want Scotland to break away. So do 48 per cent of English respondents, again a clear majority of those who expressed an opinion one way or the other.

There is even stronger support for an English parliament, with 51 per cent backing the move in England and 58 per cent in Scotland.

And there was solid backing for England to have its own Prime Minister or First Minister - 54 per cent in England and 62 per cent in Scotland.

Among the English, 53 per cent want Scots MPs at Westminster to be barred from voting on issues that affect England only, such as health and education. A majority of Scots who expressed a view also want to see Scots MPs' voting rights restricted.

This ICM survey of attitudes on the Union and nationality was commissioned by the Daily Mail

Continue reading "LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE BY REFERENDUM" »

Culture industry booms

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The Flemish culture industry is growing faster than the economy as a whole.

The newspaper claims that this is the first time that figures relating specifically to Flanders are available.

In 2003 the culture industry, seen in a strict sense, made profits worth 1.5 billion euros. If the culture industry is considered in the broadest possible sense researchers say that it generates a turnover of 11 billion euros.

This represents 2% of the Flemish economy.

The culture industry includes music, film, radio and TV.

Continue reading "Culture industry booms" »

Link to the blog of wales-elects2007

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Link to the blog of wales-elects2007

An Act respecting the Québec correctional system

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SIR - The Home Office has ridden roughshod over the concerns of local residents and local councillors in Usk despite earlier suggestions that it would not move violent or sexual offenders, from category C to category D, to open prisons which includes Prescoed. But so much for reassuring local residents and listening to people's concerns - the Home Office now appears to be implying that the number of violent or sexual offenders may actually be increased.

Since July 2006, 11 prisoners have absconded or escaped from the prison, three of them sex offenders and one a convicted murderer.

Continue reading "An Act respecting the Québec correctional system" »

nine bales of goods together with 417 books and a portrait of King George I.

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Two prestigious academic institutions, the London School of Economics (LSE) and New York University (NYU), are to promote the study of Catalan language and culture. This week, the director of the Institut Ramon Llull (IRL), Josep Bargalló, signed collaboration agreements with both academic institutions with the aim of inculcating and consolidating knowledge about Catalonia, its language, culture and situation, in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Continue reading "nine bales of goods together with 417 books and a portrait of King George I." »

Ryder up

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Mr Quinn said over 260,000 people attended the Ryder Cup in September, and that the economic benefit is likely to be more than the targeted amount of €130m, with the main value of the event being its legacy.

How is then that promoting Hotel accommodation in England is going to create a legacy for Wales?

Obviously city travel knows because that is what they are doing.

City Travel is working with numerous hotels in South Wales and the South West of England along with country house hotels in the immediate surrounding area.

Meanwhile Golfpac International welcomes you to the country of England and Wales.

We should all be very concerned that the Welsh Government is failing in marketing the Ryder Cup 2010.

The have's and the has not

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Catalunya, the Basque Country, Ireland and Quebec have:

Statutory Language Rghts
Statutory Measures to protect the Language in the Workplace
Official Status for Languages

Wales has not!

In Ireland Language Rights are conferred on citizens by the Constitution of Ireland and by legislation enacted by the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Wales needs it's own Language Commissioner. The right to express yourself in your mother language is fundamental.

The English Local

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Even the English local press are covering the legitimate demands of the English for self determination. They are right!

The polls show it too.

Standby for the British to pull out all the scare tactics to try and stay in power.

Female Offenders

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There is no prison for female offenders in Wales. Keeping family links is very important both for the offender and their family especially where children need and deserve access to their parents. The British should devolve power over prisons to the Welsh Government because only then can a prison service really be made to meet the needs of the Welsh people. The Catalans already do it.

Their Government has the executive power for State legislation regarding prison affairs. This includes in any case:

The capacity to enact provisions adapting prison regulations to the social reality of Catalonia.
All management of prison activity in Catalonia, especially directing, organisation, overall system, operation, planning and inspection of prison institutions of any kind located in Catalonia.
Planning, building and refurbishment of the prison buildings located in Catalonia.
Administration and management of unmovable assets and facilities assigned to the Catalan prison administration, and of all material resources assigned to it.
Planning and organisation of paid work for the prison population, and implementation of alternative measures to prison and of reintegration measures.
Their Government may issue reports in the procedure for granting pardons.