Msid First case of monkeypox confirmed in Ireland
Its bad en
stanley termoska ough that the big supermarkets, sporting their best sales figures in
botella stanley years, were given a pandemic freebie by Rishi Sunak in the form of a years relief from business rates. But the case of the discount retailer BM, clinging to its 拢38m from the Treasury even as it pays a 拢250m special dividend to shareholders, is more extreme.BM in April found itself in a near-perfect competitive position. Since it sells food, it was classed as an essential retailer, and so could keep its 656 UK stores open. But, because its shelves are also stuffed with toys, games, furniture, stationery, rugs and so on, it also had the run of the inessential retailing pitch.BM is a slick and growing business, but its numbers for the April-September period were off the chart. Like-for-like sales improved by 30% in the UK. Top-line profits almost doubled to 拢296m.Like the supermarkets, BM mutters about how business rates are out of date true and how Amazon also got lucky in the pandemic also true . But thats not the point. A property-based rates system is the one we have currently and the relief was supposed to help stores that were closed. Where doors were open 鈥?indeed, enjoying booming demand 鈥?there was no case for a giveaway. The Treasury messed up.BM has returned 拢3.7m of furlough money in light of the strong results , which suggests a guilty conscience of a sort. So why shouldnt the same logic to the 拢38m of rates relief BMs p
stanley cup lea that the business suffered ex Mbvd Israel must hold poll on any peace plan withdrawal after Knesset vote
Last week the Conservatives revealed figures showing, they said, five deaths a week from knife crimes in England and Wales. The instant government reaction was to deny tha
stanley website t all those deaths were caused by knives some may have been by broken bottles . Two weeks ago, when the government proudly announced that 5,000 foreign criminals who had recently graced our prisons had subsequently been booted out of the country, the immediate riposte by the Conservative spokesman was to rubbish the figures. He spun them, suggesting that in fact the country was awash with foreign criminals about to commit further offences. As usual, the ensuing verbal shootout on the Today programme left the listener none the wiser.These are two of many examples in 2008 of criminal justice statistics, far from shedding any light on a subject of national concern, being used as pure political football. My own small survey cou
stanley thermos ld not find an instance last year of supposedly neutral statistics on crime and punishment, whether emanating from government
stanley mug or other sources, being accepted at face value by both sides of the political divide. The public has little chance of being able to decide between the competing claims being bandied about in the media.The formula is nearly always the same. The first step is for each side to deny that the statistics furnished by the other have any validity. When both sides do accept the actual figures, they argue about the interpretation of the statistics. When those confrontations
