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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

File:Arthur-Neville-Chamberlain.jpg

The personal diaries of British wartime Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain are to go on display at the Imperial War Museum in London.

Beginning on August 20, 2009, a free exhibition, marking the 70th anniversary of the declaration of WWII, will allow visitors to have an unprecedented insight into the mind of the Prime Minister at the helm of the government when war was declared on September 3, 1939. His entry for that day, a note scribbled in pencil reads simply: “War declared.” With the diaries, a letter to his sister detailing the preparations for war, and the declaration letter itself, written by Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax.

The centrepiece at the exhibition will be accompanied by King George IV‘s jacket worn on his television appearance, and other previously unseen memorabilia from the period in the immediate run up to the Second World War.

A book, entitled The World Goes To War, is to be published on August 27, 2009 to accompany the exhibition. Also, a television documentary will be broadcast on UK network ITV1.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has warned that the state of the housing market in the United Kingdom is the current biggest domestic threat to the country’s economy, due to lack of house building, and regulatory issues.

In an interview to be aired on Sky News today, he said the housing market is the “biggest risk” to the economy and has “deep, deep structural problems”. Of house building he said: “There are not sufficient houses built in the UK. To go back to Canada, there are half as many people in Canada as in the UK, twice as many houses are built every year in Canada as in the UK and we can’t influence that.”

“We’re not going to build a single house at the Bank of England. We can’t influence that. What we can influence […] is whether the banks are strong enough. Do they have enough capital against risk in the housing market?”

Carney also said the Bank of England would look into the procedures used to issue loans and mortgages to see if they were being granted appropriately: “We’d be concerned if there was a rapid increase in high loan-to-value mortgages across the banks. We’ve seen that creeping up and it’s something we’re watching closely.”

Kris Hopkins responded to Carney on behalf of the government, saying the government “inherited a broken housing market, but our efforts to fix it are working”. “We’ve scrapped the failed top-down planning system, built over 170,000 affordable homes and released more surplus brownfield sites for new housing. We’ve also helped homebuyers get on the housing ladder, because if people can buy homes builders will build them. Housebuilding is now at its highest level since 2007 and climbing. Last year councils gave permission for almost 200,000 new homes under the locally-led planning system and more than 1,000 communities have swiftly taken up neighbourhood planning. It’s clear evidence the government’s long-term economic plan is working.”

Earlier this month, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development called on the UK government to “tighten” access to the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme introduced by George Osborne and the coalition government in 2013. ‘Help to Buy’ has also recently been criticised by three former Chancellors of the Exchequer — the Conservatives Norman Lamont and Nigel Lawson, and former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling. Darling said: “Unless supply can be increased substantially, we will exacerbate that situation with schemes like Help to Buy.”

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Michael Jackson’s This Is It, a documentary film based on world-famous singer Michael Jackson rehearsing for his last tour before his untimely death, will be premiered in at least 15 cinemas in cities all over the world simultaneously.

The film is due to premiere on October 27 and October 28. The world cities may be in different time zones with different dates but they will all be premiering the film at exactly the same time. One such premiere location is Los Angeles, in the US state of California, which will have the film starting at 1800 PT. Another simultaneity is the Odeon Leicester Square cinema in London, England, which will start at 0100 GMT on October 27.

Other locations holding concurrent premieres are the South African city of Johannesburg, New York City in New York, German capital Berlin, Russian capital city Moscow, Japanese capital Tokyo, Australian city Sydney, French capital Paris, South Korean city Seoul, and Rio de Janeiro, a large city in Brazil.

Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 aged 50, after suffering from a cardiac arrest. The movie will feature some of the rehearsal footage made in the weeks before his death. In total, there will be at least 25 cinemas premiering the film, but not all of them will be released simultaneously. Sony Pictures, the film production company, have yet to announce the other cities involved. Tickets for the film will be available to purchase from Sunday, September 27. The film is directed by Kenny Ortega, who previously directed all the High School Musical films. He also directed some significant Michael Jackson events, such as his This Is It concert and Jackson’s memorial service.

Jeff Blake, chairman of worldwide marketing and distribution for Sony Pictures, said: “Michael Jackson has an army of fans everywhere around the world… we are giving the audiences an incredible opportunity to join together in celebration of Michael Jackson’s incredible career.”

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The San Diego, California suburb of Chula Vista has responded to the recent housing crisis with an aggressive blight control ordinance that compels lenders to maintain the appearance of vacant homes. As foreclosures increase both locally and throughout the United States, the one year old ordinance has become a model for other cities overwhelmed by the problem of abandoned homes that decay into neighborhood eyesores.

Chula Vista city code enforcement manager Doug Leeper told the San Diego Union Tribune that over 300 jurisdictions have contacted his office during the past year with inquiries about the city’s tough local ordinance. Coral Springs, Florida, and California towns Stockton, Santee, Riverside County, and Murietta have all modeled recently enacted anti-blight measures after Chula Vista’s. On Wednesday, 8 October, the Escondido City Council also voted to tighten local measures making lenders more accountable for maintenance of empty homes.

Under the Chula Vista ordinance lenders become legally responsible for upkeep as soon as a notice of mortgage default gets filed on a vacant dwelling, before actual ownership of the dwelling returns to the lender. Leeper regards that as “the cutting-edge part of our ordinance”. Chula Vista also requires prompt registration of vacant homes and applies stiff fines as high as US$1000 per day for failure to maintain a property. Since foreclosed properties are subject to frequent resale between mortgage brokers, city officials enforce the fines by sending notices to every name on title documents and placing a lien on the property, which prevents further resale until outstanding fines have been paid. In the year since the ordinance went into effect the city has applied $850,000 in fines and penalties, of which it has collected $200,000 to date. The city has collected an additional $77,000 in registration fees on vacant homes.

Jolie Houston, an attorney in San Jose, believes “Lenders will respond when it costs them less to maintain the property than to ignore local agency requirements.” Traditionally, local governments have resorted to addressing blight problems on abandoned properties with public funds, mowing overgrown lawns and performing other vital functions, then seeking repayment afterward. Chula Vista has moved that responsibility to an upfront obligation upon lenders.

As one of the fastest growing cities in the United States during recent years, Chula Vista saw 22.6% growth between 2000 and 2006, which brought the city’s population from 173,556 in the 2000 census to an estimated 212,756, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Chula Vista placed among the nation’s 20 fastest growing cities in 2004. A large proportion of local homes were purchased during the recent housing boom using creative financing options that purchasers did not understand were beyond their means. Average home prices in San Diego County declined by 25% in the last year, which is the steepest drop on record. Many homeowners in the region currently owe more than their homes are worth and confront rising balloon payment mortgages that they had expected to afford by refinancing new equity that either vanished or never materialized. In August 2008, Chula Vista’s eastern 91913 zip code had the highest home mortgage default rate in the county with 154 filings and 94 foreclosures, an increase of 154% over one year previously. Regionally, the county saw 1,979 foreclosures in August.

Professionals from the real estate and mortgage industries object to Chula Vista’s response to the crisis for the additional burdens it places on their struggling finances. Said San Diego real estate agent Marc Carpenter, “that kind of measure will add additional costs to banks that have been hit really hard already and ultimately the cost will be transferred down to consumers and investors.” Yet city councils in many communities have been under pressure to do something about increasing numbers of vacant properties. Concentrations of abandoned and neglected homes can attract vandals who hasten the decline of struggling neighborhoods. Jolie Houston explained that city officials “can’t fix the lending problem, but they can try to prevent neighborhoods from becoming blighted.”

CEO Robert Klein of Safeguard, a property management firm, told the Union Tribune that his industry is having difficulty adapting to the rapidly changing local ordinances. “Every day we discover a new ordinance coming out of somewhere”, he complained. Dustin Hobbs, a spokesman from the California Association of Mortgage Bankers agreed that uneven local ordinances are likely to increase the costs of lending. Hobbs advised that local legislation is unnecessary due to California State Senate Bill 1137, which was recently approved to address blight. Yet according to Houston, the statewide measure falls short because it fails to address upkeep needs during the months between the time when foreclosure begins and when the lender takes title.

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Estimates by event organizers indicate roughly one million people marched in London on Saturday during an anti-Brexit (“British exit”) march, protesting the pending exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union (EU).

Protesters, carrying placards asking the government to revoke Article 50 — the EU treaty clause invoked by Brexit — and European Union flags, marched from Hyde Park Corner to Parliament. The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, tweeted, “Here in London, thousands of people from across our city and country have come together with @peoplesvote-uk to send a clear message: Enough is enough – it’s time to give the British public the final say on Brexit.”

There were several speakers at the rally, including First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, Labour MP (Member of Parliament) Tom Watson, and Sadiq Khan. Tom Watson called Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposed Brexit deal “lousy” and said he would only vote for it if the British people could also vote for or against it. Nicola Sturgeon said it was “the moment of maximum opportunity” for stopping a no-deal Brexit.

Some of the protesters Wikinews interviewed said they had gone to “defend [their] children’s right to live and work in Europe” and “secure [their own] right to work in the EU”. One interviewee said people changed their minds and several said they wanted the politicians to stop ignoring them.

Not everyone agreed there should be another referendum. One MP told the BBC, “We know that 16 million people wanted to stay in the EU, and some of those would still like to stay in the EU, and within that quite a few would like to have another go and have another referendum — but it was always a minority”.

In 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendum on whether to remain part of the European union, which it joined in 1973. About 52% of participating voters voted to leave and 48% to stay.

• Stage where speeches were given. Image: C.Suthorn.

• Protesters with flags and a banner from People’s Vote saying “put it to the people”. Image: Voice of America.

• Protesters at the march. Image: Andrew Gray.

• Trafalgar Square. Image: Mirrys.

• Parliament Square. Image: Mirrys.

• “Revoke arrrticle 50” poster at anti-Brexit march in March 2019. Image: Thomas Davies (flickr).

• “Where is David Cameron? Danny Dyer for PM” sign. Image: mia! (flickr).

• Another part of the march. Image: Michael Maggs.

• Lots of protestors. Image: John Lubbock (flickr).

• Placards. Image: John Lubbock (flickr).

• EU flags and placards. Image: C.Suthorn.

• Children. Image: Garry Knight (flickr).

• More protestors. Image: Chris j wood.

• Mime artists against Brexit. Image: EliasHabermas.

• In front of a WW2 monument. Image: John Lubbock (flickr).

• Protestors wearing EU flags. Image: Garry Knight (flickr).

• Protestor dressed as the Grim Reaper in Whitehall. Image: John Lubbock (flickr).

• People holding a banner saying “united in diversity”. Image: John Lubbock (flickr).