Going for Gold

Demands for gold by investors have increased this year, but sales of gold jewellery by ordinary consumers have decreased.

 

Gold is seen as a secure purchase in times of recession, whilst gold jewellery is viewed as an unneccessary luxury.

Fashion trends which have favoured silver and costume jewellery in recent years may have accounted for some of this consumer trend, but careful customer purchases are thought to be the main reason.

Scottish pawnbrokers have been seen advertising for gold jewellery in a bid to take advantage of the increasing demand for solid gold as investment.

Scottish retail figures up from last year

Retail sales figures in Scotland are up significantly from last year.
According to the Scottish Retail Consortium, total sales in April were up by 8.2% from the same time last year.

Comparing shops that were counted last year and this, the rise was 4.3%.
The Consortium attributes this to the warmer weather this year, and the timing of Easter.
As a result of the contribution of these factors Fiona Moriarty, Director of the Retail Consortium, has been cautious in interpreting the long-term meaning of this sales increase – saying that it’s too soon to say a corner has been turned.
This careful statement is supported by the fact that the a large proportion of the sales increase has been attributed to summer  clothing, whilst more expensive items not    determined by season such as furniture are still experiencing poor sales.
Despite Scottish retailer concerns, consumer confidence is higher in Scotland than in Britain as a whole.

Britain’s oldest Mum

Elizabeth Adeney, 66, is to become Britain’s oldest Mum.
Millionaress Adeney has defended her decision to have a child via IVF. She calls it a “personal decision” and that she wanted “someone to leave her money to”.
Even though Adeney is fighting fit at the moment her child will ulimately face the prospect of losing their mother at a young age. No matter how much her child stands to inheret surely no one deserves to be leftt orphaned by the time they hit high school?

Schoolboy Alfie distressed at DNA results

Thirteen year old Alfie Patten is said to be “extremely distressed” after learning that the child he believed he fathered with his 15-year-old girlfriend Chantelle Stedman was, in fact, not his.
DNA results have shown that 15-year-old Tyler Barker is actually the little girls Dad. The sad fact of the matter is that this little girl is now left to be raised by children, and it seems that no one in her life is equipped for the challenge.
Kids this young shouldn’t be having kids and with so many young boys keen to claim Masie as their own it would appear that none of these young boys actually understood what they were laying claim to.
The only good thing that could come out of this whole affair is that, hopefully, sex education in schools will finally be reformed to help stop this happening over and over again.

End of an era?

Call me cynical, but was anyone in the least suprised when Jordan and Peter announced their split last Tuesday? It seemed like a long time coming if you ask me, in fact, it seemed like they were just hanging on until the best money making opportunity.
Now poor little Katie’s off in the Maldives sunning herself and telling her tales of woe to the highest bidder, while a “devestated” Pete courts the record labels with his latest foray into pop.
Unfortunately it would seem that these two are the perfect example of a 21st century celeb couple. Meeting on a reality TV show, living their married life infront of the camera and airing their dirty laundry for all to see when the perfect time comes.

Speaker or scapegoat?

Whatever his faults and limitations House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin is not personally responsible for the MP expense claim furore which has dominated the news for the past week.

As Martin officially steps down from his House of Commons role, less we forget that it was the MP’s themselves that made these exorbitant claims for moat cleaning chauffeurs. It was them – and their political parties – that allowed for such a system to operate without reform or question for so many years.

Nevertheless, Martin is not snowy white in this tale of corruption either. He is implicated in two ways – one, in his efforts to get the courts to exempt MP’s and their expenses from Freedom of Information laws (something to hide perhaps?), and two, in his increasingly clumsy way of dealing with the scandal.

Without a doubt The Daily Telegraph’s revelations have succeeded in shaking Westminster to its core.

Over the last few days Martin has made little effort to make things right with the public. He represents parliament to the people and has done nothing to restore our faith in those who govern us. From his half hearted speeches to forced apologies Martin has shown that he does not get the urgency or the seriousness of the situation.

Since The Daily Telegraph exposed the expenses claims young and old alike have been horrified at the perks the taxpayer has been effectively bankrolling for a number of years. In my opinion, it’s nothing short of fraud.

For a government that proudly exclaims “we’re closing in on benefit cheats” surely they’d save time and effort looking a little closer to home? I’m sure their 3000 fraud investigators would have a field day investigating this lot.

I would never condone benefit cheats. I believe that unless there is a genuine reason why you can not work, you should work. But I’d much rather a single mother with kids to feed was pocketing and extra fifty quid on the side at my expense rather than paying for some grubby MP’s hanging baskets.

Considering MP’s get paid, on average, £64,766 which is more than double the average UK salary of £23, 450 should they even get expenses?

I’m not daft and I know most people out there make a few faux claims here and there when we know someone else is paying. Everyone likes a freebie, but, unlike our MP’s our claims don’t run into the thousands and, unlike our MP’s we can’t claim for dog food and trouser presses.

After twenty three MP’s backed a motion of no confidence in regards to Martin’s position it would seem that he has officially been made the fall guy of yet another government failing. Martin’s resignation is, however, not the end of this story, it is only the necessary start to making things right again.

Style savoir faire at Cannes

 

 

However, it seems that some of the stars have been keeping themselves busy elsewhere too.  T4 eye-candy Steve Jones has been spotted out and about with new love interest Hayden Panettiere from Heroes.  Ah, it’s a hard life being famous…

 

 

 

 

 

DiMaggios Killer Jailed for Life

The man convicted of murdering Eleni Pachou has been given a life sentence.

Juan Carlos Suarez Crispin killed Ms Pachou, the trainee manager of DiMaggios in Glasgow’s West End, as he robbed the restaurant while she was closing up for the night.

His mistress Marion Hinshelwood has already pleaded guilty to culpable homicide, after admitting she bought the knife used to kill the victim.

Rosyth Ferry

Scotland’s only direct ferry link to the continent started again today, less than a year after it was axed

The ferry service, which runs from Rosyth to Zeebrugge in the Netherlands, will now be run by Norfolkline after it was dropped by Superfast in September.

James Lackie of VisitScotland welcomed the relaunch in an interview with Caledonian news.

Speaker Stands Down

Speaker Michael Martin announced to a packed House that he intends to stand down on 21 June.

This means he will be the first Commons Speaker in 300 years to be effectively forced out of office.

Mr Martin’s successor is to be elected by MPs on 22 June, a day after he leaves the post.

The Speaker, who is also expected to resign from his post as MP, has faced unprecedented criticism over his handling of the MP expenses issue.

Many people in his own constituency, Glasgow North East, believe Mr Martin to have been made a scapegoat for those Commons MPs who have been ‘fiddling’ expenses.

Michael Martin held his position as MP for 30 years, and has been Speaker for nine years.

After a very brief announcement, the Speaker called for Commons business to continue, to which David Milliband concurred – saying tributes would come at a later date.

However independent MP Bob Spink, who asked the first question, then paid ‘the warmest possible tribute’ to Mr Martin, to sounds of ‘hear hear’ from fellow MPs.

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