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Win a Baby with the Lottery

By Jessie Wilkens on July 6, 2011 in

If you’ve been having trouble conceiving a child, fear not. Held is now on the way in the form of a new lottery. That’s right. The world’s first IVF lottery is about to launch in England. Tickets for this very controversial idea will go on sale in late July and will cost £20 each.

Winning the Baby Lottery

And what do you get, should you be the lucky winner of the jackpot? You’ll be able to enjoy £25,000 worth of tailor-made fertility treatments with one of the UK’s top fertility specialists. Each month, the lottery will offer one lucky couple the chance to conceive in this way.

Critics, of course, say that the process of making this a lottery issue “demeaned” the very nature of reproduction. In addition, the new lottery will also get heat, undoubtedly, since it’s not only for couples. Anyone can take part in the lottery including singles, gay people and even the elderly (who might then pass on their win to someone else).

Added Benefits

In addition to treatments, winners will get perks like a stay in a luxury hotel, a chauffeur to take them to the clinic for their treatments, and even extra treatments if IVF fails. They will be offered donor eggs, reproductive surgery and even, perhaps, surrogate birth if needed.

Profits from the game will go to the charity To Hatch which will then be able to provide support to childless couples.

Defending Themselves

In response to the waves of criticism the lottery idea is receiving, To Hatch founder Camille Strachan said, “We will offer struggling couples a completely tailor made service. We hope the To Hatch Lottery can ease the burden on the NHS and reduce the stress slightly on some of those who are struggling.”

One out of every seven couples suffers from fertility problems in England and 1% of babies that are born in Britain each year were conceived with IVF.

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Hot New Land Rover Hits the Market

By Jessie Wilkens on July 5, 2011 in

Recession? What recession? That’s what the Land Rover’s Halewood manufacturing plant in Liverpool is saying today. The new “baby” Range Rover has just come off of the production line and it’s already sold out for the year before even having a kilometer put on it.

Range Rover Evoque

Called the Range Rover Evoque, it has 18,000 advance orders from customers around the world. With its £2billion investment, it has sold out its entire first year fleet…and then some. The Evoque is just the first of the long list of new products that Jaguar Land Rover plans to launch in the coming years, as they hope to generate billions of pounds in investment in the UK.

The Evoque is being built in the UK at the Halewood plant on Merseyside, which is also home to the Freelander.

A Greener Car

The Evoque is priced between £30,000 to about £45,000 and already has fans like Victoria Beckham, who unveiled one last July at Kensington Palace.

Following in the trend of trying to promote a green environment, this will be the “greenest” Range Rover yet. It should get 50 miles to the gallon.

As Jaguar Land Rover chief executive officer Dr Ralf Speth said,

“The teams that have designed engineered and built the new Evoque can be immensely proud of their achievement. Worldwide interest in our new car has been exceptional, with 18,000 customer orders received from customers eager to be among the first to own the new Range Rover.”

Good Economic News

While not everyone will be able to enjoy such a luxury item, the production of these Land Rovers is good for the UK economy. With a plan to export 75% of their production around the world, the company predicts it will add £2 billion to the UK economy. Jaguar Land Rover has almost 19,000 people working for it in the UK and they support as many as 140,000 additional jobs through their supply chain, dealer network and other business operations.

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Andrew Mitchell Commits British Aid to Ethiopia

By Jessie Wilkens on July 4, 2011 in

Yesterday, a minister in the British government announced that England would be increasing its aid budget to Ethiopia. Approximately £38million will be arriving in the African country to help with the famine issues and the needs of 1.3 million starving people. Ethiopia is facing the worst drought that they’ve had for a decade, and the people are feeling it intensely.

10% Increase in Aid

With this pledge, the UK’s spending on Ethiopian aid is rising by more than 10% from £330million to £368million.

Explaining the increase in aid, the International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said:

“Through no fault of its own, the Horn of Africa is experiencing a severe drought caused by the failed rains. Britain is acting quickly to stop this crisis becoming a catastrophe. The country has made great strides in many areas over the past 30 years and this emergency relief will help to ensure that these gains are not eroded.”

Helping Those Most in Need

As part of the aid, there will be extra help for the 329,000 malnourished children in the country and treatment for mothers who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Jane Cocking, the director of Oxfam said that the government’s support is much needed. As she explained, “The money cannot come soon enough. There are already critical and life-threatening food shortages in Ethiopia. Two successive poor rains have left millions of people struggling to get food as hundreds of thousands of livestock have died and crops have failed. Other donors now need to follow suit and increase funding before it is too late.”

A Desperate Situation

Save the Children’s Matt Wingate also explained that, “Money pledged by the UK Government will mean that aid agencies can get life-saving help to hundreds of thousands more children and their families. Our staff are receiving more and more children on the verge of starvation in our feeding centers every day. We urgently need other rich countries and donors to follow the UK Government’s lead and give money now so we can stop children dying across the region.”

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High Street Feeling the Economic Hit

By Jessie Wilkens on June 29, 2011 in

If you love shopping on High Street, now might be the time to get some bargains. Yesterday, a collection of retailers announced that they will be closing their stores and cutting jobs. Here are a few of those heading for the cutting block:

* Thornton’s said that it’s closing 120 of its poorly performing chocolate stores.

* Carpetright will shut 75 floor covering store outlets.

* TJ Hughes plans to place 4000 jobs in limbo as it evaluates what to do with its 57 stores.

* Jane Norman announced that 33 stores will be shutting soon, making 400 people jobless.

* Homeform said it will appoint an administrator, putting 1300 jobs in question.

* Kesa is considering selling its electrical retailer after having losses of £8.9million.

All of these examples show a loss of consumer confidence that retailers are facing across the country.

Certainly, all of this is sending out a red light across England, and giving people who are watching their purse strings even more reason to worry.

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Convicted Felon Getting Paid Apprenticeship

By Jessie Wilkens on June 28, 2011 in ,

Now, even convicted felons can bring home the bacon while they are still behind bars. That’s because convicted bank robber, Reuben Reynolds, just became the first prisoner to be give a paid apprenticeship while still serving time.

A Shady Past

Convicted of being part of a four-man gang which used stolen pick-up trucks to rip ATM machines from their posts during a five-month spree, Reynolds was jailed for a four year term in November of 2009.

Now, Reynolds is being offered a second chance. He’s being allowed to leave his cell at HMP Lincoln five days a week to work at the housing firm The Gelder Group as a £3.60-an-hour trainee builder.

Reynolds will return to his cell each night and will continue to be monitored by the Prison Service. He is also not allowed to spend any of his earnings until he is released from prison.

The Gelder Group

A spokesman for The Gelder Group said, “He’s a very lucky boy. He’s determined to turn his life around and get back on the straight and narrow. He will be closely monitored by us and the Prison Service. He’s got too much to lose if it goes wrong. He will be working on our new build house and insurance and renovations so homeowners will be told and have the choice to say no if they wish.”

He continued, “But Reuben has already been working for free on work experience and no one has had any problems.”

Mike Johnson, the group training manager for The Gelder Group said, “It is the first time ever it has been done and we’re proud Gelder Group has been selected to pilot and manage it…We want to give them the best chance to find employment. We want to help them get back into the community and get back on track…What we’re trying to do with this scheme is show that there is value in taking on inmates and past prisoners. We are motivated by a passion for training people and getting them back into the community.”

The company has the goal of extended the training program to 150 prisoners by the year’s end.

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Middle Class Pensioners – Prepare to Pay

By Jessie Wilkens on June 27, 2011 in ,

Bad news for middle class pensioners in England.  Under a new proposal by economist Andrew Dilnot, the middle class pensioners are going to be paying for their own old age care.  Figures set between £35,000 and £50,000 that they would need to pay, according to a review coming out this week.  Elderly spending is soon going to be cut by more than £600million this year, making it necessary to come up with creative ways to fund this need.

At the moment, many pensioners already pay for part of their care.  Anyone who has savings or assets that reach above £23,250 has to pay for their own care in full.  And this includes property values.

Upcoming Review

The upcoming review will raise the threshold so that those with very modest savings will benefit at the expense of the taxpayers – but those in the middle class will have to pay more.

Many organizations including Age UK, the British Heart Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Society have been writing to Prime Minster David Cameron to urge him to accept the Dilnot proposal.

Social Care System

As they wrote, “The social care system has been in growing crisis for years. Our organisations deal every day with people at the most vulnerable points in their lives who are either not receiving any social care support or a small level of help that is grossly inadequate to their needs. We call upon the government to take this opportunity offered by the Dilnot Commission and produce a White Paper in the autumn detailing how it will create a sustainable and fair social care system, including how it will be funded.”

At Odds Over Care

Certainly, this plan has both its defenders and detractors. Chancellor George Osborne is resistant to the plan, while Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Lib Dem care minister Paul Burstow are both supportive of it.

Michelle Mitchell, the charity director for Age UK, said, “Funding for social care is already inadequate. We are fearful that even more vulnerable older people will be left to struggle alone and in some cases lives will be put at risk. We anticipate these cuts will condemn many more older people to a miserable existence behind closed doors struggling to keep safe and well.”

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Get On Your Bike and Ride…to Work

By Jessie Wilkens on June 22, 2011 in , , ,

Everyone knows that biking and other exercise are good for you – but did you know that you just might be able to make money by getting on your bike and riding? That’s the latest buzz sweeping commuters across Europe, as many employers are paying their employees to come to work on bicycles.

Rewarded for Riding

In Belgium, the Netherlands and in other European countries, employers are rewarding staff that brings a bike to work by paying them for every kilometer they ride.

In Belgium, the cycling commuters are receiving 20 U.S. cents for each kilometer, while those in the Netherlands are pocketing 15 cents and people in Britain are bringing in up to 32 U.S. cents for each mile. And – it’s all tax-free.

Incentives to Ride

In Belgium alone, the finance ministry figures have shown that more than 270,000 people took part in the incentive program last year. This is up from 140,000 in 2006.

As Deiter Snauwaert, one of the coordinators of the bike-to-work program in Belgium, said,

“Higher oil prices and environmental awareness contribute to having more cyclists on the road.”

One of the most successful corporations that has joined in the plan is Colruyt, the Belgian discount supermarket conglomerate. They have over 22,000 employees and launched the program four years ago. They now have 2100 participants and they provide their employees who live up to 7km from work with bicycles and free maintenance.

Benefits of Riding to Work

As Company spokesman Victor De Meester said, “The more people cycle to work the fewer parking spaces you have to offer. It’s not so easy, especially in urban areas, to expand parking spaces.”

Now, Colruyt is setting its sights on those who live farther away, looking to offer electric bikes to employees who are more than 7km from work.

Research from the Dutch organization TNO has, not surprisingly, found that cycling employees lose one less working day a year than do employees who commute by other means. This obviously helps with healthcare costs, and it keeps employees fit and healthy, which in turn provides workers with more energy for their job.

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Retail Therapy Actually Does Matter

By Jessie Wilkens on June 21, 2011 in , , ,

If you’ve ever heard that retail therapy can make you happy, there is actually some truth to the statement. At least according to recent research. After asking hundreds of shoppers to keep diaries of their shopping behavior, and after interviewing hundreds of happy shoppers, researchers have concluded that shopping has a happiness component to it.

Research on Retail Therapy

The researchers asked shoppers to keep diaries of their buying habits, their moods before and after shopping and about purchases that they regretted making. They found that impulse buying occurred more often by shoppers who were in a bad mood when they started their shopping trip.

As the study by Selin Atalay and Margaret Meloy published in the Journal of Psychology and Marketing in the U.S., concluded: “Retail therapy purchases were overwhelmingly beneficial, leading to mood boosts and no regrets or guilt.”

Using the Research to Your Advantage

The authors explained that retailers should definitely use this information to their advantage. As they say, “What is suggested is that perhaps practitioners have it ‘right’ when they appeal to consumers with slogans that encourage them to buy themselves splurges. There seem to be positive consequences to buying oneself a small treat: one does feel better.”

They did give one caveat to their research – they pointed out that the findings need to be interpreted carefully since the survey was with a self-selecting group. Participants were generally those who were already in a good mood, which could have swayed the results.

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Changing the Face of Vacationing in England

By Jessie Wilkens on June 20, 2011 in ,

If you’re not planning to go on vacation this summer due to money concerns – you aren’t alone. A recent survey by finance giant ING Direct has found that 40% of Britons are foregoing their annual summer trips in an attempt to save money. The exact figures show that 39%, or 17.7 million people are placing their priority on keeping the checkbook balanced, rather than on sunning this summer.

Vacationing at Home

The poll found that, out of this 39%, 9 out of 10 of them would have taken their vacation in England. This is obviously bad news for the tourism industry and for the economy in general.

However, one area of the tourism industry is looking up – and that’s the camping industry. Camp sites are seeing a boom in bookings, with more people signing up than have since the 1950s.

Get the Tent Out

As the ING Direct spokesman Richard Doe explained, “It’s clear that a tough economic climate is causing consumers to pull off a very difficult balancing act – cutting down on debt while dealing with rising prices. So it’s not surprising that the summer holiday is often being sacrificed. However, it is certainly a good thing that consumers are adopting a more sensible approach to holiday planning, saving in advance for their trips, rather than entirely relying on the plastic.”

Part of the irony of the staycation is that many are making their camping grounds as luxurious as possible. A study of professionals by insurer Hiscox has found that many are dragging their airbeds, china, and fancy tents to their camping trips. Certainly, portable toilets, electrical outlets, refrigerators and more are appearing on the camping scene as well.

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Slopbuckets Making a Comeback in the U.K.

By Jessie Wilkens on June 15, 2011 in , ,

England is about to get a bit more smelly. That’s because Coalition plans set out yesterday have dictated that every home will soon need to use a slopbucket. This is certainly the most radical of the many “green” plans that are being promoted by Environmental Secretary Caroline Spelman.

Mrs. Spelman has certainly changed her tune. Just last year, she said, “The Government has no plans to force households to put food into slopbuckets.”

Slopbucket Declarations

The slopbucket declaration is part of the long-anticipated Waste Review, part of the package whose goal is to make themselves the “greenest ever” government.
Along with the slopbucket plan, Mrs. Spelman’s overall plan also includes convincing manufacturers and producers to limit their packaging and asking families to refrain from throwing away uneaten foods. She is also encouraging the use of litter bins for recycling.

Opposition Frustration

The government is not, however, any longer promising to have weekly bin collections, much to the opposition’s frustration. Mrs. Spelman said, in response to this criticism, “In Opposition you don’t have a chance to see the Government’s books. You don’t see how much the Government is overspent. When we came in we found the situation was worse than we thought. I think people will understand that.”

Rather than installing a weekly collection of all waste, Mrs. Spelman has proposed that they have “smelly waste” collected separately from other waste and then have that waste used in a recycling project.

Wary of the New Measures

While the review acknowledged that slopbuckets are quite unpopular, they offered creative ways to use them including composting, at-sink disposal units and more. They also said that they are proposing that local “bin police” will be able to slop on-the-spot fines of about £75 to £110 on those who don’t comply.

Certainly, many in England are wary of these new measures. In Newcastle-under-Lyme, for instance, they are already following very strict recycling rules and are juggling nine separate bins! Certainly, for those who live in apartment buildings or other locations without gardens, these bins have become a nightmare.

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