My blog will be updated daily, so make sure you come back! If you would like to add or reply to a comment on one of the articles below just send me your comment and, if it's reasonably decent and not libellous or anything like that, I'll add it to the article (don't forget to include the date and title of the article).
01.11.12
100 City traders only knew they'd been axed when their security passes didn't work
Shocked investment bankers learnt they had lost their jobs yesterday – when they were refused entry to their offices.
Traders at financial services firm UBS said they arrived for work in the morning to find their security passes wouldn’t work.
A source claims the dramatic steps were taken amid fears employees might squander vast sums of the company’s money in ‘kamikaze’ spending sprees if they knew they were about to lose their jobs.
The redundancies came as part of a worldwide cull of 10,000 staff at Swiss banking giant UBS.
More than 1,000 London-based staff are expected to be axed in one of the biggest bank layoffs since Lehman Brothers went bankrupt at the start of the financial crisis four years ago.
The first 100 British-based traders to lose their jobs discovered their fate when they turned up at work yesterday.
Human resources staff clutching clipboards led them from the building’s reception into meeting rooms, where they were told they were being put on ‘special leave’ on full pay while the terms of their redundancies were worked out.
A source said bosses could not risk allowing them to get to their desks and start trading huge sums of the company’s money on the stock market knowing they were due be laid off.
vicious.sid: We only found out about what their lot caused to the economy when we were losing our jobs and houses and prices of essentials were going through the roof! My heart bleeds.
01.11.12
Emaciated dog went 'weeks' without eating because of a rusted coffee can stuck round its neck
An abused dog has been found wandering the streets in Dallas with a coffee can around its neck.
The bottom and the top circular portions of the coffee can had been removed and the remaining tube had been placed over the head and around the neck of the starving dog.
When a Good Samaritan found the emaciated dog, it became clear that the coffee can had been on it’s neck for a sizeable amount of time because her skin had grown around the edges of the can.
‘Her body had tried to grow over the can,’ a spokesman from the Animal Allies of Texas told the Dallas News.
Rescuers jokingly nicknamed the dog Java, and took it to Dallas Animal Services along with another stray dog named Joshua.
Every one of severely emaciated Java' ribs was visible, as the edges of the can cut into the dog’s neck, preventing her from eating for days or weeks.
One of the worse injuries was to one of Java’s ears, which was nearly severed by the sharp edge of the rusting can.
vicious.sid: Do you know the scariest thing? I'm not surprised any more. Is that terrible or what? But how good must it have felt when the can was removed?
01.11.12
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Top adviser to PM quits No.10 for job with 'legal loan sharks' company Wonga
One of David Cameron’s top advisers is leaving Downing Street to take a job with controversial payday loan firm Wonga.
Jonathan Luff, the Prime Minister’s adviser on digital strategy, will move to the company – accused of acting as ‘legal loan sharks’ – immediately.
The move will fuel the debate about the ‘revolving door’ between ministerial aides and lobbying, with fears that top businesses find it far too easy to hire influential mandarins with inside government knowledge.
It comes only weeks after it emerged that Tory ministers agreed to hold meetings with Wonga at the party’s annual conference in exchange for donations.
The payday loan company is being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading.
Labour MP Stella Creasy said last night: ‘Along with Wonga paying for cosy chats at Conservative conference with ministers and the lack of regulation to tackle the problems these companies are causing British consumers, this appointment only further raises concerns about how seriously this government takes personal debt.
'When most other countries have capped the costs of credit to protect their citizens from the debts this type of lending can cause, British consumers urgently need to know whose side their Prime Minister is on: theirs or the legal loan sharks?'
The MP, who has been campaigning against payday loans, questioned whether the appointment had been approved by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments.
'Like many other legal loan sharks, Wonga is making massive profits from preying on consumers in Britain's poorly regulated consumer credit market,' she added.
'They have used these profits to target our football clubs and Saturday night TV, and now they are targeting the highest echelons of government.
Those Britons struggling with debts caused by payday lending and wondering why the government is doing nothing to help them will want answers.'
A spokesman for Wonga said Mr Luff would lead the company's 'government affairs team'.
vicious.sid: Not surprised. Obviously wants to start thieving off the less-fortunate legally now instead of the political way.
01.11.12
Alex Reid looks a horror on Come Dine With Me Halloween Special
CROSS-DRESSING cage fighter Alex Reid dresses up as Hannibal Lecter in tonight's episode of Come Dine With Me. He is joined by Hollywood actor Robert Englund — best known for playing Freddy Krueger — psychic Sally Morgan and reality star Nicola McLean.
The famous faces have to battle it out over four episodes to host the best dinner party to win £1,000 for charity.
Robert hosts the first dinner — on Channel 4 at 9pm tonight — inviting the gang to his house for a spooky-themed dinner.
vicious.sid: I think it would be safer to dress him like that normally.
01.11.12
Insurance screamium
IT MAY be Halloween today but there is a far bigger fright looming for British women. From December 21, new rules from the European Court of Justice mean insurers will no longer be able to consider a person’s sex when calculating their premiums.
It will force women to pay the same rates as men on car and life insurance. Until now women have enjoyed far lower premiums as insurers consider them to be a lower risk, but personal finance experts predict an average rise of a third on most women’s premiums, and some could almost double.
Comparison site gocompare.com say the picture is likely to vary according to age but on average female drivers will see £300 piled on to their premium.
The biggest impact will be on the under 35s, with rises of up to £2,000 for girls of 17 and 18.
vicious.sid: Ha ha ha! I remember when this issue was first raised. The spin talk was that men were paying more than women so they should be paying less to match the women. Surprise, surprise, it's been turned round and women must pay more even though they shouldn't need to. Are we shocked? Sigh . . .
01.11.12
Lady Gaga: Adele is bigger than me - how come nobody says anything about it?
Lady Gaga has praised Adele for her confidence as a larger woman in an up-front interview where she talks about her Body Revolution. The Born This Way singer admitted that she gained around 30lbs before she decided to launch the campaign to encourage her fans to feel more comfortable with their image and to be less judgemental to others.
Talking to Stylist magazine about her Body Revolution which runs as part of her website Little Monsters, Gaga said she felt it was "f****** ridiculous" that such a big deal was made out of her weight gain.
She said: "I was acutely aware of some photos on the internet – my mum called me and was like, 'Did you gain weight?' – everybody was telling me about it, and I didn't really care.
"But when I heard it was on the news, where they talk about wars, the economy crashing and the election – I just thought, ‘This is f****** ridiculous.’ I mean, what kind of example is that to a young girl sitting at home?"
And she brought curvy Brit Adele into the discussion, claiming the Someone Like You star is "bigger" than she is and asking: "how come nobody says anything about her?"
She added: "I thought, well I don’t really care if they think I’m fat, because, quite honestly, I did gain about 30 pounds. Adele is bigger than me, how come nobody says anything about it? She’s so wonderful and I think her confidence is something I have to match. She has set the bar very high for a lot of women."
vicious.sid: That's because they wouldn't dare!!!
01.11.12
Cameron suffers embarrassing Commons defeat as Tory rebels and Labour MPs unite to demand a tougher stance on the EU’s budget
David Cameron suffered an embarrassing Commons defeat tonight, as Labour MPs and Tory rebels united to demand he take a tougher line with the European Union over its vast budget.
The Prime Minister’s policy of wanting a freeze from 2014-2020 was condemned for not going far enough enough during a three-hour debate.
In a crunch vote the government suffered its first significant loss by 307 votes to 294 as the Commons voted for the EU budget to be cut in real terms.
David Cameron and Ed Miliband clashed over the government's stance on the EU budget at Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons today
The result came at the end of a day when Mr Cameron was repeatedly compared to John Major, whose premiership was dogged by Tory division over Europe dominated by debates over the Maastricht Treaty.
Hours earlier Downing Street admitted defeat, after it became clear that dozens of Conservative backbenchers were ready to defy an aggressive whipping operation to vote against the government.
For several days the government has insisted demanded a cut was not ‘realistic’ and Mr Cameron would go to a European Council summit next month demanding a freeze.
At Prime Minister’s Questions Mr Cameron appeared to change position, when he told MPs: 'At best we would like a cut, at worst a freeze. I am quite prepared to use the veto if we do not get a deal that is good for Britain.'
But his admission that he would prefer a freeze appeared only to bolster the revolt.
Several Tory MPs said that at a time when cuts were being made to national budgets, including in the UK, it was wrong for Brussels to expect rises in its funding.
The government motion debated in the Commons called for a real-terms freeze in the EU's budget for 2014-20.
But dozens of Tory rebels joined the Labour party to back an amendment demanding a real-terms cut.
vicious.sid: I think you'd better get used to it, Cameron, this is not going to be your last embarrassing defeat!!!