John Hemming's Web Log

This image: Looks at the NPV of the tuition payments for graduates in each percentile of income. The assumption is that the government pays the universities a fee of £7,500 for each year of study. Labour's proposal is for the government to pay no more than £6,000 per year to universities through this scheme. This will, however, not affect the lower income percentiles and only probably the top four percentiles.

This is one of a number of stories relating to the Slovak Government talking to the UK Government about the children. It seems that they are talking about 89 cases. That could be 89 children or 89 cases (a case can involve more than 1 child). I am talking to people from a number of other governments, not just the Slovak Republic. There are also the cases which affect English people which, of course, should be treated exactly the same way. This and This are two more stores in Slovak. This is the same story in Italian.

This is a French TV programme about forced adoption in England. This is an article about the issue by the TV journalist.

I understand that there have been two protests in Rome. This more general one about the actions in Italy and also smaller one about the UK that I don't have further details about.

Slovak TV on Demonstration RTI Radio

This post by Martin Lewis highlights the fact that the student finance system is not like a proper debt. Comparing it to a mortgage. If you don't pay the mortgage then someone comes round an repossesse your house. You need to pay the mortgage whatever your income is. For student finance you don't need to pay if you don't earn over £21,000 and bailiffs don't come around and repossess your brain if you don't pay. Instead the government says after 30 years that you don't even have to pay the contribution. It is not a debt. It is actually a contingent liability. I have not concentrated on the question of what money the government pays the universities (aka Tuition Fees) I have concentrated on what graduates pay the government (the graduate contribution, but also aka Tuition Fees). According to the IFS for 29% of Students (those with lower earnings) the payments by graduates are less than under the old system. This is the "fairer alternative"...

Click here for the video of the speech.

This is a report of the Slovakian case in court yesterday. There are many English grandparents squeezed out of their childrens lives by the obsession with adoption. Hopefully this case will improve the situation for English grandparents.

This is a picture of the protest in Bratislava outside the British Embassy today. I have edited the photo to keep Surrey County Council happy as they have complained about my blog. I have asked them what is wrong with my blog and they have not yet told me. It remains, however, that permission to appeal was granted today. It is important to remember that the law must be the same for all citizens. Hence if Slovak citizens win appeals in the English courts then so should English people. I was pleased that the family who went to court today are committed to fighting for everyone whatever race, religion or nationality. We met on the House of Commons Terrace.

This comment piece by Ted Jeory compares the cover up in Hillsborough to the day to day cover ups in the family courts. This article by Christopher Booker looks at how a foreign country is concerned about what happens in the English and Welsh Family Courts. We should really be able to sort these things out on the basis of complaints raised by victims of the system in the UK. However, if it really takes getting a coalition of countries together to demand change in the UK then so be it.

Uploaded 11/9/12.

Sadly the cover-up over Hillsborough is not unique. We have many signs of cover ups that have not yet been dealt with. I shall list some of them. 1. A US journalist has been banned from the UK because she wanted to investigate and report on Haut de la Garenne (see an EDM I tabled yesterday). Link now here see comments. 2. Babies were made to breathe carbon monoxide at a concentration that is lethal (over time) for adults and the investigation called it an "inert gas".  3. The general cover ups in the family courts where malpractise by psychologists is ignored and the HPC often refuses to investigate. This has resulted in a foreign country asking for help to deal with a case affecting one of their citizens. None of this is acceptable. We need to get much better as a country at looking properly at issues and not just trusting the assurances of people in suits that everything is ok and we shouldn't worry. some more on Leah goodman's case: Her TV...

This is another story in the Slovak Media. I spoke also to an American Pastor who dealt with one of the Slovak cases. He shares my concern as to what the English state did to the children.

This is a speech by Andrew Macfarlane in which there are elements with which I agree. (not all of it). These are two other speeches from the same event. Naomi Angell (someone who doesn't know the stats because she talks about a big increase in the numbers of adoptions from care.) and Martin Narey (I haven't watched his video as I expect the usual nonsense that he speaks).

Pontes v Portugal K.A.B. v. Spain 59819/08

The Slovak Republic has recently expressed concern that children in England who are children of Slovak Citizens have been adopted "without relevant reasons". This page on the Slovak Justice Ministry website gives the official position. This page on the TV station JOJ gives details of some of their reports about this. These are other stories in the Slovak media: http://www.sme.sk/c/6501407/v-britanii-beru-deti-aj-slovenskym-rodicom.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdicthcY_ck http://udalosti.noviny.sk/pochybne-adopcie-deti/23-08-2012/slovaci-zverili-dieta-babke-anglicania-jej-ho-aj-tak-vzali.html http://humenne.korzar.sme.sk/c/6504138/rodinu-ktorej-vzal-anglicky-sud-deti-si-v-brekove-vazia.html http://krimi.noviny.sk/cierna-kronika/19-08-2012/vymyvanie-mozgov-odobrate-deti-conkovcov-zabudaju-na-minulost.html http://www.justice.gov.sk/Stranky/aktualitadetail.aspx?announcementID=1631 Google gives a translation as: ==========================================...

The normal phrase is "its the economy stupid". However, unless a country is an energy exporter in a large way in fact "its energy prices stupid". I have obtained figures from the Library to calculate the marginal rate at which an increase in the price of energy reduces economic activity. I did speak about this in the house earlier this year. However, I haven't yet found the time to do the analysis. It remains, however, that as energy prices (and particularly oil prices as that is the marginal source of energy) go up then economic activity is held back. We make the mistake thinking of growth rather than activity. Obviously some forms of economic activity use less energy than other forms. In a world with a constrained energy supply those forms of economic activity need to be encouraged. You will see on the right of my blog a couple of charts. It is possible to see the effect on oil prices in the USA of Shale Gas (it has knocked about USD 20 off a barrel ...

This Story about Samsung shares dropping following a patent case highlights some interesting questions. I haven't studied the details of the cases around the world, but superficially it appears that the US Courts have found for Apple and non-US courts have found for Samsung. If this is true then in itself it raises questions about the differential effect of the rule of law in different countries. I do study this for the purposes of family law as should become clear in a few days. However, it is not something we can ignore as if it stands up to detailed scrutiny - which of course it might not - it raises concerns about the enforcement of court orders from one country in another. The activity of Argentina in the energy sector is a good example of a clearly wrong decision of one country and its legal system and how that should be responded to by other countries. I tend to take a more robust approach on this than many. There are also questions about the BBC report as to whether...

The Advertising Standards Authority have today published their adjudication about the RSPCA's "home for life" adverts. The ASA take the view that people do not need to be told that a proportion of the animals taken by the RSPCA under "home for life" are euthanased by the RSPCA even if they are rehomeable. The background to this is that a constituent of mine had some dogs taken by the RSPCA - because they thought she had too many dogs.  She later found that the RSPCA had put them down.   Her concern was that had she known this she could have rehomed the dogs herself and it was not clear on the form that she completed that they were likely to put the dogs down without referring to her. The "home for life" scheme advert can be seen here . We have obtained the paperwork from the RSPCA about "home for life" and it also does not make it clear that the RSPCA do euthanise some of the dogs that they take in even if they are rehomeable. My c...

John Hemming has discussed music performers and digital copyright in the past, and today Sarah Thompson advances the conversation by considering the seminal court cases in the debate over copyright issues in the digital age. You can read more from Sarah at the online resource where she frequently writes, which covers industry topics like how music production careers have evolved in the last two decades . The Problems Protecting Music Production and Copyright in the Digital Age Recent changes in technology have made it easier than ever to share and copy content, particularly music. The United State Copyright Act governs all of these transactions, but not comprehensively. Most provisions of the act were framed in a time when digital innovations could never have been imagined. Lawyers and lawmakers have struggled to stretch existing provisions to fit new and growing capabilities, with mixed results. Today’s music copyright landscape is mired in pitfalls, and defined by an ever-...