General News
MoD: 'The Two Worlds of Charlie F', which has already taken the West End by storm, kicked off its UK tour at Birmingham's New Alexandra Theatre on 19 July, with a glittering press launch. The production, performed by wounded, injured & sick Service personnel of Bravo 22 Company, brings to life their real-life stories of conflict and recovery.
WAG: The Minister for Housing Regeneration & Heritage has recently congratulated the 5 Welsh community projects set to benefit from the Coastal Communities Fund. Under the CC Fund, which was established by the UK Treasury, grants are available to fund projects that boost the economic prospects of coastal communities across the UK.
FSA: Morrisons is recalling one batch of its own-brand Pesto Chicken Pasta, with a 'use by' date of 20 July. The product contains prawn linguine with celery, instead of pesto chicken pasta. If you're allergic to or intolerant of shellfish (prawns) and/or celery, don't eat this product. The Food Standards Agency has issued an Allergy Alert.
FSA: Prompt Thai 2000 (Wholesale) has recalled all jars of its Kraft Cheez Whiz manufactured in the Philippines. The Philippines is a country not approved to export milk or milk-based dairy products into the EU. If you've bought any of these products, don’t eat them. The Food Standards Agency has issued a Product Recall Information Notice.
ACE: Recently Arts Council England launched a £7m Digital R&D Fund for the Arts in partnership with Nesta and the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The fund is unique in encouraging collaboration between the arts, digital technology providers and the research community in order to undertake experiments from which the wider arts and cultural sector can learn.
ACE expects that the fund will support approximately 90 R&D collaborations. Projects will be funded up to a value of £125,000 and will focus on 6 key themes. More information on the application process, including key eligibility criteria, can be found on its website. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis during the lifetime of the fund, until 30 December 2013..
CBI: The CBI recently commented on the Funding for Lending scheme announced by the Bank of England and the Government, through which banks will be able to access more & cheaper funding over the next 18 months to pass on to businesses & households.
TNA: The service records of the first 320,000 airmen to serve with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and its forebears are now searchable by name following the conclusion of a successful cataloguing project. Previously, it was only possible to search the index of airmen on microfilm in the reading rooms at Kew.
MoD: Children from 11 primary schools across Bristol have taken part in a project run by graduate trainee engineers from the MOD's Defence Engineering and Science Group (DESG). Each year, a graduate development project is organised for new graduates to engage in - and this year more than 70 trainees have worked with local schools to encourage interest in science, technology, engineering & maths.
NEF: Greenham, Head of Finance at the New Economics Foundation Responding has responded to Labour leader, Ed Miliband’s recent speech on banking.
DCMS: A project which aims to transform people’s understanding of the history of the Middle East and its relationship with Britain has been announced. The British Library and the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) have teamed up to digitise more than 500,000 pages from the archives of the East India Company and India Office, as well as 25,000 pages of medieval Arabic manuscripts.
LGA: Householders are being denied flood insurance because of delays by the Government and insurers coming to a new deal on affordable cover. A ‘safety net' arrangement between government and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) to provide cover to flood-risk homes expires next June, and a new agreement has yet to be reached.
With less than a year of the existing deal remaining, councils have found that some householders who have tried to renew their insurance in the past few weeks have been denied cover or quoted hugely inflated prices.
Press release & links ~ See also 2nd item Newsletter Archive for ‘In the News’ - Published 15/07/2012
TfL: Free travel will be offered to all military personnel when in uniform on London Underground, London's buses, the Docklands Light Railway, London Overground and other TfL-operated services for the duration of the Games, from Saturday 21 July to 11 September..
All TfL staff will be instructed to simply open the gates at stations, or to allow free access to services to all uniformed military personnel.
TUC: TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, has commented on the IMF country report on the UK published last week.
NE: Natural England is to give planning & licensing applicants, greater access to the advice of its case officers & wildlife advisers, ensuring their proposals can benefit from high-quality conservation advice at an early stage of plan development.
MoD: The Ministry of Defence and DWP have announced a simplification & streamlining of the financial support system for members of the Armed Forces who have been seriously injured. Rather than face separate assessments, personnel who have been seriously injured as a result of military service will receive ongoing payments to help with the additional costs associated with their injuries.
