Oh, dear. The government has once again announced a New Deal-style job creation  programme to tackle the crippling effects of the credit crisis.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, hosting a ‘jobs summit’, has laid out plans to help get more than half a million people back into work or training. Employers would also be given around £2,500 for every person trained who had been unemployed for more than six months.

Excuse me, but I’m very sceptical about what the government aims to achieve with this latest pet project at a time when many of their economic and social policies are failing across the board. A lot of hot air will be wasted trying to train people for skills and jobs which simply aren’t there. They have already thrown money at the reckless banks and financial institutions to prevent them from going under, but there’s not much else left for the rest of us.

The very man who very policies has put Britain into this mess is being asked by everybody from businessmen to trade unionists to save this country from further economic ruin. On what has been announced so far, this New Deal deserves to fail.

Sharon Shoesmith, the former head of Haringey Council’s childrens’ services, has lost an appeal against her earlier dismissal.

A panel made up of local councillors had told her that she remains fired, with no possibility of a payoff. Two other senior council officers who worked under her remain suspended. This will please almost everybody in the country, but it doesn’t alter the fact that she had left the department in a near- terminal crisis. This situation could certainly influence voters in a forthcoming council by-election to be held this Thursday.

BABY P must never be forgotten….

There was a huge outpouring of collective (media) anger over the alleged racist remarks made by a young member of the Royal Family.

Yet most newspapers turn a blind eye when our elected government pursues a policy of undermining ethnic minorities in this country, particularly on the issue of immigration. The government imprisons asylum seekers in buildings where most people wouldn’t want to house a pet. They make them destitute by refusing them either access to social security or a chance of suitable employment. Applications for asylum are often rejected, and the police are used to send them on planes back to countries which aren’t even considered safe. Even if they are allowed to stay in Britain, they are often treated like second-class citizens, ignored by most public and charitable bodies (with a few exceptions).

The British people need to look where racism really lies… and it doesn’t always come out of the mouth of Prince Harry…

While both the leaders of Russia and Ukraine play their childish petty games, many people in Europe are fearing that the latest disruption to gas supplies could lead to many dying of the extreme cold. Why on earth do they wait for this vulnerable part of the year to do this? It’s just plain stupid. European governments have effectively put themselves in a bind with their dependence on Russian gas. Surely it is now time for them to plan on how to reduce the potential of gas supply disruptions in the future.