London’s Mayor Elected

Bumbling, self-deprecating MP Boris Johnson has been elected Mayor of London.

The blond Tory takes over from incumbent Ken Livingstone after a fierce election campaign. The Eton and Oxford educated Mayor claimed his aims for London include tackling the blight of petty crime across the city whilst also to “have an administration that looks after taxpayers’ values”.

Johnson beat Livingstone by about 100,000 votes in an election that had a turnout of over 2 million, which is a record turnout of about 45%

Johnson visited the University in December 2006 spending time with students and then describing Portsmouth in GQ magazine as “one of the most depressed towns in Southern England, a place that is arguably too full of drugs, obesity, underachievement and Labour MPs.”

Tax Office Offences

Over 600 members of staff at the Tax office have been charged with accessing private data over the past three years.

The HMRC hold the data which is available to staff conducting investigations, however those that have been disciplined have been accessing the data for no justifiable reason.

HM Revenue and Customs are responsible for dealing with the taxation from wages. The HMRC have in the past had data issues when CDs of personal details went missing.

Teacher Power

The recent teacher strikes across the country affected more than a third of schools across the country.

The National Union of Teachers were looking for a pay increase of about £1,200 a year.

At the same time thousands of civil servants went on strike affecting government departments and coastguard services.